# Anyone fitted uprated Alko Shock Absorbers or similar?



## Snunkie (Mar 21, 2011)

Following on from various other threads that I've posted in the past few days about weight and how low our Burstner Argos 747 sits, we're now wondering if this can be helped by replacing the shock absorbers with some heavy duty ones. Although we have no idea if the ones on it are heavy duty already. It's on an AlKO chassis.

The problem is (in case you haven't been bored to death by my other threads) that there were 3 very large extra water tanks fitted by the previous owner, which probably held around 400kgs worth of extra water. We have never used them but the previous owner did and we and others who have kindly been helping us on here reckon he could have put it about a ton overweight with all the other equipment in addition to these full water tanks and that in turn may have damaged the suspension\shock absorbers (not entirely sure what I'm talking about here so bear with me caller lol) hence the van sitting so ridiculously low.

Can anyone please advise us on whether we can upgrade to something more substantial? We will look at getting the vehicle uprated this year too. 

Hubby is more than capable of fitting them himself, just need to know a bit more about what to purchase.

Thanks in advance, all help very much appreciated as usual!


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## davesport (Nov 12, 2006)

If your van's sitting too low it's not the shock absorbers that are to blame. The shock absorbers are there simply to damp the movement of the vehicles suspension through its travel. Unless the damper units are known to be defective, leaking or have lost all their oil you need to look elsewhere. 

I'm no specialist in this field but it sounds to me like the torsion springs in your rear axle/s have lost a bit of their spring or as a worse case some of the springs have snapped. ISTR there are three springs per axle per side. It's these torsion springs that support the dead weight of the vehicle. If the previous owner has been using the vehicle in a grossly overloaded state I could see how this would happen. It also begs the question of any maintenance that may or may not have been carried out. The majority of AlKo axles need regular (annual) greasing. The consequence of not doing this maintenance has been well documented on these pages. The torsion springs end up snapping & the axles usually end up needing full replacement. It's not cheap !!! Have a look through the archives for more information on the above.

Uprating the maximum load your vehicle is capable of carrying is not a solution to your low ride height. Doing this will simply compound the situation you are in. IMO you need to get to the bottom of why your van's sitting so low, get that addressed & then ask yourself a few searching questions about why your van is so close to its maximum weight without any of the essentials for travelling....people for instance !

I hate to be blunt about this but it sounds to me like you need to engage the help of someone with the expertise to help. If the rear suspension has been damaged it's going to need diagnosing & rectification. My first port of call would be to contact AlKo & find the nearest specialist that can help you. Using the van in its present state may cause the rear suspension to collapse completely. 

Sorry for the gloomy nature of my reply but I can't think of a positive spin to put on this.

Good luck, Dave.


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## Snunkie (Mar 21, 2011)

Thanks for that davesport

Ive been reading through all the alko chassis threads as they've been put on. The van drives beautifully, we've had no snapping noises or anything that's alarmed us. 
We've greased the chassis but have no idea if its been done prior to us owning it. However the previous owner had it serviced yearly and we have the receipts. No mention if the chassis having been greased.

Wouldn't we feel or notice something if the springs had snapped? Other than it sitting low of course?


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## philoaks (Sep 2, 2008)

I'm no expert on the Alko chassis but as Davesport says, changing the shock absorbers will not affect the ride height.

I would guess that you have 2 options. Firstly get an Alko chassis specialist to repair/replace the existing torsion suspension to return the vehicle to the correct ride height.

A second option, which may be cheaper, would be to firstly get the Alko suspension checked out to work out whether it is damaged in some way or just "tired". If it is just tired then you could look into fitting air assist suspension such as this air suspension

I don't think either option will be cheap but by the sound of it something needs to be done as you are always going to be close to the weight limit and tyres rubbing against wheel arches isn't good.


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## Snunkie (Mar 21, 2011)

Thank you both. That at least tells me that I was barking up the wrong tree. 

We'll find our nearest Alko chassis expert and get their advice on the torsion bars. I just hope they are just 'tired' and not 'retired'!


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## 91502 (May 1, 2005)

Have you got the measurements from somebody with a similar spec MH of the same model and year?
I am sure there must be someone on here that has one who would pop out with a tape measure.
Some MH do sit low, we had a Hymer tag axel that did and it may just be that they are built with a nearly overweight back end, reinforced garage ,double bed and bathroom in our case.
It's worth a try to see if this is the norm before you open your purse to gett it checked.

James


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## philoaks (Sep 2, 2008)

JP said:


> Have you got the measurements from somebody with a similar spec MH of the same model and year?
> I am sure there must be someone on here that has one who would pop out with a tape measure.
> Some MH do sit low, we had a Hymer tag axel that did and it may just be that they are built with a nearly overweight back end, reinforced garage ,double bed and bathroom in our case.
> It's worth a try to see if this is the norm before you open your purse to gett it checked.
> ...


I think one of Lucy's earlier posts has already indicated that there is something not right with the ride height of this van



Snunkie said:


> We also (well hubby did) discovered today what we think was the source of the burning tyre smell that we have smelt on occasions, there is only a couple of inches clearance between the tyres and the top of the wheel arch and if we go over any sort of bump at speed then the wheels are hitting on the arches and have scored, cracked in one place even, the wheel arches.


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## carol (May 9, 2005)

Perhaps a photograph showing how low it is, - as JP says some do ride low.

Our Rapido was low in the front and hence unless we parked slightly on a rise always needed levellers there...

We also had a Hymer that was low on the rear end, but that was it natural stance...

Post some photographs and perhaps measure the distance from ground to bottom of chassis - and let others with the same vehicle give their distances too and you may find you have a vehicle that is just naturally low in the rear....

Carol


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## Snunkie (Mar 21, 2011)

Ok, have taken some pics, just gotta find out how to post pics 

Lowest part is 8" from ground if I remember rightly and that's the exhaust part at the front


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