When you decide to lift your truck 6 full inches, there are pitfalls you might not even be aware of. A lot of kits have a low-ball price but leave out some of the parts that make the kit function optimally. The guys at Spirson Off-Road have designed a 6-inch system for 3/4- and 1-ton Dodge trucks that was designed and carefully put together to address all the issues that come into play when modifying your stock suspension to handle the extremes of off-road terrain, yet still be pleasant enough to drive back and forth to work every day.
| suspension Solution Kit Dodge Ram 2500 dodge Ram 2500
A lot people don't really know what these issues are until it's too late. Sometimes after spending countless hours in the driveway (or lots of money at a shop), you only then discover the kit is not exactly what you had hoped for. For example, the company that sold you the kit might not have mentioned your front driveshaft may not fit anymore until you get it lengthened. And maybe the rearend picked up a serious vibration. Or maybe the springs are so stiff that fillings get knocked out of your teeth on speed bumps. Many times, a lifted truck that was supposed to be better for off-road use ends up being very limited in its abilities in the rough stuff.
Here is where we begin talking about a complete lift system. We're not going to go into how to install this product. If you need someone to show you how to install it, you shouldn't be installing it in the first place. This was not designed to be done in your driveway, unless you have a very big driveway with a lot of tools in your garage and consider yourself mechanically inclined. This is better left to professionals who know what they are doing and can make sure everything is installed correctly.
What we will show you are some of the unique components included in this system and how it compares to your stock suspension. In the accompanying photos you'll see before and after shots of the different components as usual, but also graphs of the stock suspension and the Spirson Off-Road suspension at work. Yes...graphs. SENSR, an electronic data acquisition company in Iowa, sent us one of its new GP1 programmable accelerometers with onboard data logging capability. What does this mean? Well, we were able to measure the vibration and movement of both the stock suspension and the Spirson Off-Road suspension on the same terrain to actually show you the difference through plotting of the data. So you're not just getting information from the butt-o-meter, but also some hard data on how the suspension worked, or didn't.
Luke Gibson, co-owner of Spirson Off-Road, told us the install would take the better part of two days. There are a lot of pieces that need to be installed. While not necessarily a hard installation, it is a time consuming one. There are only a few holes that need to be drilled and one bracket that needs to be trimmed-other than that, it is a true bolt-on. No late-night trips to the auto parts store for nuts or bolts, it's all there. We were very impressed.
Toyo Tires stepped up to the plate with a set of its 37/13.5-20 Mud Terrain tires and MKW Wheels helped out with a set of its chrome 20-inch MK28s. We were very impressed with the combination while balancing them at Discount Tire Company in Oceanside, California. The worst set took only 3 ounces to balance and two of the four only took 1 ounce. Most of you know how hard it can be to get large wheels and tires to balance without any vibration. Not only do these tires not vibrate, they are very quiet for a mud-terrain tire.
We tested the truck at a secret area in the Southern California desert. The road simulates what one would expect when traveling off-road. We started the test in the stock truck (obviously) and attempted to find a speed we could carry throughout the entire track. We came up with 18 to 20 mph-this is all the stocker could handle. At times, we actually had to go a bit slower when trying to recover from the bottoming out of the suspension. We truly thought we were going to be welding on the oil pan or axlehousing before we were finished. Realistically, you could not drive this fast for any length of time, you would break something. The truck was barely under control, and it was bouncing off the bumpstops continuously.
| The crew at Spirson Off-Road decided on King shocks for the suspension. Not only are the shocks custom valved, they had King perform custom machining inside the can to get the shock to perform like they wanted. In addition to the full 12 inches of usable travel, you get an incredible ride to boot. You can see the difference in the coilover setup compared to the stock shock.
After the installation, we returned to the same road and ran the truck at the same mph as we did with the stock suspension. While the ride was not smooth, it was controlled and manageable and not bouncing off the bumpstops. Our tester told Jeremy Spirkoff (co-owner of Spirson) that he really expected it to be better. Jeremy kind of smirked and said, "Hold on a minute." We turned around and started down the road again, this time going approximately 60 mph. The tester grabbed his seatbelt in one hand and the grab bar in the other not knowing what to expect...he was amazed! It was like the truck was traveling on a different road. The faster the truck went, the better it was. We were able to reach a top speed of 66 mph compared with the stock suspension's 20 mph.
We tested the truck with both the stock and modified suspensions on the test track and the actual paved road next to the track. We have data and graphs to show how the suspensions reacted to the different terrains. Our butt-o-meter said it's an incredible difference. The ride on the normal roads was all we could ask for. You can actually have a drink (soda, coffee, etc.) while driving and not spill it all over.
Now, for those that live in SoCal and are familiar with the highway expansion joints, here is the part you've been waiting for. All we can say is, it's outstanding. With most of the joints you will not even notice the "thump" part. You'll just feel the suspension going over a small mound-nothing jarring or upsetting to the truck. But, there are a few highways, like the 10 East or 710 North that you still feel. Definitely not as bad, but they are there, and the faster you go, the less you feel them.
All in all, we can't say enough. The suspension truly is incredible on- and off-road. The guys at Spirson Off-Road have done their homework along with the countless hours of R&D. What they have come up with is a suspension system that will change the way you think about driving your truck, whether that's to the grocery store or Baja.
Mads Electronics
Mads Electronics sent us one of its new Smarty S-06 downloaders for the Dodge Ram so that we would be able to calibrate the speedometer to the new tire size and not have any transmission shifting issues due to the larger tires. And not only did we use it for the tires, we thought why not put some extra power in there also? Wow! Now that is some extra power. All the power you feel like you lose when putting the larger tires on is back, plus some. Check it out at: www.madselectronics.com.
| suspension Solution Kit Dodge Ram 2500 mads Electronics
Sensr Electronics
Sensr designs and manufactures rugged, reliable, easy-to-use monitoring instruments that measure critical data and help improve product performance. SENSR's products are used by some of the leading companies throughout the world, such as NASA, Lockheed Martin, Ford Motor Company, and several NASCAR teams.
| SENSR Electronics of Elkader, Iowa, let us borrow one of its programmable accelerometers to measure the suspension movement during our testing. This allowed us to measure not only the amount of movement, but also the speed in which it was moving.
Sensr's GP1 test unit is a self-contained, data-logging device that measures and records acceleration, braking, and handling dynamics. The GP1 is an easy-to-use professional tool that makes it simple to measure the effects of drivetrain, braking, and suspension modifications.
The GP1 is manufactured from billet aluminum. With batteries, it weighs 8.2 oz. The GP1 kits retail for $599 and come complete with software, a USB cable, batteries, a quick-start guide, and manuals.
Before The Lift
The Finished Lift
We Graph It
The first set of graphs shows the truck heading southbound on our test track. Run No. 2 is the truck in its stock configuration and runs No. 12 and No. 14 are both with the Spirson Off-Road suspension.
Run No. 2 and run No. 12 were completed with an approximate speed of 20 mph. With the truck in its stock configuration (red), we were not able to maintain our 20-mph speed limit-we continuously had to slow down for the larger bumps to keep the truck from slamming off of the bumpstops. When we ran the Spirson Off-Road suspension (blue), the truck articulated very well over the bumps without any harshness in the ride, although it was moving quite a bit.
