My Pajero's standard suspension was typical of most new 4wdrives sold. As most brand new 4wdrives sold are probably not even taken off-road, manufactures naturally set them up for the best on-road performance at the lowest price they can achieve.
I was actually completely happy with the onroad performance as the vehicle had quite impressive handling for a 4wd. When going off-road however I did start noticing a few problems. Firstly when the car was loaded with camping gear, as a 4wd often is, the rear springs would sag quite a bit and would be relatively bouncy on bumpy roads. Rough road surfaces gave a harsh bumpy ride and after a while my mechanic said the shock absorbers were starting to leak, obviously because they are just not designed to take the punishment of off-road used. There were also a few situations were a little bit more ground clearance would have been nice, when ploughing through deep sand or ruts or when driving over large humps on some tracks.
Because I was so happy with the standard ride and handling I was very afraid of making a bad choice with any suspension change. As I use the car far more on-road than off it was very important for me to maintain my current comfort and safety. So much 4wd marketting is geared towards the "tough" market it is hard to know what you might be compromising on for that toughness.
Suspension Lift Kits
After countless hours of research I decided to take a chance on a suspension lift kit with the Bilstein shock absorbers and a set of Pedders springs. The Bilsteins are a little more expensive than a lot of other shockies but they seem to get good reviews especially with Pajero owners. The fact that they are so common in modified Pajeros gave me some comfort. The springs were a medium duty type about 50mm longer than the standard springs giving a nice lift in ride height. The whole package cost about $1600 installed at motorcare 4WD in Brisbane.
So how is it? I was extremely happy and slightly surprised to discover that far from reduce the on-road performance I think the car actually handles better! Cornering and stopping are tight and controlled and cruising is very comfortable. Off-road the extra height has been brilliant and the comfort and smoothness on rough surfaces is very noticable. I couldn't be happier.
The only other thing I have done to the suspension is add the poly air bags to the rear. These can be inflated when the car is heavily loaded to give the rear spring a little bit more support. I actually had these fitted before I upgraded everything else and they did help the standard suspension quite a bit. Now that I have the upgraded springs and shocks I don't really notice the difference as much since it is a much better package. It's still nice to have the air bags there if I ever need them.