Van ride awful. Will swamping help?

[Vinci]

Admittedly the quality of roads in North East Somerset is shocking, and my van is a van with original van tyres, but the noisy ride and rattling SCA roof means that sometimes people can’t hear me on the hands free phone. Will swamping it with new shocks, smaller wheels and big doughnut tyres transfo

 

[Vinci]

Transform the ride? Sorry, big thumbs!

 

[BognorMotors]

Upgraded suspension whether swamper or lowering, with an upgraded spring and shock absorber will improve your ride no end over the standard suspension. Won’t help with the rattles and squeaks from your conversion though.

 

[Paynewright]

Carpeting the side and roof panels made a big difference in our window van.

 

[Vinci]

Carpeting the side and roof panels made a big difference in our window van.

The van has had a high quality conversion by Slidepods, who have checked the roof....but the roads in Devon are a lot better and cause less rattling!

 

[t0mb0]

I would be more worried about a rattling roof than the ride quality. No matter how rough the roads there just shouldn’t be anything around the roof that rattles? Which bit of it rattles?

 

[Vinci]

It sounds like hard surfaces hitting, but Jonny put a rubber gasket at the junction between roof and frame, so possibly something to do with the sliding hatch. But if the ride wasn’t so jarring, it might be better. Just investigating as all four tyres up for renewal soon.

 

[The Van Cave]

It sounds like hard surfaces hitting, but Jonny put a rubber gasket at the junction between roof and frame, so possibly something to do with the sliding hatch. But if the ride wasn’t so jarring, it might be better. Just investigating as all four tyres up for renewal soon.

I'm no expert on pop tops so I can't help there, but if you want to improve the ride in the van, then as Oli has already said a good quality set of after market shocks would help. You can raise the ride height, keep it the same or lower it, but my advice would be the same; upgrade the shocks. It won't get rid of all the rattles and squeaks, but good quality shocks will help reduce road noise compared to the standard suspension.