I have a Cali Ocean DSG, 4 motion, not light with the family and a bit of stuff on board very close to 3 tons. My driving style is probably quicker than average without being stupid.
Bought it second hand with standard everything and pretty quickly knew I needed to do something with the handling. Particularly on the motorway it didn't feel stable at all.
Via this forum that lead me to CRS and Koni Special active with some rear spacers installed. Motorway was definitely improved, less lean on roundabout, more controlled on A roads. Negatives were braking was worse (I was getting a lot of weight transfer forward) the van was now over 2 meters and the tow bar was high at 435mm (15 mm over max) My feeling was that the springs were too soft, arbs too soft and when cornering too much weight was going to the outside front wheel. However I just put this down to being a 3 ton van.
I had it in the back of my mind to get the arb's upgraded and I wanted to get the van under 2m. Unfortunately one of the ARB links had come undone, which given the amount of work CRS does sounds like an isolated incident. I decided to give Bognor motors a call. Oli recommended that I come and give one his fleet vans a spin with H&R arb, with KW STX . So I did, and I couldn't believe the results, 2 roundabouts in I was already going faster than I thought you could corner in a van and there wasn't given a squeak from the tires.
I ended up purchasing that setup, dropping the van by 50mm on the front and setting the arch gaps even all round. The handling has been completely transformed, genuinely car like. Basically I can't imaging needing more handling in a what is still a near 3 ton camper.
I do realise this may not seem a fair comparison because the Koni setup was just dampers on stock springs and arb, vs a full suspension change. However too get close to what I have now I would need to swap the springs and ARB, at which point it not a big stretch to have the benefit of setting up the height on each corner so coilovers made sense. Having been able to test drive the stx (to me anyway) it didn't make any sense to start spending more tweaking, just take the hit and get what you want.
Hope this can be of help to someone.
Bought it second hand with standard everything and pretty quickly knew I needed to do something with the handling. Particularly on the motorway it didn't feel stable at all.
Via this forum that lead me to CRS and Koni Special active with some rear spacers installed. Motorway was definitely improved, less lean on roundabout, more controlled on A roads. Negatives were braking was worse (I was getting a lot of weight transfer forward) the van was now over 2 meters and the tow bar was high at 435mm (15 mm over max) My feeling was that the springs were too soft, arbs too soft and when cornering too much weight was going to the outside front wheel. However I just put this down to being a 3 ton van.
I had it in the back of my mind to get the arb's upgraded and I wanted to get the van under 2m. Unfortunately one of the ARB links had come undone, which given the amount of work CRS does sounds like an isolated incident. I decided to give Bognor motors a call. Oli recommended that I come and give one his fleet vans a spin with H&R arb, with KW STX . So I did, and I couldn't believe the results, 2 roundabouts in I was already going faster than I thought you could corner in a van and there wasn't given a squeak from the tires.
I ended up purchasing that setup, dropping the van by 50mm on the front and setting the arch gaps even all round. The handling has been completely transformed, genuinely car like. Basically I can't imaging needing more handling in a what is still a near 3 ton camper.
- Roundabout the van stays almost flat with no tire squeal, no carsick wife. Van feels balanced all round.
- Braking feels much nicer, no dive at speed and no "bobble" at low speeds
- Motorway much more stable still
- A roads, steers a line with no correction needed, damping is spot on.
- Country roads, not crashy at all and I reckon the damping is better than the konis
- I tested a rough farm track which was much worse than my previous, this makes up 0.01% of my driving. But a consideration if you need to head off tarmac regularly.
I do realise this may not seem a fair comparison because the Koni setup was just dampers on stock springs and arb, vs a full suspension change. However too get close to what I have now I would need to swap the springs and ARB, at which point it not a big stretch to have the benefit of setting up the height on each corner so coilovers made sense. Having been able to test drive the stx (to me anyway) it didn't make any sense to start spending more tweaking, just take the hit and get what you want.
Hope this can be of help to someone.
