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T3 Transporter bump stop modification.

Lowering a T3 is a pretty common operation, the benefits are well documented and we won’t go into that here.

The one thing we do see a lot of is when someone books their van into the workshop complaining of the poor ride in their lowered van [ 95% of the time the van is sporting red springs!] and most of the time we can fix this problem fairly quickly, easily and more importantly cheaply!

What a lot of people don’t realise is that from the factory there were 2 lengths of bump stop, a 5 rib version [longer] and a 3 rib version [shorter].

From the factory the commercial models had the longer bump stops, so that’s most models with a Transporter badge on the back so all pick up models, Single cab and double cab pick ups were designed for commercial use and have the longer 5 rib bump stop and the yellow coded rear springs. Panel vans again were designed to carry a load and they too have the longer 5 rib bump stop.
What makes a mess of this little rule of thumb is that some Kombi models [empty vans with windows] were badges as transporters however they usually have the shorter 3 rib bump stop.

Passenger carrying T3s, That’s your Kombi, Caravelle and Westfalia campers [and Dehler probably too] came with the blue coded rear springs and the shorter bumpstops.

In the UK it was the norm for camper van converters to buy the cheapest van they could, usually a white panel van and then cut windows into it, so if you have a UK converted camper then the chances are you have a Transporter and it will have the longer 5 rib bump stop.

As you know we sell a lot of suspension products and one question we get asked is how to modify the bump stops for use on lowered vans.
We’ve been through our Facebook page and found the images when we did it before and we’ve written this here so it’s a little easier to find.

As the old saying goes, a picture speaks a thousand words…..

 

BumpStopChop01 Starting point, usual 5 rib commercial bump stop.

 

BumpStopChop02 Break the bump stop into 2 parts, attach rubbery end in the vice and pull and bend at the same time.

 

BumpStopChop03 Once you have it split, cut 2 ribs off, the narrow one, and one fat one.

 

BumpStopChop04 Whittle the last rib down in the bench grinder to a diameter similar to that of the one you chopped off.

 

BumpStopChop05 Cut a nick in the sleeve.

 

BumpStopChop06 Cut another nick in the bump stop rib.

 

BumpStopChop07 With a bit of light oil, engage the rubber in the sleeve and twist, the screw action will pull the smaller rib into the sleeve.

 

BumpStopChop08 Ta Da! 5 rib to 3 rib bump stop in minutes.

 

There you go, when lowering more than 30mm we would always do this