sakurama
Adventurer
Well thankfully I've finally found the solution to the issue and I can't believe I didn't try this earlier on but it turns out that what the van was missing all along was...
Fender Flares!
Okay, so it turns out that isn't the issue but as suggested I've spoken to several experts and had several shops look at and drive the van. There's zero wrong with it. Everything is in spec, all the parts are new and it turns out my van isn't worn out, tired or at the end of it's life. The feed back I've gotten is that it handles and rides better than most conversions but that they don't know why I have the issue. So at this point there's really only one person who's continuing to do development and testing on coil conversions and that's Chris of U-Joint. I reached out to Chris and he echoed the sentiments of all the shops and mechanics I've spoken to which is that a damper isn't my solution. He's been extensively testing his updated coil kit putting on hundreds of miles and has had no issue with wobble despite running absolutely no damper. So I will be converting my van to Chris' updated coil set up but he's still a few weeks out from getting parts.
Perhaps my van is simply pushing the limits of the coil set up. It's a heavier van (8800lbs) running larger tires than any coil kit out there so it's likely that I'd find the weakness first or at the same time as a few others judging from the messages I'm getting. I'm also actually driving my van as you or me or anyone who converts a van to four wheel drive would hope to. When I raced I did development work so finding limits is something I tend to do and no matter how good a design is there's no replacement for real world testing. I'm as real as it gets.
So I've been quiet because I don't have the solution yet but I am working very hard to get there. But this post is about other important functional advances on the van.
Fender Flares!
Oh, no. I wasn't joking. I'm done with those ************ stock tires. It had been mentioned that my 35's were too heavy and that was part of the issue but that was pure speculation like all of the things that I replaced. Out of curiosity I actually weighed the stock Superduty wheel/tire combo and they were 87lbs each. My 35x12.5 BFG's were 91lbs. so heavier? Yes, significantly? No. In fact I've put the 35's back on and lowered the pressure a bit more to 45 and the van is riding better than ever. And it looks better than ever.
Bushwacker flares are pretty much the only option for the E series vans. The fronts fit up pretty well and the rears (seen above) had a few gaps. Just like fitting trim in a house you simply run a pencil along the body and gently remove material with a Dremmel until it fits.
The front uses the existing inner fender screws and you simply peel the backing away from the rubber trim and stick it on the outer part of the flare.
Press it into place...
And the rear gets screwed in in four places and you'll need a very small drill or a right angle attachment or to remove the wheels.
The flares fit perfectly. I didn't bother to paint them because they're already the right color and my van will continue to be used off road where it will collect more scratches. They offer full coverage of the 35's which is nice because in the mud my tires would cover the whole van in spray.
So the flares really tie the tires back in and give the van a very balanced stance and look - which is very important to my wife right now.
You see my wife works in social media and marketing and somehow she pitched the idea of our restored trailer to a national magazine who thought the idea of our trailer and 4x4 van was a cool idea for their camping issue. For the cover. If you've ever wondered how to get your wife on board with van improvements get a magazine feature.
I never thought I'd see her reading Overland Journal but she is. She's told me I have a month to get bumpers, a winch, roof rack, lights, tire carrier and anything else that we need to make the van look good. Oh, and to also have the trailer finished. The roof rack I'm going to try to do on my own since there's no real option for the style of roof we have. Bumpers will most likely be MOVE as they've mentioned they're interested in sponsoring me and I like the idea of being able to customize them to the fit the van. Chris should have the parts in a couple of weeks I'll be done with most of my shoots so I'll be taking the end of June and most of July to work on the van.
My van and this thread are far from over.
Gregor
