We have just bought a VW T4, not as a fosling van but as a small camper to allow myself and the student to head off for occasional weekends away on our own. For some reason a lot of people think it's a really good idea to lower the suspension on these vans and the one we just bought was no different.
Lots of people had done it so i never expected there to be any particular "issues" - how wrong is it possible to be!! First discovery was that lowering springs are a really good way to put people in wheelchairs. Going up the drive with a couple of kids in the back produced a crashes followed by groans delivered by a quality of ride that would be unacceptable in my old 1960 Land Rover.
So I did bit of asking round and I discovered that these springs would rule out shopping trips to France unless i fancied coming home with wine and fruit juice running out under the back doors. So a few hours one weekend removed those and put a proper pair of heavy duty springs on instead.
This made it look like a Transit Van custom conversion from about 1980.
It also gave the whole geometry of the front a makeover and various angle in the steering end up being out and the the final drive operates at a different angle to the one it's supposed to. I think you don't need to have an engineering degree to realize this might not be a good idea. It was more than that I was a bit concerned for steering angles and operation of the stability control system which uses a very basic anti roll bar which was in this set up at a very wrong angle.
Anyway this afternoon I jacked the thing right up in the air and using one of the house special tools a "Branwen" put the right amount of tension into the front suspension. Having driven the system as it is supposed to be, I can sum up "lowered" in a slightly different way "dangerous".
This gets more so when you factor in the fact that a lot of these vans receive other attention. Van engines often operate in quite low state of tunes so things from other incarnations of the same engine can be bolted in to give the thing a bit more zing. Reprogramming the engine management on a T4 like mine can increase both power and torque by around 40%, so you fit an anti handling kit then turn up the wicks. Hmmm it does not take an Einstein to spot an potential issue....
Other performance companies will add even more, the guys I spoke to dropped one of their conversions as they tore the clutch apart. I can vouch for the remap option though, it makes the van far more pleasant to drive and of course holding higher gears means less changing down and has produced quite a welcome reduction in visits to the fuel station.
About 60 miles more out of a tankful.
R
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