Adjustable Shocks... anyone use them, anyone with an opinion?

[robertspark]

In the interests of shooting the breeze....

I was wondering if anyone has or is using adjustable shocks?

I am thinking of putting a set of GAZ (nope, not superGAZ by britpart) on my 90 (yes, I know....shortly before it ends up on the "pass the bucket thread"!)

From my bit of research there seems to be four companies that make them for the landrover range:

GAZ: http://www.gazshocks.com/

SPAX: http://www.spaxperformance.com/

AVO: http://www.avouk.com/

KONI: http://www.koni.uk.com/home/index.php

GAZ, SPAX and AVO all seem to have adjustments that are accessible on the side of the shocks. KONI have an adjustment that requires you remove the shock, and I think turn the spindle to adjust the damper rate.... (sounds PIA to me)

Anyone using any of them (AVO was given a bad write up on other forums a while ago TBH). I guess I'm looking for fast on and offroad adjustment, and thought these may cut the bill.

GAZ also seem damn good value compared to even a set of Terrafirma's or some of the others (decarbon which I've had before).

[Ratty43]

It's not a direct comparison but I had Spax adjustables on my MGB and they were great. I was always dubious about the idea but I have to admit they did exactly what it said on the tin. No need to remove them, just twist they screw and away I went.

[Hybrid_From_Hell]

I have +5 inch terrariums adjustable

good is for the money but next time I

Will buy better and rebuild able units

But there wasn't much on the market then anywhere close to less than 4 cost per unit

Still OK as budget unit

[nicksmelly]

Milner Varidamps

[Nigelw]

Interested in this as looked at them previously and put on the plan/wish list, as part of the improvements for running light most of the time but when it gets loaded heavy it will be heavy so the adjustability would be an asset if they worked as they should?

[JeffR]

Gave up on adjustable shocks a long time ago, found that I spent more time playing with the settings than I spent driving...

[Soren Frimodt]

I've had Koni's on several 4x4s, and though they are somewhat annoying to adjust as you correctly state (you have to unbolt one end, compress it fully, and turn it) I would never dare trying anything else, even in the softest setting you can really feel that these dampers now what they're doing, they soak up the suspension bumps/vibrations so incredibly well! We all now the chatter you can get if you try to crawl a loose surface with way too much air in the tyres, with the Koni's its about 80% gone (even compared to OME's) and i have only adjusted them once for the best all round setting, and just lived with it happily. Firstly I got hooked on them on my Mog where they did an amazing job of settling down the springy U-section chassis. Also they are very tough in construction and very hard to damage

[Boydie]

Way back when I was into driving rally cars I tried adjustable units, (mainly Bilsteins) and found that while they performed as designed progressive rated coil springs gave far better suspension in combination with constant rated shocks. The problem being that with the adjustable shocks you were constantly trying to double guess the road conditions and just what setting you needed to apply. I even went as far as having Bilsteins with remote water cooled nitrogen reservoirs (these had their own water radiator and mini circulation pump) which while far superior were bloody expensive but kept the shocks cooler, but i doubt if these would be warranted or practicle on a LR given that you wont be driving at the sort of speeds we were.

[tacr2man]

I go with Koni , having tried and dismissed , OME, and Bilstein on thousands of miles of high speed dirt roads , with heavy corrugations , and undulating sand dune tracks . In heavily loaded 110 V8 CSW . JMHO

[Dave W]

I use the Koni ones, although you have to remove the top eye on the rears to adjust them on the rear it's not really been an issue and with a heavily loaded overland 90 taking off over a hump back bridge and landing hard, even on the "soft" setting the damping worked wonderfully with the vehicle stabilising completely within one cycle - compressed on landing, rebound really well controlled, perhaps over extending by an inch and then settling back down to normal height.

Compared to the Konis the OMEs used to cause the back end to jump about with poor rebound damping (leading to the rear end getting airborne on washboard sections).

Bilsteins are OK but I always find them too harsh, they damp well when they do move but hitting minor bumps with them feels like they've seized solid. If you do hit them hard enough to move though they generally do a good job.

Koni are the most "lively" shock I've ever fitted so be warned - a lot of gas shocks you can compress slightly as you fit them or at least hold them in one position. Fitting the Koni shocks I had to use my body weight to slowly compress them and a ratchet strap to hold them closed to fit them ! Unless you regularly bench press 100Kg fitting the top eye on the rear then pushing the shock closed to pop it through the bottom mount is NOT going to happen

[robertspark]

.... ok, someone (Boydie) mentioned spring combination is also important, and progressive wound springs being a good selection..

.... can I ask if anyone has tried air suspension in combination with adjustable shocks (I'm not trying to sell the reliability aspect of air suspension as that is well documented & debated elsewhere, + "complex" (lots of things to fail for various reasons), but the ability to tune a suspension?

[Boydie]

Setting up the suspension on any vehicle is an art. Several factors (all variable) have to be taken into consideration. The weights of the vehicle (loaded and unloaded - conside for example why F1 cars alter theirs as their fuel load reduces)) and full suspension travel of your vehicle, the intended constant speed you want to achieve and the antisipated road conditions you expect to be driving on. The other important factors are the tyre pressues - hard for black-top, medium for smooth dirt, low for sand, the spring rates (different for front and rear) and the required dampening effect that all these vaiable factors require for your vehicle to maintain constant contact with the road.

All of these have to be designed to operate in sync with one another to achieve the perfect (is there such a thing?) ballance and vehicle control. For a vehicle to travel fast and under control all the wheels need to be in constant contact with the ground, go air borne over a "yump" or repeated corrugations you loose ground speed - fact - it might look fast but its not. Simply changing the type and size of the shock absorber is only a small part of the complex equasion.

I've spent counless dollars in the past trying to achieve this on my rally car, we competed on all surfaces from tight forrests dirt roads to Targa Tasmania on black-top and trust me there is no easy solution, so, start with your tyre pressues, experiment to see what feels best for you and your car, take notes on what surface you are on and what pressures you have in them, use nitrogen not air as the pressures will remain constant and not increase as the tyre heats up, next, trial progressive rated coil springs, select a set that meet the front and rear weight loadings of your vehicle and will give you full suspension travel avoil coil bind at all costs - you will need to also at this stage consider upgrading the anti-sway bars if you have them fitted, lastly once you achieve some degree of ballance and you still find the original dampers are not performing go for adjustable units. Simply changing one, without consideration of the other factors is not going to be an acceptable solution.

[robertspark]

Thanks Iain for the good clear response, much appreciated