Monday, June 8, 2009

New Pistons Hit Mexico

It was a last minute jaunt to Baja for half the crew at Carli Suspension. One of us already committed to supporting a motorcycle team for some long time friends hitting the 500 for their first time. Day 1 was purely administrative... and the next morning we decided to make a short blast out of Ensenada via the canal and first leg of the course. Two Dominator 3.0 systems with the new pistons and two totally different tunes.

My Megacab has been riding so supple on the street and highway, I figured that it just wouldn't have enough for Mexico and I'd find my rear axle 4 feet off the ground with my front none. That and if I pushed it too hard, wind up bending something somewhere. Immediately everything came together and for the first 40 miles of race course, every inch of shaft was used, front and rear, without a single solid bottom out. That's when you're suspension is working just right, when you're using all of it and not running out before your travel ends. Everything from rocks, silt hills, massive ruts, switch backs to straight matted into Ojos Negros, my truck has never been more controlled or felt so right.

This is an accumulation of so many things. As these pistons debuted, the tuning was constant all over again. Sage found the sweet spot pretty quick and the truck rides so nice on the street, your gut tells you to bump it up for Baja... but that was yesterday. Before the pistons were swapped out in my rig, the usual discussion floats around the shop and it's only a matter of time before somebody is holding a shim in one hand and a shim in the other thinking about the end result and this time, it was a perfect kill. The level of detail that goes into custom shock tuning grows by the week down here and each stack of shims that rests on a piston surface was a well thought out and tailor made application.

There's still something called preference and some people like their trucks a little tighter than others and there's always the honest guy that admits that his truck isn't going to see any air, but he likes the big shocks and builds a show class vehicle. Regardless of preference or application, you can have exactly what you want here. Call us up, tell us what you want to do with your truck, listen to the information and ask a couple questions and we'll make sure that you're happy. It's been a fun ride getting to this point and now the dedication is starting to flourish. The pursuit of real world suspension tuning that allows you to drive the family around town comfortably and the next morning be moshing down the Baja 500 race course... is here.

PS: Team 349x finished 6th in their class and 76th overall and had a damn near flawless race. Congratulations Tim, John, Todd and Scott.