Lowering WB Panel Van

[Puzzigully]

Guys,

interested in how best to lower the front of my WB panel van.

Anything off the shelf that will lower it by 25/40/50mm?
All the eBay items are overwhelming.

Any traps for the unwary?

Not interested in cutting coils, prefer to buy springs designed for the task.

Any input appreciated.

Cheers

[Innuendo]

King Springs work fine as do most brands Pedders, Selby, Lovells etc.
I'd be looking at drop stub axles from CRS (Castlemaine Rod Shop) and keeping a softer ride.

All options!

[axistr]

From experience 1" lowered is all I would go. 1" 1/2 doesn't sound much, but for road use the chassis front cross member only sits around 4" off the ground and can be a real pain. Its surprising how many thing you get hooked up on. Exhaust is the first thing you will wipe out on a decent speed hump, followed by the lower front apron panel when parking near gutters, and if you have a front spoiler its only a matter of time before you wipe it out. Also if you have a fussy rego inspection guy the minimum clearance underbody is 4" and will be rejected.

Just on a side note, using lower than factory stub axles throws out the steering geometry by a fair amount. When lowering a Torana by using HQ-WB stubs you can correct most of the change in the stub axle spindle height by using A9X steering arms. But I am not aware of anyone making different steering arms to offset even further height changes in the spindles.

[Kiwivan]

Have to agree I went down 1.5 inches and then changed back to 1 inch and recon it was the best thing I ever did.
Also it does have a front spoiler.

Cheers Kiwivan

[pj350]

Back in the day ...lowered my hj ute by pedders added some dragway splats a wheel alignment ...went the 1 inch was plenty low enough in my opinion otherwise you may have to tinker with the rear suspension .

[damienengland]

I've got Pedders 2084 Sportsryder springs in both my WB panel van and tonner. I think they are a 2 inch lower spring (?) but i'm happy with them. One thing i did find with the height was that my tonner tended to scrape the front tyres (standard WB stato rims) on full lock when reversing, but i then put on alloy replica GTS rims from Canterbury Wheels (15x7 and 15x8) and have never had the scraping issue since.

Tonner pic for height reference
Tonner Height.JPG

[wbute]

I've got Pedders 2084 Sportsryder springs in both my WB panel van and tonner. I think they are a 2 inch lower spring (?) but i'm happy with them. One thing i did find with the height was that my tonner tended to scrape the front tyres (standard WB stato rims) on full lock when reversing, but i then put on alloy replica GTS rims from Canterbury Wheels (15x7 and 15x8) and have never had the scraping issue since.

Tonner pic for height reference
Tonner Height.JPG

Which makes you think they would have scraped at full lock even with standard springs and some load on the springs. The wheel isn’t moving through any different areas with the lower spring and they were Holden wheels.

[damienengland]

Yes i guess so. The tyres run close at 2 inch lowered and would also do it if the standard springs sagged to that height, but i'm also thinking that the replica rims have had some offset tinkering done by the wheel shop and that has contributed to no longer getting any scraping.

Cheers

[axistr]

Spring manufactures commonly use two different ways of describing their spring heights. The most common is the total length of the springs installed at kerb weight. So a spring that is said to be an inch lower than standard factory springs would be shorter (underload) by 1". Because most spring manufactures have standard and heavy duty springs listed it can make a huge difference in the free length and installed length.

In Holden vehicles with upper and lower control arms, 1" generally lowered the vehicles ride height by 2" and a 1 1/2 lower spring would drop the car by approximatly 3".

The second way spring manufactures describe their springs is by the lowered body ride height at kerb weight. A spring listed as 2" lower will lower the ride height by approximatly 2" from standard ride height. If you had a 2" lower spring length installed it would be sitting on the bump stops and have no spring compression during driving and would destroy the front end very quickly, don't get the too confused. So if your asking a spring manufacture to make you a set of springs, make sure your both on the same page in relation to the ride height you would like.

A lot of unaware people order new springs and when they remove their old ones and line them up against the new springs there can sometimes be a difference of 3 or 4 inches between the free lengths and they take them back and argue to the supplier they are incorrect. Its due to the difference between the springs wire size and heavy duty spring rating which effects the installed length.


And one last thing to be aware of, I commonly see owners fitting their own springs at home and haven't been installed correctly. Check to make sure you are fitting the springs in the correct sides. Some spring manufactures mark the springs with O/S & N/S. O/S must be installed in the drivers side and N/S in the passengers side. N/S is short for near side or closest to the gutter, and O/S off side. It makes more sense when you realise the spring people supply springs to left and right hand drive cars. Also insure the springs are installed into the lower control arm correctly. Yes there is a difference between top and bottom and the spring end must line up with the step in the lower control arm or the heights will be out considerably.

I am sure most people on this site will be well aware of the above information but when I had my workshop we would regularly see old cars pull in wanting a wheel alignment and complaining about the ride height, and expected me to fix everything with a quick wheel alignment. Most ignorant owners couldn't be told.

[Innuendo]

A good suspension centre who install springs would normally ask where you want the tyre to sit in relation to the guard lip and they measure from the centre cap on the wheel to the guard lip.