Hi all.
As the Boge shock absorbers are now unavailable has anyone fitted the Armstrong ones and if so are they any good. I really want something similar to the original.
Rob.

Island still have Boge fronts and Rimmers list rear OEM which would have been Boge, so you may be able to get some still.

Island listing for Boge fronts is OEM as in Original Equipment Manufacturer. Which doesn't necessarily mean original factory specifications.

I bought both front and rear Boge OEM from Island a couple of years or so back. I'm unconvinced that they are made to the original factory specifications although thats obviously a very difficult thing to assess when comparing old, factory, shockers with new ones.

Best I can say is that the damping doesn't seem quite matched to air springs. Air springs being inherently variable rate I'd have expected some shim stack differences to cope with the rate variation as opposed to the linear rate of coil springs. These sometimes feel caught out by spring rate changes on decent suspension excursions leading me to suspect that the shim stack, or equivalent damping control, is expecting a linear rate.

That said my main previous experience with air suspension was with Fournales motorcycle units which are much smaller volume and operate at higher pressures than the Range Rover system so have significantly more change of rate with travel. Poncing about with the pressure was good education in why damping has to be matched to spring rates and loads. I was never convinced that Fournales actually knew what they were doing when it came to road applications. An expensive lesson in not to believe the hype!

The damping action of my Boge OEM shocks sometimes feels a bit reminiscent of the Founales motorcycle ones when the baseline pressure didn't match what the damping side of things liked best.

Clive

I fitted Monroe front and rear in the last six months, which seem fine. That said, after reading your post Clive i now think I am not discerning enough - I only have a Defender's coils (Terrafirma shocks) to compare to, so I would put up with anything, and the old shocks i took off the P38 were toast.