My Dandy Designer suspension

Well after a lot of thought I have decided to change the suspension, It is not an immediate problem and may last quite a while longer (possibly a long long time) but as we have decided to keep it and we have already used it for years and years without having to spend a lot on it. By doing the suspension it will give peace of mind and it's going to last us for as long as we keep the Dandy. We will do the suspension over winter now but just have to decide if we are going to do it ourselves or take it in to Riva for a full health check.

helen wrote:Well after a lot of thought I have decided to change the suspension, It is not an immediate problem and may last quite a while longer (possibly a long long time) but as we have decided to keep it and we have already used it for years and years without having to spend a lot on it. By doing the suspension it will give peace of mind and it's going to last us for as long as we keep the Dandy. We will do the suspension over winter now but just have to decide if we are going to do it ourselves or take it in to Riva for a full health check.

Could you do it nicks way with a mobile engineer got to be cheaper,if you do it yourself the brakes can be a bit of a pain,not always just sometimes.


mike

Will look into the cost of both after the Trentfield meet Mike, good idea though. My brother and John could do it themselves I suppose but it's getting them to do it

To change the the suspension is easy, change the whole unit brakes and hubs, two three hour tops, don't mess about doing just the suspension units, sell the old ones on ebay, jack up ,wheel off,six nuts unit off, disconnect brake cable, connect brake cable to new unit,six blots unit on , refit wheel jack down onto other side, work hard no coffee breaks , bacon butty breaks ect under the hour no probs

good advice from someone who has done this to their dandy.John and your Bro can change the units while you enjoy Coffee and Bacon buttys

Thanks, you make it sound simple and it probably is........... the hard bit is going to be getting them started on it as both work odd hours at different firms. Will probably save us on cost though so will be worth waiting

My new suspension units are arriving on Tuesday

Helen wrote:My new suspension units are arriving on Tuesday

excellent Helen have you gone for 500 or 750kg?

I decided to have the 500kg in the end, if it was good enough for Dandy then it will do for me and it's lasted a long time
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It's also just a straight forward swap over as the 750 may go easily onto units with outboard wheels but with the internal wheel arches on ours we decided to go for the easiest option. I'm not sure ours is in desperate need of changing but we may as well have it in the best condition possible.

We also want a pair of the white wheel arch trims.

your right you have had best part of 20yrs out of your existing units,i just think 500kg units are operating at the upper limit all the time but that's me just wanting more than i need.
Are you not now raising the suspension units as i seem to remember you were considering it?

We're going to stick the new units on and see how it sits, if we still feel it's too low we already have a length of box section and the people supplying the suspension units have also thrown in spacers free of charge so we have them should we decide to raise it.

Helen wrote:We're going to stick the new units on and see how it sits, if we still feel it's too low we already have a length of box section and the people supplying the suspension units have also thrown in spacers free of charge so we have them should we decide to raise it.

What are the spacers?

If its not too nosey where are the suspension units from? How much? If a good deal do they do the 750Kg as well?

The spacers are plates with six holes in them, you can weld them onto each side of box section and then bolt that onto where your suspension bolt holes are, you then bolt your new suspension onto spaces that you will have welded to the underside of the box section.

We will probably put the spacers in along with the suspension to give it a little lift but if it's not enough we can then weld them to the box section.

I've ordered mine from indespension.com, telephone 0845 3 720 720. John gave me the catalogue at Trentfield for this company as he got his from there too. They were very helpful and it's cost just under £200 including delivery but you can collect from Bolton.

they are pretty cheap considering how long they last

They were £148.something or other ........... until the vat is added

Helen wrote:They were £148.something or other ........... until the vat is added

How much that sounds too cheap

It is good value but we did ring them to check they are the correct ones and John (the enterprise) had marked them off for me in the manual he gave me at Trentfield, the cost including vat and delivery is just short of £200 but surprisingly good value.

It's arrived, shiny new suspension units ....... they are really heavy

The old suspension is coming off today and the new is going on, we can then decide if we are going to raise it or not while John has some time off work. We're also painting the wheels with brilliant white 2 pack.

Well we have one suspension unit off and it looks like it's twisted, the fixing plate doesn't sit flat like it doe's on the new one.

I will post some pictures later on.

Something else we have noticed is that the new suspension units feel a lot heavier than the old ones so it could effect the overall weight of our Dandy.

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Smart, have looked on there site and it looks like a pair of 750kg for mine are about £245 with brakes thats not bad,i ought to get a pair and then i can make some spacers sometime in advance.

They are good value ....... these are braked units, we are going to see how it sits without raising it at all for now and if we have to raise it at least the bolts will be easier to remove than the old ones were. The old bolts were stuck so they had a bit of a struggle getting them off but they had been there a long long time. We've also been able to have a good look under the trailer and it's sound, the wheel arch insides are coated with fibreglass by the looks of things the floor looks great and not a sign of rust anywhere

We have one side done now and it's given us around 2 more inches in height and clearance

The other side will take less time now they've mastered one side.

I can now say my old suspension was officially knackered