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Dodge Long Travel Experience

The entire Carli Crew met up at our second home, Campo Cuatro Casas in Bahia Colonet, on Saturday night with a whole slue of new digs on our trucks. New shock tunes, setups and hardware finally meet Mexico's biggest bumps. Everyone's rig is riding sweeter than it was before and more capable when it's time to get serious. We're more than comfortable zipping around the Pacific side of Baja, especially around the Casa, and the festivities quickly turned into a circus of whoops, corners and airtime. One thing stood apart from everything else, the new long travel spring pack, shackles and enough shock to deliver 17" of travel while hidden under the bed.

Here's a shot of Mike's truck with the completed setup with a true 17" of rear wheel travel.
In typical Carli detail, the rear end is dialed with a new chromoly crossmember that's fully plated and dimple died for even more strength.

Of course this means longer shocks and the first setup went on a Bilstein 2.65 setup and this wasn't done until a custom, 4-tube bypass layout was added and Blackhawk reservoirs.

After the installation and a couple of tuning trips to the dirt, Mike got to show us what this project can do. Amazed was my first reaction... With a tuned up CTD backed up with some billet ATS goodies, the truck can power through twice as much bump and the control the shocks deliver inspires confidence.

The bar has been raised, or in this case lowered, by slapping on another 6.5" of droop. Score another ringer for the Carli team, this is something that you instantly want, after you feel it.

Can't wait to see who's truck goes next.

Bilstein 5100 Backorder

We placed our usual order for Bilstein 5100 shocks in June. We just got a call yesterday from Bilstein saying that there is a backorder for another 45 days or so. It is unfortunate that we didn't have any advanced notice of short supply from Bilstein and until our delivery arrives, Starter Systems and Level Kits cannot be shipped.

Sage had a talk with Bilstein yesterday and we're trying to get our June order filled as fast as possible. I'll put up another post when more information comes. If you're waiting on a Starter System or Leveling Kit, we apologize for the wait.

Carli Upper Ball Joints w/ Moog

You don't have to look too hard to find Dodge Ram Ball Joint problems posted on truck and diesel forums from members of the HD truck community. It's difficult to determine the exact cause of a problem when you don't have the truck on hand for troubleshooting. Well, our first hand experience with some Moog replacements rendered an interesting find.

In response to a Dodge Ram Ball Joint Thread on Diesel Truck Resource.com, Sage broke it down for us and threw a few bucks at getting to the bottom of the issue:

Carli Extreme Duty Upper Ball Joints and Moog Lower Ball Joint Combination - WARNING

September 23rd, 2009: DTR Forum, Sage Carli's Input

"So I just had first hand experience with a truck with the exact same issue. The truck had our Extreme Duty Uppers and Moog lowers. One of our customers replaced the ball joints only and the truck started to wander all over. After reading this thread, I had to see for myself what was going on. I told him I would replace his lowers with McQuay Norris brand at no cost to him to see if it would cure the problem. When the truck was dropped off, I decided to take it down the freeway so I could feel how much the wander there really was. Well, I almost hit a car hauler that was in the lane next to me. As soon as I made a correction the truck would shoot off in the other direction, SCARY!!!

So I disassembled the front end down to the axle. I grabbed one of the lower ball joints to see if it was tight. Well, it was. So much so that it felt "crunchy" inside. There was no smoothness at all as I cycled it through it's normal motion. It felt very notchy. And there is no weight on them at all at this point. I then continued on and finished the replacement of the lower joints.

Time for the test drive. Customers exact words were "It is completely different!" The steering was nice and smooth and the wander was gone. He was very happy. But I still had to know why the moogs would give such a symptom. So of course, I cut one apart. The design was actually pretty interesting. No bushing or insert of any kind. Which if done properly, is the only real way to have a "lifetime part." But, I saw two things that I didn't like. One was the fact that it looked like they take in old ball joints on warranty and reuse the pin. The pin had some pretty deep pits in it. The other thing was how the ball fit in the cup. The wear pattern is up to high on the ball of the pin. The top 1/4 of the ball never makes contact with the cup. So the weight of the truck is trying to force the ball down a tighter radius, which could create a pinching effect. I have attached pics so you call all see what it looks like on the inside."

Cutaway photos of the Moog lower ball joints (click to enlarge)




Vehicle: 2005 LWB, CTD with Performance 2.5 and Carli Extreme Duty Upper Ball Joints with Moog replacement Lower Ball Joints that had only 1,000 miles on them.

We encounter customer questions on almost a daily basis who have had a ball joint experience or are in the middle of one and try to assist each individual with their needs, but sometimes it is too demanding to provide a definitive answer with a verbal assessment of a truck's behavior. This could have been the same thing, however we were able to keep the truck and the customer's parts and get to the bottom of things.

Product Catalog

Well we finally got off our asses and made a professional bound product catalog with every system, component and complimentary product... complete with HD photos, part numbers and prices.

Just like everything else that goes on down here, what started out as something as simple as a sales guide, turned into a full blown effort and went all the way to inventory identification... but it came out sick, so we're happy.

You can download the PDF Version or flip through it right here at your desk using the online catalog. These will be hitting the mailbox going out to the distributor network in the next few days and it won't be long until we add a few pages. Long travel rear springs / shackles, radius arms and whatever else gets thought up.

Business as usual down here at the shop...

Dodge Ram Radius Arms

The pursuit of more travel and textbook Carli Suspension overkill design and strength is about to raise the bar once again. The first prototype Dodge Ram Radius Arms are getting powder coated and will be in testing by the afternoon. Chromoly tube, tig-welded with hi-nickel rod and fully boxed - these are the strongest radius arms you can get. Fitted with a 2 3/4" race heim on the frame side and hardened ball centers, just like the control arms, on the axle end - heavy duty just got passed like it was standing still.

These will be hung by a laser cut bracket assembly from the frame with the same robust approach that the arms were built with. This will be a weld-on application and extend the travel of the four-link by over 30%. Stay tuned for the follow-up shots of these on Mike's 2500.

Extreme Duty Lower Ball Joints

Case hardened... two stages of dry lube... billet chromoly stock and a two-piece assembly. The Carli Extreme Duty Lower Ball Joints will be the strongest part on your truck. All we need to do is wrap up the prototype development with a complete bashing down in Mexico for days on end. The Carli fleet will be throwing down in Baja in a few weeks and after a final inspection, the PO will be drafted for a production run.

Stay tuned...

For now, check out the Dodge Ram Lower Ball Joints product page with more information