Let's get a bit more scientific about this. Got to figure up what kind of forces are placed on the shock cross member when you go over bumps in the road. It's quite a bit actually but get a simple bathroom scale and place it under the car. The easier place would be under the bumper but then you have to figure in the distance it is from the bumper to the shock mounts and then do the math but for simplicity, let's use the bumper. Place a bottle jack on the scale. You can use a piece of plywood that's the same size as the scale surface just so you don't put a hole in the scale and ruin it. Now jack up the car 1" and see what the scale reads. 100 lbs maybe? Divide that by two and you'll have 50 lbs per shock. See where this is going? If you don't want to do the math, place the jack and scale under the area of the body where the shocks mount. If the upper shock mount cant take the stress, it wasn't installed very good or is rusted out. And what I meant about I've been doing this a long time, I meant that in all the years I've been messing with cars, I've never seen a busted shock cross member on a MOPAR but I have seen bent springs because of shackles. Yup, I'll keep using air shocks for that 1" more rise I want or add a leaf and no, I would never put air shocks on an Monte and longer shackles will never see any of my cars. Also, do you know how much more loading you place on the area where the shackles mount with longer ones? If the car is rusty enough for the shocks to go through and into the trunk, the shackles will most likely find their way into the trunk too. I'll be 61 soon and I started messing with cars in my early teens.....and I too have been a carpenter and come from a long line of home builders but got out of it when the economy went south and found a job that I knew would be there from week to week. PS, just because you had a bad experience with air shocks doesn't mean everyone else will....:headbang:
