Rancho RS7000MT Ride Review - Jeep Wrangler JLU Rubicon
Posted by Sean Reyes on
The Shock Surplus team decided to mix things up on the Wrangler JLU Rubicon. You might be wondering, why take off the Bilstein 8100s with External Bypass and Ride Adjustment? Lets dive in and get reacquainted with our mission.
Its not always about running the best, otherwise our rigs would all have 2.5 or 3.0 shocks with kitted-out suspensions. That’s not the case though, we take the upgrade journey seriously, and know there’s a huge range of budgets and use-cases. With Rancho’s latest redesign of their 7000 series, we had to take a look.
We actually removed the Bilstein 8100 External Bypass shocks to be rebuilt and put on the Rancho RS7MT - those are some big shoes to fill.
Rancho had a previous model of a similar name, the RS7000MT (monotube) that closely resembled the Bilstein 5100’s metallic finish. During the past couple of years Rancho discontinued that line, and tooled up their facility in Poland to start manufacturing these dampers according to design specifications provided by its Illinois (US) headquarters.
We’ll spare you the product specifications and details, the new RS7MT rides predictable, is forgiving on the rough chatter, and delivers improved on-road performance for the daily driver.
Key Takeaways
- The Rancho RS7MT is a bit softer than Bilstein 5100 series shocks overall.
- Bilstein 5100s feel tighter on-road with handling, body roll, and dealing with heavier loads.
- Rancho evens out the bumps a bit better than Bilstein, so if you're trying to calm down the rocky trail chatter, Rancho is a good option.
