Thread: New shocks needed?

From my experience with shocks, the original ones I find very compliant/soft and have always gone aftermarket.
Also for load carrying the originals I always found lacking.

At 65k km's I would not expect them to be stuffed but by another 50k km's they will be I would say.

To be safe I can highly recommend Lovell springs with Koni shocks with a 40-50mm lift or King springs with Bilsteins with same lift.
The Konis will be better and ride fantastically, less roll but still great travel etc. Cost does come into it.
Do a search on here but I hear Suspension stuff is a good supplier.
I think that is the right name.

I’m about to leave on an overland trip which might last for a further 50,000 km.

If I were you I would leave the shocks on after inspecting them carefully for any leaks from the shaft seal and buy one front /one rear OEM or Armstrong for spares.
I bought Bilsteins after doing a seal on OEM type on the Strzleckie track, but one failed on my Kimberley trip, costing $130 to rebuild plus new bushes.
If you are going to travel on extremely corrugated tracks for thousands on Ks eg Tanami, GRR, Mitchell Falls, Grand Central Rd then Bilstein may be the go as they handle corrugations better than most, but if you are going on bitumin most of the way then OEM should be fine.
Regards Philip A

Officially I have never seen an OE shock up to par at 50,000km.

It's the gradual degradation which goes unnoticed over time.

In my o p, perhaps I should have said I'm in Oman (in the far south) though that didn't seem relevant to my question.

Any replacement shocks would need to be Landrover spares, from the local dealer. Some time back I looked into Koni / Armstrong and they are not sold in this country - or weren't, six months ago. My nearest supplier is in Dubai or Abu Dhabi and that's not convenient.