{"id":6013,"date":"2025-09-05T12:54:59","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T10:54:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.retro.co.za\/blog\/?p=6013"},"modified":"2025-12-09T13:01:55","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T11:01:55","slug":"down-at-the-stern","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.retro.co.za\/blog\/?p=6013","title":{"rendered":"Down at the stern"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-5635\" src=\"http:\/\/www.retro.co.za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/IMG_4830cr.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"432\" \/><\/p>\n<p>On our <a href=\"http:\/\/www.retro.co.za\/blog\/?cat=119\">recent Kruger trip<\/a>, the Golf was decidedly down at the stern. The teardrop does not put a lot of weight on the tongue, on this same trip we got stuck up a dead end &#8220;road&#8221; and I had to unhitch, pick it up and turn it&#8230; I&#8217;d say about 30 kilos or so. But there&#8217;s a case of beer and a case of wine and a fridge in the back of the Golf, and the springs are getting old&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>OK, so there are many options for springs for the Golf 4s, but the Estates already have the strongest ones fitted. Fortunately there&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/forums.tdiclub.com\/index.php?threads\/air-suspension-for-sportwagen.497028\/\">a cheap and easy fix<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-6102\" src=\"http:\/\/www.retro.co.za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Golf-Tiguan-Springs-cr.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"473\" \/><\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s the Golf (five green) at the top, and a Tiguan spring at the bottom.<\/p>\n<p>And it&#8217;s easy to change, and it works.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-6105\" src=\"http:\/\/www.retro.co.za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/GolfStandardSprings.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"609\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-6106\" src=\"http:\/\/www.retro.co.za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/GolfTiguanSprings.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"551\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Before and after.<\/p>\n<p>Important! (I did not realise) Loosen the rear axle bushes, drive the car a bit, and re-tighten. If you don&#8217;t, the bushes are permanently stressed and this might be why mine went (OK, having 580 000km on the clock, maybe I should expect some wear &amp; tear).<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On our recent Kruger trip, the Golf was decidedly down at the stern. The teardrop does not put a lot of weight on the tongue, on this same trip we got stuck up a dead end &#8220;road&#8221; and I had to unhitch, pick it up and turn it&#8230; I&#8217;d say about 30 kilos or so. But there&#8217;s a case of beer and a case of wine and a fridge in the back of the Golf, and the springs are getting old&#8230; OK, so there are many options for springs for the Golf 4s, but the Estates already have the strongest&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cars"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.retro.co.za\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.retro.co.za\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.retro.co.za\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.retro.co.za\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.retro.co.za\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6013"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.retro.co.za\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6013\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6107,"href":"https:\/\/www.retro.co.za\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6013\/revisions\/6107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.retro.co.za\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.retro.co.za\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.retro.co.za\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}