Improving ride softness?

[xavman]

Anyone got a decent idea of how to improve the ride (make softer) on this beast?  My 3 month old cries everytime she is in this car and my wife is lookin into driving the car off a cliff to get the insurance money to buy a minivan!

 

If anyone has done a suspension upgrade and can provide me a before/after impression, much thankful.

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[Tatunka]

From my experience you can do two things, one is to put A LOT of weight in the rear or two bring down the air pressure in the front and rear tires a little bit.  Now if you are regularly hauling a lot of stuff it can be dangerous to lower tire pressures but if you are empty it won't hurt, just be careful when experimenting.

 

The stiff ride is a trade off for the load carrying ability of these beasts.

[axulsuv]

You could possibly remove a leaf from each of the rear spring packs , on the front your pretty much stuck with it the way it is , without spending alot of cash ...

Happy New Year to All !!!

Glenn

On a 3500 , check with your Nissan parts man and see if the front springs are the same part # on the 1500 , mine really doesn't ride that bad . And the 3500 may have a much heavier spring in front  ?!?

Edited December 31, 2013 by axulsuv

[vanguy]

It appears that you have the 3500 1 ton model. These are designed to haul very heavy loads. If you don't haul very heavy loads the stiff suspension will be much firmer than a passenger van / minivan.

 

Do you have the passenger version or the cargo version?

[xavman]

Thanks for the inputs, sorry, I should have offered more information.

 

I have the 3500 SV, passenger.  Being used as a family car, for me the wife, and 6 kids.  As I never really ever intend on loading it down with cargo, and minimal (if any) towing, so I really want to make the ride more comfortable.

[vanguy]

I know a few on here have converted the cargo vans to passenger type vehicles.

 

Seems like the suspension on the passenger version should be a lot softer. Unfortunately, Nissan probably put the passenger van on the same frame & suspension as the cargo vans.

 

Like axulsuv said, taking a leaf spring out will help a little. You might could try a different shock but since you don't have much of a load, I don't think that will do much.

[Tatunka]

Springs might do the trick, especially if you don't haul stuff.  I agree with using 1500 springs to replace your 3500 springs.

[dented]

I agree with using softer springs. Temprorarily, you can run lower pressures in your tires. I had mine aired up yesterday at Discount, and at max pressure it's a vastly different ride. Tires say max eighty in the back, but I think sixty was a much better pressure. Front was similar, I think ten PSI less than max was better. This is a completely empty 2500 cargo, fwiw. 

[kenmnv]

I suspect the 12 passenger springs are sized to carry 12 adults, which could be 2000 lbs or more. For example a hotel-airport shuttle.

6 kids probably would likely be 500 lbs or much less.

So the harsh ride is likely an engineering requirement.

The Ford Econoline and GM 8 passenger vans come with the 1500 half ton suspension for the same reason.

In any case it would be nice to have a solution for a softer ride.

[maxEX84]

I know I'm bringing up an old post, but I do remember talking to a company that makes an airbag suspension system that is primarily for the Nissan Titan, but since the NV and Titan share a lot of the same suspension components, it can be used for the NV as well. Just my input since I'm new here.

[pttdds]

In a search for a softer ride on our passenger NV I tried lowering the tire pressure to 65 rear and 45 front.

It makes a huge difference, but so far have not been able to retrain the pressure monitoring system to accept the new setting. It keeps reminding me what the pressures are.

Two questions: since we don't carry heavy loads, what are the prices of lower pressure e.g. shorter tire life?

And is there a way to teach the NV computer that the new pressure setting is OK?

[vanguy]

Lower pressure should not affect tire life. The 45 PSi in the front is getting a bit low & could possibly cause a little quicker wear on the outside edges. Just keep an eye on it.