It pains me to see rear shocks mounted like in the above photos, with no protection to the shaft especially.
At least on my van, the rear shocks are constantly blasted by a spray of rocks and gravel coming off the front tires...where I live in Nevada we have a lot of good dirt roads I can drive at ~ 50 mph. Some years ago I replaced the shocks and didn't put the rubber boots on because I'd heard talk that the boots just capture dirt. 200 miles of dirt road later and the rear shocks were ruined. The shaft was pitted badly and all the oil had leaked out.
Sandblasted shock body:
Pitted shaft:
Now the shocks on all my rigs wear rubber gaiters. No more problems.