Air suspension

[bikey]

Hi Ellen

I have a I H panel van. 6metre long wheelbase, when I collected the vehicle the ride was quite harsh,

When arrived home and looked underneath the rear springs were upturned No spring left to use I spoke to Ian Hartley about this and he said a lot of the vans were like this.

I had a set of air rides in the garage which I took of a autotrail that I had fitted at a show.

The ride on my van is very smooth and in my opinion well worth doing!

I would definitely recommend fitting them.

I have owned several types of Motorhome, coach built a class and panel van and would honestly say yes it is worth the cost.

Best wishes Brian

[ellen]

Thanks for that.

[Keithl]

An alternative would be to change your CP tyres for C (Commercial) then you could legitimately reduce your pressures quite significantly.

 

eg For the 3,500 kg GVW Derek posted above you could safely run at around F 56 psi and R 62 psi.

 

If you do not run at GVW or have a lower GVW (eg 3,300 kg) you could run C tyres at an even lower pressure, possibly F 49 psi R 50 psi.

 

Have a look on pages 22 and 23 of this Continental data book (it's a double spread so may be easier to print 2 pages to follow across the lines)...

 

http://www.conti-online.com/www/download/transport_bg_bg/general/tech_info/download/technical_data_book_pdf_bg.pdf

 

Keith.

[Derek Uzzell]

My Ducato Owner Handbook quotes inflation-pressures of 4.1bar/59psi(front axle) and 4.5bar/65psi(rear axle) for vehicles fitted with “basic” 215/70 R15 specification tyres. This was one of the reasons I suggested that Ellen experiment with 4.0bar/58psi(F) and 4.5bar/65psi® pressures.

 

215/70 R15CP tyres are designed to handle higher inflation pressures than their ‘commercial’ 215/70 R15C siblings, but otherwise there’s nothing extraordinary about them. Some motorhome manufacturers fit CP-marked ‘camping-car’ tyres to their panel-van-conversion (PVC) models, but many do not.

 

In 2013 “Promobil” magazine compared six different 215/70 R15-size tyres using X250 Ducato/Peugeot panel-vans and PVC motorhomes as the test vehicles. Two of the tyres were ‘camping-car’ type, four were ‘commercial’ type, but for the testing all of the tyres were inflated to 4.0bar/58psi for front and rear axles.

 

UK leisure-vehicle forums have a tendency to be obsessed with fine-detail ‘legality’ and I’m going to play the Devil’s Advocate by suggesting that it would be ‘illegal’ for Ellen to replace the 215/70 R15CP tyres fitted to her Magellan with 215/70 R15C ‘commercial’ ones so that inflation-pressures lower than 5.0bar(F)/5.5bar® could be used ‘legitimately'.

 

Ellen’s “Magellan” will have European Community Whole Vehicle Type Approval ( ECWVTA ) and there will be a Certificate of Conformity (CoC) relating to that Approval. Campérêve is part of the Rapido Group and I assume the CoC for Campérêve models is similar to Rapido’s. The CoC for my 2015 Rapido 640F contains details of tyre/rim options and only two tyre choices are stated - 215/70R15CP 109Q or 225/75R16CP 116Q. It could be argued, then, that any tyre specification other than those two would conflict with my motorhome’s ECWVTA making the vehicle ‘illegal’.

 

Let’s say I decide to change my Rapido’s 215/70 R15CP Michelin “Agilis Camping” tyres to ‘commercial’ 215/70 R15C tyres. This would apparently conflict with the motorhome’s ECWVTA. I now weigh my motorhome and find that I could safely use inflation-pressures lower than the 4.1bar/59psi(front axle) and 4.5bar/65psi(rear axle) pressures mentioned in Fiat’s Ducato Owner Handbook for vehicles with ‘basic’ 215/70 R15 tyres, but using such reduced pressures would then conflict with Fiat’s recommendation. Double ‘illegality’ - Rapido and Fiat.

 

This is totally academic, as I definitely would not swap my Rapido’s CP-marked tyres for C-marked ones on the basis this might somehow legitimise my use of reduced inflation-pressures (though I might swap the tyres if I were 100% sure that using C-marked tyres would transform the Rapido’s on-road behaviour) nor would it concern me if, having weighed the motorhome, I concluded that using lower pressures than Fiat recommended would be safe and beneficial. (In fact I use 4.5bar(F) and 5.0bar® on my Rapido.)

 

Legality implications of using ‘non-recommended’ tyre pressures were discussed here

 

http://forums.outandaboutlive.co.uk/forums/Motorhomes/Motorhome-Matters/Tyre-Pressures/42612/

 

and I stand by the final sentence in my posting of 18 July 2016 9:15 AM in that forum thread.

 

At this point, though, it’s worth Ellen experimenting with inflation-pressures significantly lower than the ‘door pillar’ ones, as this should give a clue as to whether the harsh ride can be ameliorated by lowering the tyre pressures or whether the risk of an air-bellows system producing no improvement might be worth taking.

 

Bikey’s PVC - although a different make and on a lwb chassis not a mwb - is at least a Ducato X290 model, so his recommendation should be given due weight.

 

If Ellen eventually decides to take the ‘air bellows’ approach, she will then need to decide which system to choose.

 

http://forums.outandaboutlive.co.uk/forums/Motorhomes/Motorhome-Matters/Air-suspension/45836/#M514876