SUSPENSION
Yesterday we rolled out of Agile Off Road both with the biggest grins on our faces, allow us to share why. (also this post is not sponsored, this is our honest opinion)
Since we’ve started the van build we’ve been happy doing it ourselves but sometimes when we did plan to outsource a job we had a difficult time trying to find someone to first, do the job (inside of a year wait) and second, to not charge us unrealistic prices after they see what we’re driving. The biggest kick in the ass for us was when we actually had a professional handle an install or upfit, we were moderately disappointed at the end result and usually have to touch-up what’s been done. It’s really as if half ass is good enough these days, nobody cares about return business and the consumer is stuck bending and accepting poor quality. And that’s not fair.
We save for every component we purchase, we work hard and we need those dollars spent to count. We joke that every component we purchase costs $600 but we’re certainly not laughing when those items are often less than perfect and we need to do modifications on them ourselves.
Today however,
today was different!
Today we rolled out of a little public campground called Bobcat Meadow in the mountains above San Diego. We drove over water ruts and through holes and around single track turns and axle twisting diagonal dips on our way to the highway. For several miles this stretched our patience feeling the bob and roll of our van as our entire life flops around inside the back. When we reach the highway we can feel a consistent float to the left on wheel as our van gets moving up to speed. We drove into Agile Off-Road in Santee. The warm and welcoming folks in the office made us feel right at home in the lobby where we would be spending the day while they fitted their Ride Improvement Package to our van, a pretty extensive upgrade for the stock suspension. They knew we lived full time in our van and wanted to try their best to have us in and out in just one day. We saw their guys in a near sweat running around the shop hard at work and they had us out before dinner time, all finished and with a knowledgeable test drive from the main man.
After our past experiences we were certainly anxious about this rather pricy job, but once completed we couldn’t have been happier with the results. From the moment we rolled off the first curb we could feel the response and stability of the ride. Impressed is kind of an understatement. The van drives better than new. A whole new experience in a vehicle this size. As we drove back out the same dirt road to Bobcat Meadow we could feel every turn and dip smooth and comfortable in our new improved ride. Sharper turns and deeper twists on the new shocks and leaf springs, we were flying and we felt so much safer than before! The one box of toiletries that ALWAYS falls down on offroad tracks stayed put on its shelf!
Our eyes widened and we smiled, the RIP Kit made huge difference in our confidence to look deeper down those unbeaten paths. Those Jeep trails don’t feel out of reach in a sprinter van anymore. And we’ll confess, this is still with the stock Continental tires. When our Sprinter gets her new shoes we were told the ride will improve even more and we will be looking at double the height clearance from the size of the BF Goodrich KO2s that we see on nearly every legit 4x4 sprinter.
Being equip for more than Walmart parking lots or RV camp sights is something every van lifer should strive for but we feel like most settle for staying close to civilisation. That’s..not..us. We are about pushing the boundaries of our adventure and Agile Off-Road gave us a huge leap forward in achieving our goal of a true Overlander Sprinter that will take us to 6 continents around the world. We’re more than happy with the result we got from the suspension upgrade, it was worth every penny! Huge thanks to the folks at Agile Off-Road and we’ll be seeing them again really soon, return business is making a come back!
Get your own RIP kit from Agile Offroad here www.agileoffroad.com