IRONMAN FOAMCELL SHOCKS & MEDIUM COIL SPRINGS - FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Ok, so, the awaited package from KHI arrived on Thursday night and I got the above along with Ironman greaseable shackles installed during first half today and then took the truck for a three hour ride over tarmac, corrugations and straight off-road (undeveloped area in DHA Phase 5 and DHA Valley Islamabad). Drove around 60 kilometres, with 28 Psi in the front and 30 Psi in the rear and here are my first impressions.
On tarmac, over road bumps and all sorts of speed breakers, there is zero difference between Thai shocks and this suspension.
On corrugations the ironman shocks with medium coil springs performed only slightly well (at max 5% to 10%) well as compared to Thai shocks.
On pure off-road, the ironman foam cell were again slightly better than Thai shocks. Note that I drove on some of the roughest terrains with my Thai shocks in northern areas and feel-wise comfort-wise, would rate these ironman shocks around 20% better than Thai shocks.
BUT That's not where the Ironman Suspensions' strength lies Where these shocks will outshine Thai shocks by a long margin is when you're continuously driving off-road / harsh terrain. That's where the Thai shocks will heat up quickly, lose it's effectiveness and experience risk of failure. We were two Revos, going to Kumrat Valley couple of years back and had to drive for around 3 hours over one of the shittiest rocky terrain we had ever experienced. Both had Thai shocks. Both experienced loss of stability and more than normal swaying (gari dool rahi thi) after about two hours over this terrain and had to stop to let the shocks (the oil inside) cool down. What happens is that when the oil in shocks heats up, it becomes aerated (air bubbles form inside the oil) and that's when the oil loses its viscosity due to which the shocks stop performing as they should. Extra swaying of vehicle due to heated shocks leads to loss of control and up in the mountains where there's a single undeveloped track with a deep ditch on one side can lead to disaster. Ironman foamcell shocks will continue to perform at optimum level primarily because of larger piston head, broader shock diameter and more oil quantity, not to mention the foamcell technology which also helps in keeping the oil temperature down.
**So, if you're not into driving off-road for hours at stretch, then Thai shocks which cost around Rs. 40k as compared to Ironman Foamcell which cost around Rs. 200k to Rs. 225k are both close in comfort, and therefore you should go for Thai shocks. Yes, the Thai shocks will need replacement every 100k kms while the Ironman will last the life of the vehicle. But then you won't be keeping the vehicle for it's entire life, would you? **
BUT, if you ARE into driving over harsh terrains for long stretches of time, then you should not rely on Thai shocks and go for better (and more expensive) options.