In a message dated 6/26/02 8:29:55 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
TSmola@TRIBUNE.COM writes:

<< Has anyone installed lowered springs on their Vanagon that gives the van a
 lower center of gravity for increased road handling

 And then installed the new air shocks that are used by people with "low
 rider" type vehicles.....you know 24-inch wheels with
 super low profile tires on their Escalade.......these guys can go from low
 rider to high rider very quickly.

 I was thinking this could help the Vanagon handle really well when it's
 slammed to the ground.....and then when you get to an area where
 you need more ground clearance, you just raise the car to your
 desire.........kind of like an Audi A4 ALLROAD >>

Tony,

This was discussed on the list a year or so ago. One outfit even came out to
San Francisco to show off their wares. They came and discussed how to solve
the problem on space. The front end of the Vanagon and Syncros do not have
space for the current crop of airbags. They were talking about using an
outboard-style airbag/piston to solve the problem. It looked sorta like an
old airshock. We waited and we waited. I called the company several times
during the past year. No reply. I guess they lost interest. The bug that they
brought for their demo was very impressive as they hiked it up and down in
almost nothing flat. Makes me wonder if the got discouraged because most of
the guys at that meeting that Steve Schwenk arranged were driving Syncros.

I looked at some of the products available via streetrod magazines and such.
Looks like the rears are a piece of cake. I could not find any airbags or air
struts or pistons which can fit in the front. Maybe one of these days.......
Or maybe not at all. We are such a small potatoes relative to the rest of the
automotive aftermarket. Maybe some enterprising listvendor will put something
together.

BTW, they were talking about $3500 for a complete system with compressors and
quad circuit. You don't want all your airbags slumping down at the same time
due to a leak.

BenT
 <A HREF="http://hometown.aol.com/bentbtstr8/myhomepage/index.html">Vanagon
Cafe</A>