SOLD - 2006 Sportsmobile For Sale. $26.5K - Page 2

mikracer · 10-23-2013, 10:37 AM

This is a great layout and a great price to match. If I didn't just purchase my SMB, this one would have been at the top of my list!

jacquemo · 10-23-2013, 01:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikracer

This is a great layout and a great price to match. If I didn't just purchase my SMB, this one would have been at the top of my list!

Thanks for the encouragement. If you have any friends let them know.

Best Regards

Jacquemo

SMBTIGER · 10-23-2013, 01:58 PM

Sold! Couldn't pass, Seller was fantastic to work with! Now who wants to help drive it from Orlando to LosAngeles?

mikracer · 10-23-2013, 02:15 PM

Congrats! It looks like a really nice SMB, and if you ever decide to sell it, it will only be a few hours away from me!

jacquemo · 10-23-2013, 04:28 PM

I have agreed to sell our SMB to "SMBTIGER in CA. I appreciate all the interest and I'm glad somebody will continue to enjoy SMB Texas' work and my design. Bye the way the SMB has a name. It's "Andiamo" That means "Let's go" in Italian.

SMBTIGER · 10-23-2013, 10:19 PM

NOT SURE where to post this, but it may be helpful to other SMB OWNERS trying to fit in a garage, a nice SMB owner sent me this when I asked how to make a Ford more garageable...Do any of you think
These ideas are worth the time and money to do?

HERE IS THE INFO HE SENT ME.....First, I am a retired Electrical Engineering Executive with many years engineering experience with a hobby over the years of building and modifying van conversions. I have owned van conversions since 1968.
My last van was a lowered Sportsmobile and I put over 150,000 miles on it. I ordered this van new to my specs, designed the interior in great detail, then took it to Sportsmobile West in Fresno to get the basic mods. Then I developed and integrated the custom features myself.

The standard Sportsmobile on an E250 chassis is about 87" high. Here are the various mods I made to this one to lower the height to about 82 1/2 inches.

1) First, I had Sportsmobile trim 1" off the sides of the Penthouse top to pickup nearly
an inch in overall height reduction

2) Then, I had the rear springs re-arched (without heat) to lower it 1 1/2 inches in
the rear,

3) I installed 3" rear spring shackles to lower another 1 /1/2
inches in the rear.

4) Finally, I installed a lighter set of Ford coil springs to pick up a little
over an inch in the front.

The net result was a drop of over 4 inches in the rear and 2 inches in the front.

Not only does it fit in most standard garages but the ride is a lot smoother than any other Sportsmobile on the road.

BajaSportsmobile · 10-24-2013, 12:23 AM

This is going to sound rude - so be it. You must be an engineer, because most of that make no real world sense to me.

1) Trimming the Penthouse Top and inch - now that is a great idea as long as everything still fits and functions.

2) Stock E250 leaf spring packs are just about flat at ride height - re-arching them to lower the ride by 1.5 inches would mean that they were reverse arched, not something the spring pack was designed to be and it would not function correctly nor last very long.

3) The factory spring shackle is ~4.5 inches - shortening it to 3 inches would actually raise the van.

2) & 3) A factory E250 has just less than 4 inches of bump travel in the rear (gap between the axle tube and the rubber bump stop is ~3.75 inches) - if you lowered the van 3 inches you would be riding around almost bottomed out and on the bump stop.

4) Installing a lighter spring in the front would have you bouncing off the front bump stop as well and cause you to bottom out the suspension with regularity.

None of this would account for a smoother ride.

Am I missing something?

SMBTIGER · 10-24-2013, 01:08 AM

Thx

BajaSportsmobile · 10-24-2013, 01:48 AM

Like I tried to elude - not much of that made sense, and pointing it out was going to sound rude just about any way I did it. His information nice or not is misguiding and I am not sure where pointing that out is not being nice.

By the way, you purchased a sweet SMB.

mikracer · 10-24-2013, 10:07 AM

Typically if you wanted to lower the front with different coil springs, you wouldn't put softer springs in. You would want the same or stiffer spring rate, but a shorter spring. If you put a softer spring in, like Bajasportsmobile said, you would bounce ALL over the place and bottom out over the smallest little bumps. If you're within a few inches of clearing your garage door, I would rather let some air out of the tires to get it in there.