Long overhang/ferries/air assist suspension
Having now finally decided which motorhome to buy we buying a Hymer / Mercedes mtl580. Should be picking it up in about 4 - 5 weeks. I have just read reports that motorhomes with long rear overhangs can suffer from grounding. Especially using ferry's. Have
anyone any experience of this? Is it a problem and would adding air assist suspension to rear help? We are booked to go away in July via ferry. Should we just go and see if we do suffer any problems or should we be pro active and try and find a solution
beforehand? Your experience and feedback would be most welcome.
Comments
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I think generally going Dover to calais etc will be fine as the ramps are not very steep as they are adjustable. However when we went to corsica a couple of years ago the ramps are a bit more variable but the loading staff are brilliant get you to drive
on at 45 degrees then snake round until you are on then can straighten up so my advice would be to take it slowly if you are worried and always follow the instructions of the loading people.0 -
It isn't just access to/from ferries that you need to watch your rear overhang. Many roads on the continent, particularly in France and Spain, have some very poorly engineered junctions which involve steep drops and rises. This is particularly true of supermarket access roads and bridges over canals and the like.
Our Autocruise Gleneagle has a long overhang but fortunately the original owner had a towbar fitted which protects the rear end. However, despite being cautious, I still manage to catch the towbar on the ground at least once on every trip to the continent. You just can't predict when the camber of the road will catch you out !
My advice would be to consider some sort of protection for the rear of your MH as it is almost inevitable that you will ground it sooner or later.
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Thank you for that. Interesting about being helped with ferry's and taking a sidewards approach. Will not be having a towbar so can look at some kind of protection. It will be good to hear of others experiences and their solutions ( if needed of course
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We have a Bailey 625 SE which doesn't have an over long overhang, but know quite a few other Bailey owners that have 740's 745's and 765's they do suffer from grounding on some ferries and as JimE says other places. Most of them have had air assist fitted
an are happy with it.0 -
Our Autotrail has a large rear overhang and I have grounded it a few times but we have a towbar fitted at the back so no damage has been done. We went on the ferry to Bilbao last year and had no problems teh ramps weren't too steep and I just took it very
slowly and had no problems. I did ground last year when we were coming out of a petrol station in Devon the exit road had a slight dip that I didn't notice until we heard that familiar clang as the towbar hit the road but no damage. It has never really been
a problem for us we just are careful and take it easy.0 -
,Hmmm, My 'Autocruise Sunnindale used to 'ground' when coming off ferries occasionaly.Also coming out of French fuel stations
,where the kerb & road were not quite in tine !! The tow ball/bar did save the overhang from damage every time.The " Concorde" has a pair of low slung wheels at the rear of the chassis to prevent the overhang from grounding .Maybe this is the way to go with long overhangs ?? A pair of suitable wheels set on the towbar/chassis to aleviate the grounding problem
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Thanks to all. Never heard of Drag Wheels. Will have a look. Please keep your comments coming as they are very helpful. Really looking forward to getting the van. Totally different to what we first thought too.
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Just been in contact with Watling Engineering. They do Dunlop Air assist. £499. Supplied. Has anyone gone down this route ?
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, Hi Mr S .Might be worth a quote from :-www.marcleleisure.co.uk 01531-660797.
Hope this helps . Pete .
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Thanks Pete. Will give them a bell in the morning.
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If cost is not an issue I would opt for the air assist. I have full air suspension in my motorhome and never had an issue with either ferries or tunnel. I also have a set of bump wheels attached to the chassis by the manufacturer. I assume this is due to
full air suspension not being standard.Air assist will not only resolve your issue with the grounding but will provide a number of other benefits. I find the ride in my van to be as good as a car, it just glides over the potholes.
I have the ability to select the height of both the front and rear by pressing the controller. There is also a function which at one press raises or lowers to the max and min. I use this feature when boarding ferries etc, setting the level to the highest.
The only issue with my (VB Systems) is it automatically goes into auto mode when you hit 10mph. So when in the line to board I raise to max and then need to ensure I do not exceed 10 MPH on the way or it auto lowers to the set height it sees fit based on the
garage loading.The one disadvantage, and perhaps this is based on the height of your van around the air suspension is the rolling around in high winds. When we purchased the van we opted not to go for the E&P Self leveling as the salesman informed us the air suspension
would take care of the leveling. In reality it is very limited and in high winds we felt sea sick due to being bounced around on 4 airbags. We quickly installed E&P leveling which combined is great. They can be linked together to ensure one touch leveling.Good luck with the new van
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Thank for that Stewart. That's really helpful. The new Mercedes have cross wind assist which apparently make a vast difference to stability. Full air suspension sounds fantastic but possibly too expensive at the moment. Air assist could be a good option.
Thank you for your feedback. Any more would still be very welcome.0 -
I've just had a look at that link. They look very expensive for such a basic bit of equipment. I think I'd fabricate my own if I needed to.
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I wonder if a set of low profile skids would be better and easy to make as well air assist.
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Very interesting Stewart. I to have full VB 4C air suspension with auto level and I find that, as they say, it manage to level a 10" discrepancy and we have never noticed a particular motion when parked using the system, certainly no different to a MH on
normal system suspension using levelling blocks.I note that you use the rough road setting for loading on a ferry; I have never tried that. I prefer using the ferry mode which drops the front suspension to its lowest position whilst raising the back to the highest to ensure maximum rear end clearance.
Incidentally my system reverts to normal at 25kph, about 15mph. I think I to would find the 10mph limit too low.
You may be right and my system may be set at 15MPH as you say, I was going from memory. But I have a few times gone over what ever the limit is only to find the van going back down!
As for the movement of the van. We did not find it a real issue when moving around. It was more when we were in high winds. Our van is a fairly large slab at 9.3m long and 3.1m high, the wind hitting the side has a very noticable movement on the van, especially
on one occassion on Brighton Caravan club site where I thought we were going to go over at one point.0 -
If cost is not an issue I would opt for the air assist. I have full air suspension in my motorhome and never had an issue with either ferries or tunnel. I also have a set of bump wheels attached to the chassis by the manufacturer. I assume this is due to
full air suspension not being standard.Air assist will not only resolve your issue with the grounding but will provide a number of other benefits. I find the ride in my van to be as good as a car, it just glides over the potholes.
I have the ability to select the height of both the front and rear by pressing the controller. There is also a function which at one press raises or lowers to the max and min. I use this feature when boarding ferries etc, setting the level to the highest.
The only issue with my (VB Systems) is it automatically goes into auto mode when you hit 10mph. So when in the line to board I raise to max and then need to ensure I do not exceed 10 MPH on the way or it auto lowers to the set height it sees fit based on the
garage loading.The one disadvantage, and perhaps this is based on the height of your van around the air suspension is the rolling around in high winds. When we purchased the van we opted not to go for the E&P Self leveling as the salesman informed us the air suspension
would take care of the leveling. In reality it is very limited and in high winds we felt sea sick due to being bounced around on 4 airbags. We quickly installed E&P leveling which combined is great. They can be linked together to ensure one touch leveling.Good luck with the new van
Out of curiousity did the m/h come with the VB system fitted or did you have it fitted locally.
We have a new to us m/h which bottomed out on the Corran ferry which caused the towbar electric plug bracket to bend and scraped the bottom of the plug.
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Hello,
Niesmann Bischoff Fair comes with standard rear VB Air Suspension, the upgrade to full front and rear air is a factory extra which was done at the factory as extra cost. I fully recommend the system. This is my first motorhome with full air system. If I
had been asked previously if i wanted it I would have probably declined and it was a heavy sale to go for it, but my next van will certainly have it as a must have.0 -
Just an update. Got our new van and just received a pair of Dunlop Air Assist which we will be fitting early next week. Obtained from Watling Engineering. They look very simple to fit too and did not cost a fortune.
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Well, for anyone interested we have fitted the Dunlop Air Assist. Easy to do. Certainly raises the rear even unloaded. Pumped up to 60psi just to test and found the ride really firmed up with noticeably less body roll. Early days but think they will be worth
every penny.0 -
I have not used the ferries for sometime prefering the tunnel, there is no danger of grounding on that. I don't know if the ferries still do it but they used to have what I can only describe as a wooden railway sleeper fitted with rope handles which the
could pull and fit in the dip between ship and ramp to lessen the chance of grounding. When I pointed out the steepness on one trip the crew fitted this and it did the trick.peedee
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