Date: 8/11/2007

Dodge Ram 2500... off the hook

The Carli crew has been pretty valve happy with all of the King tuning going on over the last several months. As the knowledge stacks up, the performance gets better and better and street ride improves while we keep pushing the envelope in the dirt. At one point, each of our trucks were apart 3 times in the same week, making shock adjustments to get them just right. Still, we each have a slightly different direction based on how we use our vehicles. Finally, we hit the dirt and go play...

Bilstein sent over a set of 2.65" racing shocks that were quickly installed on a 2500 CTD. A couple of weeks later, valve shims arrived and then the fun began. Having accumulated so much knowledge tuning the King 2.5 and 3.0 off-road shocks, the Bilstein's were the new talk of the shop. The German company does things quite differently and there was an immediate question mark floating over all of our head's and the unknown started to shape things up.

Here's how testing starts in the Orange County suspension shop; first the system is tested on the street and we have a several mile loop where the suspension can be evaluated. Within 3 blocks of the shop door, the truck is airborne and we can feel how the truck recovers from the shocks topped out in the air and the balance upon landing. Next run is the freeway expansion joints and we cruise the truck at 65 mph and know what lane is rougher than the other... several miles of sitting in the truck, in silence, just feeling the road through the suspension system. Mental notes are taken during this loop and if the street ride feels good, its time to find the bumpstops. Located in a commercial area, there's plenty of dips and bumps that can be found where we can throw the truck into a ridiculous dip at speed and test high speed compression, rebound and recovery. All of this within minutes of the lift... however this is just used as a gauge leaving the desert as the only final judge of performance.

This system was Carli Suspension's new baby and it couldn't have gone to a more meticulous parent for tuning under a Dodge Ram HD. Having thousands of miles of dirt tuning experience with the King series, we're pretty confident that when we go out, the truck is performing better than the previous tweak and we tend to get froggy off the bat... but a brand new shock? This is when time was split in half.

The New Playing Field

Sage's circus of flying silver Dodge's is nothing new... So the first order of business was to sky the rig. Journalist Kevin Blumer was there to point out the lip and give the green light for a little shot of the bottom of the truck. Today was different. The truck was different on this day and Carli Suspension, Inc got to show us all what can be pulled out of a quality off-road racing shock and Dodge Ram 2500.

From the first jump, to the last, the driver's smile was as wide as his license plate. The more we threw at those Bilstein's, the more they answered the call. At one point, he had to change starting points to get a longer run at the jump. He went off the hook right there in front of everybody, and nearby campers started to pull up chairs and cheer on each landing. Getting familiar with those 2.65's really quick and the very first valve profile, which was a stab in the dark, made this truck come alive like never before... and knowing that allowed this event to unfold the way it did.

After putting on the foreplay show on the jump, it was time to get the truck up to speed and see how this new Bilstein 9100 took to the driver's experience as a track instructor for the BMW Race Club of America. An experienced pilot can overdrive anything you put him in, shy of turbo'd M3 on Ohlins 5 way adjustable road racing shocks... so when Kevin asked him to get it sideways, There was only a slight grin, then the sound of the truck dropping into gear for the second half to his show.

Driving a Dodge Ram in a right turn with the wheel turned to full lock left and the CTD delivering 900 foot pounds to the ground is a style faultlessly handled by the Bilstein 2.65 system. This wasn't spinning the tires on a rain soaked parking lot... Once this truck was up to speed it performed a waltz over the surface of the desert with those Bilstein's interfacing perfectly with driver input and floating over the bumps, leaving the pilot in total control the entire time.

You want it left, or do you want it right? It didn't matter... This truck was getting driven like a loaner BWM at Laguna Seca. Every time steering input was applied and entering a drift, the suspension squatted and set perfectly which allowed the truck to show its capability. The suspension was up to the performance of a professional driver... wait, make that a professional driver instructor. Now that is a testament to the first day of testing a new shock... when the limit is handed back to the driver because the vehicle will take whatever you can throw at it.

As the day progressed, we all started to get it... The bar has just been raised. Large diameter off-road racing shocks for the Dodge Ram working in concert with heavily engineered suspension components that deliver everywhere? From the freeway, out the driveway, off the jump, around the corners and even low speed articulation...

The Bilstein 2.65 is designed with shorter shock body end caps, which means that an extra inch of travel can be squeezed out of these shocks without changing anything else. They tuck up in the rear until the hub is in line with the bottom of the bed panel and will droop out 14 inches when allowed to. So far, the Bilstein system delivered staggering performance everywhere we took it. Not discounting any other shock or system, but this is the FIRST day we ever took this system to the dirt and there wasn't a compromise anywhere. Carli Suspension's been doing their homework.

The Event That Split Time In Half

Kevin Blumer asked if he could have a ride in one of our trucks in the whoops. He saw all of us make a few passes and noticed that none of us lifted through the whoop section and he was impressed. Once again the Bilstein 2.65's put our jaw straight to the floor. Carli Suspension, Inc put an 8,000 pound diesel truck, that would normally be tagged as a "tow rig", on top of monster whoops and it out rode out like a pro.

All photos courtesy of Kevin Blumer and Source Interlink

All video and journalist support provided by Brad Holland