Over the years, we have learned that just because you drive a heavy duty diesel truck, it
doesn’t need to handle like one. In sharp contrast to the opinion of many, you can absolutely enjoy driving your truck down a rough dirt road or even take it out for a weekend of four wheeling without concern of losing every bit of cartilage in your spine. There are numerous ways to accomplish this, but it really only takes a relatively small parts list in order to deliver the suspension performance that anyone would deem a drastic improvement over stock.
To get the ride that we pursue from our own trucks, one does have to think “outside of the box” for the traditional truck owner. This means you’re not going to be heading down to the local auto parts store and buying their
“best” shocks, that’s not what we are talking about here. In order to take the guess work out of it, we have put together two “leveling kits” for 2003-2013 Ram 2500’s and 2003-2012 Ram 3500’s depending on the level of build you are after.
When most people think of a “leveling kit,” they think of a spacer that goes between their coil spring and shock tower that effectively raises the truck typically two inches. Most often, truck owners do this to install larger tires and give the truck a level stance. Unfortunately, this type of leveling kit typically degrades the ride quality of the truck because the existing shocks are overextended, the sway bar is put into a bind because the end links are forced to pull down on the sway bar an additional two inches, the axle is moved to the passenger side and back, and you still have the same rough riding coils.
That’s not the type of leveling kit we are talking about here. Rather, these two systems utilize custom wound, progressive rate Eibach coil springs that we had built specifically for us to accomplish the handling we were after and lift the front of the truck three inches for a level stance. Next we paired these with Fox 2.0 IFP shocks that will handle the new found altitude and performance of the springs. To ensure that the sway bar was not a limiting factor in suspension cycling, we enlist a pair of Synergy Heavy Duty Sway Bar Links. Not only are these end links properly matched up to bring the factory sway bar back into a factory positioning, they are also adjustable to allow additional fine tuning and are substantially stronger than the factory links to avoid bending or breaking, as so frequently occurs with the factory links. These three components comprise what we have deemed our Progressive Leveling Suspension System.
For those looking to take their truck to a step above the Progressive Leveling System, we have also put together the Extra Clearance Progressive Leveling Suspension System. Built upon the same philosophy and performance of the previously mentioned system, the Extra Clearance version adds a few additional components that assist in providing proper triangulation of the front axle, as well as enhanced axle articulation. Due to triangulation, when you elevate the front suspension over stock ride height, the front axle moves towards the back and drivers side of the vehicle. In most situations, with only lifting the vehicle several inches, this isn’t necessarily a catastrophe, but it does negatively effect the cycling of the axle. In order to correct this, we include a set of Synergy Manufacturing upper and lower control arms and track bar. The upper arms and track bar both have the advantage of being adjustable, allowing you to fine tune the centering of the axle to meet your exact truck. The lower control arms are built with an additional half inch of length over the stock control arms to further assist in axle centering and proper caster. Both sets of control arms are built out of robust 1026 DOM tubing to offer up extreme rigidity, even under the harshest of conditions, while the track bar is manufactured using 1-3/8” SOLID tubing, good luck bending that!
Overall, either of these kits will undoubtedly deliver a ride that will transform your truck and having you mash the throttle to hit a rough section of road or train tracks, as opposed to steering clear or slowing down.