Thread: Bilstein Rear Shock Absorber Stone Guards

approx 175mm long, unstretched width of body ID is 70mm, reasonably flexible, comes with plastic zip ties, best secured with stainless steel zipties.... only problem is hardly anyone but redranger stock them, i had to order them in for myself..... also available in black if you want, but you need to ask redranger for the whiteline part number

Photos as promised
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The shocks have done about 30KK on dirt, and the guards have done Cape York.
By far the most paint damage is in the lowest 60CMs so I only made the guards that long . They can be made much longer.
By standing them off and having material with holes , I aimed to give maximum cooling .
Regard sPhilip A

Originally Posted by alpick

Guards are a must have to protect the mono tube from stone damage off road.

I have to say my experience is different. About 450,000 kms now on several sets of Billies with two LandRovers. Never a dent.

Further, I'm wary of guards insofar as the shocks are prone to run hotter. I have been seen in the Simpson chipping dried mud off shocks, so they don't overheat.

This subject comes up regularly, & I don't recall a plague of dented Billies.

It begs the question which would get dented, & why. Fronts should be ok. Rears behind the axle would be a problem.

But rears mounted forward in the conventional way - wouldn't be stones off the rear wheels. They could be peppered by stuff thrown up from the front, in which case bigger front mudflaps would be more effective than guards.

Just my 2.2 cents.

Regards
Max P

My D2a Classic Country came fitted with F&R mudflaps as well as a third set mounted infront of the rear wheels, set inboard slightly, to, as I assume, protect the rear shock absorbers from debris thrown up by the front wheels and not caught by the front mudflaps.

I just changed out my shocks, and there was very little if any stone damage on the lower portions of the rear shocks.

I agree that a full cover could increase temps in the shocks. To get over that I cable on section of rubber to the front of each rear shock in my defender. They survived a trip round oz with ease. Essentially I got a piece of rubber an inch and a half wide, put two holes in it about 1/2 and inch a part top and bottom of the rubber and put a heavy duty cable tie through it. It essentially looked like a flat piece of rubber cable tied to the shock -ie it didnt wrap around the shock at all so heat retention would have been negligable.

Total cost about $2.

I would look under the car and once every few days offroad and weeks onroad to ensure that the rubber hadn't moved about. Sometimes they would move a little to the side but only every few days. When you're outback though its a good idea to check underneath everyday, so I never found it to be a problem.

I am doing the same mod to my disco and will post pics to explain when done.

Cheers,

Originally Posted by Fluids

My D2a Classic Country came fitted with F&R mudflaps as well as a third set mounted infront of the rear wheels, set inboard slightly, to, as I assume, protect the rear shock absorbers from debris thrown up by the front wheels and not caught by the front mudflaps.

I just changed out my shocks, and there was very little if any stone damage on the lower portions of the rear shocks.

I think the set in front of the rear wheels is for the SLS.