Air suspension - anyone in Surrey got it?

[Deleted member 82723]

Hi all, I've just joined the group, but wanted to ask opinions and also see if any UK camper owners might be able to help.

My wife has a spinal condition which means she's in chronic pain, and so sitting up and travelling any distance by car is extremely painful for her. This makes holiday options limited, as any significant journey isn't possible. So we're looking at a campervan/motorhome as an option because it would mean she can lie down flat on a mattress while we travel (I've checked with the UK Gov and that's legal, with some caveats).

We're considering potentially getting a 'stealth' LWB Sprinter conversion, with a shower and toilet, either used or built to our own spec. However, after trying an Aria Twin and feeling the crashy ride quality, it's clear that we'd need to upgrade any campervan we own to have ambulance-spec air suspension to give the absolute smoothest ride possible (I've spoken to https://Airride.co.uk) and https://www.vbairsuspension.com/en/ to get more details on this). We currently have an A6 Allroad and the air-suspension ride in that is pretty good, so we think an air-fitted camper would work. The hardest thing, though, is finding somebody with VB full air, or similar, fitted to a van, that I could blag a 10-min ride in to see if it's going to be smooth enough.

So is there anyone in the home counties that has a motorhome or camper with full air, that wouldn't mind taking me for a spin sometime, just to feel the ride quality?

I've had a look on Camptoo and Camplify to see if there's one we can hire as a trial, but can't find anyone who's had full-air fitted.... There is a Burstner Elegance with full air for sale (Broken Link Removed) on Autotrader, but it's around 250-300 miles from us so is a bit impractical - and probably not the sort of vehicle we're looking for. Still tempting though.

If you've got any other/better ideas of how/where I could try, that would be awesome.

 

[Jim]

Sorry to read about your wife's pain. Air ride does help, but essentially it's still a fully loaded delivery van, so on anything but the smoothest roads its going to be a little bumpier than a saloon car suspension.

 

[Lenny HB]

We have full air on our van a big improvement but still a hard ride also getting rid of camping tyres and fitting ordinary commercial tyres makes a big difference.

As you are looking at Sprinters you can only get full air on the later front wheel drive ones. Rear wheel drive ones can only have air on the rear.

The ride is relative to what you are used to, my mate reckons his Carthago has a good ride (I don't), I've been in his sporty BMW I thought that was a bone shaker hence he thinks is van is a good ride.

 

[Speve]

We have goldschmitt full air on our B678DL and I don’t think it would be a soft enough ride in your situation without running the tyres at very low pressures

 

[Deleted member 82723]

As you are looking at Sprinters you can only get full air on the later front wheel drive ones. Rear wheel drive ones can only have air on the rear.

Interesting, I didn't know this. Do you happen to know which MY it starts at (I guess I can also speak to VB etc as they're bound to know).

As you say, the ride is all relative, but I'm hoping with air, the right tyres, and a decent mattress it should be comfy enough for my wife!

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[ChrisL]

If she is to travel laying down, have you considered using an air mattress for her, I would think this would take a lot of the jarring out of the ride, I have spent months sleeping on an air bed and found them extremely comfortable.

 

[Blue Knight]

Sorry to read about your wife's pain. Air ride does help, but essentially it's still a fully loaded delivery van, so on anything but the smoothest roads its going to be a little bumpier than a saloon car suspension.

Yep, exactly that.

Our Fiat-Globecar has rear VB air suspension and on smooth roads the ride is perfect.

.....but on normal roads, country roads and those with dodgy surfaces then you feel every bang, crack and thud going.

 

[Deleted member 82723]

Yes, we'll probably look at air mattresses and memory-foam ones, to get the best cushioning possible.

And for the air suspension we're talking about the full 'ambulance-spec' air suspension, not just the self-levelling kit.

 

[Lenny HB]

I think it was about 2017, I've only seen CB's & A Class on the FWD no PVC's

 

[Guigsy]

Ducato based vehicles aren't renowned for having a particularly refined ride quality. But Fiat make it easy and cheap to turn them for motorhomes, so it's a common base for many models. And the bit of body width also makes them more common as campervans too. The suspension is pretty basic and firm and tends to be pretty crashy. But they actually handle reasonably well considering. Lots of stuff shakes and they are noisy, but the ride isn't terrible.

Sprinter based vehicles have softer suspension and the ride quality is a bit higher. They've paid more attention to fixtures and fittings, so they tend to be quieter inside. You pay a premium for Merc based stuff.

But as others have pointed out, a van isn't going to give you the ride quality of a large executive car, even if you spend ~£6-10k on full air suspension. Ride comfort was just too low down the list of priorities when they designed the base vehicle. Big, open load areas are practical for carrying stuff, but they flex and shudder on bumps.

I guess the question is, will the ride quality of a van with air ride be high enough to be acceptable?

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[Fulham Dave]

We had VB full air fitted in May by SAP in Doncaster and have air seats.

We used to live in Surrey but are now full timing.

We are currently in France but will be returning at the end of October and will be in Surrey. If you have not sorted a test ride before then, please drop me a message and will willingly take you / your wife for a test drive.

 

[Guigsy]

Would an air ride seat help?

 

[ChrisL]

SAP at Doncaster have the contract for fitting air suspension to Ambulances for the Yorkshire ambulance service I believe, I saw several being worked on when I was their.