Good Evening Everyone,
This is a long first post but not as long & frustrating & costly as going through the process everyone else has here - I know, half the ideas I tried - the guy below I finally discovered is a Genius of Suspension Dynamics.
And I will admit to lurking here for a couple of years (had log-in issues together with the engineering snafus everyone else had it seemed simply too much) and watching this thread all that time, in fact it has doubled in that time & in the meantime I have in the course of driving around the City of LA, twice damaged the dump valves, and, totally destroyed the lowered fiberglass body moulding (the insurance repair estimate is $8500-13500 with freight being installed next week).
But now, I have the solution & have been hard testing everything for 3 months & am fully satisfied with the results of lifting my 2004/5 Roadtrek Versatile 190.
However, while lurking I wasted so much time with a lot of the ideas on this forum, I drove my vehicle all over California to see the lift experts (at least 8 shops) who after 1/2 day would say "we cannot do it, you just can't lift these things, or these parts just don't fit, etc".
Finally I was referred to BILL ERB - (707) 678-3944, of Valley Springworks, 340 Industrial Way, Suite G, Dixon, CA 95620 - about 40 miles southeast of Sacramento.
I knew the moment we spoke on the phone, even though he was 500 miles away, that driving up there in the middle of the night was finally going to be successful, moreover he opened his factory to me at 7am on a Sunday morning & promised me after poring over the forum here that he knew what the problem was (what everyone else is missing) & if he was mistaken, before I left that I would be driving away on the answer.
Bill is a Mechanical Engineer, whose specialty of study was COILS & SUSPENSION DYNAMICS.
On the night I was driving up there, he physically made from scratch two sets of Coil Springs for the Front (I had already lifted the rear 3 inches with an overleaf/overload spring from Supersprings in Santa Barbara - see below).
He promised me that one set would work and it would cause my truck front end to ride between 2.7 - 2.8 inches higher - bottom line; it was in fact, 2.74 inches higher when I left!
All of this without seeing my truck but just reading the forums & knowing his field.
Bill is the go to guy whenever car manufacturers have an engineering crisis with their suspension, when a particular vehicle is released and has a recall, they have units sent to his factory/shop, he engineers a solution & then that engineering is retrofit to all recall vehicles.
All of the Power Company trucks with booms, etc that you see in the Western States, all have engineering done by Bill - he lives & breathes Suspension problems.
I hope my photos post, you will notice the present damage to my bodywork, soon to be a thing of the past.
(the photos won't post, I am not a computer guy and its 1.40am & I am pissed so either you can call Bill or wait for me to learn how to resize photos for this forum - not a bankable bet or you can email me and I will gladly send you the before and after photos).
That powder coated Red Paint you see on the Coils Bill put on at my request) as I waited( his factory can manufacture all the rubber/plastic/nylon bushings, etc on the spot, better than before!
The colour Red signifies the Blood I lost banging my head & knuckles against walls trying to get help from Roadtrek, certain Coil Manufacturers & the Experts.
In fact I was so ecstatic after a couple of hours of working with Bill I asked him to check my rear suspension system while I was there.
Bill took my old leaf springs out, restrengthened them in his ovens, added another leaf, replaced all the worn bushings, parts, etc and then powder coated the Rear Overload Unit from Supersprings the same Blood Red as the front coils and reinstalled everything, I believe the rear is now about 3.5 - 4 inches higher.
I ordered not Bilstein Shocks like I thought I needed for a minimum of $450 & a 5 year warranty, but a higher end shock from KYB (they have low & high end), called Gas Adjust Shocks for only $185 from shockwarehouse for all four shocks with a 5 year warranty!
The truck is harder on corrugated roads and uneven surfaces but I don't drive in those kinds of conditions, all I wanted was the extra clearance and a smooth ride without rolling and pitching around cities and highways and he delivered for a fraction of all the solutions that don't work, described here previously.
Bill explained how all manufacturers just want to get vehicles off the dealer floor, at the lowest possible cost and warranties are based on this. And when it comes to anything with an RV, the issues are expotential.
Call Bill Erb, the guy is nothing short of a Suspension Genius, very honest, very reasonable.
Here is his Yelp Review Link;
http://www.yelp.com/biz/valley-spring-works-dixon
Here is a Filtered Yelp Link about my experience;
http://www.yelp.com/filtered_reviews/UI ... yiehF1gIOQ
Here are the details for Supersprings (talk to the owner Gerry) who may also have a solution but ultimately for a Class B & its specific demands, Bill is the go to guy.
http://supersprings.com/index.asp
5055 6th Street, Carpinteria, CA 93013 Phone; 800-898-0705
