Pajero Owners Club of South Africa

Hi
I have a 2009 Pajero Sport and I leave for a trip from Cape Town to Egypt via Ethiopia and Eritrea at the end of July.

I want to upgrade the suspention as the vehicle will be heavy and I see the choices as Old Man Emu, Iron Man and EFS.

Has anyone got experience with these systems or recommendations based on experience with others?

Your input will be much appreciated.

Ken

I would say Old Man Emu. My experience with OME and IM have left OME the clear winner. I do not know EFS but think they might be harder to get up north as well. OME is well known all over the globe.

CATS

Sent from my GT-I9500 using Tapatalk

Why don't you enquire about TJM at LA Sport and Mikem Suspensions with their Bilsteins? Worth a try.

For a heavily laden vehicle, OME should be your first option.

I've had mine (coils, shocks & torsion bars) on my vehicle for about 4 years now. The ride quality is quite hard, to put it mildly, but is at its best under load.

No problems in my 4 years of use so far.

Thanks for the comment on the systems I mentioned and I will take a look at the others as well.

Appreciate the replies

Ken

Hi Ken

Hope you are well,My opinion all 3 suspensions is great but if i have to choose i will go EFS, They are +- 30-40% cheaper than
OME and carry a 3 year 100 000 km warranty OME and Ironman is 60 000 Km and 3 Years, Ironman will be the cheapest option ,Also i know for a fact that Ironman use to have problems with their front shocks on the Pajero +- 2 Years ago, a slight knocking noise in the front
At the end of the day it is your choice,and you must look who will give you the best after sale service

Kind Regards
Riaan Harding

Thanks Riaan
Do you have any personal experience with this syustem?
Ken

KenH wrote:Thanks Riaan
Do you have any personal experience with this syustem?
Ken

I have had EFS for about 3 years or so. I have that in addition to air helpers at the back. No problems. Of course, all these systems will give a harder ride than standard - that's why you are doing it.

If you look on this forum, another option is spacers on the standard springs - but I think for your envisaged use a suspension upgrade is probably the better option.

[edit]If you are in the Johannesburg area you are welcome to drive mine to see how it feels.

Thanks Andrew for the data and the kind offer. I have been away so that is the reason for the late reply. I will give you a ring to make a plan to see your vehicle.

Thanks again

Ken

I thought I would return to this subject now that I have had personal experience with the product of my choice. So often on these sites one will ask for assistance but you seldom see the result of the actions taken against that advice.

I chose the EFS suspension because it had very good reports from Australia and the local distributor seemed like a person I could trust. It was also a lot less expensive than some of the other better known products.

I had Front Runner do the installation and we left for the far side on the equator on the 14th of July 2014. By the time we were halfway through Zambia I realized there was a problem. The vehicle was bottoming on very small waves in the road. It was still a long way to Lake Turkana so I was worried.

Fortunately we had a big truck with us so I lightened the load and we continued north.

A long story short, the incorrect springs had been fitted so the shocks were doing double service. I can't give sufficient credit to those shocks. After 11 000 kilometers the one eventually died with dignity on the shores of Lake Malawi. Fortunately I had a spare and that got me home. In all 15 000 kilometers over three months on some of the worst roads in Arica.

Back in Jo'berg I visited the distributor who acknowledged their error and replaced all springs and shocks under warrantee and issued a new warrantee from the replacement date. What more can you ask for. The new set have done 18 000 kilometers with trips through the Karoo, Die Hell, Prince Albert Pass, etc. I have loaded Pajero with all the kit we took through Africa and it runs like a dream and no funny tyre wear.

So for EFS this is one very positive vote.