This system is designed for the customer who refuses to keep the rubber on the tarmac and has an eye for quality and appreciation for bang-for-their-buck. At the heart of this system is a 2.5” lift, Linear Rate Coil Spring paired to matched travel King 2.5” Remote Reservoir Shocks that have been custom tuned, in house, for superior ride quality and handling both on-road and off. In an effort to provide customers with the best product, we designed a custom piston to determine proper base flow rates to ensure the shock works well in the heavy duty truck platform; we then tuned the shocks around the custom pistons based on the only thing that matters to us, seat-of-the-pants feel. We round off ALL our King shocks with shafts machined and polished from a solid piece of 17-4 Stainless. Unlike King’s standard shafts, there is no coating to wear off, weather is far less likely to hurt them and if there is a small chip, you can round the edges with emery cloth to ensure the seal housing isn’t damaged as they’re not brittle like the stock, hardened shafts. The shocks are finished with King oil good to -55* F. Note that all King shocks are built with a plated steel body. If subjected to inclement weather for extended periods, we recommend wrapping your shocks in 3M to provide a moisture barrier that’s replaceable.
The rear piggyback reservoir shocks are also included with this system and have been custom tuned to maximize the ride quality of the factory air bags. As the rear bags remain unmodified, load capacity is maintained while on and off-road handling and predictability are massively improved. The included Adjustable track bar centers the axle to the frame. For those that love the way their Ram tows from the factory but don’t want to be limited to a crawl when leaving the pavement, this is the perfect kit.
We do not need to deep dive the base kit components, they’ve been sufficiently covered in our other articles covering the coil-spring trucks. Same goes for the shocks, we’ve spent PLENTY of time detailing our tuning process to hone the ride of these HD trucks – the same applies here as these shock packages are all air-ride specific tuning we developed during this R&D cycle. If you’d like any further info on this process, hit us at the shop and we’d be happy to chat about our process in as much detail as you’d like!
So let’s look into the rear, starting with the airbag spacers. They’re included because the air-ride trucks have 1″ less rear to front rake when compared to a coil sprung truck. Our choice was between making a shorter coil and shock combo to a truck already starved for suspension travel or space the rear to match our 2.5″ spring; we chose the latter to maximize the travel and ride comfort. For the leveling system, this required some engineering as you can’t just throw a 1″ spacer on; the length of the factory stud doesn’t facilitate this. We designed a 2-piece spacer. Half bolts to the bag, half bolts to the axle – in between, chromoly spacers to support the load, then it all bolts together.
It installs seamlessly. The whole assembly snaps together like an ultra-satisfying adult lego set. The pins pressed into the upper half of the bracket mark the rear and provide a failsafe for the airbag.
The links; what’s to say about the links? The factory links are cheesy polimer ends. This part sees no real load but polimer isn’t our style. We machined exact length rods for the 2.5″ Systems and 3.25″ Systems from aluminum rod then thread the ends to accept our zinc-steel ends. The ends snap into position with authority and are provided with a spring clip keeper for insurance.
Lastly, the bump stop drops. Nothing much to detail here. The Leveling Systems will be provided with a 1-7/8″ Bump Stop Drop. These bolt in place of the factory 7/8″ bumps providing a 1″ total drop over stock to compliment the 1″ airbag spacer provided. The bags bump out exactly as they do factory and are essentially shifted down 1″. The rear shocks provided with the leveling system maintains the stock rear travel.
This system will NOT be upgradeable to any of the 3″ Carli Suspension Systems. It’s designed to be a solution for customers wanting a quality system with minimal lift and part inclusion.
We recommend slight eccentric bolt compensation to correct caster after the lift as there are no Radius Arm Drops. For this reason, customers may experience a slight bow in the coil spring. We did not experience a coil bow in any of our test trucks but it’s possible at the 2.5” lift height without a Radius Arm Drop Bracket.
Wheels and Tires:
We recommend a 35” tire on a wheel that’s no more than 9” wide with 5.5”-6” Backspace. An 18” diameter wheel will be best to ensure optimal ride quality (more rubber = better small bump compliance) and an unloaded tire pressure of 45F/40R is recommended. The addition of a Carli Low-Mount Steering Stabilizer is recommended for any tire over factory size. For more details, see our article on wheel and tire selection and tire pressures:
Tires and Wheels: How Do They Affect My Ride?
As pictured above, this truck has stock, 20″ Laramie wheels with 35×12.5″ Toyo MT tires. The leveling systems are designed for those that want a leveled stance. Changing to larger tire is optional – many leave the factory wheel and tire combo.
37s are doable on the Leveling Systems. They require a wheel no more than 9″ wide, +12 to +18mm offset with minimal trimming. These 37″ x 12.5″ Nitto Ridge Grapplers were mounted once the truck was completed.
