ThuMentaliss

Thanks for your response, thats your opinion and I respect your view even though I believe your knownledge of such is limited.

Sorry I disagree what your reffering to is in reality a completly different 'animal' its a canopy sun shade, Dometic and Kampa market these under there 'Canopy' description up till recently they were never reffered to as a awning ?? it does not have an awning strengths from my 'try outs' of two shades using a VW CAMPER they proved to be a poor substitute when compared against a windout especially when sudden wind changes occur also most modern windouts now have the keder rail channel built into the body so you dont need a seperate keder rail, over straps, magneticstrips, support poles etc

Great stuff! But none of those photos show a 'wind out awning fitted to the roofs of their Alphard examples? (the fiamma f45/S is an upright fitting awning) yes I have fitted them myself to MAZDA BONGOS and seen them fitted at the Chichester base convertors in West Sussex but there all fitted in a stand up position, OK not so prominate when fitted adjacant to a PopTop conversion but as a item on there own they look too high and awkward of the vehicle body (already two Alphards in this area have damaged there roofs whilst trying to enter the public car park with vehicle height rails. Dont know if your aware but you can buy the fiamma side panels for your F45, and always connect you fiamma storm straps to your F45S even when the wind is not blowing ENJOY your awning

Correct are you talking about awning tents (drive away) or wind out awnings Fiamma, Thule etc ?

The majority of Fiamma and Thule roll out awning's do not fit mounting rail's to mount their Windout awnings. Currently none of these manufactures market fitting brackets for the roof line or wall side mounts of Alphard your only option's is to get mounting brackets made up by Metal Frabicators..... (Northstar conversions (isle of white) can provide this service but as far as remember their fitting's are bolted /riveted to the top of the roof slope which means your awning is mounted vertically added extra height to your vehicle which you dont want if you visit public car parks with roof height barriers! they would probalaly offer to fit a Fiamma F45 AWNING which is a pretty good standard awning but its bulky and in my opinion totally wrong for a small campervan, this hole excerise from my pass dealings with this customisation could cost you over £2000

Fiamma dont market a rail for alphards, vellfire's however everything's possible if you got the money and Technical support ..what do you want to acheive with this rail?

Ok, so it didnt need front struts then because any movement within the strut piston or elsewhere should be a failure and new struts would have already been fitted before you purchased the car. Yes I agree, my Alphard does the same regarding our lovely pot-hole roads, I will change the front and rear coil springs, top bearings, bump stops, two drop links, rear spring saddles there's no movement from the front strut pistons and they have recently passed the Mot requirements

Interestly were you informed as to where the parts were sourced from, reason I'm asking is that most of parts offered say by Ebay and private sellers are of Chinese origin meaning a parts warranty would be difficult to implement secondly at the time of your decision to put your vehicle back to standard ride height did you have a current MOT cert' reason which comes back to my query previously to you as why did you need to change the front struts (shock absorbers) thanks for your input.

why did you have to change front struts?

best of luck have a stiff drink😄

latest: Your search - ToyoyaAlphardepc.com - did not match any documents.

True, thanks for your insite to this issue. Just to be clear Rojie I did mechanical drawings for automatic gearboxes in my fourth year at technical colleage part of (my exam for a Master Craftsman) IMI mechanic, studied contract 'Common Law' for the motortrade two years at Surtees racing, thirty years as a Group after sales director responsible for over 104 after sales personnel and 7 After Sales dept's throughout Sussex

with respect how do you intend to check it yourself ? either way the vehicle needs to be inspected preferably by a technication that has experience with Alphards 'very few I might add ' try and visit a garage thats owned by the person your going to talk to they may oblige you by suggesting they put the vehicle on a ramp and investigate the issue

48510 48510-59605 01 04.2005 - ABSORBER ASSY, SHOCK, FRONT RH ANH1#,MNH1#..AS,MS ＴＥＭＳ−有り 622.08 USD.......... for one strut???

I got put off by them due to you have to be the 'partsperson' and idenify the parts you need and yes they are expensive

might be the suspension strut top mount support bearing or the steering wheel shaft couping which might explain the steering wheel play

Adverage price was before the recession £1100 - 1200.00 depends how far you want to take it some people on here will tell you you have to change nearly everything to do with the suspension which is nonsense. all depends all mileage, useage, if you vehicle passed a Mot recently which a failure may have picked up on worn joints etc would be helpfull.

From your photos it appears that you have the early model HKs' coilovers which had a limited adjustment , if you would like to know what the vehicles current standing height is (ground clearance) take it to your 'friendly' garage who if possible has an old fashioned service pit and explain to them that you wish to know the ground clearance if they know what they are doing 15 minutes later they should have the answer .....the other way is for you to measure it yourself which is difficult as you need to know the fixed point of where toyota measures from floor to underside of the chassis...sorry I cant remember where that location is but you should find it by browsing the net.....question is have you got the problem of pot-hole bottoming out ?🤕

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Sorry Jay, Coilovers are specifically designed to lower the vehicle not give the vehicle more height, I spent a lot of time reserching this issue and found that from anaylising the Technical data of seven coilover manufactures none were able to alter the ride height to the original Manufacture's spec'..this was based on my vehicle having 19" wheels with lowered suspension...dont forget if you are lucky enough in adjusting your coilovers you then need to get the steering geometry checked as coilovers adjustments can alter the caster and camber angles

FRONT STRUTS Hi, sorry I can't help you, we've never had to change any struts on Alphard/Vellfire before. ...

why do you have to change the front shocks?

beware that your tyres maybe directional and the load faction is still within the requirements of the tyre manufacture

surely Vango Galli give you the height Dimensions as to what vehicle this drive away awning will fit to ?????? nest issue will be is how you intend to attach the awning tunnel to the Alphard roof...have you messured the roof height? dont forget if your alphard has been lowered you will have to make sure the your awning's tunnel is able to fit snugly if not you may experience riain ingress into your awning

Thanks Rojie, mine apparently was lowered in Japan, owning the vehicle has for me been a poor experience especially with the problem of pot-hole's bottoming out the suspension the only real way to cure this is to put the vehicle back to standard form this in turn will cost me money that I had not Budget'ed for. From my experience someone who's contimplating purchasing an Alphard with ideals of turning into a fully fledged camper van should avoid purchasing a lowered model. Sorry Rojie for my ignorance what is a 'JDM'

Sorry mark to hear of your separation Ive been there not a nice experiance, can I be cheeky and ask you who did your suspension change? Regards larry