185 Series Suspension

[PedRac3r]

Hey guys, lifted my 185 Surf about 6 months ago, 2" Dobi lift springs and Raw Predator shocks up front and Raw Nitro shocks in the rear. Happy with the height, ride quality on the road is okay, doesnt sag too much with the car trailer on it and with the boot loaded up. But the ride is so harsh offroad. Any ruts or bumps in the forest, or even in the sand you can really feel them. Unless your crawling over shit at low low speed you get rag dolled to shit.

Just wondering what other people are running, and how they rate them? Other springs or shocks I could try? Id say 70-80% of the driving I do with it is on road, daily duties, towing race cars etc, but I wouldnt mind making a small compromise for better ride off road, even if it was just the front and left the rear as is to keep minimal sag with the trailer on.

[floatingkiwi]

What you're describing sounds like the shocks are too hard.

[BlakeNZ]

try a pair of Amada Xtremes , from forum sponsor "trundle". they are quite different to the aforementioned brands.

[Smurf]

If it is off road you find it bad and on road is ok. Air your tyres down off road.

[PedRac3r]

What you're describing sounds like the shocks are too hard.

Yeah you're probably right there. Also from memory, I think the guys at Autolign said the spring rates were up 30% over factory too, which Im sure isnt helping. Its hard to find springs that give you a proper 2" lift (50mm) that have a higher spring rate, most of them end up lifting 35-40mm.

try a pair of Amada Xtremes , from forum sponsor "trundle". they are quite different to the aforementioned brands.

Thanks, I will shoot him a PM.

If it is off road you find it bad and on road is ok. Air your tyres down off road.

I do that as well. Last time out I went down to the lowest pressure Ive ran so far, 10 psi. It helps to dampen, but still a harsh ride.

[derk]

unless you can find a whole pile of springs and shocks to experiment with it can get a bit expensive trialling different spring rates, heights and manufacturers and same goes for shocks, you'll also find what some one recommends as a great combination may only suit and work well for their application and expectations and not yours, they don't really make springs that are "hard but soft" to suit loading the truck up with all the gear and hooking the car trailer and racecar onto the back to tow up and down the country and then being soft and supple with good articulation for the other alternate weekends out having a play with the boys in the forest and dunes, dunno what your dobi's are but a progressive rate spring would be your best bet to look at for a compromise, towing loaded car trailers with softer sprung vehicles isn't such a good idea it adds to body roll, swaying and bouncing which usually occurs at a time and place you dont really want it too and we've all got one or two memories of those moments and don't dis-count what that joker said about running your tyres low that makes a significant difference to soften up hard suspension go and ask all those old leaf sprung landrover and landcruiser guys they learnt that one years ago

[Trundle]

Hi guys ,
Having done a large ammount of lifts in the kzn 185 and kzj prados etc with multitude of shock and spring brands and as we import and sell dobi's i would suspect that it is the shock valving
We do order a lot of our shocks with specific comfort valving for multi purpose vehicles , for instance the tough dogs are a very firm valved shock but if you were wanting to carry a large ammount of weight / have better handling on the road they would be well suited !
As for the amada adventure series i have 48 shocks that were suppose to be 95 prado / 185 surf and inside the boxes were 100 series cruiser shocks !
So we are waiting about 3-4 weeks for the replacement ,
Of interest is the raw preditor shock a mono sube if so you could soften up the compression valving on the piston to improve ride quality ,
A lot of the time if budget allows a 9 stage adjustable shock is awesome as you can dial the shock to suit your comfort levels for a multitude of applications !
cheers
Trundle

[floatingkiwi]

trundle - I'm trying to get something to replace my EFS rear springs that are no longer captive but can't find anything on free length and coil sizes etc for the dobinsons stuff. Do you know where I could find that for the 185?

[PedRac3r]

Adjustable shocks sound like the way to go, best of both worlds then really.

[bacon 1]

I have 2" Dobi lift springs and Rancho 9 way adjustable shocks and I am very happy with them. I have them on 5 for on road a turn them down for off road.