Club 80-90 Forums

I want to drop my Caravelle as its bouncing and rolling around corners! But how much can I get away with without rubbing the arches? I have 17 inch Saab alloys with about 55/60mm clearance at the front. Will a 50mm drop cause any problems?
It has a camping interior so I guess it will need shims too?

Cheers

have a -50mm at the front and -40mm at the rear and it still has clearance on standard rims yhe ride is nice and it has stopped all that wandering / cornering issues, it shouldn't really matter what size wheels you have as the rolling radius should be the same just more wheel and less tyre side wall.

Here she is just after her lowering 2 weeks ago she's settled abit more now

i'd say 50mm as thats what i'm running on my devon with 16" rims & 235/60/16 tyres on the back with no clearance probs

any probs you come across will be down to the wheels & there offset ET, RATHER THAN HOW MUCH YOU LOWER THA VAN BY, check out on brickyards lowering guide

i'd consider going down to 60mm drop max for a van that is used for campeing, any lower & you'll have greaf on "pooh" fields

are saab rims 5x112 then??

i thought 5 x 114 (same as vauxhaull)

if so your putting undue strain on the wheel studs cos the pcd is not right.

saab are 5x110..
well at least alot of the newer ones are as they are GM underneath.

so still wrong then

Van looks great Happy Camper! It's hard to see in the photo how close your rubber is to your arches though.
I've no idea of the technical details of the wheels, other than they are 255/45/R17's. I've had some quotes to do the work and they all seem quite expensive. LA Performance recommended just going down 40mm as it's a Caravelle, which seems right as they were a bit lower than the Transporter from stock I believe.
Anyone know a place in or around London that might be up for it?

batmangb wrote:It has a camping interior so I guess it will need shims too?

Cheers

Maybe ...

If it's got a bad lean, usually to the drivers side, then shims might be needed, put the van on a flat surface and measuring the distance from floor to wheel arch and see how the measurments pan out. If I remember rightly the shims will add about 10mm to one side.

Maybe not ...

Mine leant, you could see it, the measurements showed a need for shims, so when I lowered the van I put shims in and now it leans the other way! Might be due to the Weitec springs being "a little stiffer than stock" and able to hold the weight better?

If I were you I'd go down Baxters route ... "Yorkshire engineering (trial and error!)" try it without and if needed buy a set.

Iv'e just lowered my 88 velle and with baxter's advice went -70AVO's, am very pleased with the result, it now stands nice and still has a nice clearance within the arches. I run 7x16"wheels with 215/55 tyres and it doesn't catch at all anywhere and I always carry quite a bit of gear around.

Lowering on hold as the carb is on the fritz.
Just limped back from camping in Europe with it either cutting out or going flat out!

batmangb wrote:Lowering on hold as the carb is on the fritz.
Just limped back from camping in Europe with it either cutting out or going flat out!

Sorry to hear that mate.

On the bright side a carb refurb's not mega bucks.

Cheers
I left it with a very nice man at Southern Carbs in South Wimbledon. He seemed to think the only problem would be sourcing parts for it. There was talk of a Weber conversion, but I've heard they tun like poo so am hoping he can sort it out.

Did you try spraying some carb clean over it first? I hope you don't get charged a load of money for these guys to clean grime up off your choke, butterfly or inlets!

I'll give you a hand lowering if you want to do it yourself. I may as well get second use out of my spring compressors!

batmangb wrote:Cheers
I left it with a very nice man at Southern Carbs in South Wimbledon. He seemed to think the only problem would be sourcing parts for it. There was talk of a Weber conversion, but I've heard they tun like poo so am hoping he can sort it out.

From what I've heard I'd stay away from the Webbers. If your man Can't source the parts speak to Steve at Gasure http://www.gasure.co.uk/carbrefurb.htm he refurbs single carbs for £80 + vat and doubles for £175 + vat. May seem like a fair wedge but he's done the twin Solex's on my van and it runs like a dream.