What Shock is better - Eye or Pin?

[rob_macca67]

Not sure if this is the right place to post this but here goes...

I'm starting to look at sourcing some new shocks for the old Defender. The Fronts are Pin to Pin and the Rear are Eye (top) to Pin. There is a reasonable selection of Pin-Pin Shocks as they are used for Landcruiser and Patrol, etc, but the rears are a bit rarer and a very small selection. Luckily I have the option whereby I can convert the rear to the same as the fronts (Pin-Pin, also has the added benefit when needing to carry spares) or I can convert the rears to Eye-Eye. Eye-Eye will give me the greater selection of shocks at least but again, will be different to the fronts...

From people's experiences as in breakages of Eye type vs Pin type - which have people found to be better/more reliable? Pin or Eye?
I've spoken to some that have said that I would get greater travel out of an eye-eye shock vs a pin-pin shock with the same lengths and would create less stress.

Not knowing all the in's and out's of shocks, I was wondering what other people's experiences might be...?

 

[Albynsw]

With the N70 Hilux the front eye was the failure point but it is a strut. With an eye the load is all on the side wall of the bush whereas with the pin it is on the face with a bigger surface area
Not sure if it is relevant in your case though? The big advantage I can see is if you can carry one spare that will fit front and back

 

[Rusty Panels]

I can't be trying hard enough! I've never broken one!
What is it they say? Go hard or go home.

 

[boobook]

Rob, maybe there is a reason for the eye at the rear shocks, like lateral movement of the suspension that would not be suited to a pin. Just a thought.

 

[rob_macca67]

Rob, maybe there is a reason for the eye at the rear shocks, like lateral movement of the suspension that would not be suited to a pin. Just a thought.

Yeah, hard to say... The conversion to Pin-Pin is quite common with Defenders. Probably the main reason is that u have the same shock mounts front and rear, thus 1 spare is usually all u need when touring... But I've also got a Disco-1 which has the same shock mount setup as the Defenders and a few years ago I snapped off the "Pin" on the bottom of the shock. I don't know if that was just fatigue or just a dodgy shock as the shocks were on the vehicle when I bought it years ago.
I'm leaning towards the Pin-Pin conversion due to all 4 shocks being the same but there is also another option to change the rear to a Eye-Eye setup which opens up a greater choice of shock. Not sure of the durability of the Pin-Eye conversion bracket over time though.