Club 80-90 Forums

as i mentioned before seikel springs are very well regarded and will be firmer " some say too firm " especially on a lightweight syncro.

henning as trailmaster springs listed which are progressive " best of both worlds " but i`ve not heard any reports on them yet.

bear in mind you will loose articulation off road with stiff suspension. ok if you have 2 diff locks.

i think axeman on here as seikel springs and i think russel uses them also.

lee.

great, thanks man.
im sold on the adjustable, so when in the woods i can be soft and soon as im on the track or road again i can stiffen things up.
any ideas how long it takes to adjust them in the feild?

anyone using the 'trailmaster' here ?

the seikles, sceam to fit the bill as to what your asking, by the title of your post. they will stifferen up the ride, and raise it at the same time, i like them and the way that my van drives, laden or un~ laden. they are not cheap but for them too fail (snaped pigs tails) is almost un heard of. i think that it is the cost that sceams to put so many people off them, they are designed for our vans and fit and work well. it all comes down to how long you intend on keeping and what you intend to use the van for, fortunatly i am self employed and any thing that i spend on the van including fuel goes through my accounts


neil

oh and rember that there is allready alot more weight over the back end of your van with the B23 engine up there,

neil

axeman wrote:the seikles, sceam to fit the bill as to what your asking, by the title of your post. they will stifferen up the ride, and raise it at the same time, i like them and the way that my van drives, laden or un~ laden. they are not cheap but for them too fail (snaped pigs tails) is almost un heard of. i think that it is the cost that sceams to put so many people off them, they are designed for our vans and fit and work well. it all comes down to how long you intend on keeping and what you intend to use the van for, fortunatly i am self employed and any thing that i spend on the van including fuel goes through my accounts


neil

ok, avo's and seikles it is.
got my mind straighter on what i want now.
im self-employed too, and normaly all van stuff is paid thru my bis. But, i just sold my westi and im spending my personal money on the syncro, effectively putting back into the business, which i dont mind as im starting to enjoy this van.

about to order brickwerks avos' and just about to order siekles...ouch! serious price!
is there such thing as an inbetween on the market, either 170 quid for replacement springs or siekles at £650.
im kinda set on siekles - as they do what i want, anyone know of best place to buy ? even 50 quid off that would help me justify them to myself!

Keep in mind that the Seikels were originally designed for a lightweight rally bus.
When used on heavy, fully loaded campers they use lots of their progressiveness right from the start and get just hard.

lughole wrote: im kinda set on siekles - as they do what i want

You sure?

Seikels are expensive, end of!

peasant wrote:Keep in mind that the Seikels were originally designed for a lightweight rally bus.
When used on heavy, fully loaded campers they use lots of their progressiveness right from the start and get just hard.

that i didnt know...

syncropaddy wrote:

lughole wrote: im kinda set on siekles - as they do what i want

You sure?

Seikels are expensive, end of!

no, im not know!
jesus, i want a spring that will allow greater weights in the back.
i do tree surgery in places other people dont, so... im kit dependant and usualy got 3 boys on board. the syncro has been great so far, but i need something firmer. for chip in the back i need firmer springs and i need higher ride and i need to deal with cross winds.
lets say im going to get avo' s from brickwerks, what springs do i need?
i thought from advice, the siekles would firm things up and the avos would give me some control over my ride, changable for diff terrain.
just as i thought id cracked this...
the guys at the garage are still trying to sell me a hilux ...

Buy new standard springs or get some off Baxter. Your old ones are tired.

Why uprate something when you dont know what the baseline is meant to be

syncropaddy wrote:Buy new standard springs or get some off Baxter. Your old ones are tired.

Why uprate something when you dont know what the baseline is meant to be

because i want to get this right the firs time. im not realy used to this wagon yet but after 10 years of defender driving, as a forester in scotland, i need to get this right. im not gonna do some green lanes - although some of the syncropendance pics do look quite serious!
i just need the right set up.
i can spend what i want, once.
i have been thinking about just getting the brkwerks coilovers and standard springs, but im going to put weight in the back at somepoint over some BAD terrain and dont want to be let down.

weight in the back being concern no. 1.

well on the basis the standard spring only comes in one grade but uses three different dampers depending on wheel size and total load and the trailmasters for heavy vehicle aren't yet available that only really leaves you with the seikels all round, I don't think hd 2wd fronts would be the way to go for you and that still leaves the rear to sort which is where you seem to want the performance when loaded
what about spring assisters on the rear, low cost solution, or airbag assisters, has been talked about before, Mike Plompens old orange doka ran some and that was heavy

As for the front, all you need is baxter's Avo coilovers an new standard Syncro springs. The ride will be just what you are looking for, and multiple adjustable for both height and damping. A very cost effective and top quality setup. The ride will be firmer. I have just fitted thus setup and raised by 20 mm. The ride is noticeably firmer, but in a good way.

Can't really help you with rears as all I have done is fit spacers. This also 'firmed'
up the rear a bit. I guess if I fitted Avo adjustables as well, I could firm up the damping also.

If you want to get better cross-wind resistance, and good turn-in, keep the front slightly lower than the back or no higher when normally laden. I've also found Brickwerk's polybushes for the whole anti-roll-bar setup (except the knuckles) was a noticeable improvement on tarmac. Have the rack bushes too. The norm seems to be slightly higher at the front... I'd never go too far in that direction as it destroys good tarmac turn-in and cross-wind behaviour (drag probably too).

The Doka steers quite different to the vans due to the lower c.g. at the rear, and am pretty sure due to different torsional stiffness of the bodies.

I believe the load-rating is 3/4 ton, 750 Kg. ?
I've had big loads in the back of my Doka a few times... it's 'orrible! This was mainly on tarmac. The 2nd time was between 1.3 and 1.5 tons and I drove very gingerly. The rears were totally coil-bound and thought I'd break a pigtail, but didn't. This is with about 1" spacers back, none front.
I have original front shocks, new but HD (VW Syncro) ones rear.
3 biggest loads were estimated at 1 ton, 1.25 tons, 1.3~1.5 tons.

I can't believe it's wood chippings that's a weight problem as have had mine overflowing with these (needed tarp to contain them). Obviously you have tools and workers on board too...

But I'm suspecting we don't know enough about you van yet, and if it is quite tired, some new BY fronts & choose your shockers
The rear has often been a problem due to lack of availability of new std springs
1" spacers and some HD shocks would help a bit maybe.
All fairly cheap

Otherwise its a lottery, but I do like the idea of the adjustable AVOS!

And we need to hear a lot more about the GoWest spring offering... more detailed 1st hand accounts would be good, other than from GW.

And on that note, I had to chuckle a bit at this....

So, we are offering a 33% discount to anyone who purchased a s et of the other guys springs from GoWesty, and even 15% off if you did not buy them from us! And, if we installed them here at our shop, we will do the labor again at half price. All you need to do is show proof of purchase, and return the old springs to receive the credit. Now, THAT is putting our money where our mouth is!

We have worked long and hard on this project, and are thrilled with the results. You will be too!

Mmm... that's one way of taking them out of circulation... after dissing them so badly, certainly couldn't put them back up for sale, so only scrap value (or should that be crap value).

On the other hand, it's seems a fair offer, 33% off (but you can't flog them on eBay then)