Thread: Twin shocks on front and rear

Hi Aaron, shockies are there to control the movement of the axle relative to the chassis, not to support weight. When you carry extra weight you can sometimes benefit from extra damping from extra shockies or by revalving the ones you have,although they stay revalved when you go back to "normal" loads and are usually then too stiff.I have recently added a pair of rear dampers to help control the rear of my 130 as I carry heavy loads often.A great improvement so far.If I need to, I can remove the extra shockies to restore ride quality when unloaded.I imagine competition vehicles might benefit from twin front shockies as they halve the loads on each unit and make them last longer in tough conditions. For the more usual uses, twin fronts are overkill.Cheers, 130man.

Yep, to delay fade in extreme conditions - corrugations. High speeds & corrugations will kill just about any shock.

I run twin fronts though with the Haultech holey bushes, to limit the body roll on turn-in. Not a complete solution, but it helps. Without them the front end kneel & understeer with these bushes is awful.

Regards
Max P

Twin shocks on the rear make a big difference as the rear load increases and prolonges damper life when driving on corrugated roads etc etc. We run twin Tough Dog Foam Cells on our vehiceels - find they react very well to additional weight and not too firm when empty.

Depending on your front spring arrangement, dual dampers my be needed, BUT, if you get the spring choice right, the only real reason for duals would be to give redundancy and resilience for an overlanding vehicle.

Saying that is the only reason is a very big call.

I reckon you are much better off with poly airs on the rear. Gives you the flexibility to adjust to loading.

Originally Posted by CraigE

I reckon you are much better off with poly airs on the rear. Gives you the flexibility to adjust to loading.

Polyairs are a spring.
The do I don't I over twin shocks still applies.

I was just asking out of curiosities sake. When I do mine Ill probably going close to factory standard but with better quality compnents.

Originally Posted by 100I

Polyairs are a spring.
The do I don't I over twin shocks still applies.

A friend of mine had polyairs on a 75 Series troopy that broke a shocker crossing the Tanami. The Polyair still provided some dampening and helped control the vehicle. So much so, that they didn't notice the brocken shocker till they got back onto the sealed road and could hear it rattling.

On the Defender trayback we took to the Simpson Desert, we found that the back of the tray (which extended beyond the chassis) would rise and fall a meter in height over undulations. Polyairs cured this this wild movement and took a lot of the strain off the shockers.

So while they're not shock absorbers, they do reduce the load on the shock absorbers, and given their cost, ease of set up and versatility (adjustment per load), I'd agree with Craig that for a tour vehicle, they'd be my first consideration over double shocks. Not for a rally vehicle though....