Afternoon folks,
Just a(nother) write-up to acknowledge the fantastic work that Steve and his son James
@CRS Performance performed on my T6.1 camper on Monday.
As mentioned its a camper build that has LV 20" wheels, staggered but the same budget/mid level 275/40x20 tyres back and front....far from ideal and will be addressing that in the near future. The builder installed (what they told me) were official VW -30mm lowering springs all-round.
Van was sitting too low at the rear, the additional weight hadn't been taken into consideration. The ride was god-awful....I'm well used to hard rides, got some toys that are set up for the job of trackdays or firm GT ride, but even by my standards, this was very uncomfortable. Dead smooth motorways were fine until an inevitable ridge or sunken piece of tarmac, then it would hop around, pitching the front far more than it should. Regular A and B roads were just dreadful, the whole van interior shaking and rattling to the point where I was starting to not enjoy driving it. And it's my "daily" ....which then becomes a problem.
I'd spoken to Steve a month or so before collecting the van last Sept, as I knew this was going to be the case, but after one particularly uncomfortable journey recently with my good mate
@Jeff G , I was close to losing my s**t and put a call into Steve to pick-up the conversation.
I happened to be up in CRS's neck o'the woods for a weekend at the WSBK at Donington, and seeing as I was so close (but live a long way away), Steve very kindly slotted me in for a Monday appointment; this was supposed to be a deliberately quiet week for them, to get some refitting done, so thanks Steve for butchering your plan for me!
After some chatting over the options, coffee in hand, we decided that because I'm not looking for crazy low ride heights (it's my daily...needs to cope with all sorts of ramps, campsite terrain, particularly aggressive speed humps...), his custom built Koni dampers and suitable springs, along with rear ride height adjustment perches, were the way forward....for lower ride heights, they have other solutions, but "K.I.S.S." on this occasion.
Two hours later and we're out on test drives, Steve sitting in the passenger seat telling me not to lift for the speed bump, take it at normal speed....er....ok. Well, what a transformation (shock horror, how did you know I was going to type this?!). It took me 8hrs to get home again, some en-route work Zoom calls to do, and I was grinning from ear to ear. Observations....
- The whole interior is so much quieter...it's now very very close to Jeffs Hillside that rides on 17" OE wheels and stock ride heights. The last remaining squeak will be addressed next week as part of a snagging list appointment with the van builder.
- Can you still hear/feel the roughest of ruts/bumps? Of course....let's not kid ourselves, this is a commercial vehicle, not a Bentley Mulsanne. As Steve said, it takes the sting out of everything, couldn't put it better myself. But there's now so much more control, not at all soft or woolly, it "breathes with the road" (God I hate myself for typing that, but on this occasion I cant think of a better way to describe it)
- Steering is now more communicative, now the RH is correct without its saggy arse. No more steer-n-hope.
- I also noticed that the van was subtly more spritely...again, not going to kid anyone its the same as a remap, but it does feel "different". I then also noticed that coast down was far better, which then led me to look at...
- The MPG....the best I'd ever achieved previously (it's a 150hp T28 Highline, DSG of course)...being super careful and in slow moving traffic, was v low 34's. I could get 33's if I tried pretty hard and at normal pace of traffic, 60-65mph and over a long run. But 40 miles into the return drive, without even trying and lots of stop/starting, accelerating, braking on the A5, I was up at 36.7mpg. I'm putting this down to the RH correction, the geo being closer to stock and therefore toe scrub vastly reduced. Obviously, if a geo had been done with the previous setup, then this could've achieved the same, but I always knew that this purchase would be on the cards so never bothered. (I had hoped that the van builder would do this, if I'm honest)
- Finally, now when I look out of my kitchen window at the van, it looks "just right"...again its a subtlety that 99.9% of people wouldn't notice but if you have a van, "you know".
So, as many before me have typed, I wouldnt hesitate in recommending Steve and this setup, I'm now enjoying the drive and less embaressed/apologetic to my passengers. Oh, and it turns out they weren't official VW lowering springs, they appeared to be Cobra....cheap tat, unmarked and fit for the bin. If anyone does need my old dampers, 8k miles old, they're with CRS, help yourself and stick £20 in a charity bucket (preferably RNLI)
Spencer.
.
