Recoup,
Shock absorbers are fitted only to take the shock out of your springs to improve the van's ride, NOT to increase the height of the van. I assume the van is level when you are sitting on flat ground & I would suggest you look at

1) possibly inverting the axle (if it is a drop axle)
2) at airbags (Polyaire, Airbagman)
3) having an engineer fit a 2" lift kit (could be drastic with normal leaf springs - rewelding the spring hangers on some adequate square/rectangular channel )

I suffer the same problem with my current van & being an Outback model, it has more clearance than normal road vans but it has a rear entry & step fitted. I normally scrape on leaving my driveway & the Woolies Service Station at Roma.
I did the following -

1) added a 25mm spacer (made by an engineer) between the coupling & the mounting plate on the van (the plate is welded to the bottom of the chassis) - that effectively dropped the front of the chassis & lifted the back. But then I had to add a "drop" hitch on the car to level the van.

2) My wife said "Why don't you turn to the right instead of the left when going out of the driveway?" She was right, no more scraping - but that doesn't help you.

Do a "Search" on this forum for others who may have experienced similar troubles.

All the best,
Warren

I can see , it is not an easy fix. I had the son pulling the van with a new Hilux out of the garage , with my VW Tiguan I don't scrape the floor of the garage. The car is an automatic, with electric hand brake . I hate the e-brake, when pulling out of the garage ,I have one foot on the brake and the other on the gas pedal . By revving the engine and letting the brakes go ,the motor will slow down and then it is to late to take off ,the car will roll back. Cheers

Dougwe wrote:

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Avan do a lift kit as an option when buying maybe they sell the kit as an after thought.

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Good info Doug & we know you're an ex owner but getting any assistance out of Avan after you buy one is almost impossible, ask any Avan owner including us. The ones fitted with a lift kit do look the goods though.  

Why not fit the larger wheels from the Cruiser/Cruiseliner.....I think the stud pattern is the same so should be an easy swapover. Problem with an adjustable drop-hitch is you will possibly need to adjust it back to normal height when on the road.

Good Luck.

P.S ...'I have checked with a private certifier and he has told me that there is no code for lifting any light trailer or camper van type of trailer if it is under 4.5 tonne. I double checked with and asked if there was anyone that I should see for registration or insurance and again said there is no code for this and his advice was just take photos of the job showing how it was done and the person has to be a professional in welding and designing the job at hand. The person I engaged was both professional and very good at designing engineering projects way above this undertaking. As I have done all the photos and documented the project I feel I have now covered all that is required for lifting my A'Van up by 100mm.'...

Lifting Height of A'van for Off Roading. After doing a lot of off road with our A'Van Cruiseliner we found it to be just a bit to low on tracks that we could negotiate with our Toyota Prado so I decided to lift the van by 100 millimeters or four inches in the old measurements. After much deliberation we came up with a simple block that sits in the cutout section of the A'Van above the axle. This block was bolted to the side plates where the axle was originally bolted to and then the bottom of the block was bolted to the top of the axle where the flat plate was already drilled for other configurations. By doing it this way we only used all the existing holes using half inch high tensile number 8 bolts fine threaded with nylock nuts. After doing this the step into the van which is too narrow and dangerous when wet had to be extended out and another step added which now works very well as per the few trips we have done since doing the mods. Also the extra height meant I could do away with the stabilizer jacks and installed Alko drop down corner jacks that are much sturdier. I hope this all make sense and it is easy to follow, the step extension took about two hours to make and lifting the van took about five hours as we were working blind as I don't know of anyone else have done something like this. It all worked very well in the end but getting into the front boot is a bit harder as you need a small box to stand on or a small step ladder and raising the roof is also that much harder. To counter this we are looking at some mechanical lifter to help especially when the awning is attached. Cheers and all the best. Jeffrey and Kay Bailey.  Copied from the Avan Club Website.

This is one way  that will give about an 80mm lift over the Alko  Axle. Similar job can be acheived using Plates and using the side bolt holes. Either way is successful and quite a few Avan owners do it this way.   You can buy a new axle from Alko with a 50mm lift  if you request it. $1400 delivered to Perth from Melbourne. The plates or fabricated insert seen above are easier and cheaper to fit.  Simple job as well.  If you raise the Van the existing Shocks will not fit.  Most people leave them off as they do not seem to be necessary. I don't have them on. Nor do others in our club.  We travel on the dirt as well for weeks sometimes and no probs.   Alko rep told me they are not necessary as the type of suspension is self dampening.  Hope this helps. 

Regards

Mike

-- Edited by elliemike on Thursday 28th of September 2017 08:23:55 PM