Had an eventful day yesterday, took the van off the drive and about 30 metres down the road and the suspension collapsed :shock:
scared the sh~t out of me, fortunately i was in the bus on my own.
The inner adjuster boss on the bottom tube spat the bolt out which sent the frt end crashing down on on to the tyres.
Now this happened before on the top tube but last time the other spring took the weight enough for me to limp the van home.Since then i've fitted dropped spindles thats why the van came down so far, **** if i was running 14" wheels the frt would of bottomed out.
Its not nice when it happens you loose all steering, fortunately i was only going down our road to turn around so was not traveling very fast.
But i was left with no way of getting the bus back on the drive for repairs.The frt bumper was an inch off the floor(looked awesome). It was that low we had to work 2 trolley jacks around the van to finally get the front back in the air. My neighbour had one of those trolleys with plastic wheels that bread is delivered to supermarkets in. so that with a blanket on top went under the frt end to take the weight which was high enough to get the inner arches off the tyres and we reversed it uber slow back up the road, to the amusement of most of the street
Getting it back on the drive wasn't fun either.
So that leaves me a broken van again!.....now because i've had this happen before i've been so careful not to thread or over-tighten the nuts/bolt on the adjuster. IMHO the metal/alloy used to make the inner adjuster boss isn't up to the job if it can be threaded so easily.
I sat down with Emma and we discussed what we should do next. Now after this happening twice my confidence in that component is shot. So we started to try and think of an alternative solution.
Now because the ride on the narrowed beam still wasn't good even with it adjusted to full height and 2.5 dropped spindles i'd been thinking about the red9 kit again. But that would mean creative narrowed beam £450 plus dropped spindles £350 plus red9 kit £345..... i was starting to think this must be the most expensive way to have a lowered frt on a bay ever!
Neverless i phoned Simon at red9 who very willing to chat with me even though it was bank holiday Monday.
i couldn't believe what happened next
After discussing with simon if there would be any clearance issues the the red9 kit and a weedeater i decided to place an order.
Then to my surprise Simon informed me that we would be their 1000th customer and as part of them celebrating their 1000th sale i would receive the kit for FREE,... yes free!!!!
I was blown away, after the day i was having to be told this just put a huge smile on face, cheers si
The kit should be here for next weekend, so no doubt i'll post some pics, and it will be very interesting to see how the combination of a weedeater,dropped spindles and coil-overs go together.
nice end to sh#tty day!