[Cookie]

I had my Vauxhall Combo MOT'd this week - it failed on several things including the rear coil springs.

I've had the coil springs upgraded to heavy duty & what a difference it makes to the handling of the van with a full 350L tank... Wish I'd upgraded when I first purchased the van.

[Pete Thompson]

Good to hear. How much was the upgrade, if you don’t mind me asking?

[dazmond]

ive no idea if i have heavy duty springs on my connect but id hope they were with a 936kg payload.

[Cookie]

Good to hear. How much was the upgrade, if you don’t mind me asking?

£115 inc. VAT for the springs. This worked out roughly £40 more expensive than standard coil springs, which had to be replaced anyway so it was a no brainer for me. The payload, although technically higher with these springs, still officially remains 785kg.

The labour I think was around 1 to 2 hours. I don't know exactly since I had other work done on the van at the same time.

[Cookie]

ive no idea if i have heavy duty springs on my connect but id hope they were with a 936kg payload.

I would guess not, however they must be able to support 936kg in weight. Since you have a van on lease I'm guessing you won't have the option of upgrading the springs.

[rz]

ive no idea if i have heavy duty springs on my connect but id hope they were with a 936kg payload.

Connect on leaf springs not coil springs.
Without fail the best weight carrying van of this size.

[rosskesava]

I had my Vauxhall Combo MOT'd this week - it failed on several things including the rear coil springs.

I've had the coil springs upgraded to heavy duty & what a difference it makes to the handling of the van with a full 350L tank... Wish I'd upgraded when I first purchased the van.

I asked a garage about upgrading the rear springs on my connect when I first got the van and I'm sure the garage bloke said that doing that would affect the breaking as the depending on load there's something that adjusts the amount of brake force to the front and back brakes to take the loading into account on the front/rear axles.

If the springs are upgraded then that won't work properly and it'll fail an mot or something like that. Maybe it's the same for your van.

I may have remembered it wrong but at the time I remember there was a good reason given.

[EandM]

I had my Vauxhall Combo MOT'd this week - it failed on several things including the rear coil springs.

I've had the coil springs upgraded to heavy duty & what a difference it makes to the handling of the van with a full 350L tank... Wish I'd upgraded when I first purchased the van.

I asked a garage about upgrading the rear springs on my connect when I first got the van and I'm sure the garage bloke said that doing that would affect the breaking as the depending on load there's something that adjusts the amount of brake force to the front and back brakes to take the loading into account on the front/rear axles.

If the springs are upgraded then that won't work properly and it'll fail an mot or something like that. Maybe it's the same for your van.

I may have remembered it wrong but at the time I remember there was a good reason given.

Older trucks like my Ranger 2 have  Load Sensing Brake Bias Valves fitted. They can tell by the weight of the load how much braking effort to apply to the rear wheels.

The main issue here is that if the load is 0 kg and the braking effort applied is that which is required to stop the vehicle with  a 1,250 kg load then the rear wheels will instantly lock up and you'll merrily slide sideways down the road at a high rate of speed.

If you fit uprated springs then due to the lack of downward movement on the rear springs / rear ride height the load sensor is unable to determine how much weight is present and therefore unable to determine how much braking effort to apply.

I unwittingly uprated the rear springs on my Ranger when they needed replacing. I ordered a standard set from a Road Spring Company and then found they gave a much harder ride than before. Braking is unaffected however as there seems to be a certain amount of leeway in the sensing.

[Susan Dean (1stclean)]

what combo do you have ? as theres two different weight ones ? as ours does ok with a 650 in it sit alittle low but pulls well and stops well

[Slash]

what combo do you have ? as theres two different weight ones ? as ours does ok with a 650 in it sit alittle low but pulls well and stops well

650 in a combo ,that's outrageous

[Cookie]

what combo do you have ? as theres two different weight ones ? as ours does ok with a 650 in it sit alittle low but pulls well and stops well

I have an old model ex-BT Combo with a 785kg payload. From a water point of view I have a 350L tank & usually carry two 25L containers which I use to fill my backpack with (for doing the occasional backs of terraces). Although the engine is only a 1.3cdti it pulls this weight without problem.

[NWH]

I did  the same with my Transporter when it’s got 5-600ltrs in it the van is completely level no drop at all like standard with nothing in it,well worth the money about 100 a coil without fitting mine was.