gatf4

Great post guys and very imformative. I've had a real strong urge to spend the money for the Kore Chase or Race kit, Mostly for their Coil spring in front.

My truck came with the factory snow plow springs. With those springs in front I feel pretty confident that just changing the shocks won't gain me much as far as a smooth ride goes. I mostly drive around town, occasionaly I tow a 7k lb Tag trailer as well. I would like to be able to handle the Sand Dunes as well. I just got my truck back from The Dealer. They had to replace the front axle housing because it was bent, so I want more control off road (Those pesky whoop dee doos).

I like the Kore products but they won't sell any components without buying a whole kit. According to them I can't have the Honor of buying a steering stabilizer from them if I don't buy their entire kit. Thats a load of bull as far as I'm concerned. Until this post was started I was pretty convinced that Kore had the best front Coil. Now the Lorenz or Carli sound smooth as well.

I talked with a very imformative guy from Carli today, (I can't recall his name at the moment) who also said that there kit is the best riding available and used the 2.5 King reservoir shocks. I wanted to talk to Lorenz before I make any decisions but I can't find a phone number for them. There is NO WAY I can shop for a new suspension by Email!!!!! I must be missing something on the Lorenz website right? Does anyone have a phone number for Sean at Lorenz. Their new Adjustable Fox kit with IR springs sounds just right for me.

edited: Ok, I was Doing some reading on the TDR site(which I don't normally do, and it seems that Sean at Lorenz is the bet Emailer on the internet I'll give it a try if I can't get a phone number.


Any other advice would be welcomed, Thanks guys

DPU

That seems strange. I know when I bought my Fox SS, I bought it seperate to go w/my Chase System. From the looks of it, it seems you can buy components seperately from the suspension kits from Greg Boardman @ DRC under the accessories page.

Hope this helps_

gatf4

Although the Gal I spoke with at Kore seemed very knowledgable, her standard response seemed to be that they only sold everything in kit form. Once I bought a kit from them, then I could add other components or upgrade as I wished. Thats the reason for the, Honor to buy from them, comment in my previous post.

PWT05Dodge

I've emailed Sean several times and received a response back shortly. He seems to be a standup guy. You can call and talk to Don Thuren also http://www.thurenfabrication.com . He will make a kit custom to your needs. He also is a great guy. I've emailed and talked to him. In fact I was going to order my trackbar Monday, but decided to wait until I get back from my first trip.

So my next question for my suspension experts is: Opinions on rear leaf springs. Who's add-a-pak is better, or who will make me a custom full pak. Again, I'd like to retain at least 85-90% of the factory payload rating, but I want my truck to drive like a cadillac . Well, since I will never have both, what options are there? Like I've said before, I like Carli's rear pak, but I have no technical reasoning for it other than 5 is better than 3 or 4.

And thanks again for all the info/opinions guys!!

onesloryd

Well first off I would look to see what type of budget I have, a full set of custom leafs will run anywhere from 1K to 2K. You can try Deaver first to see if they will make something for you but I doubt they will.
So with that being said I would do a set of custom rear leaf packs and build a custom long travel air bag system for when you tow or use the bed. Once you figure out the rate on the rear springs then you can have shocks built for them.
If you are going to do a mini pack I would go with Lorenz 1, he is much easier to deal with than Carli and 2, the difference between a 5 leaf or 3 leaf at this point really isn’t go to make that much of a difference, plus Sean’s are $45 cheaper. The main thing is to get rid of the factory overload.

Gatf4
I have the KORE SS and it looks nice but there really wasn’t that much difference between the KORE SS and a Rancho replacement.

Greenhornet1986

PWT05Dodge, I like the looks of your truck, my internet finally works

Cowhand

I'm not gonna get into a my dog is better than yours thing on rear springs
From a technical standpoint, all things being equal as far as spring rates, more leaves are better. A 4 or 5 leaf pack will yield a better ride and a more progressive rate because the the individual leaves are thinner. It takes less force to move each individual leaf vs. a pack that uses fewer thick leaves.

You can compare it to an add-a-leaf, which it typically one thick leaf. My old one was 1/2" thick. Even with the rear shocks valved almost dead on the compression side, they wouldn't move.

Look at an OEM rear leaf pack compared to a custom leaf pack.....the factory pack has 3 thick leaves and an overload compared to 6-12 thinner leaves in a good custom spring pack.

Sage Carli has custom 3rd gen full packs on the shelf now that drastically improve ride quality and still retain most of the load capacity.

onesloryd

On the mini packs my point was that a. the factory overload is the biggest problem & b. the amount of flex the short leafs on the mini pack see is very minimal compared to the longer leafs on the main pack. I know my current set has 10 leafs in them.
As for the shock valving if am not mistaken the rebound is a little more critical on than the compression.

Cowhand

You hit it dead on .....compression on the rear shocks had to be set almost dead to get them to move. Not much weight in the back to create the inertia necessary to get the springs moving.

onesloryd

Cowhand did you ever get new packs for your truck?

Cowhand

I'm trying Carli's add a packs first, along with some other secret squirrel stuff Don Thuren is working on to get the rears moving. As soon as we get it mocked up and fabricated I'll post pics....looking at about 3 weeks or so. If it works, it'll be avalable to everybody by probably June.

It's not a 3 link....or bags .

If it doesn't work like I want it to I'll do complete packs.

onesloryd

If you are still using leafs than I know what you are doing.

Cowhand

What am I doing?

wap

I am no suspention expert but is there any way you could be runnin 1/4 elliptical? Or am I WAY off?

Cowhand

Quarter elliptics were once the set up of choice for desert racing, but everybody has pretty much gone to coilovers. Easier to deal with. Either way you end up with a 3 link rear end.

Lots of rock crawler guys are going to QE's for the articulation.

Good guess, but it's nothing that complicated. More like something all of us could reasonable afford.