I think the PO of my car weighed at least 600 lbs. The driver's seat was completely destroyed, and the whole car tilts to the drivers side. I fixed the seat, but the tilt is starting to bug me. Other than find a 600 lb. passenger to ride with me for 20 years, does anyone have any ideas as to how I can (easily) level things out? I'm talking about 1 or 2 inches.

Thanks

Does the whole car really tilt to one side? A demolished driver's side seat can create that perception.

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'81 MB 300SD, '82 MB 300D Turbo (sold/RIP), '04 Lincoln Town Car Ultimate

Sooner or later every car falls apart, ours does it later!
-German Narrator in a MB Promotion Film about the then brand new W123.

Yeah, the whole car tilts to the left. It's not real severe, but you can tell it you look at the car from the front or rear, or if you measure the distance between the tire and the wheel well.

Take a good look at the springs for cracked/broken coils, and at the suspension for signs of asymmetrical wear in the bushings, etc.

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99 E300 Turbodiesel 100k

Now there is one thing that is not going to show up on a Carfax report.

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85 300D 75K Anthracite Grey 0-60 in 13 seconds **For Sale**
84 300D 333K Black (The Velveteen Rabbit) 0-60 in 14 seconds
00 Toyota Sienna 208K (Sold)
15 Subaru Outback 43K
11 Subaru Outback 67K
98 Ford Taurus 100K (Gertie - Was Grandma's - drove it to church and shopping - really) Daughter's car now.
30 Model A Ford 2 Door Sedan (Sold) 0-60 in . . . Never reached 60

LMAO. That gave me a good laugh!!!

My former (original) seat in my SD was that way too, and the seat in my dad's '82 SD is completely destroyed.

Were these cars bought by huge fat lawyers??

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-diesel is not just a fuel, its a way of life-
'15 GLK250 Bluetec 118k - mine - (OC-123,800)
'17 Metris(VITO!) - 37k - wifes (OC-41k)
'09 Sprinter 3500 Winnebago View - 62k (OC - 67k)
'13 ML350 Bluetec - 95k - dad's (OC-98k)
'01 SL500 - 103k(km) - dad's (OC-110,000km)
'16 E400 4matic Sedan - 148k - Brothers (OC-155k)

Two 300 lb. passengers would be easier to find. Front and back seat.

Seriously, I would think that new springs, shocks and seat would solve the problem.

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85 300D 75K Anthracite Grey 0-60 in 13 seconds **For Sale**
84 300D 333K Black (The Velveteen Rabbit) 0-60 in 14 seconds
00 Toyota Sienna 208K (Sold)
15 Subaru Outback 43K
11 Subaru Outback 67K
98 Ford Taurus 100K (Gertie - Was Grandma's - drove it to church and shopping - really) Daughter's car now.
30 Model A Ford 2 Door Sedan (Sold) 0-60 in . . . Never reached 60

You would be best served by just biting the bullet and replacing the springs. Before doing that, however, I would do some precise measurement to be sure that the springs are indeed collapsed. I fully expect that they are though.

Springs are not terribly expensive and not too bad of a job to replace. A set from a salvaged car would probably serve you well, but you should measure the salvage car setting on a level surface first.

I modeled a 500+ lb bariatric hospital patient for a medical device manufacturer, had to verify that their air mattress would support the claimed weight, and keep the tush off of the hard steel bedpan. It was mind boggling to peek into that world. Such patients would certainly not fit in any bucket seat. They are typically cut out of their houses if no doors are wide enough, and travel by ambulance.

On of the senior engineers there had worked with I think a 400+ lb individual, and was sweating bullets the whole time the subject was in the building, worried about him tripping on a threshold or blowing out an ankle. There is some pretty neat patient handling technology for bariatric clinics.

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CC: NSA

All things are burning, know this and be released.

82 Benz 240 D, Kuan Yin
12 Ford Escape 4wd

You're four times

It's hard to

more likely to

concentrate on

have an accident

two things

when you're on

at the same time.

a cell phone.

www.kiva.org It's not like there's anything wrong with feeling good, is there?

You mean like this?

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-diesel is not just a fuel, its a way of life-
'15 GLK250 Bluetec 118k - mine - (OC-123,800)
'17 Metris(VITO!) - 37k - wifes (OC-41k)
'09 Sprinter 3500 Winnebago View - 62k (OC - 67k)
'13 ML350 Bluetec - 95k - dad's (OC-98k)
'01 SL500 - 103k(km) - dad's (OC-110,000km)
'16 E400 4matic Sedan - 148k - Brothers (OC-155k)

Never underestimate the human body. I've seen many "big" truck drivers unwittingly walk across the truck scale and register 400-500lbs, a few even rolling one of those mini oxygen tanks. Yet they seem to climb in/out of the trucks several times a day and get the job done (slowly).

A few years ago during winter, one of the local "big" drivers slipped on some ice in the trailer yard. He was like an egg, he couldn't push on the ground far enough to pick himself up, just roll over. We had to get the forklift for him to grab onto. This guy was also breaking air suspension seats every 1-2 months.

There are also a few with lines cut across their shirts from the steering wheel rubbing.

My drivers ed teacher was so fat that he had to lift the left quadrant of his lard out of the way when a student needed to use the gear selector. He was huge! Oh, and he'd take his students through the drive through.

__________________
-diesel is not just a fuel, its a way of life-
'15 GLK250 Bluetec 118k - mine - (OC-123,800)
'17 Metris(VITO!) - 37k - wifes (OC-41k)
'09 Sprinter 3500 Winnebago View - 62k (OC - 67k)
'13 ML350 Bluetec - 95k - dad's (OC-98k)
'01 SL500 - 103k(km) - dad's (OC-110,000km)
'16 E400 4matic Sedan - 148k - Brothers (OC-155k)

This thread reminds me of a situation when I was in high school delivering parts for a local auto supply. A good customer of mine was the Firestone store in town where there was a really nice guy, Earl, who was the front end man in the shop. He was very competent and I got to know him very well over the coming years.

He had a guy come in with a pick up for alignment and the customer came back saying that the truck didn't drive right. Earl put the truck back on the rack and couldn't find anything at all wrong. The guy came back a third time and this time had his wife with him. While the customer was a small, thin man, his wife was an EXTREMELY LARGE woman. Earl had quite a time trying to figure out how to get the man and his wife to sit in the truck while he did the alignment so that he could get things such that it would drive right. He was afraid of hurting their feelings.

After lots of worrying, he finally just asked if they would both mind sitting in the truck while he did the alignment. The woman told Earl something like: " I've been telling him that you would have to make up for me sitting on the right side." Or something like that. As it turned out the couple were quite agreeable and easy to deal with on the issue. We laughed about that for years.

Some years back, I bought a 1 ton Dodge truck for cheap. The PO decided that Dodges were crap because the seats were uncomfortable, and they were poorly made because the floor pan was cracked and the seat legs had punched through. The whole issue was "them Dodges is junk", while he ignored the fact that he weighed about 450 to 500#. When he got in a 1 ton truck, the springs sagged.
Actually, he may have driven my 300 once or twice....

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1984 300 D runs, interior
1984 300 D light hit in front, RUST, mint/perfect dash, decent interior (see above), parts car
(hate to kill one)
1998 Dodge diesel

Welcome back Forced! I hope you will be just nice enough to stay with us.

Another possibility is to change the spring pad thickness on the driver's side.

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.