Safety of a lifted camper van?

[tonga]

As the soon to be owner of a lifted camper van, I am interested to hear your take on how your lifted van behaves on the road. You hear a lot about the increased likelihood of rolling a 15 passenger van, especially when fully loaded. I'd like to hear your thought, especially those with a lifted van. I am putting my 3 month old baby in this thing and want to make sure it's safe.



Andy

 

[SWbySWesty]

My van is quite large. The 4x4 suspension is definitely heavy duty, so it bounces when unloaded, but it's fun. When loaded - it drives great like any other car you've driven, except it's quite large. You'll have the same safety issues with any lifted vehicle. I would put a baby seat in the back of mine, but I'm hopefully 10 years away from that!

 

[ujoint]

I personally believe that most van rollovers are caused by driver error and/or improper maintenance. A few weeks ago I saw a new 15 pass van LOADED with people and the rear pass side tire probably had 15psi in it. I know this particular van has tire pressure monitors, so the driver was clearly ignoring it. I tried to catch up to tell them, but there was too much traffic.

My van is pretty tall (8" lift on 38's) and I've never felt unsafe in any situation. Over 100K across the country & back several times!

 

[ihatemybike]

While not as huge as the lifted E vans, Grumpy feel very stable on the road and trails.

 

[Toolman]

Now that I have a couple thousand miles logged on my van I can say that I feel extremely safe in it. You're up higher so visibility is much better, therefore you have more time to react to traffic and road conditions. I agree with Chris, it's almost always driver error.
You will love it, especially when you can pull over and sleep on the side of the road. Nothing more dangerous than driving tired.

 

[Gooseberry]

When out at VOF we did a trail run that had a few side slopes that made my Mom cling on pretty hard and no signs of getting tipy. most your weight is at the frame rails not above them.

 

[r_w]

The rollover danger of a 15pass van is due to the narrow rear axle and cheap/worn-out shocks IMO. Yes you have upped the COG, but if you have put on good components you have probably made it safer.

It is the loose nut behind the steering wheel that creates most problems.

 

[witt]

I agree that it's a matter of how you drive it. I had a Defender 110 for awhile with a steel roll cage and a steel roof rack with a tent. It was, IMO, overloaded and top heavy. I drove it very conservatively, with the philosophy that in the event of a potential collision, I wouldn't swerve or try to avoid anything, I'd just slam on the brakes and hit whatever I was going to hit. Fortunately that scenario never played out, and who knows how I would have actually reacted in an emergency situation.

We just bought a lifted, 4x4 E350, and with my 3 year old buckled into it, I'm planning to adopt the same habits. In the end, I figure the slight additional risk involved with the van is probably mitigated somewhat just by virtue of being in a much larger vehicle than what we normally buckle him into.

 

[cowboy4x4]

I never worry about it either, big van big steel I'm safe. I often wonder what would happen if I ever run into/over one of those smart car's "they" are the ones who should be worrying.

 

[ujoint]

It is funny how people drive differently when I'm in the van as opposed to my Honda Fit!!

 

[deserteagle56]

It is the loose nut behind the steering wheel that creates most problems.

Exactly correct. If you keep in mind that you are driving a large, heavy vehicle with a higher center of gravity, you'll have no problems. It's not a sports car! But that same mass is what will keep you safer when some careless idiot runs in to you.

I have been driving a lifted 4x4 van since 1976, over all kinds of roads and in all kinds of conditions and never felt it to be a safety problem. Just the opposite, in fact.

 

[tonga]

Thanks for all the feedback! I agree 100% that it's driver error in most cases that these larger vehicles. I've been doing some more reading on the research and the fact is, in an accident, the higher center of gravity vehicle is more likely to roll. OK, i accept that. However, news reports on internet sites that paraphrase the research don't indicate that fatalities reported in cases of vans involved in roll overs are related to passengers not wearing their seatbelts!!!! Joe public automatically associates vans rolling with fatalities when in fact that is not correct. They should be relating people not wearing seatbelts in vans which roll with fatalities. HUGE DIFFERENCE!

I've been driving a lifted 4runner for a while now and understand the higher center of gravity thing. If one stepped into a lifted van and even thought it would handle like a passenger car, well...I guess that falls under driver idiocy!

Has anyone seen the end of the UJOINT vid where Vanaconda is ripping around the corner on the dirt trail? Looks like he almost lost it around the corner but gained control pretty quick. If that's how my van is going to handle, I'm a happy man!