Suspension setting for the sand in different driving scenarios

[Marek]

Guys having adjustable suspension: how do you select your drive settings when going on a fewbie desert drive where most of the time you are just cruising below 30km/h? I have seen a few times guys (and our leads) adjusting their shocks to the max stiffness when deflating tires (on coilovers with damping settings). How do you guys set it up? I did a few drives with different setup (max, min, couple in-between), and so far I lean towards as soft drive as possible unless the crew I am chasing is raptors and ranges and they plan on doing full baja cruise over flat lands....

But then the minute I dive into the ditches with max stiffness setup, there it's like getting into soft sand - you never know when it would dive in and get stuck. While when it was softer (20/30% of the scale), the ride is just smooth as butter and predictable (and spectacular as well, when you look at the recording of how nicely it picks up all the uneven terrain at medium speed).

what's the general consensus for this?

How would you set your suspension going on a technical drive with @Looper or @DP1011 vs going on a vertical hill climb with @Ale Vallecchi ?

 

[Looper]

@Marek mine is not adjustable. It is Jeep Branded Fox 2.0s 

[Benje_Junior]

@Marek from my personal experience it’s purely based on preference. My adjustable shocks are very straight forward and just adjust stiffness, whereas depending on the type you go for, may have more settings and different knobs that slightly change your experience + handling. 

based on trial and error I tackle my stiffness settings purely on the environment however doesn't change much. 
 

For reference my shocks have got 20 stiffness settings. For rear (as per long base) I usually adjust these to 15 or 17 (these minor adjustments vary on level of drive + weight in the rear or if there was rain the previous day ‘I would decrease’, so with gear and passengers I may go as high as 18 in optimal weather conditions) 

for the front shocks I don’t change the number variable much and I’ve personally found 13-15 is the sweet spot. 
 

keep in mind changing your shock stiffness will massively affect your on road handling and most importantly your offroad handling I highlight this because your vehicle will also experience a slightly different weight transfer which could be uncomfortable at first, or may even influence loss of control. 
 

my final point would be avoid maxing your shocks straight away keep them around a medium setting until you get comfortable, experiment and when something doesn't work out try a different setting again. If you do however max your shocks remember while your shocks are absorbing more energy they may be even putting more wear and tear on other components. (I’ve set my shocks too high before and instead of absorbing the energy the shocks felt solid sending energy throughout the body) 

 

[Gaurav]

Start with medium (10) in front and back, and work your way up/down as per your drive style and terrain.

Finding one sweet spot takes some time and few off-road drives, so observe change to act accordingly.

Also give one setting at least few hours of drive time, so you can justify the next change better. Don't tweak them in minutes, as then you will never find sweet spot and keep wandering around.

[Marek]

thanks gents for hint! I started with @Gaurav's recommendation to start in the middle and was working my way up at every stop. I ended up setting it 8/10 front and 6/10 back and I think this is so far my sweet spot. So far I want to be able to be hit humps hard at the front, but make sure the back is much softer (and less bouncy)... and this setting seems to do just that. I will test it a bit more as I drive, but it looks that that's it.

[Gaurav]

If you plan to hit hard in front, check your front CV Axle - rubber boot after every drive. For lifted Pajero that is the Achilles heel.

[Marek]

Pajero is retired... parked at storage, waiting for winter drives with family. I learnt my lesson that front lacks bump stops and every harder hit ends up crafting a nice hole/bulge in the upper side of the wheel arch and deforming the top location of the macpherson, so... no. No plans to abuse Pajero any harder anymore