Does your European caravan appear to sit very low down, close to the road, with very little clearance?
The problem
Over time, the rubber suspension insets in the axle have become squashed and no longer rebound. This will harm the whole caravan's interior and outer structure as it will be subjected to the road's impact forces.
The effects of this problem
When the wheels hit potholes and indentations in the road, the suspension no longer absorbs the impact very well; those forces are transmitted through the structure and fabric of the caravan interior.
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If you carry on towing your caravan regardless, you will almost certainly cause more damage, and you will be surprised at what happens. The bulkheads and cupboards will become unattached from the walls, and the floor-to-ceiling bulkheads will start pushing through the roof, causing water ingress. We have even seen the chassis rails crack, breaking everything inside.
The solution
At Vantage RV we can rebuild the axle on the vehicle, no need to remove the axle and send it away to be rebuilt. However we can go one step further and fit additional springs to the axle.
Spring Upgrade
We can do more than rebuild the axle. We can add springs to your suspension so the caravan will ride a little higher and absorb the road shock. No longer relying on just the axle rubbers to do all the work, the springs will assist in protecting your caravan from our rough NZ roads.
Adding additional spring suspension will improve the vehicle's ride. This will extend the life of the new axle rubbers and give a much smoother ride, as the road vibrations will be taken up by the combined resistance of the springs and the rubber, as opposed to just the rubbers in the original design.
Can we carry more weight after the spring upgrade?
The spring upgrade was never designed to increase the payload.
The original chassis remains unchanged; the chassis was designed for the payload specified on the manufacturer's vehicle plates.
However, the springs will take the pressure off the axle rubbers, absorbing road impact forces much more efficiently than the rubbers alone. The spring upgrade should load about half the weight of the caravan on the springs, meaning road impact is absorbed by the spring and the rubbers combined, so, in theory, the suspension may be capable of dealing with more weight. However, the chassis remains unchanged and can only carry the original payload.
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