NewHilux.net

Yeah, I know, depends on the application.

So for those of you that use a Hilux for what it was designed for - carrying a load in varying conditions, with a high percentage of rough unsealed roads, corrugations, and proper four wheel driving - what's reasonable?

Some of you might remember my build from 2014. Had a Lovells GVM upgrade from new. It did 66,000km around Aus with the vast majority of that in the far back of the outback, towing a camper.

Shocks were rooted at 60,000km and replaced with the same Lovells Gas Legend. Both fronts were de-gassed and non-functional. The rears were next to useless.

Vehicle then came home to NZ where it has done another 60,000km of hard yakka. Lots of off-road, loaded up, you might be surprised to hear that in NZ off-road is often a lot harder on the vehicle than Aus.

No surprise - shocks were rooted again by 116,000. One front and one rear completely de-gassed and non-functional.

No need to keep up the GVM spec here, so have replaced with KYB heavy duty.

So is 60,000km fair? Seems light to me. I've had much better mileage out of KYB in the past, on a 1993 Hilux, they went forever and when I came to change them, I put them back on cos they were still fine.

Righto, over to you.

For the type of generic twin tube design shock that Lovells sells, that is a reasonable life for a vehicle that gets used off road, most shocks like that generally have a warranty around 50,000km or thereabouts.
If they're consistently failing you however, it might be worth looking for a larger bore monotube shock that can handle the heat better.

Bilstein's lasted over 300,000 with about half off road outback with camper. just put a new set on the front due to one starting to leak. the rear is still ok

I think the sort of use you are doing 60k is a good run
I only got about that out of a set of Superior Engineering front shocks and I'd run with them again
Unless you go real top end rebuildable I think that's about all they will do in fairness