DODGE RAM SUSPENSION: SPRING RATES

Dodge Ram Suspension is centered around a starting point, just like anything else, and this topic is the suspension spring rates. First off, springs are in charge of one thing; ride height. If the weight of the Dodge Ram truck never changed, it would be easy to deliver the perfect spring rate for a single facet, such as off-road driving. Carli Suspension designs Dodge Ram Suspension systems to be multi-purpose, delivering an unprecedented off-road performance spectrum, while still allowing you to use your truck for everything else it's capable of without a compromise. This topic is going to explore how spring rates are selected for a Dodge Ram Suspension System.

Front Ride Height

The front coil springs we designed lift the truck 3.0 inches and have multiple rates built in. This carries the weight of the Hemi or Cummins motor and sits the truck at the optimum ride height to provide maximum suspension performance. Too much spring rate and the truck will sit at the top of the shock's compression stroke... not enough and it will sit too far into the shock. The multiple rates are achieved by the distance between the coil winds, the narrower the distance the less the rate and vice versa. This means it takes more energy to compress the spring the higher the rate. The multiple rate provides a mechanism to offer a lighter spring rate at the top of the compression and increase the rate progressively through full compression. This is a ride quality initiative for unloaded, low shaft speed compression function. As you can see from the photo, the coil is wound tighter at the bottom of the spring. In a linear rate coil spring, all of the gaps between the coil winds are identical, which makes for a linear rate through full compression of the spring. Custom rates for Hemi and Diesel applications are accommodated for through the design of these Carli Suspension components.

Rear Ride Height

Now the rear of the truck is where you carry payload and tongue weight when towing. For this case, Carli Suspension designed their own rate to produce a dual-purpose full leaf pack for the Dodge Ram. Leaf springs make for carrying varying weight much better than that of a coil design. The rates can increase much higher than you can get out of a coil spring, so with the unloaded weight of the Dodge Ram, you ride on the top of the leaf stack and when adding payload, the truck will begin to sag onto the higher rate leafs and you can get a much faster progression of spring rate with a leaf stack. You can see the smaller overload stack at the bottom which provides for a high weight capacity and the only compromise is the amount of sag, so if you were to line up stock vs. progressive leaf packs with payload, they will hold the same weight, however the progressive spring pack will sag a bit more, possibly an inch or so for heavy loads. This nominal variance provides a massive gain in both street and off-road conditions. The truck will ride at the correct height and, when unloaded, ride on the lightest rate leafs. The O.E.M. leaf stack has several upper leafs in a progressive stack and a single massive overload leaf that is responsible for the high capacity boasted by Dodge. What happens with the stock leaf is that once you get into the compression stroke, you hit a massive spike in spring rate, provided by the overload spring. This is why all of our systems come with at least a replacement add-a-pack for that single overload leaf so that the spring rate increases progressively in a linear format, rather than a tiered format with a massive overload leaf in a stock application.

Springs Are Stupid

You cannot tune a spring, coil or leaf design. If you apply energy to a spring, no matter how fast or slow it's delivered, the spring does one thing; push back according to its spring rate. Once you have a rate, it never changes, unless you change the spring... springs are dump. The intelligent part of the Dodge Ram Suspension System is the shock internals where you have velocity sensitive compression and rebound dampening. A lot more of this will be explained when we get into shock performance. This topic is simply explaining how spring rates work and how you choose a rate for an application. Carli Suspension designs spring rates to work in the full spectrum of the use of your vehicle. You can drive smoothly over expansion joints, load up the bed with tools and equipment, tow your boat or RV and yes, mob over desert terrain at high speeds.

An important consideration when selecting a Dodge Ram Suspension system is the spring rates and you should make this a question during purchase considerations. If your suspension system was designed for dirt performance, but you load up a single dirt bike and fuel can and it looks like you just hooked up to a 5th wheel, that makes your Dodge Ram line up against a Toyota in load capacity... which is fine, if you plan on driving around unloaded 100% of the time. We consider the real-world truck owner who is going to use the bed of the truck and the awesome Dodge Ram capability and should have a suspension system that supports it.

Dodge Ram Suspension: Maintaining Load Capacity