Gonna start something here. I am a 42 year 4 wheeler from a modest start with a 49 Willys Jeep with a Chev 153 cu in 4 banger then graduated to a new 79 Chev short box that had those crap inverse springs then Toyota pickup etc etc. Now own a 2008 Jeep soon to be running with a 2016 LT Chev/8 spd auto. One thing I can say is all vehicles (not just 4x4s) ride like crap now. Going down a pothole road all you get is thump bang. 40 years ago couldn't hear or feel a damn thing. So what is the difference? Gas goddamn shocks that's what. They force the wheel into a pothole then the rebound is so stiff hence the banging and thumping. Back in the day we used hydraulic shocks that worked in reverse. They slowed the drop and let the wheel rebound fast where we relied on the spring to do the limit of the wheel up travel. A 4x4 shop owner in Calgary was discussing this very thing with me a couple of months ago and he informed me a couple of days back that he remembered our conversation and had a customer in with a TJ and put a lift in. That customer wanted a good ride so shop guy used Rancho Hydraulic shops and his quote went like this "quite frankly this is one of the best riding Jeeps he has ever driven". Food for thought. If there was a good choice of hydraulics out there I would use them. I know if one wants to spend many 000's$$ then yes you can build what you want but most are budget conscious so I have always hated gas shocks and long for a greater selection of hydraulics that operate in reverse to the gas units. Proof is that TJ.

 

Have you thought about bags? I’ve never installed air bags on a Jeep, but I did on an old pickup. It made a world of difference, and was easy to raise or lower.

 

There are plenty of non gas charged shocks out there although I see many people that complain about ride are running the wrong tires and have them filled up too much. Shocks from a sport have barley a charge on them, a rubicon shock has more of a charge and is more responsive. Speed is really the issue as hydraulic shock as you describe is fine for low speed that allows time for the shock to compress or rebound, they would be fine for rock crawling but would suck for any kind of high speed off road or racing since the vehicle would buck and bounce around with the wheels loosing contact with the ground creating instabbility. If you hit a pot hole at speed with hydraulic shocks the whole vehicle is still going to drop into it due to gravity causing a lean but a gas charged shocks is going to put the wheel into the hole keeping the rest of the vehicle relatively level.

Another ride issue with the current jeeps is the weight of them and being off road leads to a rough ride vs a light jeep of old.