Why don't I ever hear anything about air shocks? You can lower it an inch or two, then pump it it back up for camping & off-roading, can't you? Wouldn't that work?
There don't seem to be any avaiable that will pump the weight of the rear end up, though peeps have them on the front.
2 x 22mm spanners, 1x 17mm spanner 1x 19mm spanner 1 x 13mm socket and wrench a brake pipe spanner, some brake fluid and an afternoon max.
Hang on- Just how much does the back of a bus weigh? I just googled air shocks and the first ones I found can lift the average vehicle plus 1100 pounds of added cargo. SURELY that would cover it, no?
Try it. Or have a read on Earlybay.com, there's always someone looking for a cheap alternative to air-bags on there. Plenty tried it and report "if won't go up". No personal experience myself.
I thought I'd post a quick update on my lowering adventures. From the above picture you can see that I've just got back from a competent welder (as opposed to my own incompetent efforts) having had my CSP adjusters secured in place along with the refit of the steering idler. Following on from my theme of 'I don't remember reading that anywhere!' I thought I'd mention the steering idler. I have heard tell that some 'professional' lowering companys manage to drill the dimples out without removing the idler. God knows how, I certainly can't see how its possible, the idler covers two of the dimples! Anyway it was an utter swine to get off, VW really went to town when they welded these on and after a lot of drilling, grinding and filing it came off. Very important to scribe where it came from as it has to go back in the same spot. It took a lot of fettling to tidy both it and the beam before it went back on. Not a job to be taken lightly. For those of you in the know you will see that I have covered the upper beam dimples with a steel collar. It's not called for anywhere but I didn't like the dimple holes being exposed once the beam is back on. The idler covers all but one of the lower beam holes and I can live with that. Having dealt with the non contentious adjusters I thought I'd show whats going on at the end of the beam. From the picture below you can see that I still have my lower bump stop but the upper has gone. Not intentionally, it was missing! Not sure yet whether its going to be replaced yet or not. What I wanted to draw attention to was the lower bump stop. As mentioned before there is not a lot of room left for the arms to move now the beams have been turned and I reckon that distance is going to get a lot smaller when fitted back on the van. Talking to a mechanical engineering friend he believes that by their conical design the harder the stops are pressed the more they resist, however if you cut the bottom third off the bump stop they will cease to work, be extremely hard and lose all of their cushioning force. To compensate for this he recommended drilling up through the bump stop once that third was removed. This will re-instate some of the cushioning force. Has anyone TRIED (note emphasis!!) this and what is there experience?
T2D did my westy by drilling the dimples, moving the block inside and welding it in place through the holes. The hacked an ugly hole in the idler housing to get at the dimples and just left it like that. I don't know if their approach had changed since but I doubt it. I really think you'll have to remove or re-engineer the horn that the bump stops are fitted to. As I said earlier, at full height without a stop at all the trailing arm will whack into the arm if you brake hard into a corner. With it lowered it's going to ride on the stop and you'll have no suspension.
Lowering update! Everything is back together and I now have a dead level van, hooray! Now for the problems. 1. As predicted the front is sat on the remaining two thirds of the bump stops. She'll have to come up a notch or two to give me any front suspension at all. My current thinking is to raise by a couple of inches, fit strong front shocks and fit a 65 profile front tyre (1.25" narrower than a standard tyre). Combine that with a passenger or two and a spare wheel on the front andmI'm praying for level-ish. 2. On the back things are looking ok. The horseshoe plates seem to retain the suspension travel for the donuts. I do need to check that they will meet before the transmission arm hits the chassis though. By grinding the lip on the springplate the wheel drops enough so that a standard tyre fits on and off without a problem. It is a pain in the arse to relocate the handbrake cable though. I was reading another thread on tyre loading but it related to 15" wheels. Has anyone found an insurance friendly 65 profile 14" tyre of 88 or higher load? I've spoken to a couple of fitters and can only get an 86. From the other thread this seemed to be the minimum rating for the front.
“…65 profile front tyre (1.25" narrower than a standard tyre).” Presumably you mean 1.25” smaller diameter than a standard tyre. The gross front axle weight is 1010kgs. It doesn’t matter what the actual weight is, 1010kgs is the design weight that the front tyres must support, so each tyre has to be rated for at least 505kgs. An 86 load index is 530kgs so a tyre with this rating is theoretically satisfactory but you’re going to end up with a significant mismatch between front and rear. By the way, I have heard although I don’t know if is true, that a cut down bump stop is a MOT failure while a missing bump stop isn’t. Might be worth checking before you try to get a MOT cert.
I had a bit of a panic attack on the tire front, I cannot source a commercial rated 185/65/R14 tyre as specified. I've read a few threads on this and there seems to be a hung jury on whether a passenger car tire with the correct weight loading is acceptable or not. Some debate over the amount of sidewall strength in the car tire. I have seen a copy of a 79 Bay owners manual and that shows the maximum all up gross axle weight as 2300Kg (the front was 1010Kg I believe) so I'm taking that as fact not conjecture. After ringing a few companies I found that a 175/65/R14C is widely available and that has an all up weight limit of 2400Kg so I'm going to the insurance company with that! This could all work out as the 175 will have to stretch 5mm across the wheel but the reduction in height is a whopping 1.49" rather than the puny 1.25" of the 185/65. This seems like an obvious solution to a much debated issue so I'm waiting for the naysayers to put me in my place ;0) Why aren't there any lowered bump stops on the market?
I've just done exactly this. It now handles much better with less noticeable body roll. Absolutely delighted with it I've already posted up this comparison in my own thread but it won't hurt to post again.................... Note the difference under the van in line with the bottom of the gate BEFORE AFTER
I know........ I had a nosey at your resto thread a few weeks back after I spotted your avatar. Thankfully I got there first!
