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Post by Brian M on Jan 29, 2009 14:42:15 GMT
From: Gareth851 (Original Message) Sent: 11/05/2004 08:39 In reply to Martin Pegrum's question about tincreasing the ride height there are a couple ways this can be done although it is worth remembering that if you raise the van by more than about 2 inches you can potentially create a stability problem. Firstly check the condition of the damper mountings onto the chasis, it is quite common for these to crack and even break off (I have come accross 2 in the last 18 months) if this happens and is not addressed straight away extra stress is put on the coil springs and this can lead to them becoming weak and 'saggy'. The coil springs have adjustment on them in the form of a threaded bar running through the centre, it is possibly to add more tension and a little bit of ride height by winding these up. You could also consider spring assistors as used on towing cars by some caravaners, although I have seen this method used on a Safari I would be somewhat reluctant to recomend using it. One other way of increasing the ride height slightly is to fit 165/13 tyres instead of the standard 155/13 but this should only be done if you have wound up the coil springs as I stated above because there is very restrictive clearance between the tyre and inner wheel arch. Hope that was of some use/interest to you. Gareth Williams (Pearman Briggs workshop)
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Post by Brian M on Feb 1, 2009 10:26:23 GMT
From: angeleyes19491 (Original Message) Sent: 31/07/2006 23:46 hi i have been looking at some pictures of your vans they look a bit low to the ground we are picking ours up at the weekend do they go over sleeping policemen and other ramps in the road without scraping the bottom paulinexxx
First Previous 2-10 of 10 Next Last Reply Recommend Message 2 of 10 in Discussion From: Brian Sent: 01/08/2006 07:20 Pauline I don't think Safaris are any lower than other caravans, but there are a few things to watch out for to maximise the ground clearance. You must check the height of your tow hitch to make sure that the Safari is level, when being towed. Too high a tow ball and the back end will be down, and too low and the front will be. The manual gives the recommended tow ball height as 14.5 inches for 12 and 13 footers and 15.5 inches for the larger Safaris. I cannot find a recommended noseweight for Safaris - perhaps someone else has this information. The caravan should be slightly nose heavy. I don't know what you are towing with, but you need to look at the Safari when it is on the back of the car. A saloon with a long rear overhang may drop by 2-3 inches when you add the noseweight of the caravan. If yours does push the car down too much, check the loading of the caravan, and move any heavy stuff to the middle of the caravan, but don't be tempted to move it to the back. In particular the spare wheel, an awning if you carry one, and for your first trip you may even have to move the gas bottle and battery from the front locker until you can make adjustments to the tow ball. You can drop or raise the ball hitch using a plate between the tow bar and the hitch. I needed 4 inches drop on my Jeep Cherokee to get a level stance. The other thing to check is that you have fully wound up all the corner steadies, and that your jockey wheel is as high as possible. I travel with the bottom of my jockey wheel only about 1 inch below the "A" frame, with the wheel tucked inside the A frame. Also have a look under neath for any wires, water pipes or gas pipes that might be hanging down. The only other advice is to take it slowly over road humps. You are far more likely to bottom out if the car bounces down after going over the bump. Hope some of this helps. Brian
Reply Recommend Message 3 of 10 in Discussion From: Sylvesteruk1 Sent: 01/08/2006 20:21 Brian, Something in your reply to Pauline struck me and that is the use of drop plates to lower or raise the tow ball. I have found two quotes from suppliers of tow bars and it states a drop plate must never be used to raise the height of a tow ball. I wonder why? It is most important to have the SAFARI caravan level just in case a SAFARI glass comes out of its clip and rolls!!!!!!!!!!!! Regards Mike
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