Koni makes me happy.

[Guest Close Guest]

Finally, my rear RAIDs have arrived & I stuck em in this arvo. They're enormous, so big that the tube is offset to fit. They look like this:

Which is all I have to say at the moment. I wanted to post the pic now before I forget. Test drive tomorrow. Will be interesting as to date the front has been planted but the back has been bouncing around all over the place, especially when the 180,000km old OMEs get some heat into them.

Might be a little off the topic, but does anyone know what this guy is? Might be a native.

[fishnut Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close fishnut]

Hey WMG,

those shockies are huge - reckon you'll love the new ride!

As to the mouse - I will be able to help, for sure, but I need to know where he came from (Warburton?) and what sort of habitat.

I reckon I know what he might be but just want to confirm these details before I embarrass myself :lol:

[Guest Close Guest]

ahh, yeah.. Fishnut, you're right. I took it out yesterday to get some air & see how it handled it all... nothing. Oh, maybe I need to find a bigger bump or hole or hit that creek bed faster, but then I realised that these were the big holes and I was going as fast as the old sook can, it's just that it was no longer being flung into the air like a ... well, a car with crap shocks on an outback road. So, all good. Trip out of the bush tomorrow, the old 500kms to Kata Tjuta then on to Alice, so they'll get a good test; the Docker River Rd is particularly bad at the moment - let's see if I can set the cruise at 120 & roll through...

Mousey is in Warburton, I believe he's now inside the belly of the big black goanna that lives in the shed.

[fishnut Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close fishnut]

Right, well Warburton narrows the options for the mouse.

You could have:

Bolam's Mouse


Sandy Inland Mouse


Desert Mouse


or...Feral House Mouse. (didn't think I needed a photo here!)

Obviously the first three are native.

It looks like he might be a youngster and that makes it harder to put an ID on it, and rodents are generally tough to ID from photos anyway.

My initial thought was Bolam's, but I couldn't be sure without it in the hand. The tail and the colour don't allow me to be convinced either way!

And, if it was hanging around the shed, it is just as likely to be a house mouse - in which case the goanna is welcome to it

[Guest Close Guest]

Onya Fishnut.. I'm thinking Bolam's too.

Now. I drove the thing out yesterday and it was extremely well mannered. During successive massive corrugations and 120m/h it didn't step out once. Usually it was bouncing and dancing sideways like a nutso fish (sorry Fishnut, I had to fit that in somewhere) after just three or four mega corrugations (these things are about a metre apart and 20 - 30cms high for the unititiated).

So now it's super stable. It's still not greatly comfortable though (yes I'm very very fussy) and, now that with some damping I can feel what's going on, I reckon that the springs are too stiff. It has OMEs and probably the stiffest grade as the previous owner had it loaded up with most of ARB's heaviest accessories; since I've taken all of them off it's just too stiff a ride.

So now I'm off to the Kings shop.......

[Prado04 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Prado04]

Just want an update to see how the Koni's are going?

[joey Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close joey]

whats the price for those big ass koni shocks..... :lol:

[Prado04 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Prado04]

The raids are not cheap this is there RRP

Koni HT RAID
Front 88-1712 $626.66 each
Rear 90-5404L and 90-5404R $563.38 each.

[Prado04 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Prado04]

Well the normal Koni are not a bad price here is the RRP, remembering that you should be able to get them cheaper than the RRP.

Koni Heavy Track
Front 82-2522 retail $362.98 each
rear 82-2523 retail $305.26 each

[Prado04 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Prado04]

The RAID are more for the person that does 1000km week on dirt roads by the looks of it where is the HT are more comparable to Bilsteins.

[Guest Close Guest]

I've done around 10,000kms on the Konis now, most of it on the corrugated hell of the roads in the Ngaanyatjarra & APY lands (OK so the WA roads are getting pretty good, but the NT & SA roads make up for them).

In general the ride is good and there's no stepping out over multiple hard corrugations; losses of the back end around corners are super easy to pull back in... nothing amazing in this, it's what you'd expect in shockers that cost half the price anyway. The springs are definately too firm (now that I can feel what they're doing) and I'll be swapping to Kings raised but not HD as soon as I can.

The big shock (sorry) was the Sandy Blight Rd. Medium sand dunes separated by rutted, corrugated swailes, with big holes & washouts all along. It was graded about 20 years ago and is now just a two-wheel track most of the way. The road also snakes around so it's a great test of handling (yes I said "handling" in relation to a 4wd & without my tongue in cheek).

It normallly takes about four hours to make the 230kms from Tjukurla community to Kintore. I did it in 2.5. In the dark. These shockers have made my car a hairy-arsed monster of the worst sort. It's so... damned... fast it scared me. The limiting factor is no longer the bargey truck that wallows and dips as it scratches for traction, but now it's me. For two reasons: Firstly, the car is so well composed, way beyond any reasonable expectation of occupant comfort - hitting the most disgraceful bumps mid corner shakes you like a maraka bean (OK I dunno the spelling there) but the car hangs on and hangs on so well it's ridiculous.

The other thing is that I was going so fast that when I ultimately had to avoid a fallen branch or a really big hole or whatever, it was a far greater issue than it would have been, had I been limited to the usual ploddy pace that the car used to find comfortable.

So my verdict on the Konis is that they're good and make the car behave a lot better than I thought possible. I wouldn't have bought the RAIDs if the car wasn't raised, but it is so I did. I kind of like having them for the wow factor anyway and I don't care how much they cost now because the thing is so good & I don't want anything less.

Having said all that. I hired a stock Prado of same era, a pre D4D TD sludgomatic with 100,000kms on the clock and drove it from Alice to Kintore & back. This is a major unsealed road, corrugated to all hell but not an adventure like the SB Rd. That car made me resolute that if I buy a new Prado, I wont spend any money on the suspension, dicking around with something that's so good out of the box, til it's showing signs of age and out of warranty, because despite the fact that, by looking at the car it had done most of its 100K in that hell road environment, the shocks were fine, with no fade after hundreds of kms of corrugations and a plush ride, all the way there and all the way back, dealing with creek bed launches in comfort, safety and composure. The OMEs that were on my car, by comparison, after 150k of mostly Melbourne highway driving, were completely stuffed, beyond safety or comfort and I'll leave composure out of it.

That's it. You asked. Thanks for asking. I needed to tell that story. Now back to my camels.

[HIKDJ Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close HIKDJ]

Wildmangordo, you really made me happy with your report on the Koni Raids (or is it Koni's Raid?).
That's because I ordered them too, with EFS medium springs +40 mm, so I am going to be as happy as you are. Mine will be installed towards the end of July.

Question: are these Koni's longer than the original shocks? If so, do you need thicker bumpstops to protect the shocks at full compression?

[Guest Close Guest]

Yes they're longer. I've not changed anything else. The limiting factor on compression is the suspension travel, not the shock, so you'll still hit the existing bumpstops before tearing the shocker off its bracket! By the way, the car hasn't bottomed out since I installed these shocks (with some mighty forces going through it....)!

I say RAIDs when I'm talking plural? Actually, just noticed you're in France, so I guess it's le RAID de Koni? What do they hit you up for a set of RAID de koni over there?

[HIKDJ Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close HIKDJ]

Yes I live in France, but happen to be a Dutchman. So I had no other choice but to invest in dutch made Koni's!

Prices of les Koni Raid have dropped considerably the last few months.
I have paid a promotion price of 999 euro's for a set of 4. The regular price was about 1400 euro's, but has dropped to about 1100.
Don't ask me to convert to Aus$.

[Chippy Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close Chippy]

I have paid a promotion price of 999 euro's for a set of 4. The regular price was about 1400 euro's, but has dropped to about 1100.
Don't ask me to convert to Aus$.

At the moment 1 Euro = 1.64 AUD

999 Euros = 1641 AUD
1400 Euros = 2299 AUD

Cheers
Chippy