66 Devon Newbie - Lowered Suspension questions

[8 8US]

Hi all

Looking for someone local to me (Wolverhampton) who's owned a splitty for years to be able to ask questions/bounce ideas off that I have for my bus.

We've just returned from a 450 mile camping trip around Wales/England and had a few issues with the steering box guard scraping so that's my first series of queries about stiffening up the front end so it's a little less bouncy or alternative rack solutions as I don't want to raise it from it's lowered position.

On phone or meet up would be a great help.

Cheers

Richard

[8 8US]

Adam posted on my thread "Help Wanted" on the Wanted Forum

Hey Richard,

you could raise the steering box ?
or in the meantine get a box guard from Butty on here

Adam

And I've responded:-

Thanks, had looked at the steering box raise option but never welded before, so looking at the bolt on CE rack but bloody expensive, have put a Boatyard Buses box guard on which is a solid piece of stainless steel and it's already bent!

Unfortunately any slight bump in the road sends the guard bouncing into the floor, only got just about 2" clearance without it loaded so not a lot with.

What's the opinion on coilovers or is there another way to stiffen the front end, complete split novice and mechanically nothing more than a simple service or brake pad replacement to my name.

Any help gratefully received.

Thanks

Richard

Anyone on the technical forum want to join in?

Thanks

[maddison]

its tough to say without 1st fully understanding what set up you have

which can be tough to determine, if you dont know either


as a general rule, adjusters on a beam tend to stiffen the ride a bit, so the lower you go the stiffer it gets, bad for comfort, but good for not moving up and down much and grounding out

with just dropped spindles you retain the comfort...but go up and down more over bumps, so may experience grounding out


perhaps someone has in the past removed leaves from your front tubes...an old trick to soften the suspension , so it sits lower,


....also, TBH, if your bus is LOW, you need to learn to adjust your driving habbits, and learn too spot dips in the road that will bottom it out, pot holes are easy too spot, but after a while, so are the kind of road shapes that bring the bus down heavy...also, slow down a bit, that helps a lot in LOW buses


if you dont know your suspension setup....jack it up and get some pics up from underneath
also, some pics of your current ride hieght

p.s, if you have a guard on and its beatup, at least its doing its job, just make sure its got some gap between it and the box...if it hasny remove it and bang it back into shape and refit it, if it didnt take the odd hit, it wouldnt be needed

[8 8US]

Thanks for the info, I know it's got a foksy adjuster and I took it to Kingfisher Kustoms to have some seat belts fitted and asked them to lift it slightly but they said they couldn't due to the shorter shocks.....

I'll try and get some pictures at the weekend and post them up.

Tried adjusting my driving habits but even at 15mph or less it's grounding out on bumpy roads but if that's the way it is I'll just have to get used to it, heart stopping sound though and worried about the damage to the chassis too.

[BJ1]

Lowered vans Why have all the hassle? But I am 103 so what would I know. See you all on the bumpy field at Busfest

[8 8US]

As requested photos:-

Front (55cm to wheel arch)

http://i1173.photobucket.com/albums/r59 ... 3aca58.jpg

Back (46.5cm to wheel arch)

http://i1173.photobucket.com/albums/r59 ... 38ee47.jpg

Bumper (13cm)

http://i1173.photobucket.com/albums/r59 ... 027f81.jpg

Steering Box Guard (7cm)

http://i1173.photobucket.com/albums/r59 ... bacbe9.jpg

Adjuster and beam

http://i1173.photobucket.com/albums/r59 ... c4ebe4.jpg

http://i1173.photobucket.com/albums/r59 ... 76d2a7.jpg

Any suggestions gratefully received!

Thanks

Richard

[maddison]

i'm pretty surprised your bottoming out , when i had my steering box on , it was much closer and didtn take many hits

a good (cheap & easy) option is monroe air shock, you inflate them and depending on how much pressure you put in, depends how much bounce you get...stick 100-120 psi in them and you get a comfy firm ride that doesnt alter much when going over uneven roads

they are bolt on...basically remove your dampers and bolt them on...run the air line to under your seat or something and inflates like a trye valve

you'll probably need to import them from the US, but they are cheap enoug...about $70 a pair...whack more than 120psi in them and they'll lift the front an inch or 2..but keep below 100psi and they'll just firm up your front end...which must be a bit soggy if its bottoming out at the hieght you are at

[8 8US]

Thanks.

Thought the ride felt too bouncy and couldn't believe my bus was lower than others, will seek out a set of those shocks and give that a go first.

Much appreciated, possibly catch up at Busfest to pick you're brains a little more?

Richard

[paul_f]

You are not particularly low but you look to have a massive rake which will cause problems as it puts the box nearer the ground
Can you measure the height of the bottom of the sill front and rear

[8 8US]

22cm at the front and 24.5cm at the rearmost point.

Richard

[8 8US]

Anyone tried these to stiffen the front?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VW-Volkswagen ... _586wt_689

Thanks

[Sooty]

Have you actually taken the shocks off to see if they are working properly?

From looking at your height and you saying you hit all the time, something isn't right.

If you stand on the front, is it easily bounced up and down?

[8 8US]

I haven't taken the shocks off so need to do that, but I am sure something isn't right.

Will stand on the front when I get home and see what happens.

Thanks for taking the time to respond guys!

[kombie 454]

Hi Rich, when it comes to lowering your van/bus you really whant to know the set up you've got! if it has as you say a Folksy adjuster then that means only the top set of torsion bars have been turned, putting the lower torsion bars under a lot more strain and the lower you go the more strain they are put under!! (not good) the Folksy adjusters have bin around for years and things have moved on since then!! You really need two CE adjusters top'n'bottom to keep the T bars on equal pressure, torsion bars also have a tendancy to sag over the years so that might not be helping in the equasion! But if things are bouncing as you say they are it sounds like the shocks are "mullered" and for peace of mind I would just replace them and then you will know they are ok!! Looking at your pickkies you are running pretty low and with all your camping gear and probably two adults up-front things would start to bottom out especially on the roads in Wales ( we live here), hope this helps................

[thesickness]

I have a very similar front end set-up as you although I'm running a bit higher
My vital stats are:
steering box to ground 11cm (yours 7cm)
front bumper to ground 17cm(yours 13cm)
front wheelarch to ground 57cm (yours 55cm) although I'm running a 165 50 15 on front
rear end 48cm (yours 46.5cm)

With the foksy adjuster i have some very short gaz-adjust shocks. IMO the ride is good, fairly firm but not teeth rattling so, we were giving it beans on that road into santapod friday night and didn't bottom out once. I adjust the shocks a click or two at a time depending on what weight i'm carrying. For example if theres 3 of us riding up front I will firm them up a couple of clicks, works for me...

With just the foksy adjuster that is as low as I would comfortably go, to get that extra couple of cm to me would require a different approach (adjuster on both beams, dropped spindles etc). To get driveability I adjusted the front and back up a couple of cm and now have a very useable van that drives mint.