Technical Suspension upgrade

[arjendj2]

Hi,

I've got a Fiat Ducato x250 2011 with the 3.0l engine on the light chassis.
What would be the best to improve handling:
- Replace the bumperstops for airsuspension
- Replace the single leaf leafsprings for double leafspring
- Buy an second hand original airsuspension kit and use multicuscan to retrofit it.

I'm using the van primarily on the road but also visit some "off road" park4nights.

Curios about your experiences,

Regards,

Arjen

 

[bugsymike]

From a van rather than MH perspective I would suggest putting vehicle on a weigh bridge and fitting springs to match as MHs tend to spend their lives fully laden, then a good quality set of shock absorbers, along with beefing up the anti roll bar side front and rear as MHs tend to have weight higher up causing more sway.
Having said all that AirRide type solutions have other benefits though costly.

 

[Philblack]

Hi,

I've got a Fiat Ducato x250 2011 with the 3.0l engine on the light chassis.
What would be the best to improve handling:
- Replace the bumperstops for airsuspension
- Replace the single leaf leafsprings for double leafspring
- Buy an second hand original airsuspension kit and use multicuscan to retrofit it.

I'm using the van primarily on the road but also visit some "off road" park4nights.

Curios about your experiences,

Regards,

Arjen

I have a 2009 3.0l and shortly after fitting it out as a MH realised it needed a rear suspension upgrade, very "crashy" over any road defects as it was virtually sitting on the bump stops. Fitted a cheap auxiliary air suspension kit (Rubena bags) with guage and compressor which transformed the ride and handling. It's been on for almost 50k miles with no issues other than occasionally needing to top up the air pressure, maybe once every 3 months, but only takes a few seconds. However the cheap kit was not quite plug and play as it should have been, the fixing kit had wrong thread sizes and when all installed even with no pressure the ride height was too high, from one extreme to the other! Rather than strip it all of return and complain as I probably should have done, I took the brackets off and modified them, this involved cutting and welding but as I had the time and facilities it wasn't a problem and it was all done in under a day. I'm sure other kit's are better designed and shouldn't have that problem, my fault for going with a cheap eBay seller. But something to be aware of if you go that route. We regularly drive on very rough dirt tracks in Spain and the adjustable ride height has been very useful on a number of occasions.

 

[arjendj2]

I have a 2009 3.0l and shortly after fitting it out as a MH realised it needed a rear suspension upgrade, very "crashy" over any road defects as it was virtually sitting on the bump stops. Fitted a cheap auxiliary air suspension kit (Rubena bags) with guage and compressor which transformed the ride and handling. It's been on for almost 50k miles with no issues other than occasionally needing to top up the air pressure, maybe once every 3 months, but only takes a few seconds. However the cheap kit was not quite plug and play as it should have been, the fixing kit had wrong thread sizes and when all installed even with no pressure the ride height was too high, from one extreme to the other! Rather than strip it all of return and complain as I probably should have done, I took the brackets off and modified them, this involved cutting and welding but as I had the time and facilities it wasn't a problem and it was all done in under a day. I'm sure other kit's are better designed and shouldn't have that problem, my fault for going with a cheap eBay seller. But something to be aware of if you go that route. We regularly drive on very rough dirt tracks in Spain and the adjustable ride height has been very useful on a number of occasions.

Thanks a lot. Did you buy the Rubena bags with 2 or the ones with 3 chambers?

 

[Philblack]

Pretty sure they were the Rubena 170/2 bags