rear leaf springs on symphony

This issue with springs brings back memories from my days at the roadside. We had the first of the Ducato and Talbot Exspres vans. We went through front tyres at an alarming rate. Most people went from Transits to these vans so the amount of kit they caried was putting the vans on there weight limit. The cure for this was have an extra leaf fitted to the rear springs by a local firm. I had a lot of Transits over the years and I always felt they were within limits all be it a harder ride. It might be worth you putting youre van on a weigh bridge fully loaded before some one with a white hat starts getting intrested. It would realy spoil youre day if you were over the limit.

I have just been talking to one of my mates that worked with me about the issue of rear springs. You will find the van diferent to drive with the ride hight at the back sorted. Not only will you get better life out of youre front tyres you will also find the handling at lot better because the steering geometry is set for a van with a level ride. My mate said he had an ocasion that he had to brake hard and he found the front brakes locked on a dry road. As for towing a trailer that was a nightmare because the trailer pushed the back down even farther. Just as a side line we had a 4 wheel drive Talbot in our area. That got stuck on grass at the side of the road. There was a lot of debate as to the reason for it being stuck most of it being aimed at the driver not the van for a change.

We did have air bag spring assisters fitted to the rear of the T4 vans. When the T4s came to us they had a recovery system that required the tow pin to be the corect hight or the recovery gear wouldnt self steer. That system was not a good idea and was eventualy taken out of the vans. A batch of T4,s were recaled for waranty work on the rear suspension but we didnt have any were as near as much of an issue as the Seval vans. My mate had silly amounts of gear in his T4 and just put more air in the rear suspension untill he was put on a weigh bridge. When I moved to a Renault recovery vehicle my instructor said he was pleased it wasnt an Iveco he couldnt aford the dentist bill because they were such a hard ride. Surley we dont want our house on wheels to shake youre fillings out or break the pots en route The start of this subject must not be forgotten. If you have soft rear springs due to there age the real cure is to start with curing the origional fault and then take things a step at a time if you feel it nessesary to uprate. Maybe me thinks this must be the subject well covered I had best let you get on with sorting youre springs.