I am thinking of fitting some Spring Assisters to help with the low ride height of my Vauxhall Vectra. With 3 people in the back, the towball rides so low the caravan pitches forward and it looks for all the world as if somebody is pushing down on the A-frame!
Has anyone had experience of these or even using them now? I would be grateful for some advice.
3 people, a boot with a holiday load and the noseweight of a van could actually have you overloaded, gross vehicle, axle or nose could all be over the limit if your cary is that badly pitched. Check your weights before heading the spring assister route.
Remember that nose weight on the hitch also counts towards gross vehicle and rear axle weights.
Just to elay peoples fear about overloading. I have been towing for a number of years and am always careful about weight distribution, noseweight is always spot on and I cary nothing in the boot and the caravan is loaded with the minimum we need.
To explain further, this is a company car which is due for change soon and the rear suspension is soggy,the lease company will not repair it as its too close to change,hence the spring assisters.We are off to spain in August and whilst I have had the car checked for safety( at a vuaxhall dealer) I still think it needs them. This is the reason I am considering using them.
Hi Gary, another reason to use spring assisters is if like mine certain cars bottom out when going over potholes, bumps and sleeping policemen.
Another is that on estate cars especially the overhang from the rear axle is longer than on a saloon so as to fit in a boot space.
I paid somewhere in the region of £15 for mine from Towsure's and it's just a matter of jacking up the rear to extend the springs and slotting the assisters into the coil of the spring. Just make sure you measure properly and get the right size for your springs. They made 100% difference whilst towing the van and no difference going solo.
There's a variety of things on the market to assist sagging suspension and if you're losing the car in the near future you won't want to overpay so something cheap like spring assisters is ideal.
I will say that that with any car that has a wallowing rear end it's worth every penny to sort out because the effect on towing and stability is tremendous.
I have looked at this website www.springassisters.co.uk
and have found possibly what I am looking for.I am not sure when the car will be changed but I cant chance leaving it before we go.
Yes i fitted some grayston spring assistors to my volvo which sat low, it has straightned out the ride now hitched up, but they make a daft noise, might put some grease on em to stop it. Cant really feel a difference with em on either. had to take the shocks off to fit them though, other than that very happy.
The spring assistors you are on about do a very basic job and do it well
what they do is block 1 full coil of your spring and stop it working but give that extra ride height and stiffen the suspension system up
if you are keeping the car for a long time (which your not ) it might be worth considering the other ones on the market
type 1 Is a smaller diameter spring that fits in the centre of the main spring and gives the extra ride height when fully loaded with your caravan on
type2 is an air bag system that also fits inside the main spring you just feed them in and inflate them till you get the ride you want this is an adjustable system but you have to jack the car up to adjust the system
Mart the daft noise you are getting is the assistors rubbing in the wheel arches you need the check where its rubbing and adjust the assiistors or the wheel arches
there are web sites with these on I will try to find the links
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I have been thinking about these myself. Having changed the rear springs on my car, it still looks low on the back end and when the caravan is hitched up, it does sometimes rub the ground over sleeping policemen. Even solo, when parked next to another car of the same model it looks low. I do have a gas tank in the boot, but I wouldn't expect it to make this much difference. As I said I have fitted new road springs, expecting they had gone weak, but it made only a marginal improvement. Are these spring assistors legal? I had my doubts as to whether they might cause problems when solo and whether they might cause it to fail an MoT. Do they count as a modification as regards insurance? Lowering the suspension does, so I would think these would too. That would make a big difference to the premium if you tell the insurance company the ride height has been increased as they would be thinking you were going off road with it.
I had some full spring assisters on my Picasso and it passed an MOT with them fitted. Removed them just befor I sold it - going to put them on ebay to try and recoup a bit of what I paid for them.
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Topic: Spring Assisters
