VB Air Suspension

B J G · Wednesday at 10:29 PM

I bit the financial bullet and replaced my VB for Bistein Air years ago. Fonally sold on the complete VB system for only £1K a few months ago.

wildslammer22 · Wednesday at 10:30 PM

Perfectos said:
Here’s the responses !
Do you think that may be an interested party ?

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What on earth did you say to provoke this response? I used to run a fairly big online forum and it’s amazing what some people will say under anonymity! I always favoured extremely light tough moderation but threats are a no no.

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wildslammer22 · Wednesday at 10:32 PM

B J G said:
I bit the financial bullet and replaced my VB for Bistein Air years ago. Fonally sold on the complete VB system for only £1K a few months ago.

What sort of money is Bilstein air if you don’t mind me asking?

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B J G · Thursday at 7:22 AM

AcapulcoLoco said:
Oh and the VB shock absorbers are £299 plus vat EACH!!

VB replaced my faulty rear shockers with Koni ones which were painted black and VB sticker over the Koni one.

You don't need to get VB ones (Alko) for the rear, Front is a combined Airbag/strut.

pjm-84 · Thursday at 8:02 AM

Seems I dodged a bullet.

Just didn't like the attitude from VB when I inquired in 2018/2019....telling me false truths that I could easily see through, one of them being the requirement for an annual service at £300 otherwise the warranty wouldn't be offered.

Perfectos · Thursday at 8:31 AM

wildslammer22 said:
What on earth did you say to provoke this response? I used to run a fairly big online forum and it’s amazing what some people will say under anonymity! I always favoured extremely light tough moderation but threats are a no no.

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That response was a PM for simply posting a link to this thread on this forum . my post is still visible in the thread

The T6 forum don’t want to know !
that’s how they roll disgusting behaviour from a member and no action by them !
They moderated my posts after his comments more heavily than his !

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

Perfectos · Thursday at 8:38 AM

@AcapulcoLoco can you update this thread when you finally get to the end of this sorry saga please.

wildslammer22 · Thursday at 8:53 AM

Perfectos said:
That response was a PM for simply posting a link to this thread on this forum . my post is still visible in the thread

The T6 forum don’t want to know !
that’s how they roll disgusting behaviour from a member and no action by them !
They moderated my posts after his comments more heavily than his !

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

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That’s appalling

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AcapulcoLoco · Thursday at 9:06 AM

Will do. Just feeling totally ripped off at the moment. I know things go wrong, it's how a company treats you when things do that shows how good or bad a company is, charging what will probably be approaching £700 for one air bag is just disgusting, ContiTech air springs are around the £100 mark. I should finally find out how much the total will be today and get it ordered, I suppose they will come up with some outrageous figure for shipping too. It's taken 3 days just to get to the stage of ordering the part! It will still be 3-4 days from when it's ordered. As I said, I've requested a quote for returning it to conventional suspension and repairing the chassis. Will let you know what happens, I'll try to post some photos when the air bag is off, it will be interesting to see if I have one of the faulty base plates that VB know about but haven't recalled, it was fitted in the right period, they said 2020-2021 had the faulty ones, the B pillar has a sticker on it which identifies the kit and the serial number so they could have recalled all the ones affected, but didn't, just like they could have given me the air spring as a goodwill gesture like they said they would to the dealer, but didn't, profit is clearly more important than customer satisfaction and service. Whatever happens I have a huge bill coming and an unusable cali because I have VB air suspension.

AcapulcoLoco · Thursday at 9:14 AM

Oh yes, Sean at VB had the cheek to ask me to send them photos of the airbag when it is off right after telling me they wouldn't be honouring their offer to supply the air bag as a goodwill gesture!

babble · Thursday at 9:17 AM

i was thinking about VB air suspension too. Not any more.

pjm-84 · Thursday at 10:13 AM

Air suspension is great. Had it on a Discovery at that time and a magic carpet ride. However VB were less impressive. I went down the Koni Komfort B14 route. The only problem now is that we have the X545e, which is a magic carpet ride on air, and the XC70, which is just super plush. The California feels like a race car setup on some roads. I feel like I should be strapped into a bucket seat with a race harness and a sequential gearbox

B J G · Thursday at 10:14 AM

wildslammer22 said:
What sort of money is Bilstein air if you don’t mind me asking?

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Some years ago since I did it but now do a comfort version with softer damping, I had the B14 style which is a bit choppy at low speeds but very controlled at speed or on B or C roads.

Best to talk to TransporterHQ for whats now available.

I had the E-Level control system that lets you set your heights, 3 levels possible and had a single high capacity air compressor. You can get a combined Tank/air compressor but that means no spare wheel.

Air Ride is another source

Air Suspension Archives

Air suspension looks good and works beautifully, providing smooth and comfortable results even when tackling difficult terrain.

transporterhq.co.uk

T6 – AirRide

<div id="tableCAT"> <div class="table_box_one"><img src="https://airride.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/VWT6-e1537178050711.jpg" alt="UniversalParts" title="Logo for Universal Parts AirRide sus…

airride.co.uk

wildslammer22 · Thursday at 10:45 AM

B J G said:
Some years ago since I did it but now do a comfort version with softer damping, I had the B14 style which is a bit choppy at low speeds but very controlled at speed or on B or C roads.

Best to talk to TransporterHQ for whats now available.

I had the E-Level control system that lets you set your heights, 3 levels possible and had a single high capacity air compressor. You can get a combined Tank/air compressor but that means no spare wheel.

Air Ride is another source

Air Suspension Archives

Air suspension looks good and works beautifully, providing smooth and comfortable results even when tackling difficult terrain.

transporterhq.co.uk

T6 – AirRide

<div id="tableCAT"> <div class="table_box_one"><img src="https://airride.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/VWT6-e1537178050711.jpg" alt="UniversalParts" title="Logo for Universal Parts AirRide sus…

airride.co.uk

Thanks, much appreciated. I’ve been on the brink for a while of pulling trigger on air and this thread has put me off. I use my van as a daily driver which is the main motivation for me. When touring I can live with the somewhat harsh ride I get as the trade off is rock solid body control. I think switching out the 18” KO2’s for Falkens in 17” rims will probably mitigate that somewhat and will be a lot cheaper than air

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AcapulcoLoco · Thursday at 1:15 PM

Finally got the air spring ordered, it's being sent to my house and I have had to book it in for next Wednesday at a garage to get it fitted, the bill without fitting was £640. The dealer who ordered it for me did it for what VB were charging them but couldn't fit me in to have it fitted as they are fully booked until the end of August.

s2bear · Thursday at 4:34 PM

Glad I checked in and read this- thank you. Been considering VB since beginning of the year but after reading this - no way Pedro!
Thanks [mention]B J G [/mention] for those links. I subscribe to VWt Mag and it seems 90% of the feature vans are ‘bagged’, on systems OTHER THAN VB.

The USP with VB was the VW certificate of no contest that they have - it’s surprising that some other massive names in suspension don’t have that.

I’m on B14 Komforts - so far so good but thinking of switching from 20’s to 18’s and going back to standard suspension but then I won’t be able to fit in the garage where I go snowboarding

. So much thinking to do.

Also currently hoarding 18 Cali wheels & tyres (that’s 18 as in amount of, not inches) hence my desire to switch to AT’s and avoid some sort of ‘they go or I go’ standoff. (Also have some old 911 and BMW alloys that I haven’t mentioned too). I’m tyred now.

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B J G · Thursday at 4:46 PM

s2bear said:
Glad I checked in and read this- thank you. Been considering VB since beginning of the year but after reading this - no way Pedro!
Thanks [mention]B J G [/mention] for those links. I subscribe to VWt Mag and it seems 90% of the feature vans are ‘bagged’, on systems OTHER THAN VB.

The USP with VB was the VW certificate of no contest that they have - it’s surprising that some other massive names in suspension don’t have that.

I’m on B14 Komforts - so far so good but thinking of switching from 20’s to 18’s and going back to standard suspension but then I won’t be able to fit in the garage where I go snowboarding . So much thinking to do.

Also currently hoarding 18 Cali wheels & tyres (that’s 18 as in amount of, not inches) hence my desire to switch to AT’s and avoid some sort of ‘they go or I go’ standoff. (Also have some old 911 and BMW alloys that I haven’t mentioned too). I’m tyred now.

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Car wheels won't be load rated for use on a Cali. Some fit BMW X5 wheels but I'd only use wheels meeting the load rating, centre bore and offset spec required by a VW Cali. Insurance may well be invalidated if not - always check/notify them as it is a modification.

Perfectos · Thursday at 6:37 PM

Is that four or five of us that have decided VB are not a company who we want to spend £7k with ?

That’s a costly “no good will”

I hope Sean at VB gets his Bonus from the Netherlands head office !

What cheek asking you to send them photos of the failure, thats an ultimate Peee take.

Not a company I will ever use now.

s2bear · Thursday at 9:01 PM

B J G said:
Car wheels won't be load rated for use on a Cali. Some fit BMW X5 wheels but I'd only use wheels meeting the load rating, centre bore and offset spec required by a VW Cali. Insurance may well be invalidated if not - always check/notify them as it is a modification.

I just meant I have a bunch of wheels knocking around - some of which I need to get rid of.

. 14 are Cali wheels though (all load rated)

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AcapulcoLoco · Thursday at 9:36 PM

Perfectos said:
Is that four or five of us that have decided VB are not a company who we want to spend £7k with ?

That’s a costly “no good will”

I hope Sean at VB gets his Bonus ftprom the Netherlands head office !

What cheek asking you to send them photos of the failure, thats an ultimate Peee take.

Not a company I will ever use now.

I think the ultimate pee take was when I was telling him the damping was woefully inadequate and asking if there were any better shocks I could use, he said "slow down over speed bumps" I replied it's not speed bumps, it's any undulation or dip in the road or pot holes or anything that compresses the suspension gets it bouncing! ......Slow down over speed bumps, ffs!

AcapulcoLoco · Thursday at 9:42 PM

Anyway, I've paid the money, hopefully it will arrive Monday or Tuesday, I've booked it in with my best mate's garage to fit the air spring on Wednesday next week, hope to make it to Camper Jam on Thursday! .... fingers crossed for me please guys.

B J G · 2024-06-28T07:07:57+0100

AcapulcoLoco said:
I think the ultimate pee take was when I was telling him the damping was woefully inadequate and asking if there were any better shocks I could use, he said "slow down over speed bumps" I replied it's not speed bumps, it's any undulation or dip in the road or pot holes or anything that compresses the suspension gets it bouncing! ......Slow down over speed bumps, ffs!

I never got the "promised" call back from the UK MD before I gave up and took it off. Replacement place referred to VB as Very Bouncy. That was 7 years ago now so maybe I should have given more time for a response.

Skootyalan · 2024-06-28T08:32:43+0100

Skootyalan said:
I had VB air suspension fitted last week. It's made a difference to the ride quality. The carpark setting makes getting in and out much easier. And the self levelling is the lazy campers dream. All of this I think is widely known and reported on elsewhere.

However, I haven't seen any comments on VB agents in the North. I used a company called Exploria Ltd, in Brighouse (near Leeds). I am only posting to let folk know I was really impressed with the company, its facilities and the service they delivered. If anyone is thinking of fitting air suspension and they are based in the Yorkshire region I would recommend talking to Jono or Graham at Exploria.

I had my VB fitted by Exploria a couple of years ago too. They were great to deal with and did a good job. The VB suspension is a definite improvement. The levelling is fantastic!

Perfectos · 2024-06-28T10:20:11+0100

A pertinent thread

30-35mm Lift? NON-AIR BAG

I'm looking to lift my T6.1 van 30-35mm for off-road overland travel, and am quite happy with the feel/"stiffness" of the stock suspension. I see a lot of people go with Bilsteins, and wondering about options within them and other quality options. No air suspension. I don't know what I don't...

vwcaliforniaclub.com