Advise on shock absorbers.

Hi all. New here and new to owning a Jimny. Loving it so far but need some advise. I think the shock absorbers have had their day as it’s a very bouncy ride even just on roads and when I get up to 40ish I get quite a bit of judder on the steering. 
can anyone advise on shocks to buy that fit a Jimny that’s got a lifting kit and that would make for a smoother drive. Mostly road driving so something that’s quite solid I guess. 
Any help would be great! 

The "lifting kit" is going to impact your choice of shocks, so start by telling us what kit you have.

Sorry I’m going to come across like an idiot, bear with me I’m new to all this. I believe it’s a black raptor kit but I’m not sure if it’s 2” or 4” etc. is there a way of measuring the springs to know what has been fitted?

Measure the height from the hub center to the wheel arch directly above and ask someone to compare it to their gen 3 - the reason for going from the hub center is that this eliminates measurement differences caused by tire size or pressure.

Makes perfect sense. It’s 19” from hub centre to wheel arch. If someone has a gen 3 they can compare too if appreciate

A bumpy ride comes as standard on a Jimny so don't expect it to float along like a Citroen. But there are some things that can make it worse. If the lift kit is reasonably new (from memory black raptor only appeared on the Jimny market a few years ago) it's unlikely to be the shocks. One major contributor is tyre pressure, and as you have larger than standard tyres you may want to play about to see what works best for you. Logic says bigger volume tyres need lower pressure to carry the same load.

Yeah I appreciate that the nature of them means your going to have a bumpier ride than others things for sure but it does seem like it’s not got any resistance on the shocks. I’m also taking a bit of an educated guess on the lift kit so could be an older one
Do appricate the info though. So your saying that maybe the tires are over pressured? Reducing them may soften the drive?

bobearington wrote:

Hi all. New here and new to owning a Jimny. Loving it so far but need some advise. I think the shock absorbers have had their day as it’s a very bouncy ride even just on roads and when I get up to 40ish I get quite a bit of judder on the steering. 
can anyone advise on shocks to buy that fit a Jimny that’s got a lifting kit and that would make for a smoother drive. Mostly road driving so something that’s quite solid I guess. 
Any help would be great! 

Your picture is really small, hard to see. But it doesn't look like an overly or heavily modded Jimny. Anything over 2" suspension lift, generally requires a lot more parts. 2" or under is just shocks and springs normally. If it has a body lift that won't impact shock choice.

As for which shocks, how much do you want to spend and what country are you in?

I have these on my 4th Gen and very happy with them.

www.jimnybits.com/2-black-raptor-premium...shock-absorbers.html

But if you look at the available shocks on the Jimnybitys site, you'll see there is a lot of choice and that is only one vendor.

I would say, judder through the steering wheel at 40mph doesn't really sound shocks or suspension. Maybe check all steering components for slop or play. Check the steering damper and see if you can try some different rims/tyres out.

Steering shudder is more than likely related to the kingpin bearings becoming tired especially at that speed, have a read through the information section about death wobble. The other likely cause is tyre balance but that's usually a bit faster at like 50 to 60 mph.

Also looking at the picture it looks like a 2 inch lift.

ALso a two inch lift would require a caster correction wich do have an impact. But yes like the others say here check tyre pressure and the kingpin bearings.

I bought a set of 2" black raptor rear shocks to replace my rusted out trailmaster shocks. But they were shorter than the 2" trailmaster shocks so I now run '06 Grand Vitara KYB shocks. They are OK but the original trailmaster was better. But sadly unobtainable for a reasonable price here in Norway as germans wont ship here anymore. 400€ for two shocks is just stupid.

I'm running a +2inch Black Raptor kit on my 3rd Gen and its exactly 19 inches from the centre of the hub to the bottom of the wheel arch - so the same as you Bob.