Sprinter 3500 Class C Upgrade Series: Part 7 - Rear SuperSprings
Rear SuperSprings Leaf Spring Enhancer SSA55
Welcome back to the seventh and final installment of our Sprinter 3500 Class C upgrade series! We may add more installments in the future, but this will be the last regular weekly article.
In addition to some of the handling issues which we have discussed in previous articles, another common complaint for Sprinter Class C motorhome owners is low ground clearance. We noticed this on our Navion when coming in or out of driveways - the rear levelers would sometimes scrape because the back sat so low. Of course, the more load that is added, the worse this issue got.
There are quite a few options out there to address this, some more involved (and expensive) than others. One of the more simple solutions involves adding helper springs, which work with your existing leaf springs rather than replacing them. By keeping the factory leaf springs, the installation process is also made simpler.
There are several manufacturers of helper springs out there, but we really like working with SuperSprings. They make quality products and offer great support, including good installation videos. For the Sprinter 2500 Class B and 3500 Class C chassis, they offer the SSA55 helper springs. SuperSprings uses a patented roller bolt design to clamp on to the existing springs, which allows the SuperSprings to self-adjust to changing loads. They also include several different positions on the clamps, so the load on the spring can be adjusted to the loading and owner's preference. We knew we had to test these out on our Sprinter to see how well it addressed the ride height problem.
To get an idea of the installation process, you can take a look at their install video:
The video does a good job of showing the general process. However, it should be noted that this was filmed on a 2500 single rear-wheel Class B chassis. On a 3500 dual rear-wheel Class C, we did find the installation to be a bit trickier. Because of the dual rear wheels, there is less room to access the top of the axle to install the mounting plate. Class C coaches also use a multi-leaf pack which tends to spread apart as the suspension droops, which makes it more of a challenge to compress the SuperSpring down to the OEM spring pack in order to install the roller clamp underneath.
The SSA55 kit does include a small ITL-5 Leaf Pack Clamp tool which is helpful in the installation, but we found that we needed an additional means of clamping the new SuperSpring down onto the spring back. At our shop we already had SuperSprings' ITL-8 Hydraulic Clamp, which includes a 6-ton bottle jack along with a bracket to clamp around the spring pack. We would recommend this tool to anyone looking to install the SSA55 helper springs.
Once we got the springs installed, we re-checked our ride height and found that we had gained over an inch of clearance at the minimum adjustment setting. While this might not sound like much, it was enough to keep us from scraping the levelers in driveways where before we had to be extra careful. We also know that we can go back and pick the more aggressive adjustment settings which would gain us over two inches of additional clearance.
For someone looking for lift in the back of their Sprinter Class C who does not want to install a complete aftermarket spring pack, we would definitely recommend the SSA55 kit. DIYers can install them, although we would definitely recommend getting the proper tools to make the job easier (and safer).
This concludes our Sprinter 3500 Class C Upgrade Series! We hope it provided helpful guidance to Sprinter owners looking for ways of making their rigs drive and handle better. If you have questions or would like to learn more, please give us a call at 888-898-3281, or email sales@supersteerparts.com.
Links
Sprinter Upgrade Series: Part 1 - Rear Shocks
Sprinter Upgrade Series: Part 2 - Rear Sway Bar
Sprinter Upgrade Series: Part 3 - Rear Trac Bar
Sprinter Upgrade Series: Part 4 - Front Struts
Sprinter Upgrade Series: Part 5 - Stopping the Vibration
Sprinter Upgrade Series: Part 6 - A Wider Stance
SSA55 Rear SuperSprings Leaf Spring Enhancer
Sprinter RV Chassis - Better Steering and Handling (Filmed back in 2022, earlier in our testing process)
Sprinter Upgrade Summary Video
Sprinter SS480-3 Before and After Video