Hey all,

I have a 06' 2500 QCSB 2x4. I have leveling out the rear to match and front. I know, I know..I'm one of those people that doesn't use the truck the way it was designed...I just love cummins. I rarely ever tow and light if I do. I do a lot of highway/city driving. My tires will remain 32" overall.

My question is what sort of modifications should I make to improve the over all handling of the truck. Any and all advise it greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

What type of handling are you looking to improve? Cornering, braking, smoothness in ride etc?

 

The first step is tires. Nothing effcts handeling more than proper tire selection. Any racer will tell you that. A good handeling tire should put as much rubber on the ground as possible - wider is better (to a point).

You have 32" tires, but that's just the diameter. Use a tire that is as wide as you can fit, has a summer performance tread, and a fairly soft compound. That may be tough to find for a truck tire.

The second thing is balance. a good handeling sports car has an even weight distribution front to rear, and left to right. Again, that's a tall order for a 3/4 ton pick up. Do a google search on "corner weights".

Finally, suspension frequency; do a google search on that. It's helps you calculate spring and sway bar rates, both front and rear. Again, this is a tall order for a truck.

You could change the front and rear sway bars, but make sure you use a matched set. with the back end being so light, you could easily produce such an imabalance that the truck is difficult to drive. That is probably the quickest and easiest change to make, that can provide real benifits.

I prefer the large bar/soft spring in the front, and stiff spring/soft bar in the rear. That works well on my sports car, but I'v never tried it on a truck.

Replace the front and rear shocks with a high quality performance oriented shock, like Koni. Spend the bux and get something adjustable. You're trying to do something unusual, so don't be afraid to experiment.

 

As far as tires are concerned..the toyo proxes stII are a 420 AA rated tire putting down 12.1" to the pavement. Can't ask for much more than that.

This is my daily driver/fun at the track on the weekends truck. I already have bilsteins which were a nice upgrade but I plan to be putting Rancho 9000's adjustable's in the rear with a leaf spring or 2 removed for weight transfer.

I would like to maintain a nice ride quality and improve upon the overall handling. So far, I have come up with sway bars/ steering box reinforcement. I'm basing this off from what I have read and researched.

Just looking for some experience from the outside audience that have tried something like this or have any sort of experience with this. I live in So. FL.