Date:         Sat, 14 Oct 2000 21:26:49 EDT
Reply-To:     RallyXer@AOL.COM
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Heath Vogt <RallyXer@AOL.COM>
Subject:      Re: Lowering a Vanagon - new (?) perspective
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

In a message dated 10/14/00 1:38:31 AM Central Daylight Time,
jaymac@INTERNETCDS.COM writes:

>  So what am I missing here?  Why would I want to lower my van?  To improve
> cornering?  If that's the goal, seems like a Scirocco or Corrado would be
> more to one's liking.  Personally, I'm diggin' on my '85s high clearance (
> lots of gravel roads here in the Northwest).  A nice change from my Corolla.
>  >
>  > Greg Baskin
>  > Eugene, Ore.
>  > 85 Westy
>  > 79 Corolla

How about the best of both worlds.  Replace the coil springs with airbags.
It's the "in" thing to do with trucks and imports right now, but it has some
real world advantages (see Range Rover & Lincoln Continental, not to mention
VW's Dune and their new Truck and SUV that aren't out yet).  Certain Range
Rovers have bags in the rear, if you get high centered (afterall ride height
is somewhat less than topped out) going over a berm, you pump up the rear
bags and it gives you some extra clearance to get over the hump.

Air bags will respond just like coil spings as far as ride is concerned, only
you can dial in height and ride...  Pump some more air in the rear when
towing that fishing boat or hauling all those bikes on the back.  Raise it up
to gain clearance, drop it to lower c.g. or get the westy in the garage.
Since vanagons use coils with shocks rather than struts, the conversion
should be relatively easy and the bags aren't all that expensive.  You could
set up a whole system w/ compressor (pipe it to fill tires too!!)  for what
it'd cost for new springs.  Get really fancy with left/ right control and you
can level your camper at the camp site!

Height adjustable suspensions aren't new, and they have great uses.  Late 70
early 80's mercedes S class 6.9 (the size of the engine) sedans had a
hydroliclly adjustable system that automatically dropped 2" (? don't quote me
on the amount)  at 100mph, o.k. most vans aren't driven that fast, but you'd
get some advantage at lower speeds given the higher starting height.  It also
had an "over ride" that pumped it up to 7.5" of ground clearance (bought the
same as an Explorer) for driving up that snow covered road to your cabin in
the Alps.  A friend of mine had a rough one, kept leaking pressure, so if it
sat for a day or two it looked like a low rider :)

Bags are certainly dependable, just ask any Semi driver who has 500,000 +
miles on his rig!!!  Even if you loose pressure, they'll still function to
get you home (the have a springyness? even without air).

Really, this makes so much sense with the vanagon, which is constantly seeing
different uses on different terains, with different loads, I'm surprised
someone doesn't already make a kit.

Heath