VB Air on T6 Ocean with DCC

[RetroRed5]

Afternoon all,

I've been considering having VB Full-Air installed on my T6 Ocean for a while; I'm wanting to find more real-world views on the upgrade before pulling the trigger but they seem to be a little thin on the ground, especially for T6's with factory DCC installed.

Whilst for most T6's the upgrade is pretty straight-forward, there is a complication if you have DCC installed (which I do); VB don't support this out of the box but my installer of choice says it is possible so long as you also install something like a "Pro-Tronic Control Module" to suppress the fault codes that will appear post-install.

Has anybody on here with factory DCC had VB Full-Air installed and if so, what are your thoughts/experiences in terms of...

1. General driving experience.
2. Self-levelling capabilities.
3. Hunkering down for car parks.
4. Maintenance/servicing of the VB Air.
5. Servicing of your California with VW (are VW happy to continue to service your Cali now that you have VB Air installed?)
5. Post-install issues with disabling DCC.

Cheers.

 

[WelshGas]

Afternoon all,

I've been considering having VB Full-Air installed on my T6 Ocean for a while; I'm wanting to find more real-world views on the upgrade before pulling the trigger but they seem to be a little thin on the ground, especially for T6's with factory DCC installed.

Whilst for most T6's the upgrade is pretty straight-forward, there is a complication if you have DCC installed (which I do); VB don't support this out of the box but my installer of choice says it is possible so long as you also install something like a "Pro-Tronic Control Module" to suppress the fault codes that will appear post-install.

Has anybody on here with factory DCC had VB Full-Air installed and if so, what are your thoughts/experiences in terms of...

1. General driving experience.
2. Self-levelling capabilities.
3. Hunkering down for car parks.
4. Maintenance/servicing of the VB Air.
5. Servicing of your California with VW (are VW happy to continue to service your Cali now that you have VB Air installed?)
5. Post-install issues with disabling DCC.

Cheers.

Some reading.

VB air ride failure - what replacement?

Hi , I mounted 3 years ago the VB air suspension, front and rear . Since then the VB dealer replaced 3 times the front suspensions because of a failure . The last time they've been replaced lasted until today when the front left started again to leak air . I decided to take it off and replace...

www.t6forum.com

 

[Ch1pbutty]

Looked into it once as the installer is local to us, but decided against it. You can find lots of user feedback online.

 

[Duff.]

I had fullVB air suspension fitted to my 6.1 California Ocean (my21) in April 2023.

I now have a new 6.1

Would i fit it again ….”No” definitely not!!!

Good for:

*Limbo under carpark barriers
*Self level on uneven pitch
*Aesthicaly pleasing to look at when in parking mode (ie: slammed)

Not so good:

*Kangaroos in sport mode
*noisy, compressor near front wing!
*Hand control in side of seat, not good if changing to sport mode on the hoof.
*did not handle as good as standard.
*Sport mode only useable on motorway, even then suffered over bumps (kangaroo)
*the thought was better than the experience.
*cost - £7,500
*warranty - 2 years “return to base” which was 160 miles away from me.

*Everthing Else

In the first instance several major catastrophes / failures with conflicts with canbus

Many hours downtime rectifications.

Lot of stress.

Although VB air suspension is promoted and approved by VW their technicians don’t know anything about it (my experience)

My van had 18” wheels

My current van has 17” wheels, tyres inferior Ride and drive in stock mode is superior.

From memory, it can’t be fitted with DCC?

Save your money, its not cheap mine was 7.5k down the drain ‍

 

[Duff.]

I had fullVB air suspension fitted to my 6.1 April 2023.

I now have a new 6.1

Would i have it fitted again ….”No”

Good for:

Limbo under carpark barriers
Self level on uneven pitch

Not so good:

Kangaroos in sport mode
Everthing Else

In the first instance several major catastrophes / failures with conflicts with canbus

Although VB air suspension is promoted and approved by VW their technicians don’t know anything about it (my experience)

My van had 18” wheels

My current van has 17” wheels, tyres inferior Ride and drive in stock mode is superior.

 

[RetroRed5]

Thanks all for your responses, very helpful

@Duff - You are quite right, VB Air cannot be fit with the out-of-the-box kit provided by VB, to make it work you have to fit some other tech from a 3rd party to fool the Cali into thinking that DCC is still installed (or something like that), so it's a bit of a fudge/hack really.

I really like the idea of the self-levelling capability, but from what you guys are saying and what I've found on other posts/forums, it seems like a bit of a risky upgrade, not only from a possible failure/maintenance perspective, but also from a poor ride perspective.

If it was a much cheaper, like sub £2k, I'd possibly be willing to have a punt that it would be OK, but at £7.5k plus another £600 for the DCC fudge then maybe it is just too expensive given the risks/downsides involved.

So I think I will put my cash to better use on other upgrades/tweaks for my Cali

 

[Duff.]

You might think of trying a couple of these. We have them for the caravan but also can be used with the cali as alternative to the ramps (more precise) &

No stress
£7,350 cheaper

 

[WelshGas]

Thanks all for your responses, very helpful

@Duff - You are quite right, VB Air cannot be fit with the out-of-the-box kit provided by VB, to make it work you have to fit some other tech from a 3rd party to fool the Cali into thinking that DCC is still installed (or something like that), so it's a bit of a fudge/hack really.

I really like the idea of the self-levelling capability, but from what you guys are saying and what I've found on other posts/forums, it seems like a bit of a risky upgrade, not only from a possible failure/maintenance perspective, but also from a poor ride perspective.

If it was a much cheaper, like sub £2k, I'd possibly be willing to have a punt that it would be OK, but at £7.5k plus another £600 for the DCC fudge then maybe it is just too expensive given the risks/downsides involved.

So I think I will put my cash to better use on other upgrades/tweaks for my Cali

This could be cheaper. Good anti-theft device.

Motorhome Levelling - Motorhome Hydraulic self levelling systems fitted

Motorhome Levelling from Rhino Installs, Motorhome Hydraulic self levelling systems fitted at our Lancashire Workshop

www.rhinoinstalls.co.uk

 

[RetroRed5]

You might think of trying a couple of these. We have them for the caravan but also can be used with the cali as alternative to the ramps (more precise) &

No stress
£7,350 cheaper

View attachment 136590

Interesting idea

 

[RetroRed5]

This could be cheaper. Good anti-theft device.

Motorhome Levelling - Motorhome Hydraulic self levelling systems fitted

Motorhome Levelling from Rhino Installs, Motorhome Hydraulic self levelling systems fitted at our Lancashire Workshop

www.rhinoinstalls.co.uk

Another interesting idea

Is there space under the Cali to the fit the jacks/rams?