BillandHelen
LIFE MEMBER
Sorry, bit of a long story. We had our Elara based on RWD Mercedes panel van in to Mick this week to get the full VB air suspension fitted to the rear, unfortunately Mercedes don’t allow change to the front suspension. It had been measured up when we had it in for the EP levellers and Mick had mentioned that everything was a bit tight underneath, there is a rear wheel on a carrier, the 40 litre gas tank and the levellers. We had waited 3 months for the kit to arrive from Germany due to supply chain issues, but I dropped the van off on Monday and caught the train to London to go to work.
On Wednesday I got a call from Mick at 8am, so knew it wasn’t going to be good news. VB had changed the Mercedes kit, especially the chassis mounts, and there wasn’t enough room for the VB, the spare wheel and the gas tank. What did we want to do? Options were to remove the spare wheel and carrier, fill the tyres with puncture proof gunk and carry a tyre? Or swap our 40 litre gas tank for a smaller one? Or put a rear wheel carrier on the rear doors? Mick knew I didn’t really fancy any of the options so he told me to think it over for a couple of hours and he would try and work out a solution, he has never been defeated yet!
So, called back, resigned to loosing my spare wheel. However Mick had come up with a solution. They would re- engineer my spare wheel carrier, fabricate new mounts for it, move the gas tank ( which involved fixing an installation error by Wildax), fit new piping, regulator, mounting brackets (which they made) and that would leave just enough space!
Picked it up today, everything is fabulous, the guys who did the work said they enjoyed the challenge but please not everyday! Mick charged me a very reasonable sum for the extra work, don’t think it covered his own sweat and tears on working out a solution.
Oh, and the VB suspension is superb, smooth ride, less movement on motorway, completely level despite the rear heavy nature of the Elara, so now I can get on with getting it replated.
So, moral of my story, when you go to get VB or Ep fitted, go to an Engineer not a fitter to do it, anywhere else I’d have been told it didn’t fit or it was my problem, Top Man Mick!!
On Wednesday I got a call from Mick at 8am, so knew it wasn’t going to be good news. VB had changed the Mercedes kit, especially the chassis mounts, and there wasn’t enough room for the VB, the spare wheel and the gas tank. What did we want to do? Options were to remove the spare wheel and carrier, fill the tyres with puncture proof gunk and carry a tyre? Or swap our 40 litre gas tank for a smaller one? Or put a rear wheel carrier on the rear doors? Mick knew I didn’t really fancy any of the options so he told me to think it over for a couple of hours and he would try and work out a solution, he has never been defeated yet!
So, called back, resigned to loosing my spare wheel. However Mick had come up with a solution. They would re- engineer my spare wheel carrier, fabricate new mounts for it, move the gas tank ( which involved fixing an installation error by Wildax), fit new piping, regulator, mounting brackets (which they made) and that would leave just enough space!
Picked it up today, everything is fabulous, the guys who did the work said they enjoyed the challenge but please not everyday! Mick charged me a very reasonable sum for the extra work, don’t think it covered his own sweat and tears on working out a solution.
Oh, and the VB suspension is superb, smooth ride, less movement on motorway, completely level despite the rear heavy nature of the Elara, so now I can get on with getting it replated.
So, moral of my story, when you go to get VB or Ep fitted, go to an Engineer not a fitter to do it, anywhere else I’d have been told it didn’t fit or it was my problem, Top Man Mick!!
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