my bays rear suspension is very hard on the rear that hard it feels like it bounces a foot of the floor when you go over a bump, I recently when in a mates and it was like a whole different bus. It's been like this all the time Iv owned it and I thought it was my rear shocks so I replaced them, made no difference what so ever, I then turned my attention to the 4 rubber doughnuts they were worn out so I replaced them set the trailing arms to 21 degrees took it for a spin and guess what still no better. That's where I'm at now, any help would be appreciated because the ride is just awful at the moment. The bus is standard height by the way
Nope, no where near the bump stops, when I took the spring plates off, it became apparent that someone put them back on the wrong way round with the splines on the inside. Tyre pressure is 34psi at the rear I'm all out of ideas, would be nice if the tyre pressure was too low
When you refitted them did you have to use force to get the spring plates over the lower bump stops ( you should ), and is the bus sitting with the spring plates well away from the lower bump stop ? You might have raised it rather than being stock .
PS its 21 degrees with just the plate hanging off the torsion bar, unloaded and the plates outside the lower bump stops.. just a thought..
Did you set the 21º (referenced to the flat bit of chassis rail above) with the spring plate in the fully-flopped position? Should have about this much gap at stock height with the van on its wheels.
Mine has hard rear suspension as well. I need to sort this out soon. When I jack up the rear end, both wheels off the ground, the spring plates don't rest on the bottom stops and there is give in the spring plates so I can push the wheels up or down a bit. Worst of all, the wheels don't come down far enough to remove them. It seems as if the spring plates may not have been installed under tension. Both rubber bump stops are cut in half. Both rear shocks are stock. With the van rear jacked up my spring plates look as in @snotty 's pic above. Maybe @Sean007 has a similar problem.
I will say yes I do, but not as much is id hope for, I did set the 21º of the lower stop, which is why I can't understand why it is so hard, as for the gap I can't check currently as the bus/camper is stored away from home I acquired the Bentley manual from a mate, which where I got my settings ect from, the only thing I wasn't 100% sure about was the degrees (I use my iPhone with degrees app) I have used it to set the tention on my single cab but it's nice and bouncy unlike the camper.. I think I will take it all apart again and give it another go but with a anologe gauge, Thank you all for the suggestions
You might have worn rubber doughnuts that would cause the spring plate to wobble around abit I think you'll be doing the same as me mate, stripping the rear down I would make sure you have the rubber bushes at hand (don't make the same mistake as me took it apart and realised they were knackered)
You adjusted the angle with the springplate right off the endstop, hanging down below it? The iPhone should be ok, BTW, if you reset it against the top of the chassis rail.
That is correct, I believe Iv done everything correctly, but I'll do it again even though it is a pain! I will probably go this weekend and have a play and report back
Yes, it has adjusters on the front, but the back end has either sagged or lowered too far. I think in my case the only way forward is to try to raise the back up enough to get the wheels on and off easily. With the rear jacked off the ground, surely the spring plates should sit down on the stops so I can remove my stock steel wheels with stock size tyres.
Yes they should. It's fairly straightforward to rectify though. Get your lad round to give you a hand and you will have it sorted in an afternoon.
