Technical Ducato X250 front springs

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Technical Ducato X250 front springs

Newholland Tech

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Hi ,
Due to the nature of my work I'm often doing some fairly serious off the beaten track driving . Sometimes I have to fix the vehicle I have gone to repair to then tow the stuck van out ( it's a good motivation to get it fixed )

Anyone know or have sourced front coils to give an increased ride height for better ground clearance ?.

Both my work van and also our Camper van are running with a fair load but I don't want to increase the spring rate massively as I still wan't a decent ride especially the Camper .

Work van is a MWB X250 and camper a LWB X250 2011 and 2007 model years respectively .

Rear springs will be slightly upgraded and air bags fitted in place of the bump stops at the same time . I have sorted this side of things and can tailor the rear springs exactly to my needs .

Also anyone running slightly wider off road biased tyres ? Both are on 15 inch wheels which makes tyre choice more difficult . I do think my work van with it's lower reverse ratio could pull 16 inch wheels ..... any one tried this ?
 
Out here in OZ the front springs & ground clearance on the X250/X290 models have been a problem since the 250 model was introduced. The 244 models had a good amount of ground clearance from the factory, on our X244 we never had any problems with bottoming out on our rough roads.
But with the X250 & X290 there have been lots of comments about the low front ground clearance. Quite a few of the Motorhome manufactures now fit the "heavy ALKO" front struts as standard from new to avoid customer complaints. There are also a lot of people who have fitted them after purchase themselves & also some people have used the original fiat struts & fitted either Kings springs or the Pedders springs to lift the front.There must be someone in the UK that makes the same type Coil springs or go the ALKO strut way.
The ALKO struts lift the front by about 40 + mm & we have them fitted to our X290 XLWB van when we took a backroad one day & realised how the front has insufficient travel for "rough country" roads, with the ALKO struts fitted we now don't have to worry about constant bottoming on our rough country roads.
Cheers
 
As a temporary fix because I broke a front spring I fitted Maxi spec springs to the front of my van today . ( From Coastal Motorhomes )
They fit straight on with no problem ......are seemingly wound differently as are slightly shorter and surprisingly a thinner gauge than the original springs but have put the front back up to a more or less standard ride height .....ride seems OK but will report when a few miles have been covered
If the ride is improved then I will replace the one's on the Camper with some the same spring rate but giving a 40mm lift .
 
An update for those interested ......

Maxi springs made a difference but would still bottom occasionally on what now passes for roads in the UK but is actually worse than many Farm drives and even fields I drive across .

As a temporary measure I put a set of Grayston spring assistors on the front end ....took less than 5 mins a side to fit and surprisingly worked pretty well stopping harsh bottoming out without affecting the ride.

I had at the same time ordered a pair of King Springs from Australia as a permanent solution .....these arrived in the UK before the Grayston spring assistors were delivered from within the UK but customs took a week so still tried the spring assitors.

This weekend I fitted the King Springs and at the same time fitted new lower arms , ball joints , anti roll bar drop links and top strut thrust bearings .

After a days use I can report the King Springs are worth every penny and have transformed the ride and lifted the front by 25mm - 30mm giving more ground clearance . This set up coupled with rear air bags is now just what I needed and is supple and adjustable .

Work van is kind of a test mule for the Camper Van and that now will be getting a similar set up once I have put in a few more miles testing on the work van .

Now looking at a decent sump guard for both vans.....

When will Fiat do an official 4x4 Ducato ? Work van justifies needing 4x4 and next Van Conversion would be much improved with 4x4 ;-)
 
There is an add on the right side bar for a set of air ride front suspension struts for sale , been on some time , may be still for sale ?
 
Just had a look at Air rides website....bargain ...!!!!!

Ducato, Jumper, Relay, Boxer X250, X290, X295 Front Strut Kit | Dunlop
£3,050.00 £2,400.00 inc. VAT

These are custom-made kits for the Fiat Ducato in both leaf spring and AL-KO chassis variants. A perfect compliment to our load support or full air suspension kits. These are without doubt the best front struts for this vehicle on the market, and the price is for a pair of bare struts. Perfect on A class motorhomes and other very heavy vehicles. Far better ride, and handling and complete control of ride height. Ideally fitted in combination with either semi-air or full air on the rear and a computer controller.

These front struts are a direct, bolt-on replacement for the original struts. They each have a large air bag and are very simple to install. The strut is available on its own, with an optional armoured air hose. These are available with either an inflation Schrader valve kit or an air management system, meaning you can control your air suspension at the push of a button (see the ‘Options’ tab below).

This kit can be installed alone but would work best with an AirRide Custom full rear end kit or the dunlop load support kit to give your Ducato or ducato based motorhome full air suspension. Various managements are available. If you are unsure of the options please let us know and we will be happy to help.
 
Just had a look at Air rides website....bargain ...!!!!!

Ducato, Jumper, Relay, Boxer X250, X290, X295 Front Strut Kit | Dunlop
£3,050.00 £2,400.00 inc. VAT

These are custom-made kits for the Fiat Ducato in both leaf spring and AL-KO chassis variants. A perfect compliment to our load support or full air suspension kits. These are without doubt the best front struts for this vehicle on the market, and the price is for a pair of bare struts. Perfect on A class motorhomes and other very heavy vehicles. Far better ride, and handling and complete control of ride height. Ideally fitted in combination with either semi-air or full air on the rear and a computer controller.

These front struts are a direct, bolt-on replacement for the original struts. They each have a large air bag and are very simple to install. The strut is available on its own, with an optional armoured air hose. These are available with either an inflation Schrader valve kit or an air management system, meaning you can control your air suspension at the push of a button (see the ‘Options’ tab below).

This kit can be installed alone but would work best with an AirRide Custom full rear end kit or the dunlop load support kit to give your Ducato or ducato based motorhome full air suspension. Various managements are available. If you are unsure of the options please let us know and we will be happy to help.

King Springs £240 for a pair to my door from Australia so with rear air bags £250 I can do both vans for less than one front air strut .....rest of the front suspension parts would still have needed changing even if I did fit air struts due to wear and tear .....
Happy to spend money on shocks and kit ....My Toyota Landcruiser has very trick shocks and springs ;-)
 
Another option possibly, looks like spacers effectively.
vancompass dot com/products/ram-promaster-1-5-leveling-kit

Or front and rear
wildernessvans dot com/product/ohv-promaster-3-5-lift-kit
 
Spacers will give a lift but you still run out of spring travel .....so it bottoms out on the bump stop on rough roads or even hitting dips in the tarmac at speed although it's sitting back to original ride height.
The Kilen springs sound like they give more useable travel ..... certainly the King Springs have done this and even with the van loaded with tools etc and the addition of 220litres of oil and filters for a service and half a JCB transmision it still rode well and no bottoming .....
Need to check front axle weights on both vans when loaded and ready to roll as the Camper is LWB and may not load the front axle so much as the water tanks etc are mid mounted .....
 
The query was about ride height and ground clearance though and not issues with bottoming out.
Hard to imagine the stroke of the king springs is much longer, especially if they work with the OEM shocks.
 
Effectively the King Springs have a longer stroke because they are a higher spring rate and wound differently and about 40mm longer uncompressed than the stock or even Maxi springs that were already compressed by 2/3s with the extra weight I carry .....Spacers would indeed raise it but not increase the available travel before hitting the bump stops.
On a lightly loaded van spacers would be the answer and I've seen some pretty nice machined alloy ones so you are right but for my application only answer was heavier rate springs to push the front struts back out further under load
 
Thank you for the information Newholland Tech. I've also been looking at getting more ground clearance on my van and glad to find a good review of the Kings springs, I will order shortly!
With regards your tyre question I have also struggled to find load rated a/t tyres that will fit on a 15" rim without being 285mm wide ?. I've opted to swap to 16" rims using Renault traffic wheels that share the 5x118 bolt pattern. Planning to fit 245x75x16 general grabbers on, the additional tyre width should be taken out by a smaller negative offset on the Renault wheels. Will report back when it is all fitted!
 
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