That would be great, thanks
I know, I was surprised too. His van was even on Devonports like mine too, so was comparing apples with apples. I've got about 15mm left above the bottom too!
Big budget upgrades
- Thread starter andys
- Start date
I know, I was surprised too. His van was even on Devonports like mine too, so was comparing apples with apples. I've got about 15mm left above the bottom too!
That would be great, thanks
I know, I was surprised too. His van was even on Devonports like mine too, so was comparing apples with apples. I've got about 15mm left above the bottom too!
Ok, I'll try and have a proper measure tomorrow. I guess the critical thing, to compare like with like, is whether both you, and he, both had factory circumference tyres (I do as I have 235/55/17). This wouldn't matter I guess if you were measuring wheel centre to arch, but obviously does if you're measuring ground to arch.
See that's the thing, it doesn't matter if you're measuring from wheelarch to ground unless you change the rolling radius, any change in height of the suspension will directly affect the max height of the van. He was on the same size tyres as you and so am I.
Ok, so I've done some measuring. It must be said that the van was on our driveway which is block paving and not perfectly level so not an ideal surface for precise measurements. Having said that, I measured the same wheel (rear nearside) each time, so I believe the measurements relative to each other are fairly accurate even if the absolute numbers may not be directly comparable to other people's measurements!
This was done on an LWB T6 with VB air suspension on 235/55/17 tyres set at 48psi all round. The pop top is a Reimo Easyfit, i.e. definitely not a slimline one! All measurements in mm.
Firstly some general measurements to allow conversion to other measurements of interest, e.g. total van height, etc.
Ground to wheel centre: 325
Total wheel height: 665 (more than 2x measurement above due to tyre compression)
Top wheel arch to top of van: 1240 (add this number to the numbers below to get total van height, slightly rough due to curvature of van roof, etc)
And now the measurements from ground to top of wheel arch for each VB setting:
Car park crawler: 670 (Low speed crawler mode only)
Sport: 730
Normal: 750
Off-road: 785 (Low speed mode only)
I hope this is useful. I guess the numbers are reasonably comparable with the ones you quoted above. The main difference is that the car park crawler mode is rather lower - I really can't imagine the car park crawler mode on ours going much lower without serious rubbing issues! We can definitely get under 2m barriers in ours, and that's with a pretty chunky pop top.
The lowest driving height (sport) is almost certainly still a fair bit higher than your current driving height though, which I think is your main issue.
This was done on an LWB T6 with VB air suspension on 235/55/17 tyres set at 48psi all round. The pop top is a Reimo Easyfit, i.e. definitely not a slimline one! All measurements in mm.
Firstly some general measurements to allow conversion to other measurements of interest, e.g. total van height, etc.
Ground to wheel centre: 325
Total wheel height: 665 (more than 2x measurement above due to tyre compression)
Top wheel arch to top of van: 1240 (add this number to the numbers below to get total van height, slightly rough due to curvature of van roof, etc)
And now the measurements from ground to top of wheel arch for each VB setting:
Car park crawler: 670 (Low speed crawler mode only)
Sport: 730
Normal: 750
Off-road: 785 (Low speed mode only)
I hope this is useful. I guess the numbers are reasonably comparable with the ones you quoted above. The main difference is that the car park crawler mode is rather lower - I really can't imagine the car park crawler mode on ours going much lower without serious rubbing issues! We can definitely get under 2m barriers in ours, and that's with a pretty chunky pop top.
The lowest driving height (sport) is almost certainly still a fair bit higher than your current driving height though, which I think is your main issue.
Thanks very much for going to the trouble of doing that, really helpful!
Interestingly, your total height in Sport mode would be exactly the same as mine at 1.97m. Mine is a Westfalia roof (actually supplied by Reimo) but the awning is just fractionally higher than the roof (about 12mm but difficult to measure because of the curve) so thats the point I've measured from. I'm now considering putting AT tyres on and jacking it up to the top. I think it will still fit in the garage and I may not like the way it drives like this, but as I was going to get the tyres anyway it will cost me nothing to try.
Puts my plans for a roofrack out the window though but I think even the lowest air suspension wouldn't leave me room to get in the garage with that on.
