My Dandy Designer suspension

Helen wrote: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

Not sure but you may get a little bit of settle so not end up with all your 2 inches

I know but at least we know the suspension is definitely sound now

They look very shiny, when you've clay barred the trailer, it will look like new. Looking forward to seeing your finished pics.

I'll take some pics when it's done, the wheels are being painted the tyres will be nice and black with some dressing stuff and then the tub is going to get a good cleaning.


This had been the easy bit we have to cif the dandy roof and the awning will need a clean and polish and the trailer cover ...... all that elbow grease

helen, You have to be careful with that elbow grease, delegate. You don't want to get it on your clothes do you?

excellent job i wish our dandy had arch liners and not painted wood.I would imagine the suspension will settle so possibly drop a little.Still it should be a lot less nose up with the new units fitted and tow nicely.

Looking good...Are they just fitted onto the original mountings or raised

We were going to raise it but we thought before we did that we would see how bad the old suspension was and how much of a difference we got by just a straightforward change over, we fitted directly to the mountings for now. We may still raise it but will see how it sits with the car first and how much it settles, we have the spacing plates and the box section already so might just do it anyway when it's a bit warmer weather.

We had to cut off some of the old bolts to get it off but the first two nearest the wheel are a fixed thread so if anyone is going to change the suspension and your struggling to get the old ones off ..... don't cut these first two fixed ones off, you have to get the nuts off these because the other side of these bolts sit underneath the framework of the wall of the Dandy and you can't get at them so it would be a big job. It may just be like this on recessed wheeled Dandy's but check first.

Esermalda wrote:helen, You have to be careful with that elbow grease, delegate. You don't want to get it on your clothes do you?

That's the time I demote myself ....... when elbow grease is in use I become the brewer upper

When John opened the paint, it turned out he had picked up the wrong colour ........ not the brilliant white

It couldn't have worked out any better, the paint is the same colour as the Dandy He hasn't been able to spray them as we have no space in the garage for him to work and it's a bit breezy so we would end up with spray everywhere so for now they have been brushed but over the summer we will take the tyres off and rub them down and John can spray them properly.

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That looks very smart, the colour is perfect.

Just some ones elbow grease and lots of brewing to go.

Just to show the difference here is the before and the after

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The trailer cover and tub will be all shiny by tomorrow, we didn't get away but Johns managed to get quite a bit done so it wasn't a wasted bank holiday

Looking very nice...It's surprising how much you can get done over a weekend

Johns going to hook the Dandy up this weekend to see how it sits and take it for a test run, we're hoping it's raised it enough because if not we will have to re-route the gas pipes to the underfloor heater but as we have a plumber in the family it can be done if necessary. We've decided to hold onto the old suspension for spare parts should we need any in the future for any of the family's Dandy's as they are difficult to get hold of if you can get hold of them at all.

We're still really impressed and grin every time we step out of the front door as we can see the difference it's made to the height of the Dandy just by standing next to it.

We will probably get the camera out again

Helen,
I know you have just painted the wheels and you are considering doing them again in the summer,but have you considered fitting 12inch wheels.
You can buy a pair of white 12inch wheels with tyres in the same style as your existing wheels for little over £100.If your existing wheels and tyres are good then you could also sell them to offset the expense of new wheels.I sometimes think i should have just bought the larger version of the original 10inch wheels as these would have just bolted on to the standard hubs without changing studs.
Bigger wheel do make a noticeable difference to the ride height and the trailer also seems to tow more smoothly.
I have noticed that my hitch damper is working perfectly i can only put this down to it towing more level.

I didn't know you could get larger wheels that would just fit on without alteration but it's something we would probably do if we knew where to find them.

If you could give me a pointer to the ones that would fit directly on that would be great.

i will try and find the site that sold them,i remember when i was looking into this last year finding some.The only ones i can find now are at Trailertek but these are silver and £71ea but for a wheel and tyre i guess it's not too bad.

That is reasonable Nick, I would prefer the white but if we had to John can spray them eventually.

thanks for looking for the site that you saw them on

I don't think we would get away with selling our wheels on, the tyres are just over a year old and have done 4 trips ..... I know someone who will be after cadging them for her Dandy

Helen wrote:
I don't think we would get away with selling our wheels on, the tyres are just over a year old and have done 4 trips ..... I know someone who will be after cadging them for her Dandy

Well why not sell them a pair of tyres new are £70 plus fitting plus your wheels are in good condition.If i had tired old wheels and tyres and needed some newer ones i would buy them off you

We might need them ourselves quite soon will have to see

We're going to wait and see how it sits first and as we have another new to us Dandy being collected Saturday we may as well wait and see if that needs anything doing first.

Just a quick report from our first trip with the new suspension .......... we have travelled over 500 miles with Dandy in tow during the past 10 days and everything is spot on with no drama's.

It sits up slightly at the front still but it's not a big deal any more and we have no problems with speed humps now so we won't be bothering to take it off to fit spacers as we don't feel it's necessary.

Strange because mine isnt that much out

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But dont look in the boot

Ours is a big 4x4 towing car though Mike so probably a bit higher than your punto

Nice pics thanks for info on what i am thinking of doing , the weather here is rubish nearly said something naughty then lol. floods in parts of anglesey.