The best shock absorbers?

[Donkerpoort4x4]

Most of the dakar teams use Reiger (purple shock) and some use fox.

[Hedgehog]

Most of the dakar teams use Reiger (purple shock) and some use fox.

Most of them don't have to pay for those shocks.

[Wooky]

Question:

If you had to only replace shocks for better gravel road ability and comfort, what aftermarket shock would you say is the best one?

Can you give specifics as to what your vehicle is doing on gravel that you are wanting to cure?

[Hedgehog]

Over the December break I traveled to Hondeklipbay and various other parts of the Westcoast within the Namaqua National Park with a Commander in tow. The roads were very bad, and my shocks faded to useless in almost no time.

So the issue is not that the Bakkie does anything wrong on gravel, but rather that the OME shocks are useless and fade fast

I have fitted some Iron Man Foamcell shocks last week, and the difference is quite amazing.

[Wooky]

Shock fade has a number of causes and can be put down to two main causes:
1/ Heat
2/ Oil foaming

To over come number one a shock with a larger oil capacity ( larger bore, remote reservoir) and better cooling ( double walled) and high temp oils will help a lot

To over come number two the design of the shock will help... Gas filled, foam cell, air-oil separate, remote reservoir, etc

A ton of heat is generated by the oil shearing through the damping shim stacks in any shock. Combine that with high ambient heat and a day of gravel and shock fade to some degree is highly likely with any of the consumer grade shocks.

[cor123]

Gravel road, comfort , nothing to beat air cushion.

[Donkerpoort4x4]

I have always been using Camils on my bakkies as it is the cheapest suspension and build in sa.
I found out on the 10 passe tour 2 years ago that when you do offroad the whole day they tend to fade with extensive use. the culprit was heat and cavitating oil i think.

Then i discovered Bilstein B8 and o boy wil I never use something else again. Monotube shocks I think is in a class of their own.

My last camils was replaced in January and the cause of this was ... and old camil issue. The bottom bush rubber collapse after 50k km and that pushes it skew and it bends the shaft and breaks.

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[Donkerpoort4x4]

The bilstein B8 exercise...

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