Raising Caravan Height

Yeah ive been told that before,i guess it would give that couple of inches i am looking for,Just need to decide if its safe i guess.

Ok i wonder if i could put a spacer in there when we get to warra just to get us over the rough stuff.Look im not a scaredy cat ,just want to minimise the risk of damage.

Matthew C,

What Notso has said above is quite true, we actually had that done to our Roma van. We used to have a Ford Sedan as tow vehicle, however when we bought our first Crusier (which had a lift kit) we had to do something as the van was too low. Took it to the Caravan Yard we purchased van from and approx $150.00 we had the springs changed and the van was of similar height to the Cruiser. Towing was not a problem, safe, the only thing we needed was a extra step for me to be able to step onto the Caravan step. We did go on a few dirt roads but nothing out of the ordinary.

Cheers
Debbie

Debbie

thanks for that,so did they change the springs or did they swap them from top to bottom of the axle.

Matt

Hi Matthew,

As suggested above talk to some of the trailer spare parts company's, there are a number of them around Perth.

Cheers,
Jerry.

Hi Matthew,

They just swapped them over, there fore we only paid for labour. But please for safety sake check views of a few different Caravan outlets before you attempt to do a DIY job if thats the way your thinking. Our local caravan dealer did tell us how to do the job ourselves, but Murphy was hanging over my head and told me to leave it to the experts. Besides for such a small amount it was much easier for them to do all the work LOL

Cheers
Debbie

Yeah i might give TRAILER PARTS a call during the week ands see what the deal is ey!!!!!

Sounds like a plan.

MAtt

That may be what has happened here because the people i got mine off had a commodore sedan towing it and ive got a 4WD obvioulsy so that may well fix it hey.!!!

Matt

When i bought our olympic 16ft. poptop asked the engineers if they would change the axel to under the springs they did the job for me and informed me that it would not affect my warrant I have had the van for 10 years now and it has been around Aus. and with plenty off rough roads and never had any problems

Some axles are offset { Hub axle is welded to the top or bottom of the long axle if you know what I mean} If that is the case it may simply be a matter of turning the axle 180 degrees. You may have to re weld the plate on the other side to positively locate the spring. This would give a lift of up to 3 inches in the old money. Locating the axle under the spring lifts it about 5 inches depending on the thickness of the spring. It is a common conversion and avoids banging the back of the van on speed humps and servo driveways. That is not always good for the stabilizer jacks. A lot of van parks now have curbing at the site and its always handy to have a bit of clearance. It does not stop the rear of the van banging on the road at low tide on Wisemans Ferry Ramps. If you do the job yourself make certain you lift the van up high and chock it up very stable. Dropping it may hasten your retirement plans. Dont use the stabiliser jacks to hold it up with no axle underneath. If you lift it too high you may need to locate the tow coupling on the underside of the chassis. I dont know about the legal position as Nav 8 says but lots of people have done it including me and a couple of mates. Best of luck.

Nan8

All truck axles are under the springs.

PeterD

Jayco in Adelaide will undersling the axle before you buy their vans

Matthew
Delete my first para, was interrupted and lost my train of thought. Its old age I guess.

Peter.

Peter

There is no camber on an overlay axle. I had one reset by a truck aligner as it was wearing out the inside of the tyre. He reset it bolt upright. When he checked the other axle there was no camber on it either. On my current van I had the overlay axle turned over and suffered no adverse tyre wear.

PeterD

Steve
about 3 years ago I wanted to raise the van 4 inches, looked at putting the springs ontop of the axle, looked at an additional 4 inch steel tube going from infront of the wheels to the back of the van, and because I had seen a rig with the axle rotated 180 deg looked at this alternative as well.

I was told by a caravan repairer that the rotation was not an option for me, I cannot recally why ie whether the wheels have a slight toe in (our van is a tandem) or the top of the wheels side to side are closer than the bottom (camber?) anyway I had the 4 inch steel tube welded on $1200, and it did the job giving the chassis extra strength. Also had to go to the adjustable Hayman Reece set up to match up with the cruiser towbar.

Re camber: About 15 years ago had a single axle, independent 17ft van, the suspension sagged which altered the camber and the inside edge of the van tyres wore out quickly.

Peter

See my FollowUp in Reply 8

PeterD

Nothing will alter, the "U" bolts will be the same and forget about changing the springs as this will mean welding a bracket on to the van to use shackles and they are more trouble than they are worth.

The Slipper spring has more control and less moving parts.

I have done this many times and also taken out the set up that Crackles is referring to and donated them to the tip.

If you are out in the middle of nowhere, the less bits you need the better.

To save you disconnecting any brake connections do one side at a time.
Put the van on stands and remove the wheel, undo the "U" bolts then undo the front bolt holding the spring in place.

Slide the spring out from under the axle and put it above the axel and fit it back in place, put the front bolt back in then change the centre bolt around

Do the same to the other side then lift the axel under the spring and align the hole up in the plate that is welded on to the axel with the centre bolt, put the plate that hold the "U" bolts on top of the spring and fit the "U" blots and spring washers and nuts, do them up and all it done.

If you do have an annexe and now the walls are to short, easy just dig a hole 50mm deep and let the caravan wheels into them and your annexe will be the right height.

gxl 80 , please explain how in any shape or form a slipper spring has more control than an eye to eye spring , cause that statement is just total crapola , the 1 and only reason any trailer/cvan maker uses a slipper spring set up is the cost $ saving.

My suggestion of eye to eye replacement springs is to improve the trailer ride over rough roads which in turn makes them far more reliable & less likely to damage items inside the van as well. Have seen & heard of many slipper spring failures offroad hence the advice. It's the most expensive of the options but by far the best other than a coil & shocker combination which the chassis of the van would not be built to support anyway.
As for modification of the bearing plate it's what I had to do when I inverted my trailer axle. Of course each trailer can be a little different depending on if it's a round or square axle etc.
As for your instructions on swapping the axle to the bottom it's a little simplified as most axles have tags welded on them to locate the spring. When flipped over the tags are on the wrong side. You could roll the axle 180 degees but then the brakes are back to front so then you'd need to flip the axle left to right. More complicated again for step axles which would need the tags cut off & welded on the other side. As I said not quite a simple as it seems.
Can just imagine selling a van with an anexe that doesn't reach the ground.........."Yeah mate just dig a couple of holes for the tyres". I'm sure caravan parks would be happy with that :-))
Cheers Craig..............