Shocks to survive the London-Cape Town Rally

As with all shock absorbers, Pro-Comp are not "lift" shocks.

They are just a manufacturer. Therefore you can get them in various lengths, fittings and rates. So Pro-comp will do a shock that fits both standard and jimny with longer springs. Most other makers also do various lengths, rates and fittings, so providing you know the length and fittings you will be able to find a shock to fit.

I know the pro-comp shock range so if you really want the I can give you the numbers.

Within the pro-comp range:

ES1000 - standard
ES3000 - hard
ES9000 - harder

My guess is that your issue is weight, you will be pretty laden at the back so I would look at beefed up springs and shocks for the rear.

You best bet is to speak to Dave at Llama4x4 and his shock sets, he is a great huh. Bearmach are the pro-comp suppliers but they don't want to speak to non landrovers owners.

Martin

Philip,

Further to our conversation and reproduced here so others can comment.

I would not fit the rear shocker brackets to a standard Jimny, however the lower rear shock mounts are likely to give you problems, the M12 Metric fine bolts undo and fall out or shear off, leaving half the stub inside the hole

I don't know what servicing you will have with you or what servicing you will be permitted, I would guess that that is part of the challenge therefore you will have very long stages with in stage servicing being carried out by the driver/co-driver plus whoever they fine by the roadside, therefore you are going for reliability.

I would therefore:

1. Drill out the existing lower rear shock mounting points and fit easily carried nuts and bolts (perhaps a strip of M12 Studding), finding 150mm M12 Metric Fine bolts in the desert is not going to be simple.

2. Carry sets of both front and rear wheel bearings, including kingping bearings, kingpins, CV joints and track rod ends + the special tool to undo the front wheel bearing. These transmission items are going to take a real battering on desert tracks etc. You are not going to change a rear wheel bearing by the road as a press is required but the other jobs can be done with a good toolkit.

3. Fit a high level air intake (snorkel) up out of the dust.

4. Replace the existing electric controlled vacuum hubs with manual hubs off a Suzuki SJ (using an adaptor kit) the less fancy stuff on board the less there is to go wrong. Manual hubs gives you lots of combinations of "switchable" drive options when you suffer a failure of a transmission component in the middle of no-where.

5. Carry a Crankshaft Sensor and Camshaft sensor with you as these can fail in the heat.

6. Lock off or jam or replace the Viscous fan to make it permanently driven, reduces the chance of overheating or failure on a stage.

7. Fuel: The Jimny fuel tank is tiny and I would have guessed you may well have range problems between fueling points. The standard tank when on a heavy, heavily driven car will give upwards of 150 miles range - yes thats only 150 miles. I would guess you need to have a long look at this.

I would have thought that everything else is repairable by a "Bush" mechanic, unless you think the radiator is vulnerable.

Martin




check out the rally site at www.londoncapetownrally.com

I think Martin has covered it all really well too - but the radius arm bush comment is very valid - perhaps go polybush - they do a set on their website - and carry a spare set. They will be easy to change in the desert rather than the need to have a press with the original rubber ones.

Also, you'll need new bolts for them - the old ones WILL sheer off and you'll be stuffed.

Kirkynut