Introduction
We've compared remote reservoir shocks to standard shocks & standard aftermarket shocks to show all the differences in ride, performance, suspension lift, durability and quality! Find out if remote res shocks are the right option for you, and make an informed decision about your 4WDs suspension.
For the best advice on getting the best 4WD suspension, chat to our mates at fulcrumsuspensions.com.au/
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Video
In this video we're going to get quite technical, which is always exciting, we're going to test a set of these formula, f4r remote, rear shocks against a set of these formula aftermarket shocks.
So we can have a look at the difference, paying real close attention to the strength, durability, ride, Comfort performance, so, at the end of the day, you'll be able to make a better informed decision of what shocks you should run on your four-wheel drive.
Now, let's get into it the two shocks.
We're testing is a standard formula.
4X4 shock like the ones we've been running now, four-wheel drives for a long time and fulcrum's new formula, f4r remote Reservoir shock.
The standard aftermarket shock is essentially a larger, stronger, Better, Built version of a standard shock.
You get with your four-wheel drive.
It holds more oil and better quality oil to help it dissipate.
Heat easier, has better suited valving, so it'll give you a better ride and is built stronger with tougher mounting points, so it can handle What four-wheel drivers throw at them, and this is a remote Reservoir shock.
Why is it called a remote Reservoir shock? See this big chamber in the side of the shock? Well, that's the remote reservoir of oil, easy they have huge performance benefits.
Let's explain why.
So, when you're, looking at the anatomy of a remote res shock, this canister right here, the reservoir, a lot of people think it's full of oil and its only purpose really is for extra cooling.
That's not exactly the case.
Let me explain when your shop goes up and down this shaft moves up and down, and the oil inside here has to go somewhere.
The reservoir means the oil has somewhere to go.
That means the oil can escape the shock where all the friction and heat is.
Therefore, cooling of the oil is increased.
To show you the first main benefit of the remote res shocks.
We're here at fulcrum, suspension, shop, Dino room.
These dinos can simulate driving thousands of kilometers of corrugations as shocks get hot.
They start to fade in performance a bit like breaks and what you'll find is having this extra cooling capacity will mean the FR shock will perform at its best for longer.
The standard formula shock still blows the OE shocks out of the park in terms of performance.
The f4r just takes that to the next level.
Ronnie needs shock up in the dyno, we're able to measure the heat generated in a controlled environment.
Just look at the difference, while the aftermarket formula shock was considerably cooler than the OEM shock.
The f4r with this Reservoir excels even further keeping the shock even cooler.
Yet again, maybe the cooler shock is not only better for the performance of the shock on and off-road, but will also result in a longer life span.
Less heat means less degradation of the shock, components and oils foreign you've got what's called an internal floating, piston or ifp on one side of this, ifp is the oil we mentioned, but on the other side is compressed nitrogen.
This nitrogen is set to a particular pressure which maintains pressure on the oil inside the greater the pressure of this nitrogen.
The more pressure will be on the oil and helps provide a stable shock that you can tune and that's one of the huge advantages of the shock absorber like this is the extra tunability you can get on the fly as well.
Thanks to these little knobs right here and down here, let's have a closer look at what they actually do if your shocks are fitted with compression and rebound adjusters like this, you can fine tune.
Dampening yourself.
These adjusters tweak the pressure on the shim stack, which controls the flow of oil inside the shock to get them perfectly set up via four-wheel drive.
The valve into the shocks needs to be set up initially to suit the vehicle by a suspension expert, something fulcrum does when they fit them to your four-wheel drive.
But these will let you adjust the shocks to a load you carry in or the road you're driving on to alter the handling characteristics of the vehicle.
So the more you wind up this little adjustment right here.
The more oil has to work its way past those teams, and it's going to give you a steeper ride when you decrease the adjuster just like I'm doing now, more oil is going to bypass those shims, thus giving you a softer ride.
All it means is you're controlling the oil flow through two different shim Stacks with each adjuster.
But what do you need this adjustability? It lets.
You finally tune your shocks to what you're driving or for the load you're carrying, for example.
The reason you adjust your shocks is to better suit the conditions you were driving in on Flat, Road or tarmac.
You may want to have steeper shocks to help hold the car up around the bends, to provide a better driving feel, and you may find that softening the shock would make it better suited to rough dirt roads to soak up poles, ruts and corrugations.
The formula f4r range comes as a standard two to three inch kit.
Fulcrum can adjust this for you.
When you do the install it's important to note that coil front and rear full drives, like 80 series and patrols, won't have the ability to adjust height.
Another advantage of these shocks is that they're, rebuildable and serviceable.
If you want a different setup, fulcrum can change it for you, which means you spend the money on them once and you can keep them going with new parts for years to come, whereas cheaper shocks once they get tired, they need to be replaced.
A high performance shock like this is built stronger check out the size of the Piston compared to a big bore shock.
The dimensions and setup of each kit and shock is different for each vehicle, but on the whole they are built stronger than your standard aftermarket shock foreign.
Well, there's one thing: testing shocks in a workshop, even if you've got some of the state-of-the-art equipment down there, there's another thing getting behind the wheel and actually having a steer and testing these things out in the bush.
Now, of course, this vehicle's equipped with a lighter set of f4rs and they've been fine-tuned to suit this particular range of vehicle and I can say without a doubt, they make this vehicle drive and some of the roughest corrugations.
We could find at speed absolutely beautifully just soaks everything in its wake, but the other really cool thing about these particular shocks is: if you find yourself, you know with a vehicle like this, it doesn't have much weight on it and later on, you decide to maybe put a canopy or fully load it for a trip up the cape York site.
You can dial and adjust these shocks to suit, so you know you can change how the vehicle rides in a variety of different terrains and if you find yourself doing a lot more Highway terrains and dirt.
Well again, you can keep adjusting those to suit, so you can get the best ride, quality out of your vehicle.
So the big question: what type of shock absorber is right for you and your needs now.
Let us know in the comments what you're thinking would you go a set of aftermarket shocks or maybe something like these remote res shocks here, um, here's my opinion on the matter now on my vehicles, I've actually run these formula shocks for many years and they've done extremely well: they're fantastic! You can't control adjustability, but you can leave them in set and forget, and the vehicle handle is pretty darn good.
But these remote revs have really got me thinking because of the adjustability factor.
Now I drive a variety of different terrains right across Australia and I change.
The setup of my vehicle quite a bit as well some days, I'll be carrying a rooftop 10 others days.
I won't and this tunability in the shock means I can really control the performance of the vehicle and how it actually rides over a variety of different terrains.
So this has actually got my pick and I wouldn't be super surprised if you saw a set of these on the dirty 30 or 30 in the not too distant future.
But at the end of the day, if you are looking for aftermarket shocks for your vehicle, the best bit of advice can really give.
You is speak to us expansion expert and make sure you get the right valve in to suit your vehicle, because at the end of the day, that's one of the most important considerations that letting them know as well.
What your driving style is like, where you're going to be going with your vehicle, what you plan to do with your vehicle and how much weight and how your setup is going to be on that particular rig.
Once you get all those factors right, you actually get the right shock absorber to suit your vehicle.
It'll perform like you've, never seen before.
Anyway.
That's enough for me from this one hope to see you one day out in the scrub.
