Daily-Driver R&D Laboratory

This is Carli Suspension's off-road laboratory. This is how we know that your bolt-on products have been rigorously partied on, (cough) I mean tested. The fact of the matter is, Sage sponsors this truck and I pretty much put it through the hard life in Baja... you gotta admit, some of the best times you've ever had behind the wheel of something, you were probably flogging it, right?

This also proves a few things, like Carli Ball Joints are worthy of a lifetime guarantee, that Sage's sweet riding production shock tune is actually a mad baller in the dirt, that ATS makes an incredible performance transmission... and how Toyo is the toughest tire there is. Those things we know now.

This is all about bolt-on, DIY, off-the-shelf stuff that turns your Dodge Ram into a toy, a toy that's still ready to do heavy-duty truck work. Everything has been engineered for doing it all - the design philosophy is, you can have both worlds. It's all built in.

It takes an entire package to put it all to work. Suspension modifications always include wheels and tires... and in the world of 48RE, big power will always include a transmission. Those things just have to go together. Today I'm talking about what I know works great in demanding conditions, every day without failure. This is like dog-years on a truck.

---

Off road product research

I got to know a lot of places in Northern Baja, and found that you can find your way around pretty easily without a GPS. Half the stuff out here is a marked race course. There's arrows telling you the right way to go. So as long as you know where the race starts and where it finishes, you can just follow flags. That's how I picked routes between where I was and where I was headed.

I got to know a lot of shock tuning working with Sage, and while this whole Bilstein ACV was working up, he was having conversations with me down in Baja. I would take my truck apart, implement Sage's shim change, then go drive. When you're tuning shocks, you drive tuning lines, which means the worst trail out of two and taking the hard line - going over the rock even though there's plenty of room, or hitting the rut on the deep side, not where there was a rounded off  lip...  driving the worst possible lines. That's pretty much how I drove around.

This was a year long off-road product endurance test.


After a year of driving around on Mexican race courses taking bad lines, Carli Suspension's nicest shock tune came to be... and in the process we found a few things that don't break. Today I want to give a shout out to a couple of them and say thanks. Your products take an unnecessary beating and are worth talking about.

---

Who we would like to recognize

ATS Diesel custom tuned a Stage VI transmission package for this project, and it's the only other product that simply bolted up and did everything that they said it would do. There is a big round of applause due over at ATS Diesel for their performance game, you guys make a baddass trans. It does everything you want it to - deliver big off-the-bat drive power, lock-up at the same speed every time and not break.

I sent Mike one email after the first 100 miles and told him that he makes a mean transmission... and after that I put it to work doing, at some times, ridiculous off road stuff... for a year, with no days off. Now it's time to start talking about ATS Diesel's performance game and give a shout out to the people behind this transmission, Thank you for delivering a product that harnesses a pissed off CTD in Baja and doesn't break. I don't know what else you could ask for.

Toyo Tires
So far the Toyo MT is the only tire that you can do this to and just rotate. You drive through some crazy stuff after a year off-road in Mexico; deep mud, silt, rock, beach sand, through garbage dumps, over barbed wire, you name it. 10 tires worn down to nubs and not a single flat. As far as a hard working diesel truck tire goes, I don't know if it gets any better than this. Thanks Toyo, for making a strong tire that does it all.

---

Proven Package

2006 Megacab 5.9L. Dominator 3.0 w/ Chromoly Control Arms, Axle Truss, Front Bumpstops, Dual 7100 Steering Stabilizers, Extreme Duty U/L Ball Joints, Differential Guard & Torsion Sway Bar. ATS Full Billet Custom Performance 48RE. Walker Evans Beadlocks w/ Toyo 37" MT. Mad's Electronics Smarty Revo TNT.

This is the bolt-on package that has more off-road miles than anything in the Carli fleet. Sage invests in putting his products on point, the tally getting to this point is 3 transmissions, 3 sets of BFG Projects, 2 sets of Toyo's, 4 steering boxes, 5 sets of tie rods, 2 rear drive shafts, 1 intermediate shaft and a whole set of u-joints. I could make a 9 days of Christmas song out of all the parts that have died along the way. There are a couple of products that came out shining through all of this that need to be mentioned, because before them, it just wasn't as good.

Before Sage's latest shock tune, it wasn't as smooth and fast... before Toyo, I was coming home on a steel rim almost every trip... before Walker Evans, I was throwing a wheel in the dumpster twice a year and before ATS Diesel, I was in 48RE hell.

When you take Dodge Ram, Cummins, Carli Suspension, ATS Diesel, Walker Evans and Toyo and put it all together, you have yourself a hard working, proven, smooth riding, bump soaking up, big torque delivering, power putting to the ground, rock bashing, silt bed plowing, poker running, sand wash exploring, trailer towing, race course pre running, new trail carving Baja daily-driver... or whatever you would call it.

---

See it for yourself

This stuff is worth showing off, it really is doing more. If anyone is interested in these or competitive products and want to feel the performance first hand before you decide, want a ride in a 2.65 ACV or Dominator system, or check out ATS Diesel's best throw down, email: media(at)thecarlisuspension(dot)com and ask about dates - it's an opportunity to experience what you read here and an invitation to a pretty good time. (passport required)