Wheels/Tires/Suspension

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The factory wheels and tires work they are an o.k. and are the less expensive stock option.  Just check the weight rating on them since you will probably exceed the rating.

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Once you start putting weight into your van you want something a little beefier.  We did the research and found that the Goodyear tires were the best overalls.  The size of the tire does matter.  Without any fender modifications we went with the largest tire size that would fit.  We chose 275/70/17 Goodyear All-Terrain TA.

 

We needed new wheels since we increased the size of the tires.

Rhino wheels were only $100 each and the Goodyear tires were $175 each and we got a set of 5 and replaced the spare.  The new spare fit perfectly into the smaller space without much issue.

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Of course this is one of the items I hired the professionals for.

I used Agile off road, located in Santee California.  They are located directly across the street from Aluminess and they do many of the Aluminess's installs. 

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Agile went over the details and we decided what was the best suspension for our use.  Once it was outfitted, John recommended we weigh the van so he can figure out which of the heavy duty springs we should purchase based on our overall weight. We needed the heavier ones that handle 5500 lbs. in the rear.   We added Fox shocks in the front and the rear.

All of these upgrades ran approx. $7000

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It was money well spent. Agile was able to do it all in under four hours while I waited.

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We noticed a huge improvement on on the first day of our journey.  We encountered high winds and severed wind gusts on the road.  Normal suspension on the old Sprinter would have been dangerous and we would have blown all over the road.

This new suspension is much more stable and less scary in extreme conditions.