There can be few things in life more satisfying than kitting out your 4X4 with some new gear and bringing it closer to the dream off-road stallion you always dreamt it could be.
The great thing about the industry now is that the kind of technology once reserved for the professional racing crowd can now be enjoyed by all of us at home. One of those pieces of tech that has been growing more popular of late is adjustable bypass shock absorbers.
These nifty pieces of kit were first introduced to provide a variable damping rate to cope with variable suspension spring rates. Whereas conventional shock absorbers function depending on internal piston speed, bypass shock absorbers that are built to take into account the position of the piston in the body of the shock body. This allows them to generate damping depending on where the piston is at any given time.
There are internal and external options which operate in slightly different ways but whichever option you decide to go with, you’ll find your ride feels more balanced, stable, and responsive in rougher conditions. This is because you essentially have individual shocks to handle different terrain.
So, bypass shock absorbers are great right? Of course, but they were also once thought as being beyond us mere hobbyist mortals.
Beyond the reach of mere mortals
There was a time, not so long ago, where if you didn’t intimately understand these incredibly unique and powerful pieces of kit then you could have actually ended up doing more damage to your car than anything else. This might not be because they had been set up incorrectly but because they hadn’t been set up at all.
It used to be that buying a set of shocks online and bolting them on yourself at home was simply not advisable. These are high-performance vehicle upgrades that need to be optimised properly for each individual vehicle, after all.
Bypass shock absorbers used to require a comprehensive spec sheet of a vehicle before they were even considered and given the relatively small adjustment to ride quality for the outlay, it wasn’t practical either.
The new breed
In recent years, the more wallet-friendly bypass shock absorbers entering the market have completely changed the game for those who don’t have the budget for a bespoke setup.
Shocks such as the ARB Old Man Emu BP-51 and the Terrain Tamer Pro Shocks are not only affordable but can be tailored to individual makes and models and because they are designed for specific models, no adjustment is required before fitting.
These more affordable and approachable pieces of kit use racing technology but have been adapted to work for everyday vehicles.
They are also fully adjustable and can be fitted comfortably without having to call in a professional mechanic. The OME BP-51 and other models such as the Terrain Tamer Pro shocks can also be perfectly tailored to the same degree as high-end shocks.
In this day and age, we are inundated with potential purchases for improving our rides and doing so in style, but this newer breed of bypass shock absorbers might represent the ideal middle ground between cost and performance. Particularly for those of us that like to really push the off-road nature of our off-road babies.
