I probably have more miles behind the wheel of a VX on Rancho 9-way shocks than anyone in the world.

I junked the shocks from hell at 48K miles and went with the old school 9000X set on seven. I loved 'em and praised these shocks for years as the best thing I ever did to my VX. This is my daily driver so I know from hitting the same bumps and holes every day when there's even a slight lose of performance. I went with a second set at 100K. That's 52K, but many would've been happy taking 'em to 70K or more. I again had 'em set on seven to start, but on the way home I knew it wasn't gonna work. My VX was now older and the suspension may have been getting softer. I turned 'em up to eight and that was the ticket. A third set went on at 150K set on eight.

At 195K in 6/09 they were still pretty good, but I was anxious to try the 9000XL that everyone was talkin' 'bout. Being that they were gas-charged, I figured they would be stiffer than the non-gas-charged X's I've been used to. I had the dude set 'em on six to start. I bounced the front end and it felt too soft. The ride home confirmed that, so I tried eight. Nope, still too soft. Nine was slightly better, but I needed one or two more clicks to make it perfect. I was a good bit disappointed. They cost me over $500 with the install!

I chalked it up to over nine years on the road and 195K on the suspension parts. I actually got used to the new ride quite quickly and was eventually satisfied with the XL's. I'm now at 204K with almost 10,000 miles on the XL's. Today while I was out doin' 'bout a hundred miles I tried to reevaluate the ride and I'm still very happy with the way it handles bumps and cornering and whatnot.

It is in no way set in stone that these will be my next set of shocks. Around 260K I think I'd need Rancho to extend the choice of settings to ten or eleven. But I'll hesitate at that bridge when I see it.

Mark Griffin