They are bald on the outside!

[KevinR]

Hello, we had our 1971 T2 modestly lowered about a year ago, having a new Transporterhaus beam fitted to the front and a spline adjust to the rear. All done properly by a respected air cool specialist. We had new stock wheels and tyres fitted at the same time. On completion the specialist advised that we should have a full geometry laser set up, which we did. Having now covered 3 to 4,000 we have found that both front tyres have worn badly on the outside. We are about to have them replaced and the geo re done. The tyre shop may have messed up last time, but my long winded question is - should geometry setting remain as per the manual if a van has been lowered?? Not an extreme lowering, take a look at the image below. Thank you !

 

[ozziedog]

The short and simple answer is yes. I however did have an issue the same as yours when I hadn’t got it quite right when I installed Transporter Haus dropped spindles a long time back and wore through a set of decent tyres in less than a thousand miles perhaps even less than that. It wasnt their fault, but I had installed something wrong but I can’t remember for the life of me what it was, it may have been the track rod ends, I’ll scratch my head for a bit and try and remember exactly what was the issue. The give away that something was wrong was the excessive wear on the tyres and the skittish behaviour under hard braking, a little unnerving too . I eventually got it right and it was fine. That was possibly ten and more years ago then the novelty wore off and I went to the opposite and went stock height plus a tiny raise fickle or what


Ozziedog,,,,,,, so full circle

 

[KevinR]

Nice look, love the bumpers! If you do remember what it was It would be good to hear, thanks…

 

[Clem]

Are you using flipped spindles? If you are I wonder if the camber nuts have been set correctly?
On lowered buses I’d say most people are getting through tyres much quicker than they would on a stock bus, for various reasons.

 

[Walt]

The short and simple answer is yes. I however did have an issue the same as yours when I hadn’t got it quite right when I installed Transporter Haus dropped spindles a long time back and wore through a set of decent tyres in less than a thousand miles perhaps even less than that. It wasnt their fault, but I had installed something wrong but I can’t remember for the life of me what it was, it may have been the track rod ends, I’ll scratch my head for a bit and try and remember exactly what was the issue. The give away that something was wrong was the excessive wear on the tyres and the skittish behaviour under hard braking, a little unnerving too . I eventually got it right and it was fine. That was possibly ten and more years ago then the novelty wore off and I went to the opposite and went stock height plus a tiny raise fickle or what
View attachment 2769

Ozziedog,,,,,,, so full circle

Looks awesome!
Quick thread highjack
Any idea of how high your bus is now? Realise you've got larger tyres, roof rack etc. but just for reference.
I just changed my up & over garage door to a roller & have loads of extra clearance.
Not saying I'm going back stock height, but it's got me thinking!

 

[ozziedog]

Nice look, love the bumpers! If you do remember what it was It would be good to hear, thanks…

I’m ninety nine point nine percent sure that it was the track rod ends resulting in the wheel alignment looking perfect at rest but going crazy ish on bumps etc. I however did not have a new beam just the reversed ball joints spindles and I’d installed and messed up all by myself without any additional help from anyone else.

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,l couldn’t even blame the Mrs lol

 

[ozziedog]

Looks awesome!
Quick thread highjack
Any idea of how high your bus is now? Realise you've got larger tyres, roof rack etc. but just for reference.
I just changed my up & over garage door to a roller & have loads of extra clearance.
Not saying I'm going back stock height, but it's got me thinking!

Hi Walt, thanks for the bigggg upp.
I just thought now might be a good idea to measure what’s what in case I have any car park shenanigans. So level across the top of the roof rack is bang on 79 inches exactly both sides less three and a half inches without the roof rack. The roof vents are the highest at eighty two inches however this pop top is from a 76 Devon not original to this van.
im up just one spline on the rear and have to clearance a little on the rear suspension around the opposite side of the spring plate which I have done just the minimum of because of the new interior going in just as soon as I make my mind up (again) . When loaded I’m fine but when empty I get a few crashes but nothing major. On the front I’m stock plus a half or maybe three quarters of an inch from a little help from my repurposed Gaz adjust coil over shocks. And those are stock steelies with 185 :R14C Maxis Worm Drive A/T tyres. sporting stainless beauty rings and I’ve made myself a job for life by highlighting the lettering.
Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,,,Lidls finest silvery paint,, impressive

 

[Graham L]

The setting for a lowered bus is not as standard set up and should be toe'd in slightly and not as stock, i would suspect who ever installed also didn't rotate the camber nuts correctly,

 

[KevinR]

Are you using flipped spindles? If you are I wonder if the camber nuts have been set correctly?
On lowered buses I’d say most people are getting through tyres much quicker than they would on a stock bus, for various reasons.

I am not sure to be honest, all I know is that it was fitted with a new Transporterhaus beam to create the drop, would it also of had flipped spindles? Does that sound stupid?

 

[Clem]

I am not sure to be honest, all I know is that it was fitted with a new Transporterhaus beam to create the drop, would it also of had flipped spindles? Does that sound stupid?

No, its not daft to not know if you've had it fitted complete at a garage. I would guess that if its a TH beam then it was fitted with the TH flipped/dropped spindles - this is a defacto way to lower bay windows now. As GrahamL has also said, (and this is his bread and butter), the camber adjuster nuts should be set correctly.
Depending on where you are located it may be worth having it all checked and set up elsewhere now, and by a lowered VW specialist.

 

[Earl Bay]

and I’ve made myself a job for life by highlighting the lettering.

interesting, I went the other direction and flipped the white to the inside because I wanted black lettering