Nearly a year ago I switched the Land Cruiser from my Icon Stage 4 adjustable remote reservoir kit to the Superior Engineering three-way adjustable 2.5 inch monotube remote reservoir shocks.
I put the suspension recently through the hardest test you can throw at it in Australia for a touring vehicle. I travelled from Sydney to Kununurra via the Buchanan Highway, and it's not a highway, trust me. Did the Oombulgurri Track, and then several hundred kilometres of Gibb River Road back to Kununurra with a few detours. From there, back down to Alice Springs, out to Ruby Gap.
That's some serious kilometres with everything Australia can throw at you. Endless tar, endless corrugation, very rough and unserviced trails, rocky hill climbs, deep rocky river crossings, and sections of deep mud for 10 days straight. No outside support besides what we had in our group.
If you want to see how well the Cruiser performed against the other vehicles, check out my full Oombulgurri series.
Full disclosure: Superior Engineering supplied the shocks for testing. No money changed hands and the opinions are my own.
Why I switched from the Icon
I saw the light and switched to high-end remote reservoir suspension about eight years ago. Before that, I always ran quality shocks, Bilstein, Koni, and the like, and I genuinely didn't understand what a difference the next step up would make, especially for a heavy touring vehicle on remote tracks in Australia, where you can easily face over a thousand kilometres of corrugation, as I found out on the Canning Stock Route. A well set up suspension makes all the difference. If you think about it, suspension is the underpinning of your whole four-wheel drive.
For the past 8 years, I ran the Icon Stage 4 remote reservoir adjustable setup in the Land Cruiser with a built-in hydraulic bump stop. And in all honesty, it was an absolutely brilliant suspension setup. That wasn't just my take, anyone who ever drove this car said the same. I've also had the chance to test other high-end setups. My Jeep, for example, ran 2.5-inch King remote reservoir adjustable shock setups, also brilliant.
So, why did I change then? Simple, the Icon kit needed a second complete rebuild and had to come out anyway. On top of that, the Icon kit I have is no longer produced. Getting parts and supplies is still possible, but it takes more effort. Given the old suspension needed to come out regardless, and I'd already been speaking with Superior Engineering, I was genuinely interested whether, 8 years on, an Australian-designed and developed kit at a lower price point could deliver similar quality.
I actually contacted Superior quite some time ago, but at that time, they didn't have a setup for the Land Cruiser. However, now they were just about to release a new triple adjustable setup, and they were happy to provide me one of their first kits to test and review. As always, I'll tell you honestly how I go with the shocks.
The Icon kit is now fully rebuilt and it's sitting in my shed. I kept it there so I could swap straight back if the Superior kit didn't measure up. And if you know me, you know I like to test new gear. After 8 years, I wanted to test something else, as otherwise, you never find out whether there is actually a better product on the market.
What the Superior shocks are
The shocks fitted to my 105 Series are 2.5 inch three-way adjustable monotube remote reservoir long travel units. The front shocks are part number TAR-664P-150S. The rear are TAR-664P-150.
Low-speed compression, high-speed compression and rebound can be adjusted independently, rather than relying on a single general adjustment knob like the one on the Icon. Superior specifies 16 stages of low-speed compression, five stages of high-speed compression, and 16 stages of rebound.
Low-speed compression controls lower chassis movement, body roll, brake dive, and general ride comfort. High-speed compression deals with sharp fast suspension impacts, corrugation, potholes, edges, washouts, whoops, and deep holes. Rebound controls how quickly the shocks extend after compression, which affects tyre contact, axle control, and how the vehicle settles.
This is a major advantage over a single adjuster shock, but it does require more care during setup. You need to understand the role of each circuit, make small measured changes, and then test the vehicle properly. A single adjuster design, like the older Icon setup, is simpler and quicker to dial in. The Superior system gives you more scope to tune the ride, but only if you are prepared to spend the time establishing a proper baseline.
I had Nick from Solve Offroad, who had installed the shocks and rebuilt my Icon shocks, establish a baseline, so I had less fine-tuning to do. My 105 is a dedicated tourer, so after establishing the settings for its normal touring weight, tyre pressure, and the way I drive, I haven't needed to continually alter the adjustments, because to be honest, that probably would be a bit of a pain for me.
The shocks use a 66 mm monotube body, a 60 mm bore, and a 60 mm Teflon-coated piston. The larger piston area improves damping precision and oil control, while the Teflon coating reduces friction, heat build-up, and internal wear. They run semi-synthetic oil and a 22 mm hard chrome-plated shaft for durability and corrosion resistance.
A separate remote reservoir increases oil volume and keeps a high-pressure nitrogen charge separated from the working oil. This helps prevent cavitation, aeration, and heat-related damping fade due to extended corrugation, repeated impacts, or heavy touring loads.
The reservoir design on the Superior shocks isn't a plain smooth canister like the Icon. It uses wide cooling fins that act as heat sinks, increasing surface area for heat dissipation. After nearly 10,000 km of dusty Kimberley roads and tracks, I found the fins wide enough that they haven't accumulated mud, dust, or dirt.
They are also fully serviceable and rebuildable. Seals, shafts, internal components can be replaced, and Superior offers in-house inspection, resealing, and retuning. They are backed by a 3-year unlimited kilometre repairable warranty.
Why run 2.5-inch remote reservoir shocks at all
A lot of people dismiss them as an expensive marketing or fashion accessory for modified four-wheel drives, especially people who've never driven them. But on a heavy touring vehicle driven on remote tracks with long corrugated roads, they do a very real job.
A shock absorber converts suspension movement into heat. On smooth roads, that's not a big deal. But on a heavy vehicle on hundreds of kilometres of corrugation, the shocks are cycling non-stop. Every axle movement creates heat in the oil. At touring weight, high ambient temperatures, and rough conditions, a smaller conventional shock will eventually start losing damping control. It just can't get rid of the heat fast enough.
A remote reservoir fixes it by adding more oil capacity, more cooling surface, and keeping the nitrogen charge separated from the working oil. That reduces aeration, delays heat fade, and lets the shock stay controlled for longer. The point isn't to make the vehicle float over corrugations. The point is to make sure it's still doing its job after several hours of them.
I've been running 2.5-inch remote reservoir shocks on my touring vehicle for about 7 years now. Roughly 250,000 km. In my experience, the technology has proven itself many times over on long, heavily corrugated Outback roads.
One good example, the Canning Stock Route. I was travelling it with a mate whose vehicle ran large-bore shocks, but without remote reservoir. They weren't poor quality, and the bigger body helped, but once a corrugation went on long enough and we drove at speed, his shocks heated up and the damping faded, and actually they started weeping. He had to slow down. My vehicle, fitted with the 2.5-inch Icon shocks, kept going without the same loss of control or the need to back off because of suspension fade.
Now, that's not a lab test. I'm not saying every remote reservoir shock is automatically better than every non-reservoir shock. Valving, vehicle weight, spring rate, tyre pressure, suspension travel, driving style, they all matter. But after 250,000 km of remote touring, my experience is clear. On a heavy touring vehicle covering long distances over serious corrugations, a properly set up 2.5-inch remote reservoir shock is not a marketing exercise. It makes a genuine difference.
I also wrote a separate article on corrugations, speed and suspension.
How they went on the Oombi trip
The Icon shocks were brilliant. There's really nothing bad I can say about them. And to be clear, this is not a controlled side-by-side comparison. It's my observation after serious time on the road and on the tracks with both setups. But I can only say the Superior Engineering shocks surprised me.
On the last Oombulgurri trip, I genuinely put them through everything you can encounter in this country. And on two occasions on the Buchanan Highway, I missed a hidden washout at speed. The kind of speed where I was genuinely concerned and thought I'd be airborne. The shocks handled it absolutely brilliantly. Very stable, very controlled, and never bottomed out.
One thing I expected to miss was the Icon's built-in hydraulic bump zone. That was a feature I rated highly. It progressively increases compression resistance near the end of the shock's travel to cushion hard hits. The Superiors don't have that. On paper, I thought that would be the main compromise.
In reality, after those washout hits on the Buchanan Highway and nearly 10,000 km of hard use so far, the Superiors have never bumped out, not once. The combination of shock lengths, compression damping, and the way the suspension is set up on my Cruiser, the bump zone was a good feature on the Icons, but the Superiors so far haven't needed it. But I'll keep you posted if that changes.
On corrugation, I'd say the Superiors were nearly as good as the Icon, which I couldn't fault either. It was a day and night change on corrugation when I went from monotube shocks to remote reservoir shocks, but I felt the Icons were slightly more comfortable. However, the fact that I didn't bother further fine-tuning the settings tells you something. There was no significant gap to the Icons. Otherwise, I would have been under the car adjusting.
With the triple adjustability, I'm confident I could close that last margin and probably match them, maybe even make it better than the Icon, but there simply wasn't enough missing to make me bother on this trip.
During rock crawling on the Oombi track, on the highway for thousands of kilometres, through curves, city driving, I simply could not fault them. The setup on my Cruiser with a long travel was perfect for the Oombi track. It gave me traction in many places where others in the group didn't have it. Road handling was also excellent.
The one issue, rebuilds and price
The only issue I had on the trip, and to be fair, I had similar issues with the Icons, was that the metal cable ties holding one of the reservoirs to its bracket snapped, and the reservoir was dangling down. To the reservoir's credit, it picked up a few scuff marks and bruises, but I reattached it and everything works fine. They are not flimsy.
Like the Icons, the Superior Engineering shocks are fully rebuildable and fully customisable. If you're not happy with the adjustment options, which I think would be hard, you could also have them completely custom built. And keep in mind, if you run shocks like these, you can expect to rebuild them every 60 to 80,000 km depending on how you're driving. But a rebuild is quite a bit cheaper than buying new shocks.
At Australian $1,590 per pair, these are serious shocks at a price point that sits well below what I paid for the Icons. In my view, that's a strong value for what you are getting.
Verdict
I originally thought I may switch back to the Icons after the review, but at this stage, I'm leaving the Superiors in the car and will continue running them. I'll be honest, on the next trip I plan to experiment more with adjustment settings, but I have to admit I'm a bit lazy in that regard. Lying under the car, understanding how each dial affects what, and then adjusting it properly, that's a bit of an effort.
I did notice though that Superior Engineering also makes shocks that are electronically adjustable from inside the cabin. Well, that sounds interesting. And for someone who doesn't like lying under the car much, it would make a lot of sense.
Full disclosure again. These shocks were supplied to me by Superior Engineering for testing and review. However, no money changed hands and the opinions in this post are entirely my own. The rebuilt Icons are still in my shed and I would have swapped straight back if the Superiors hadn't measured up.
So after a year of use, if you asked me whether I can recommend the Superior Engineering 2.5 inch three-way adjustable remote reservoir shocks, I can wholeheartedly say yes. But rest assured, I'll keep updating you if my opinion changes for any reason.
Links
- Superior Engineering
- Full Oombulgurri / Kimberley trip series
- Corrugations, speed and suspension
- Simpson Desert Guide
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