changing springs on Ducato Motorhome

wildebus said:
The thing with the 1+1 as decribed to me by the technical guy at the company is that in normal use it is the same as a single leaf spring and only when the extra assistance is needed when a single leaf could be overwhelmed does the second spring comes into play, which sounds like a good way to go.
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Motorhomes are not like vans. An empty van weighs much less than a loaded one. For them, two spring rates are good.
A motorhome is much the same weight every time. Maybe 100kg more or less, that's all.
Get springs suitable for your actual weight.
Ideally, full air suspension, or just the correct spring rate.
And get the tyre pressures down to what they should be.
 
Funny ..just thinking of having mine done, plus bump stops have perished.1999 auto sleepers.original twin springs.any idea of costings etc.thanks
 
Picked up the motorhome today after getting the springs and shocks replaced.
As discussed, went with the Jones 1+1 Leaf Springs. Also had the rear shock absorbers replaced based on the fact they will have done a lot of years and miles of service.

Not riding like a limo by any means, but I think I am seeing a notably better ride over the poor road surfaces we have here in the Borders compared to the old Very Heavy Duty Springs and a worthwhile cost. I had been thinking about this for quite a while and thinking it is a shame I didn't do this before!
 
Bit late to reply, but here is what happened for me on an older Ducato. Ride was too soft and handling was not great. Left the springs and chocks as they were and fitted the airbags (Dunlop I think it was?)
Now with the ability to adjust the ride height and stiffness, the handling is great.
Very happy
 
PerNorrgren said:
Bit late to reply, but here is what happened for me on an older Ducato. Ride was too soft and handling was not great. Left the springs and chocks as they were and fitted the airbags (Dunlop I think it was?)
Now with the ability to adjust the ride height and stiffness, the handling is great.
Very happy
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That could certainly help in some circumstances.

However ... what would you have done on your older Ducato if the ride was not too soft but much too hard and the airbags would not even fill the space between the axle and the body so would have no effect on either the ride height OR the stiffness?
 
wildebus said:
presume there are rear shock absorbers at the back on a Ducato. Is th
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There are indeed and extremely rubbish they are too....The dampers are as one might expect a key aspect of the suspension system. The originals required only 20 kg to compress them on a 4 year old van. I replaced these with Bilstein B6 camper advanced....I did the Bilstein training as part of the upgrade....to fit the rears I had to use a small jack to get them in place.

I also fitted MAD air assist bit like VB but cheaper. The other upgrade was the tyres, the hash ride is often a feature of CP tyres requiring to be at 80 psi. I also put a slightly higher load capacity Conti version for which Conti tech gave me the correct pressures for each axle.

I fitted some accelerometers to the back of the m/h so I could assess improvements at least semi quantitatively, interesting the tyre change made the biggest single difference to the vertical displacement but the shock change made a significant change to the yaw and roll.
 
I'm thinking about new shock absorbers on the front of mine. It had new Bilstein ones fitted to the rear a year or two ago.
What I'd like I'd self levelling ones that would help the front axle springs (it's a Sprinter with a transverse leaf spring).
However, I don't know of such a thing even exists. Where can I find out?
 
Just picked up on the thread. I changed to 16" wheels made a vast improvement on the ride , less harsh.
I then replaced the rear springs with twin leaf . Michael Dowson on one of the other forums was selling springs, shocks and assisters for about £280. They were take offs with delivery miles. The van now is
less wallowing. The original springs were very flat. Definitely the way forward .
 
Did my first significant trip - over 250 miles - today since having the springs changed ... Over the really rough roads still bangs and crashes but to be expected probably.
But over reasonable roads where I used to get the rear rough and noisy it does seem a fair bit better, so pleased with that. My drive down here (to go to NEC) did seem more relaxed and calm then in the past. Only real annoyance is waiting 5 years to get the change instead of maybe 2 or so years ago
 
I'd like a leaf to coil spring conversion; the front never crashes.
 
PerNorrgren said:
Bit late to reply, but here is what happened for me on an older Ducato. Ride was too soft and handling was not great. Left the springs and chocks as they were and fitted the airbags (Dunlop I think it was?)
Now with the ability to adjust the ride height and stiffness, the handling is great.
Very happy
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Adding air assist to springs that are a bit weak is going to help a lot.

Adding air assist to springs that are too stiff is a complete waste of time and money.

The ideal is full air suspension, but although it gives the best results, it is more expensive and more to go wrong.

My motorhome has full VB air suspension on the rear and it is wonderful.
However. I have changed the parabolic springs twice (a few hundred pounds each time), changed the air springs twice (about £100 each), changed the compressor twice (about £300 each time) and changed the air tank once (about £50) and there was a faulty height regulator valve, but I don't know what that cost.
I've also changed the rear shocks, but that'd be the same with springs.
So it hasn't been trouble-free in the fifteen years or so I've had it, but I would definitely recommend it.

So much better ride and handling than the same vehicle with rear springs.
 
wildebus said:
I am thinking of changing the springs on my Ducato based motorhome and wondering if anyone here has done this and what difference they noticed?

To recap ....
The original owner of my Motorhome had the rear leaf springs replaced after one failed. I don't know if it was fitted with the single or the double lead spring (I think maybe single as that was quite common and is too weak for a 3.5t van?). I suspect one reason why it failed was he likely ran at the 3.5t weight limit a lot of the time or maybe beyond it.
He chose to get triple-leaf Jones Springs fitted. These are quality springs and the ones fitted are VHD - Very Heavy Duty - Springs. I think they are too powerful/strong/stiff for my motorhome as I have always found the ride at the rear very 'crashy' with very little give, and when you look at the rear, the third leaf is never in contact at the ends regardless of how much weight is at the rear. The back end never seems to drop any lower. I don't have any experience of a standard setup though so not got anything to compare with in terms of ride.
I fitted rear airbags and they never made any difference as the distance from axle to bump stop was just too large for the airbags to do anything without going beyond the maximum pressure, which is no use of course, so removed those airbags again.

So I think reverting to a double spring could be a good option, and probably a 'normal' double-spring rather than a Jones Spring (I get the impression even the Jones Double Spring is very stiff still?). And then maybe try adding Air Suspension again as those people who have that seem to love it!

So the question is ...
What difference has anyone noticed after changing spring types? the most likely change is from single to double springs I would guess? Did it make the van less bouncy? Improved the drive or hardened it a bit much? anyone else ever run triple leaf springs and how do they find them?
What I don't want to really do is do this work and spend the money only to find there was no point in changing, but I am getting a bit fed up with the crashiness at the back and lack of any rear suspension in effect.
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Sorry for the late reply - I had two extra leafs inserted in the rear springs of my Ducato (Globecar 2011) some years ago as it was quite low on the back and would scrape on certain inclines, the waste tank is quite low under the centre of the van, I was worried by this. I also had a very steep drive where the towbar scraped as I came to the top and turned. The job was done by Midland Springs in Nottingham who told me at the time that the local council had all their Ducato's done with either one or two extra leafs prior to use. This has made a big difference to my van, the sit height is much better and it seems to have made the ride much better, maybe its a little two high as the sliding door now is slightly downhill, but I can live with this and it has never cauught or clipped anything like it did before.
 
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