Do not buy Carli tuned king coilovers

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gunner_herman

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Pretty much ruined the ride of my Ram 1500. Went all out on the Carli tuned King coilovers only to have my truck ride worse than a 1-ton truck. Dash rattles like crazy now and the impacts are very harsh. Truly regret buying this setup. Should’ve kept the Bilsteins on the truck. In fact, I’m probably going to put the Bilsteins back on and either toss the Kings or try to sell them to somebody who wants a worse ride than stock. Yep, I’m that disappointed. I’ll try to tell everyone I can so they don’t make this same mistake.
 

RedSRT4Me

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Pretty much ruined the ride of my Ram 1500. Went all out on the Carli tuned King coilovers only to have my truck ride worse than a 1-ton truck. Dash rattles like crazy now and the impacts are very harsh. Truly regret buying this setup. Should’ve kept the Bilsteins on the truck. In fact, I’m probably going to put the Bilsteins back on and either toss the Kings or try to sell them to somebody who wants a worse ride than stock. Yep, I’m that disappointed. I’ll try to tell everyone I can so they don’t make this same mistake.
Pics or it didn't happen. :boti:
 
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crazykid1994

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Most performance shocks will ride a bit rougher in every day traffic going slow because they are designed to absorb harder quicker impacts unless you get custom tuned shocks that can be setup to ride great on the road and have adjustment knobs to be stiffened for off-roading. Your tire choice will also play a role in your suspension. Carli tunes their suspension a bit soft as far as I’ve seen and even goes as far as using soft springs to make the ride softer. Where do you live? I’d like to take a ride and experience how harsh the Carli suspension is in your truck.
 

62Blazer

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Have you talked with Carli yet? What did they say? I have zero personal experience with them but would at least verify they sent the correct shocks and springs and didn't have some mix up, or something you got is defective. How much preload do you have on the fronts? Sometimes people forget about downtravel....I've seen people jack up the front of their trucks where they don't have any downtravel left which makes for a very poor ride. Not saying this is what is going on, but just curious.
 
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gunner_herman

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gents, sorry about not getting any replies out there.
I did reach out to Carli several times. I couldn't ever get them to tell me if the spring they provided was correct. you can see in the picture it is the 700 spring. that seems more diesel to me but I couldn't get them to tell me any answer on that. there best answer was to drop my tire pressure in the front to 35 and the rear to 30. well doing that would have made my bilstiens feel like they were clouds.
it really was allot back and forth with Carli over email and phone but haven't gotten any improvement.
it feels like it is up on its tippy toes on the from end. like its too lifted for what it should be. I complained about the front being more than 1 1/2" higher than the rear. I don't like that look at all. the back end feel significantly better than the front. when I pull to a stop the vehicle kind of rocks back and forth as the weight transfers front to rear and back to the front.
If I go over any speed bump I better take it very vey slow or it sounds like thngs are going fall off the truck. the truck just isn't compliant as it travel over broken roads.
going with Carli everything is supposed to good right out of the boxes. the preload gave me too much front lift and I think the spring was was too heavy rated. should have probably have been a 500 not a 700. that was the first question I asked and never got an answer.

I live in Fallbrook CA and would actually love anyone who know how these things are suppose to feel can see if I am all full of Shhh or what. it's ruined the ride I had before I put the Carli kings on my truck.i
I'm not far from moving towards sometime taking all of the latest carli/king stuff on my truck and put it on there's. my truck rode much much better before I wasted all of this money on this system. which I still think is the wrong system. I see other forum members say they were happy with the 500 lb spring. if that is the case then why did I get the 700 spring.
 

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gunner_herman

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Have you talked with Carli yet? What did they say? I have zero personal experience with them but would at least verify they sent the correct shocks and springs and didn't have some mix up, or something you got is defective. How much preload do you have on the fronts? Sometimes people forget about downtravel....I've seen people jack up the front of their trucks where they don't have any downtravel left which makes for a very poor ride. Not saying this is what is going on, but just curious.
I think that might be part of the reason. my front is too high and I have no down travel. I have tried to adjust the Allen bolt at th collar buy the way it is positioned doesn't let me reach the Allen screw. if I can't get that loosened up then I'm going to have to take the all of the way off my truck to make the change. If the spring is correct then may the preload has too much tension on the spring.
 
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gunner_herman

gunner_herman

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Have you talked with Carli yet? What did they say? I have zero personal experience with them but would at least verify they sent the correct shocks and springs and didn't have some mix up, or something you got is defective. How much preload do you have on the fronts? Sometimes people forget about downtravel....I've seen people jack up the front of their trucks where they don't have any downtravel left which makes for a very poor ride. Not saying this is what is going on, but just curious.
yes, talked to Carli. blamed installation, blamed alignment, blamed air in tire. I couldn't get them to confirm my spring selection was optimal other posts I've read seemed perfect with the 500 spring. that make more sense to me based on my symptoms. the preload reduction has a little room to go. that was the next thing I was going to try in order to get the front end down where it should be. I'm also hoping to get a better ride out of that. that damn springs though. that is what has me upset. I feel ike that spring is just too stiff.
 

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gunner_herman

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gunner_herman

gunner_herman

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Where you at? I'll bring my truck over and you can throw them away in the bed
you're a bit away from me but I'm not far from wanting to get back out of this set-up. might work perfectly for someone else. not sure how that is possible
 

danielmid

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you're a bit away from me but I'm not far from wanting to get back out of this set-up. might work perfectly for someone else. not sure how that is possible
I'm sorry you're dealing with this still, I think you're on to something with the spring rate being too high, @ram1500rsm what do you think?

Although I am interested if it gets that far, I'd rather start with brainstorming to get you help than explain another truck purchase to the wife :)
 

RedSRT4Me

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Front end being 1" higher definitely takes front end travel away. Lower the front an 1" or 2.

The suspensionmaxx front links look like they are installed incorrectly or you have the 2wd version. They will limit down travel when not functioning properly.

Dirt king also uses 700lb springs while

Screenshot_20221203_060338_Chrome.jpg

Another used 500lb with 600lb available as well from Filthy Motorsports.

Crappy thing is if you change your spring rates you're going to want to get the shocks revalved for the new rates. I'd start with just lowering the truck.

Screenshot_20221203_060005_Chrome.jpg
 
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crazykid1994

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It looks like your preload is already screwed out most of the way. You can always pull the springs and swap in other springs or send them out to accutune or any custom shock place that works with king. I’m talking to accutune now on having some fox 2.5 custom tuned for my truck. I’m already running extra weight on my truck with plans to add more weight onto it. Also being that dirt king and Carli are mostly aimed towards high speed off-road racing they most likely build their shocks for maximum bottom out resistance. I do agree though that 700lb springs definitely is a lot
 

RedSRT4Me

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It looks like your preload is already screwed out most of the way. You can always pull the springs and swap in other springs or send them out to accutune or any custom shock place that works with king. I’m talking to accutune now on having some fox 2.5 custom tuned for my truck. I’m already running extra weight on my truck with plans to add more weight onto it. Also being that dirt king and Carli are mostly aimed towards high speed off-road racing they most likely build their shocks for maximum bottom out resistance. I do agree though that 700lb springs definitely is a lot

He got them from Carli. I'd hope they would revalve them for him before dropping coin on a different shop.

I do agree though. I've read a lot of good things coming from Accutune across multiple platforms.

Edit: or just install a winch. Now would be the perfect reason too
 
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gunner_herman

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thanks guys.
I absolutely have tried to communicate clearly with CJC Off Road how everything is behaving and asking for options to resolve this issue. reducing the air pressure on the tires should not be the best solution. I fully agree that it is part of the solution but to have all settings be the same from what I had before to after the kings getting installed I should not have such a drastic difference. the rear end actually feels fantastic. way more compliant. that and the fact that the front end seems too extended makes me feel that the spring is just wrong. almost like they sold me the set up for the diesel not the Hemi. I asked them about that but again, nobody from CJC Off Road will clearly state the 700lb spring is correct.

I would like to know more on how the suspensionmaxx front links look like they are installed incorrectly or that i have the 2wd version? I had those on before I went to the Carli set-up and didn't have the same down travel issues. I didn't have a ton of down travel but it certainly wasn't as restrictive as it is now.

I really don't want to take them out and have them rebuilt. I wanted CJC to address this. I kept all of the old parts and am more likely going to just have all of the Carli stuff pulled out and the Bilstein/factory stuff put back in. It will cost and waste allot of money on removal/installation/alignment but I absolutely hate the way the truck has turned out. it rides far worse than my Ram 2500 did with the Cummins diesel. I have to take speed bumps slower than I do in my wife's BMW. Sad.

I hope others have a far better experience but from my personal experience I would tell anyone and everyone not to go down this route without understanding they may not be happy with the results.
 

crazykid1994

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thanks guys.
I absolutely have tried to communicate clearly with CJC Off Road how everything is behaving and asking for options to resolve this issue. reducing the air pressure on the tires should not be the best solution. I fully agree that it is part of the solution but to have all settings be the same from what I had before to after the kings getting installed I should not have such a drastic difference. the rear end actually feels fantastic. way more compliant. that and the fact that the front end seems too extended makes me feel that the spring is just wrong. almost like they sold me the set up for the diesel not the Hemi. I asked them about that but again, nobody from CJC Off Road will clearly state the 700lb spring is correct.

I would like to know more on how the suspensionmaxx front links look like they are installed incorrectly or that i have the 2wd version? I had those on before I went to the Carli set-up and didn't have the same down travel issues. I didn't have a ton of down travel but it certainly wasn't as restrictive as it is now.

I really don't want to take them out and have them rebuilt. I wanted CJC to address this. I kept all of the old parts and am more likely going to just have all of the Carli stuff pulled out and the Bilstein/factory stuff put back in. It will cost and waste allot of money on removal/installation/alignment but I absolutely hate the way the truck has turned out. it rides far worse than my Ram 2500 did with the Cummins diesel. I have to take speed bumps slower than I do in my wife's BMW. Sad.

I hope others have a far better experience but from my personal experience I would tell anyone and everyone not to go down this route without understanding they may not be happy with the results.
Maybe contact Carli directly instead of going through cjc.
 
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gunner_herman

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thanks for the suggestion on contacting Carli. To be honest I actually thought I did already but I may have only been communicating with CJC. I just took your advice and sent Carli an email asking for assistance/recommendations. I want to be happy with this suspension but it has really only made me not want to drive my truck. That is not a good thing.
 
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gunner_herman

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Edit: or just install a winch. Now would be the perfect reason too
don't temp me. if I could find a bumper that I really liked that wasn't $2,000 I might seriously consider it. I think winches for many people are nothing more than bumper stickers but I sure think they look awesome on trucks whether they get used or not.
 
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gunner_herman

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It looks like your preload is already screwed out most of the way. You can always pull the springs and swap in other springs or send them out to accutune or any custom shock place that works with king. I’m talking to accutune now on having some fox 2.5 custom tuned for my truck. I’m already running extra weight on my truck with plans to add more weight onto it. Also being that dirt king and Carli are mostly aimed towards high speed off-road racing they most likely build their shocks for maximum bottom out resistance. I do agree though that 700lb springs definitely is a lot
looks like Accutune is somewhat local for me. El Cajon is still about an hour away but just might be worth it in the end. I'll see if Carli gets back to me on the spring rate and depending on how that goes I'll go ahead and contact Accutune. I learned a long time ago that there are people who get on these forums to complain and there are others who get on here for advice. I don't want to be just a complainer, so I better listen to some sound advice.
hopefully I can get this worked out.

thanks
 

RedSRT4Me

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don't temp me. if I could find a bumper that I really liked that wasn't $2,000 I might seriously consider it. I think winches for many people are nothing more than bumper stickers but I sure think they look awesome on trucks whether they get used or not.

You don't need a $2000 bumper.

With some fabrication a stock bumper can be retained. I need a friend that can teach me to weld. :)

Edit: found the link

Thanks @DILLIGAF !!
 
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