The suspension is undoubtedly the area on any expedition vehicle that takes the most punishment, and as such deserves a lot of careful consideration. If you spend any amount of time on the net looking for suspension upgrades for Landcruisers, you inevitably end up at the Old Man Emu website. There are other brands as well, but none with as well established reputation as OME. So for us it was a fairly easy decision. New OME Heavy duty springs and shocks.

With this in mind we set off to TBR in Harwich one Saturday morning to have a chat with Chris. Very helpful and knowledgeable guy who spent most of his morning showing us around his showroom and workshop. When we asked about OME he confirmed that they manufacture very high quality products indeed, and that most of his customers fit these as standard. However, to through a spanner in the wheels he introduced us to what he considers the ultimate shock for off road work – KONI.

We have read of Koni before but these were almost exclusively used for off road racing. Very good reputation, but very expensive. In fact, more than double the price of a heavy duty OME shock. We thought he might be trying to “up sell” us, so initially we were sceptical. That was until he pulled one of these shocks out of their box. It is absolutely huge. It has a 70mm bore, compared to 35mm for the OME, meaning it has a lot more oil for better cooling and efficiency. They also have integrated mechanical and hydraulic bump stops.

All sounded very good, except the price. This would more than double what we budgeted for shocks. We had to go home and think about it. We spent a few weeks surfing the new, looking for reviews of why to buy Koni and not OME. We had just about made up our mind to take the plunge and get the Koni’s when we went to the UK 4x4 Show. TBR had a special on, 10% discount on all items in stock. That was it.