I am thinking about buying a '01 2500 quad cab 4x4 with the Cummins and a 6 spd. I am wanting to use it off road. I won't be doing any towing or much hauling with it so I am pretty free to mod the suspension any way my budget will allow (which isn't much). It has the camper package with the auxilliary springs and sway bar in back. I was thinking of removing both of the affore mentioned items, flipping the overload leaf and getting disconnects for the sway bar in front. Will this increase my flexability off road or is the main leaf pack in the rear just too stiff for good flex? Also, I was wanting to know if the stock suspension benefits from longer shocks in front or rear or would that just be wasting time and money?
Thankyou in advance.
Brian

 

Disconnects in the front make a pretty good difference in both travel and stability. The rear sway bar makes no noticable staibilty change but does increase travel some. Also it is one of the lowest items in the rear of the truck. Without lift or spring changes shock length won't get you anything. There are several good options for shocks that are superior in every way. I went with Bilsteins on both of ours. It was a tremendous improvment. Our 97 had Monroe Reflexs (from the PO, said they where less then two years old) that did not impress me, but some people on here do like them. Rancho's are popular too, but I have no personal experiance with them. The Bils where also cheaper then the monroes.

BTW, welcome to the board.

Randy

 

Thankyou Randy,
Appreciate the info. How well does a 2500 flex? Do you have any RTI scores, or any info on how far you can lift one tire with a forklift before another leaves the ground or anything like that? Off road ability is very important to me and I appreciate all the info I can get.
Thanks again
Bri.

 

With a good set of tires ours has performed very well. That makes a huge difference. There is a steep loose hill that a friend with an F-350 w/Pro-Comp X-terrians had to beat his way up. He put a Power trac in the front and still had some issues. I followed him up with minimal issue (read I only had to reposition once and never got over 1500 rpm.

High and wieght are the two issue with the truck stock for most things. Getting high centered. Extended cab long bed got me a couple of times recently. Look in my gallery for what happens when you try to push accross ground that has only been dry for two month (after being under water for over a year.

As for just flex, I've never pulled up a ramp. The rear sway bar seemed to help. The front definatly did. But I would not drive far on the road with-out it, especially if your shocks are marginal.

Randy

 

You can get better performance out of the rear by adding some mini leaf packs, either from Kore, Lorenz, or there was one other manufacturer. Do a search for either of them and you'll get lots of info.

 

The stock shocks are pretty limiting. You can get some respectable flex gains just by putting on longer shocks, on my truck I can put on 2 inch longer shocks without changing bumpstops or anything and still have the same ride height. In the back especially the stockers are way to short and do not allow hardly any down travel.

 

I've got a 4.5" skyjacker lift on mine. It's there stage 1 lift. There's a couple of pictures in my gallery of me flexing the suspension a little bit. I was actually fairly impressed that something this stiffly sprung could flex as well as it did. Your not going to win any trophies but you'll impress some people. You might want to put this in the competition forum. It's got an off road section in there and you'll probably get a few more answers.