Tyres / Stance Thread - Lets see what ya runnin!

[Moseley]

Hi Jon, I’m not sure where you’re getting your info from, but I don’t think you could go any lower and get a ride that’s less harsh, or even have the height you have there and not still have a harsh ride. In the pic you have less than three inches of suspension so it needs to be firm or the wheels will hit, adding dropped spindles will not change that. Not wanting to pee on your parade or anything :mrgreen:

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,, in my opinion, of course :mrgreen:

Not going to go lower now - going to stay roughly the same height as i have anyway and keep current tyres :mrgreen:

current setup is the beam is on the lowest settign on the adjusters as it is running kyb gas shocks

adding the drop spindles will give me 3 1/2" drop with adjusters on highest setting so will defo give me more suspension and a smoother ride as its not simply lowered on adjusters now?

I think what Ozzie is alluding to is correct. The reason your ride is harsh just now is not because of the adjusters (these won't actually change the feel of the suspension compared to a stock setup, as all they're doing is rotating the leaves) but because you're running on the limits of the ball joints. Adding dropped spindles and raising the adjusters back up will give you your suspension travel back, but you will likely find that your tyres will be hitting the arches with your current ride height / tyre choice.

 

[matty74]

Rear Nexen CT8 - 195/70/15 wide 5

Front - 185/65/15 wide 5

Now I know the clearance is good I’ll be putting the Nexen CT8’s on the front, to bring me very close to original size.

“A” rated wet rating and a 102 load rating, didn’t half notice the difference on the sidewall strength [emoji106]


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[cunning plan]

Lovely cottages behind you ^
(Nice bus obviously too).

 

[matty74]

Lovely cottages behind you ^
(Nice bus obviously too).

Thanks fella, they’re a little bit older than the bus [emoji6] traced them back to circa 1780.

I bang my head more times in the house than I do in the bus [emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]


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[Bajalegend]

Fitted my new beam and want to see how low I can go on the adjusters. If I measure the height without shocks, that’s the lowest it will ever be to check clearance right? So if it clears everything it won’t hit when driving? Having a brain fart and can’t work it out.

Thanks

 

[Graham L]

Doesn’t really work like that as at static you are not allowing for rise and fall of the suspension based on road conditions, the fact you are trying it without dampers makes no difference as even with the them fitted it will still go lower and could hit under real life road conditions, suspension also takes time to settle so best to use it and adjust as necessary

 

[Bajalegend]

Thanks Graham, I wanted to set it up without dampers so I could then measure for a set of spax. How much clearance would you allow for travel? Would it fall much more than in its current static position with no dampers when driven?

Thanks

 

[Moseley]

Most people plump for a 16.0” open, 10.5” closed shock / coilover. In an ideal World, I believe you would measure between the shock mounts when the bus is static, then calculate how much travel would be required in a compressed situation (I.e. hitting the bump stop). The closed length would be the difference between the mounts at the bump stop scenario, and the open length would be double the difference between static measurement and closed measurement.

The problem we have is that generally lowered buses have their bump stops chopped off. A set of coilovers would often incorporate a bump stop, however, as the shock mounts are not really designed for the kind of loads they’d see when a shock / coilover ran out of travel, it would probably shear them off. So the next best bet is to go with a shock / coilover that is longer than the travel required, and we all rely on the beam hitting the road / tyres hitting the arches when we run out of travel

Our bus probably has about an inch to 1.5” of tyre to arch clearance and I run 250lb springs in my coilovers. For most roads, I don’t have any issues of rubbing or hitting, but high speed undulations almost certainly involve something hitting. Of course, it all depends on how fast you drive and the types of road you’re on.

 

[Graham L]

Thanks Graham, I wanted to set it up without dampers so I could then measure for a set of spax. How much clearance would you allow for travel? Would it fall much more than in its current static position with no dampers when driven?

Thanks

if measuring for dampers then you ideally need to add 50mm of travel in each direction, some damper suppliers ask for the open & closed measurement others the distance between the damper points, all i would say is jump on each wheel arch before measuring to get it to settle a bit more, as a guide we fit KYB Gas Dampers to all our beam installs and they are 410 open and 265 closed.

 

[Bajalegend]

Thanks Moseley

 

[Bajalegend]

Thanks Graham

 

[roobug67]

 

[Nipper]

Heres Hank

1 spline down on the rear and on creative adjusters at the front, wearing 185/65/15's all round

Old post but does anyone know what wheels on Hank here? I’ve just got a set of Sprintstars that look identical, however with 185x65x15 tyres there is next to no room on the rear prior to getting it lowered next month...

 

[Graham L]

Heres Hank

1 spline down on the rear and on creative adjusters at the front, wearing 185/65/15's all round

Old post but does anyone know what wheels on Hank here? I’ve just got a set of Sprintstars that look identical, however with 185x65x15 tyres there is next to no room on the rear prior to getting it lowered next month...

Thats a very old post and yes they are sprints, depends what offset on the sprints you have, lowering wont give you extra clearance unless you are getting the back end narrowed, its always tight with flat arch bays and a few mm is fine.

 

[fallingoffalot]

When my other wheels were on there was about 1mm clearance between arch and tyre. (The spring plates had a 3" drop on them and they were set up all wrong). Anyway they didn't rub or cause any issues.

I thought lowering should give more clearance as it moves the top of the tyre inwards?

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[K@rlos]

Transporterhaus caster-adjustable 4.5” narrowed king & link pin beam & 3.5” drop spindles, creative engineering adjustable spring plates set 1 inner and 1 outer spline lower. Bilstien shock absorbers all round

Porsche 944 turbo front brakes with 10mm spacers so a total increase of 40mm, stock rear brakes with CSP 5x130 pcd drums & 20mm spacers

15x5.5 Porsche gasburner rims with an offset of ET25
165/55 15 fronts
205/60 15 rears

Small front chassis notches and tubs. Rides lovely and handles pretty well too. Can’t throw it into corners like I can my Audi Quattro but for a 50 yr old loaf of bread it’s pretty good lol.

 

[giraffeinbath]

A slight twist on this.

I'm fitting some alloy Sprinstars to our '68 so I need 4 x tyres. I know what size I want but choosing between the options is tricky when trying to compare between the aesthetics of the different options. Obviously tyres aren't just black circles, with some manufacturers using quite gaudy moulded patterns/graphics on the sidewall and the design of the side tread reveal around the edge makes a difference to the aesthetic as well.

So in terms of tyres that 'look right' would anybody recommend a particular tyre from experience?

Just for reference the plan is 195/65/15 rear and 175/55/15 up front.


....and I am aware of what a superficial first world problem type of question this is

 

[Graham L]

A slight twist on this.

I'm fitting some alloy Sprinstars to our '68 so I need 4 x tyres. I know what size I want but choosing between the options is tricky when trying to compare between the aesthetics of the different options. Obviously tyres aren't just black circles, with some manufacturers using quite gaudy moulded patterns/graphics on the sidewall and the design of the side tread reveal around the edge makes a difference to the aesthetic as well.

So in terms of tyres that 'look right' would anybody recommend a particular tyre from experience?

Just for reference the plan is 195/65/15 rear and 175/55/15 up front.


....and I am aware of what a superficial first world problem type of question this is

We tend to fit tyres made by 'General' (which is an offshoot of one of the big manufacturers so not Budget ) to our own and customer buses, they have a decent tread pattern and i think the latest ones are called 'Altimax Comfort', run them on our sunroof deluxe and hightop.

 

[fallingoffalot]

I recently fitted Michelin cross-climate on the front, they're a 4x4 tyre, but I mainly chose them because they're quiet. It makes a huge difference.

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[giraffeinbath]

Could anyone hazard a guess (or know) what this is running in terms of drop and tyre sizes?
Has it been notched, tubbed or both?