Which shoks/dammpers are the best?

[Jonny Boaterboy]

I'm about to buy some new Dampers all round for my Classic that is on air. I replaced them about 3 years ago with genuine Land rover replacements which I think are on their way out. Out of the 7 listed above in the poll (probable not spelt correctly) I am almost defernightly going to get bilstine unless you can convince me otherwise!

The other question I have is which are the better performing: gas or oil? people talk about uprated shoks... but what does that mean?

I see also that you can get polly bushes to replace the rubber in the shoks.... worth doing?

Do you have to get a shock that is for air suspension only?

Thanks all

Jonny

[Range Rover Blues]

Be careful, I found out the the OEM shocks should be different for the EAS cars like ours, IIRC KONI do a special shock for the EAS but all the others don't.

Uprated shocks are basically stiffer so actually start to absorb some of the bump, making the car crashier, then absorbing more of the rebound energy in some cases too.

Efectively it increases the contact load on the tyre in rough conditions ie increases grip.  At the cost of ride quailty.

Wish I knew what were on my sister's RRC as the ride is great, all I know is they are yellow.

Billie's are a safe bet, money no object, but RPI do an adjustable KONI

[Jonny Boaterboy]

Thanks RRB, I have had a look at bilstein's and found that they do do a shock for EAS, its the B6 offroad (B46-2153 front B46-2152 rear, thats a Bilstein part no.) Looks like a great shock and they have geared it towards off roading as well as heavy towing, but hard to get hold of, I'm ringing round at the moment and only Euro car parts have them in stock and they want £578 for all 4  :shock:

My local 4 Land rover shop is looking into it for me and hopefully they will come back with a more realistic price, they usually do. If its about the same price I will have to start looking for a lower spec shock, I had a quick look at the next model down from Bilstein the B4 but they did not appear to do one for EAS on a classic.


Well I have found some now..... Devon 4x4 has done me all 4 bilsteins for £314.76 including vat and postage. still alot of money but I will now have an awesome set of dampers that I won't have to change again as they will last.

I'll let you know how good they are once they are fitted and driven on.

Thanks

Jonny

[ChrisV8]

I have Spax adjustables on the back of old Rangie a coil over type which are great when towing and seem to keep the wheels on the ground when playing. I used to run Koni on my fast cars but later changed to Bilstein which were superb. They get my vote.

[trecfive]

On EAS Koni all the way, a lot of money but are worth it for how long they last and the ride is brilliant, loaded or not,five up and towing or on your own,the best Ive found, BUT a lot of money. Bilstein's are a very close second and i also use Monroe Gas on my shiny one.

[Jonny Boaterboy]

Well I have had the Bilsteine's on for a while now, they have made the ride alot stiffer, while this has improved the road handling loads, i.e. it has almost completely eliminated body roll even with no rear anti roll bar fitted, the down side is the ride is alot harder, on the originals shocks you would absorb all but the very harshest bumps but now I feel them alot more. Off road I noticed no difference from the originals at all.

My verdic, if you want to increase the road handling of your Range Rover then these are the shocks for you, you can almost drive it like a car! if you want a softer ride go for something else! the damping ability seems to be good, virtually no bounce when going over speed bumps.

My rear ones may be up for grabs soon as I have just got some arnott gen 3 springs for the rear so will need longer shocks so will have to sell the bilsteins, let me know if your interested.

[Range Rover Blues]

If you like the ride of the Billies then why not fit lowered shock mounts on the back instead?