Whelp, my airbags are officially leaking, so I think it’s time to spring for an aftermarket suspension. I'm going a bit crazy trying to decide on a kit and could use some advice.
Uses:
I’m super anal about my car handling/feel (I’m constantly adjusting the damping depending on the road conditions and my speed/load using the stock electronic adjuster, did a bunch of suspension mods on my previous car, etc), so I’m leaning toward an adjustable setup so I can really dial in the handling rather than just hoping for the best with a non-adjustable kit. I also do like to drive fast at times, and embrace the "buy once cry once mentality" to an extent, so I'm not necessarily opposed to spending an extra $1k or w/e for a setup that will ride well at speed (on or off road) as opposed to something that will be just "good enough" to get me where I want to go. At the same time, I don't want to be throwing away money on a setup that will be completely overkill for what I plan to do. I'm somewhat struggling to figure out where the "gets the job done" vs "worth the extra $ for improved handling" vs "completely overkill" lines are drawn.
Added weight
Currently stock, but planning on adding the following within a few months:
Far in the future I may consider a hidden winch mount / winch (or other some other lightish front setup that for the most part keeps the stock bumper) as well as a light weight rear bumper / tire carrier (e.g. something like the mountain passes OR min-max "bumper"), but I don't think I should consider these possibilities when choosing springs right now.
Current thoughts and questions
Springs: given my weight plans (not much permanent additional weight), I'm thinking I should be choosing the lightest springs offered in most cases, rather than springs designed for people adding full steel bumpers and such.
Lift: I'm thinking 2" to 2.5" is probably plenty. How much downside in terms of MPG and on road handling would going with 2.5" rather than 2" give me?
Coilovers/shocks:
Stock rake (higher rear ride height with no load): keep it so the rear end won't sag when I load the truck down with gear, or for the rare occasions when I tow.
Tires: eventually will go bigger, but the truck came with almost brand new Michelin Defender LTX M/S in stock size, so I figure I should get some use out of those first and punt on the tire sizing question for now.
Aftermarket UCAs: I know these aren't required with only a 2" or 2.5" lift, but from what I gather even @ 2" aftermarket UCAs are required if I want to keep my caster in spec, so I'll probably spring for UCAs too.
Maintenance: I’ve heard some of the high end racing brands ride really great, but have the downside of needing to be rebuilt relatively often. E.g. I’ve seen reports of people needing to rebuild Icons every 20-30k, which is the main reason I didn't include Icon in my list above. I’d ideally like to go with something that can make it more like at least 50-75k before needing a rebuild/replacement. Are there any brands in particular that requirement rules out? Do the MRAs fall into the "need frequent rebuilds" category?
Long travel rear options: A lot of kits offer rear long travel shocks for not that much extra, but my impression is a) requires a decent amount of additional upgrades (e.g. extended end links and brake lines) and maintenance (e.g. re-torquing) and b) isn’t necessarily ideal if a big goal is to maintain on road handling / NVH, so I'm not planning on springing for the rear LT options if available. Is that an accurate assessment?
I appreciate any input, thanks!
Uses:
- Daily driver, but currently only a 0-5 minute commute. Were this to increase significantly, I’d get a separate car for the commute.
- Ski trips (winter mountain driving)
- Long road trips, loaded down with gear/ppl, e.g. for camping
- Overlanding / off roading, again filled to the brim with gear
- Not going out of our way to tackle difficult terrain just for the challenge (i.e. not trying to build a jeep style rock crawler here), but at the same time want to have enough clearance / protection to still make it through a lot of cool overlanding trails / camping spots
- Short off road adventures, mainly locally
- Live ~15 minutes from public dirt desert/hilly roads that have many side roads / washes that spin off the main road of various difficulties
- Rare towing
- Maybe once or twice per year. Most likely a cargo trailer, but possibly eventually a small camper as well.
I’m super anal about my car handling/feel (I’m constantly adjusting the damping depending on the road conditions and my speed/load using the stock electronic adjuster, did a bunch of suspension mods on my previous car, etc), so I’m leaning toward an adjustable setup so I can really dial in the handling rather than just hoping for the best with a non-adjustable kit. I also do like to drive fast at times, and embrace the "buy once cry once mentality" to an extent, so I'm not necessarily opposed to spending an extra $1k or w/e for a setup that will ride well at speed (on or off road) as opposed to something that will be just "good enough" to get me where I want to go. At the same time, I don't want to be throwing away money on a setup that will be completely overkill for what I plan to do. I'm somewhat struggling to figure out where the "gets the job done" vs "worth the extra $ for improved handling" vs "completely overkill" lines are drawn.
Added weight
Currently stock, but planning on adding the following within a few months:
- Sliders
- Skid plates (maybe even aluminum as I'm not aiming to rock crawl)
Far in the future I may consider a hidden winch mount / winch (or other some other lightish front setup that for the most part keeps the stock bumper) as well as a light weight rear bumper / tire carrier (e.g. something like the mountain passes OR min-max "bumper"), but I don't think I should consider these possibilities when choosing springs right now.
Current thoughts and questions
Springs: given my weight plans (not much permanent additional weight), I'm thinking I should be choosing the lightest springs offered in most cases, rather than springs designed for people adding full steel bumpers and such.
Lift: I'm thinking 2" to 2.5" is probably plenty. How much downside in terms of MPG and on road handling would going with 2.5" rather than 2" give me?
Coilovers/shocks:
- Currently leaning toward Dobinsons MRA for the low/high speed compression adjustment
- Cheaper, non adjustable options I'm also considering:
- Dobinsons IMS
- Ironman Foam Cell Pro (seen some reports that the twin tube design is inferior to the monotube IMS', but I've also seen a lot of good reviews for the Foam Cell Pros)
- Boss Aluma or Aluma 2.5 (though the 2.5 kit is barely any cheaper than the MRAs, is there a reason to consider those over the MRAs?)
- Radflo 2.0 or 2.5 (haven't seen nearly as many reports on these, but the few I have seen have been very positive)
- Other adjustable options:
- Elka: both high and low speed compression adjustment, but very expensive
- King: only can be bought with a single compression adjustment, also very expensive
Stock rake (higher rear ride height with no load): keep it so the rear end won't sag when I load the truck down with gear, or for the rare occasions when I tow.
Tires: eventually will go bigger, but the truck came with almost brand new Michelin Defender LTX M/S in stock size, so I figure I should get some use out of those first and punt on the tire sizing question for now.
Aftermarket UCAs: I know these aren't required with only a 2" or 2.5" lift, but from what I gather even @ 2" aftermarket UCAs are required if I want to keep my caster in spec, so I'll probably spring for UCAs too.
- The go to recommendations seem to be SPCs for maximum adjustability for not much more money. Is there any reason to consider going with other options like Dobhinsons, Apache Offroad or Ironman? Is the main benefit (other than price) to those options that a lot of alignment shops won't know what to do with the adjustability of the SPCs?
Maintenance: I’ve heard some of the high end racing brands ride really great, but have the downside of needing to be rebuilt relatively often. E.g. I’ve seen reports of people needing to rebuild Icons every 20-30k, which is the main reason I didn't include Icon in my list above. I’d ideally like to go with something that can make it more like at least 50-75k before needing a rebuild/replacement. Are there any brands in particular that requirement rules out? Do the MRAs fall into the "need frequent rebuilds" category?
Long travel rear options: A lot of kits offer rear long travel shocks for not that much extra, but my impression is a) requires a decent amount of additional upgrades (e.g. extended end links and brake lines) and maintenance (e.g. re-torquing) and b) isn’t necessarily ideal if a big goal is to maintain on road handling / NVH, so I'm not planning on springing for the rear LT options if available. Is that an accurate assessment?
I appreciate any input, thanks!