Carli Suspension/Wheel/Tire Review and Thoughts

So, I've got a few hundred miles on the new rolling stock and thought I would offer a quick review. With the new suspension and old tires, the truck tracked straight but once I put on the Coopers, I had a pretty good left pull. I added a little driver side caster and took away a little passenger side caster and now it tracks great. The off centered axle was also bugging me so I spun out the track bar to 39.25" from 39.125" and the axle is very close to being center and I don't seem to have any interference issues, but I'll keep an eye on it. I don't think I could go any further though. 99% of those who look at it won't be able to tell it's not centered. I'm a little OCD sometimes though. LOL.

I have the tire pressure down to 42 front 38 rear and I think that's just about perfect. Tire squat is minimal and the truck rides very smooth. I don't remember exactly where I left the shock pressure, but I think it was 150/125 front and rear. I should have wrote this down somewhere, but that's pretty close. I think I have both tire pressure and shock pressure dialed in pretty good. The truck rides amazing on the highway. It's hard to believe that a truck this big and heavy can ride so nice. It's not quite as smooth as my Jeep with air suspension, but it's pretty damn close.

I went on a quick trip yesterday, about 250 miles round trip running about 75 mph most of the way. I only have two negatives about my setup, but I knew both would be present so I'm not surprised. First is crappy gas mileage. Wind was at a minimum yesterday with constant rolling hills and a 75 mph speed limit. The best I was able to do was right at 11 mpg according to the computer. I haven't hand calculated it and probably never will. Whether it's better or worse, it still sucks, LOL. Second is that the truck feels a bit gutless in 6th gear. Even on our mild Oklahoma rolling hills, I have a hard time holding 6th gear up hills. I feel that the 6th gear ratio at 0.625 is a bit low and should be closer to a 0.70. 5th gear feels very strong though. I remedy this by bumping down to 5th gear when I am approaching a hill that I know I can't make in 6th gear. With the cruise set at 75, the truck will downshift on it's own at about 72 or so, but I like to stay ahead of the curve and drop a gear before it starts lugging. I really wish it would shift more like the 8 speed in my Jeep. It's plagued with 3.09 gear but any hint of a drop in speed it will drop a gear. It downshifts to 7th gear at almost every hill but it's very seamless and it does it before you lose any speed at all. If I had stock exhaust I probably wouldn't be able to tell without looking at the tach.

One semi-negative is the weight of the tires. Everything I found on the internet (It must be true you know) showed the tires to be abut 68 lbs. That would ultimately give me about a 95lb combined weight. That's not the case though. The tires are closer to about 82 lbs with a combined weight of 110 lbs, according to my bathroom scales. Not the end of the world as I was expecting a pretty heavy rolling stock weight anyways. I don't think a 10-15lb lighter combo would have helped much with the issues above.

The positives however far outweigh the negatives. The truck rides and handles much better than I ever expected. The Coopers are also very quite for an MT. You still hear them but it's very minimal and much quieter than my old Nitto Trail Grapplers, those things would hum pretty good. I have also switched from a Bully Dog tuner to a Diablo inTune with Hemifever custom tuning. I installed my 180 degree thermostat and he sent over his initial tunes. I still need to do some data logging so he can fine tune everything for my truck, hopefully adding a few more ponies. You can definitely feel the increase and the truck does not lack power at all in 1st through 5th gear, just the excessively low 6th gear. Not much else I can say, I'm very happy with my entire setup and wish I would have done this a year ago...

For those that haven't seen what I've done in my build thread lately, here's what I'm running:

Carli tuned King 2.5 pin-top shocks
Carli 3" Hemi coils
Carli track bar
Carli control arms
Cooper STT 35x12.50 tires
Method Double Standard 17x8.5 0 offset wheels

Here's the link to my build thread. The last two pages have all the pics of this latest setup. http://www.ramforum.com/f17/myoung84s_2012_power_wagon_build_thread-12257/index40.html

Everything you complained about with the transmission was just thoroughly vented to Ram in my 'how's you're new truck' email.

I'm shocked you got such good results without replacing the rear leafs.
I wonder if they are considerably different on the Power Wagons, cause 95% of my ride issues come from the rear.

I'm glad I'm not the only one that feels this way about the trans. I try not to ***** too much because this one is 1000 times better than the 545RFE, IMO. I have no issues at all with 1-5, it's just 6th gear that needs a slight adjustment. These are the ratios from the Cummins 68RFE trans, so a super low 6th gear makes sense for that engine and isn't really an issue since they have gobs more low end torque.

I know the leafs are softer but I'm not sure by how much. I haven't driven a non-PW 2500 long enough to really compare. I think it's really a combination of the softer leafs, awesome shock valving, and squishy 35's that contribute to the plush ride. Get some better shocks and some 35's and I'll bet you'll be much happier with the ride.

You mean my 30" Prius tires at 80 PSI and factory shocks lead to a rough ride?
(I kid, they are 30.5", at 45 PSI)

LOL. Reminds me of this pic I took when my 35's came in. Wife said no. LOL

Excellent, well sorted Rig! Thanks for the detailed post.

Mine is bone stock and I too agree regarding 6th gear. I assume they did that for a deep overdrive in an attempt to bump mileage as high as possible under unrealistic perfect conditions (level, cool, no wind, etc).

I find that mine doesn't "hunt" gears as bad if I simply back it down and try to maintain 70, rather than 75. I also am a little nutty and wish they had a "smart" cruise control that held throttle position, rather than mph. That would allow it to naturally slow on a grade or in a head wind without all the downshift drama and at the same time benefit from a decent or tail wind.

Though people on the highway would not appreciate the variations in my speed. Though my mileage and brain would like it.

Keep in mind that this transmission was based on the 68RFE behind the Cummins. With the gobs of low end torque with you Cummins, this is a good ratio and lack of power isn't a problem.

I find that a simple flick of range selector down to 5th works pretty well.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 4

Awesome Morgan. You keep pushing me further and further to get a set up like yours. I would probably add the carli leafs in the rear. What's an extra 2 grand? Lol.

Rear leafs are only an extra grand. I think they would help your ride quality way more than mine since my PW leafs are pretty soft already. I think you need to stop procrastinating and pull the trigger! You'll love how nice your truck will ride. If you're not going to be doing much wheeling then I will think the Performance 2.0 system will be your best bet. The money you save on the shocks will pay for the rear leafs.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 4

I'm tempted to get the Deavers and figure out the rest from there!

Im on a 6" kit with 37s. And I cant complain. My ride is amazing. I have a slight pull to the left as well. Again only complaint, I get 10 avg mpg. Regarding the 6th gear, spot on. I use manual override for 5th. Solves the problem. However Im hoping some performance upgrades I get in the next few weeks will erase all ******* issues I have because of my tires. At least help.