offroad conversion

I need to learn more about suspension, what are shackle springs and slippers, is this the difference between leaf or coils.

Thanks for your help. Im keen on the coils, Ive got them on my cruiser and as far as corrigations go they make a huge difference. Not sure if they will work aswell on the van. "Trailer Parts" sell a kit that they supply to several offroad camper manufacturers.
I took the fridge out and went for a test run before I start spending $.
The existing leafs hated corrigations the max comfy speed was 20kph ,m and they were small corri's. Any faster and I risk the frame and furniture getting hurt , not to mention fridges etc
On the sandy tracks (coastal scrub, small dunes) the van was fine, could sit on 45kph. Which is fine.
Its the corri's Im concerned about .Im no speed demon but I know I will be doing many kms of them over the 10 yrs or so.
What Im aiming at is 35kms over corri's. It means I can sit in 3rd gear. And is still slow enough to brake in time for the bigger obsticles.
Any advice ?

tom, even with coil sprung cars and trucks you can have a real problem if you break a shocker and your spring pops out. You will need to safeguard that by making sure the mounting is indestructable and the shocker not break either. Some leaf springs are made to counter the rebound from corrigatons, others aren't. Perhaps you could reduce the tyre pressures a bit too to take some of the shock over the corrigations.

www.tralerparts.net.au
the coil/trailing arm suspension system is called "GAFFA"

Thanks for your reply, how did the tank get the hole. Did it wear because of the vibrations or did a rock get it.?
Good tip on the hinges, i had checked the locks but not the hinges.
Where did the weld brake on the roll out beds, was it because the bed is bouncing up and down in the sliders ?
Any ideas on combating dust or is it a loosing battle?

Water tank was stone damaged. It had a metal barrier around it but tje sides were exposed, and somehow on the stony road from Wiitenoom to Roebourne, it suffered the fatal injury.

Must have been a life time of general bouncing that casued the break on the bed. Went to slide it out on night and it was broken.

I'm not sure what your van looks like to dustproof, but it would be an uphill battle to prevent all dust. Most of the dust came through the ceiling vent. With our Bushtracker, the previous owners had a square of 3" foam cut to size and this holds up in the vent to prevent any dust, as their is a ledge. Should work with the windup, as the top is pressing on the beds when folded, so it should stay in place. The cupboards also took a lot of dust. This could be sealed with a lot of silicon, or i thought of lining them with carpet underlay foam rubber type. This would also stop things sliding around. We hadn't discovered the not slip plastic matting then. Being single axle, things got tossed around on rough roads.

Dust also came through around the door. Being a flimsy door, i didn't have a solution here.

Everything else i thought of doing is on a list inside the van, which is sitting in son-in-laws panel & paint business as a long term/spare time project.

Hope this helps, and that the chassis and structure on your van can take the knocks.

Motherhen

Thanks, IM pricing checker plate now. Aluminium 1.6mm 1.8 x 2.4 = $100. Im not sure of the weight yet. Ill put it across the front, thanks for the tip.