Andreas springs, what shocks you using?

[lloydy]

Looks like I got lucky and got myself a set of the lidl springs.. What id like to know from you lovely people who have them, is the following
14" or 16" van
What front shocks
What rear shocks
Any shock extenders
Opinions of the shocks you have
Ride height
Would be appreciated, so I can make a good decision on what to do myself. From what I understand the front shocks are the trickier ones to sort...

[xriss]

think mark maudlarks sporting a set

[lloydy]

Cheers, xriss. Yes he's one of a few who have them fitted, hopefully he'll spot this and post up. Ideally for now, I'd like to fit a shock extender to the rear shocks, but I don't think you can get them for 16" trailing arms, and the only ones I've seen for 14" are half the cost of new longer shocks. I've got pretty new rear shocks, so could sell them and put the money towards longer shocks. Fronts can be sorted for the time being with the little spacers for the top of the shocks.
Would be nice to hear what people think of their set up, on and off road

[xriss]

for a 16" & 14" i think for general all rounder the standard Hd boge shock n standard springs cant be beat

[Mudlark]

Indeed Im on the originally recommended Trailmaster fronts and rears; have to dig out the numbers for you.

The fronts err on the soft side; rides lovely but bit a bit too much of bounce off piste. Rears are fine.

Andreas changed his mind on the front shocks just after I'd fitted mine and the current 'approved' set up is for Trailmasters on the rear and original 16's on the front with extenders.

At Syncropendence Paul Dai and myself all had Lidl springs fitted but different shocks, we had a drive around the field and pretty much came down in favour of the original 16 fronts.

[lloydy]

Thanks for that mark, so would you say the Trailmasters HD fronts are fine for normal driving, cornering braking ect? Is it just off road you have more bounce? It seems like they are ok enough to not make you remove them?

[Aidan]

I think you should use the 16" dampers they offer the best performance, check out the previous Andreas threads on here there's plenty of comparative tech detail, iirc the HD dampers are second choice then the Trailmasters
as you have 16" dampers that'll save you a bob or two

[lloydy]

I have 14" dampers unfortunately tried to get some 16" recently now NLA well at least for now. By HD dampers do you mean the trailmaster HD?
16" rears I don't think will work due to the normal rear extender thing doesn't fit a 16" trailing arm. For the rear I'll have to get the TM HD which work well with the lidl springs. For the front it's either stock 14" shocks with a little extender or TM HD fronts which seem to come out ok on road but a bit bouncy off road.
For now I could just the the TM rears and a spacer for my front shock, the front shocks are pretty old though.
The problem with all the lidl threads is that there is different opinions on each thread, would be nice to get up to date opinions..

[Aidan]

16" dampers still listed on classic website euro175 each front rears 204 euro each - not cheap but lovely shade of green

by HD I meant syncro heavy duty M469, they are still listed too, as are 14" - now it maybe their website is out of date, you'll have to ask Simon to ask or order them

[lloydy]

Never heard of syncro heavy duty? Are they in between 16" and 14" in damping?
What section are the shocks in, I can't find them in classic parts?

[jes*b]

16" dampers still listed on classic website euro175 each front rears 204 euro each - not cheap but lovely shade of green

Keep me posted

[Mudlark]

Yes Im happy enough with them to keep them on. Not wanting to throw any more money at the van for a while anyway Had the Lidl/Trailmaster set up fitted by Simon at Brickwerks just before the Picos trip so gave them a good work out there and came away happy.

If you are on well rutted ground at low speed its then that some bounce/wallow is most noticeable in my opinion. If i was starting from scratch though i would go with the recommendation and fit the 16's on the front.

[lloydy]

thanks Mark, it looks like I can get a set of 16" fronts. (will buy them if I can) and I'll go with the trailmaster HD rears. just waiting to hear back from some places on availability.
looking forward to getting this set up on, think me and the wife will need a step ladder though

[PetenAli]

Hi Lloyd,

We have Andreas springs and very pleased we are with them. After a lot of homework including conversations with Mark we decided to go for standard 14" shocks (bought from BW) with ball joint spacers on the front and shock extenders on the rears. Soon after we were at the Devon meet where we saw you and that gave us a good opportunity to check them out both on and off road. It felt like a good compromise. The only change I would make in an ideal world (and if I had the money) would be to go slightly stiffer at the front as there is still a slight tendency to wallow on roundabouts etc - mind you its still loads better than it was with old, tired springs and shocks.

We went to France in Sept with sis in law and her husband so four adults in total and you just couldn't tell you had the extra weight on board. Sis in law likes her wine and brought five ten litre wine boxes as well as various other stuff. Combined with our booze, a years' supply of olive oil etc the final 300 miles was well loaded up. I genuinely couldn't tell the difference in handling. I think Andreas has got it just about spot on for a Westy - it would be different in an empty panel van Jes!!

Pete

[lloydy]

thanks Pete, does sound like the 16" fronts are the best ones then.
so, are front ball joint spacers necessary? can't find any other mention of people using them?
what is your ride height?