Abstract The energy-harvesting, which is traditionally dissipated during the damping of the passive telescopic damper of an off-road sport-utility vehicle (SUV), was experimentally analyzed and quantified in this study. Thereafter, the following real-road driving scenarios were proposed at 10–40 km/h: (a) off-road and (b) city-road driving. The study also includes measurements of the power dissipations in the compression and rebound phases because some energy harvesters only recover energy in one phase. Thus, the rear-right suspension was equipped with acceleration sensors. The shock displacement was also recorded for the complete analyses and comparison of the dynamics and energy-harvesting during the jounce and rebound vibrations. The results indicated that the damper dissipated average powers of 30–334 and 3–25 W at 10–40 km/h on the off-road and city-road fields, respectively. The damper dissipated six times more energy in the rebound phase than in the compression phase. This harvested power could be employed to drive low-power electronics.