Field measurements of the harvestable power potentiality of an off-road sport-utility vehicle

•Energy harvesting potentiality of an off-road SUV was estimated experimentally for off-road and city-road sites.•The power dissipation per damper on unpaved off-road segments is in the range of 30–334 W.•The shock absorber traditionally dissipated an average power of 3–25 W of the paved city-road tracks.•The off-road vehicle dissipated up to 12 times more power on off-road tracks than on city-roads.•The power dissipated during rebound stroke is 6 times what is dissipated in the compression cycle.