Improving Ride Quality and Handling for Campervan

[banbury]

Improving Ride Quality and Handling for Campervan

Hi Everyone,

I’m looking to improve the ride quality and handling of our campervan, which feels “crashy” and tends to sway on corners, especially when loaded. Despite driving gently, I am no boy racer (), I’ve noticed these issues.

Based on forum posts, I understand that semi-air suspension and different tyres could help. I’m considering VB air bags for the rear suspension and replacing the Michelin Agilis Camping tyres with Michelin CrossClimate or Continental VanContact tyres for improved ride quality, and better traction, especially on wet or boggy grass.

Do these upgrades sound like a sensible approach to solving the issues?
Note: Considering S&J Leisure or Motabars for the VB air bag fitting.

Any advice or feedback would be greatly appreciated.
ps. Campervan = Fiat Ducato (2024MY) Chausson Sport Line

 

[Carpmart]

Fit a set of Marquart shock absorbers. You order from Germany and they do ask 1001 questions but you end up with correctly valved shocks which are genuinely transformative to handling… well they are on mine anyway!

 

[Jev88]

Cheapest is getting good tyres AND best pressure.
If it was an old van I would then say change shocks but that's unlikely to be an issue on your almost new van.
Plenty of others can comment about air suspension and the benefits, one of which is reduced away from wind and HGV passing.

 

[Mark1965]

You wont go wrong with VB air Supension, see my reply to a question on Air Suspension from another Member.

 

[Guigsy]

First I'd look at tyres. If you have camper tyres, definitely change them first for van tyres and fill to the pressure for your axle weights. They'll improve comfort by quite a bit.

I went full hog with my current a-class and fitted VB Full Air. The improvement is good. But probably similar in magnitude to switching out Agilis Camper tyres.

My van is still quite loud and crashy. But having been a passenger in a Skoda SUV, I've realised that my van's ride is actually pretty compliant and comfortable compared to the extremely firm Skoda. The difference is the Skoda initially feels better because it's not shuddering the body shell on every road joint. Whereas my van is effectively a flexing plastic box. With a drop down bed above that also makes a fair racket. So I'm my van, I don't think I'm going to get it much quieter with suspension mods.

I had semi air on my previous van. It made a difference on the big hits, like unavoidable craterous potholes. And it did help a bit with handling. But I didn't find it did much for general comfort and noise.

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[Lenny HB]

Change the tyres first for van tyres see how you get on, the next best option is full air suspension.
I've just fitted semi air to the rear of our van to upgrade the axle weight it didn't make any difference to the ride quality.

 

[Carpmart]

How will tyres help the OP with body control and cross wind stability?

The answer to your issue is in post #2…

 

[raysalaugh]

If you change the tyres then the next question might be how to reset the tyre pressure monitoring system.

 

[Solly24]

I followed LennyB’s advice and changed the Michelin Agilis tyres on my new X550 for Toyo Observe van tyres, his recommendation was spot on, the ride comfort improved significantly.

(Thanks Lenny )

 

[Just smiffy]

What’s your current tyre pressures…?

I have air bags on the back and I got rid of the continentals as they were hard, I’ve now got Maxxis all season vansmart tyres and its like night and day….

60psi fronts 65 rear loaded and I drop 5psi on all 4 for unloaded…

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[banbury]

What’s your current tyre pressures…?

I have air bags on the back and I got rid of the continentals as they were hard, I’ve now got Maxxis all season vansmart tyres and its like night and day….

60psi fronts 65 rear loaded and I drop 5psi on all 4 for unloaded…

Thank you for all your feedback, and apologies for the delay in responding—We have just returned from a weekend in London to see the ABBA Voyage concert.

I’ve checked the cold tyre pressures on our Fiat Ducato (2024MY) Chausson Sport Line V597 using a digital gauge. Here are the results:

• OSF: 57 PSI
• NSF: 58 PSI
• OSR: 56.5 PSI
• NSR: 57.5 PSI

 

[Just smiffy]

Thank you for all your feedback, and apologies for the delay in responding—We have just returned from a weekend in London to see the ABBA Voyage concert.

I’ve checked the cold tyre pressures on our Fiat Ducato (2024MY) Chausson Sport Line V597 using a digital gauge. Here are the results:

• OSF: 57 PSI
• NSF: 58 PSI
• OSR: 56.5 PSI
• NSR: 57.5 PSI

Not high then, as others have said consider a tyre change, lots of people have changed from Michelin/continental to falkens Toyo and maxxis… in my case it really has made such a difference ..

 

[Shipps]

Had VB Semi Air and Kilen springs on the front fitted to our Ducato Panel conversion on Friday by SAP. Not driven much since but the drive back felt better over the crap road surface and didn't wallow in the corners. Doesn't stop rattles but felt smoother coming up the A19

 

[Coolcats]

This is how to do it.

 

[Guigsy]

Had VB Semi Air and Kilen springs on the front fitted to our Ducato Panel conversion on Friday by SAP. Not driven much since but the drive back felt better over the crap road surface and didn't wallow in the corners. Doesn't stop rattles but felt smoother coming up the A19

Yes. This is an important point. Actual ride comfort can improve, but your perception might not change that much because your cutlery is still rattling. Equally a really well screwed together Volkswagen might be very quiet inside, but still have brutally stiff suspension.

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[activecampers]

Remember the OEM suspension, when loaded, will be touching or near the hard rubber "suspension helpers" - aka bump stops - so is always going to bang hard. Thats where even cheap airbags help as it removes the solid mass and has the air assist that (a) raises the height a bit before movement, and (b) allows more compression before bumping.

I'd do this before adjusting the shocks which would not adjust ride height or reduce the gap to the bump stop

(note I know its not a bump stop, but lots call it that).

On MY24 you should be able to remove the bump stop easilly and get bags fitted easily - its only on older vans where the captive nut rusts you get a world of pain.

(ours has no rattles, squeaks or bangs whether empty or fully loaded - its like the back is not there /pats pedantic self build

 

[AJM2]

Type in ‘Falken Euroall’ into the search engine here (sorry I don’t know how to post the link) and you’ll see that many people rate the Falken tyres for improving ride quality. I’ve just replaced my tyres with those and noticed a real difference in my first trip with them. My previous tyres were really crashy when hitting ridges on the road and these have definitely made that more comfortable