Rear Suspension Low When Towing.

[Weaklinks]

I'm new to this forum as you can see, I have had my Voyager 2.5crd on a 2004 plate for over 3 years now and I fitted a removable tow bar to it about 8 months ago. I noticed when towing a 4 birth caravan that the rear suspension was very low to the ground. I have only towed once with the car but I think the police would be very keen on having a chat with me if they spotted me towing it again.

 

What my question is, has anyone had a smillar problem and can anything be done to stiffen up the rear suspension with the leaf springs.

 

Regards,

 

Greg.

[nigelhobbs]

Hi Greg I would start off by assuming your leaf springs are getting a bit weak with the age of the car .leaf springs are an old system even on commercial vehicles basically because it's not got any compensation for heavier loads. . You can't alter it so maybe I would price up new springs being fitted plus the bushes. And as your pulling a caravan 2 rear shock absorbers will be very beneficial .

Years ago when leaf springs were common 60sand 70s era you could fit spring helpers on this gave the spring more strength for trailers etc check out what's on eBay. Good luck

[gordy]

Get a pair of higher spec cars self leveling rear shocks, like for an Ltd edition car. They are recognised by their bigger diameter around body. If your lucky get a good pair from a car breaker. Then whatever you have in the boot it only drops slightly..

[Weaklinks]

Thank you for the replies, I'll look into the info and possibly change the shock absorbers as the diameter looks quite small on them.

 

I'll keep you posted, thanks again for the help

[Woodie106]

First off - have you checked the nose weight of the caravan? I used to tow a twin axle bailey with my gv & it was always pretty level.

I'm assuming your reasonably experienced with pulling your van so that should be quite easy.

The other thing to check is the towing capacity on these vehicles isn't great,have you checked your vans weight against the permissable towing capacity?

The other thing of course is carrying a whole bunch of stuff in the boot that you take along on your trip will push the rear end down.

My van would pull the back down maybe 3 inches when I hitched it up, I thought that fairly normal.

 

One last word of warning -if you are driving an auto - make sure you change the gearbox oil & if poss add a larger gearbox cooling rad. I blew my torque converter -a more common problem on these vehicles than you can imagine - & it made my wallet considerably lighter having it fixed. Had an uprated unit fitted at the time & not oem as this was recommended by my gearbox specialist who was a friend of a friend.

[Weaklinks]

Thanks again for the info, I've done a little research and I have noticed that my shock absorbers are small in diameter, I've looked on the internet to see if I can get hold of the larger ones but I seem to have no luck only seen some air adjustable ones that would be a custom fit.

 

As regards to the nose weight I have checked all this out and the loadings of the car and tow bar, I am looking down the lines of the shock absorber as I think the wrong size are fitted to my vehicle.

 

 

[Woodie106]

Do you have a voyager or grand voyager?

The shocks on my current grand are a lot bigger than the ones on my old voyager although that was a series 3 & my grand is a series 4.

[Weaklinks]

Do you have a voyager or grand voyager?

The shocks on my current grand are a lot bigger than the ones on my old voyager although that was a series 3 & my grand is a series 4.

It's the Grand Voyager I have not sure what series but its a 2004 so assuming its a 4, it has electric everything, skirts and spoiler it possibly maybe a LTD edition.

Edited January 11, 2017 by Weaklinks

[Woodie106]

It's the Grand Voyager I have not sure what series but its a 2004 so assuming its a 4, it has electric everything, skirts and spoiler it possibly maybe a LTD edition.

It's a series 4 as you say -2001 on.

My rear shocks are I would guess about 70mm diameter.

Possible yours could have been swapped out at some point & smaller units installed.

I have a 2005 Ltd Xs. Has electric everything, dvd, sat nav etc.

It's great for us as we have 4 kids - 3 teenagers & one still in primary school.

We've looked at other 7 seaters but none have the same seating layout etc apart from a newer gv & neither of us like the styling of the series 5 as it's just too boxy.