I went for new standard springs and standard dampers front and rear with SyncroServices 15mm lift kit, nicely made alloy spacers that fit well and don't arouse the suspicion of the mot man. (Following the recent deaths of those children in the badly modded Landie, expect a little more scruitinee on modded vehicles as it was supposedly legal but patently wasn't)
I had a couple of broken pigtails at the rear as per usual; the fronts looked exactly the same, but the old ones were tired and compressed more when fitted. The van is now virually even height all round, whereas before it was leaning in two directions !
Having the lowest van last year meant it took a bit of a bashing, so hopefully this year won't cause as much damage, but I will be fitting Syncro-Nutz sill guards and wrap around rear bumper to help protect the bottom edges, after the new sills are on.
I've kept the weight as balanced as I can, bulkhead lpg tanks and kitchen, box on back, spare wheel carrier under the front.
I've fitted 8mm sleeves on the damper rods under the front bumpstops to eliminate topping out at the front, but tbh this might not have been necessary, Henning certainly doesn't think any mods are required for the 15mm lift kit;
at the rear there's a little topping out, but not much with the box on there, but I think rather than using Simon's dampers I'll modify the trailing arm mounting point as I've a pair of Doug's modded trailing arms to fit, so it would be easy to mod them before getting them powder coated and fitting new bushes and fitting to the van.
I went this route because I like the ride of the standard springs and dampers, the 2wd springs are too flobby at the front, as are another barnd in a van I've ridden in and noone seemed to be able to say much about the other options apart from Siekels which seem to be too stiff unless your van is very heavy or you are racing it like Yaeger does, less axle articulation (and lets face it we don't have much to start with) and they aren't exactly cheap either. Also I couldn't find anyone who could say for definate wether OME dampers are longer than the Boges, and having had Bilsteins on a SA 'velle I prefer the standard damper rate.
It was an upgrade from early pressed lower control arms to late cast ones at the front and I also replaced all the bushes, ball joints, bolts, nuts washers etc with either genuine or Brickwerks supplied ones so hopefully it will be good for many years
will try and charm them all they can say is no will let ye know how i get on
