Dodge Ram Suspension News and Latest Company Updates from Carli Suspension, Inc

Happy New Year 2012

2012-01-09T19:59:00.000-08:00

This isn't field research, product testing or Baja prerunning anymore, actually this is the end result of all those things... and a pretty cool drive story.

I spent two weeks driving the Baja peninsula, the full monty... the long way down to Cabo taking what I call "adventure lines". Half the time I knew where I was and what I was doing, and the other half, I had no clue where I was, while I was figuring out what I was doing.

This trip started in Ensenada and the first tracks were cut south to San Felipe on the highway.

One of the cool things about this run was that I turned 6 digits on my tachometer. My truck lives an interesting life, it's never had a daily commute and it's idea of going to work is driving in the name of having fun and living life.

There's just something about having a 500+ horsepower, King Shock suspended, Carli Engineered toy with all the aftermarket crap a growing boy could want. This is how all of these things get put together and run through the mixer. These are high performance good times and how I adventure party.

First you yank the back seat and turn the family seating area into your overland cargo area, loading shit in the reverse order that you're going to need it. First in was my tools and chase gear, then scuba equipment, then camping gear and on top was clothes and my mobile office.

I was in search of warm weather, clear water and as much off-road as me and my truck wanted. The idea of prepping this truck for a trip like this was an oil change, tire rotation and some window washer fluid. My chase equipment consisted of a spare air filter, fuel filter, tools and tie-rods. I've carried more save-your-ass gear to a Glamis weekend with a AAA card in my pocket... after so many miles, you just know what you really need. I opted to leave a spare steering gearbox at home, but did opt for the extra spare tire, which I didn't need. Sorry Toyo, I won't do that again.

There's nothing to report on the way to San Felipe, on the highway it's like driving from Barstow to Vegas. Nothing happens until the pavement ends and you jump right into Baja's rock pack washboardedness... Mexico's idea of a road.

There's lots of these on this drive - hard pack rock-topped mexican streets that go to cool places.

When you commit to this, it would be like committing to driving to El Paso Texas from Santa Monica, over whatever lies between. The hard pack dirt roads started to feel like epic comfort zones after the first couple of days.

Not seat of your pants comfort, but mental comfort, that you were somewhere that maybe if something happened, someone might drive by and give you a hand. This was the dream part of the drive.

You don't really start to get out of town for the first couple of hours after San Felipe, then you might go on some stretches where you are alone and you have whatever you brought to get yourself out of whatever you got yourself into. Lucky for me, I'm riding on the best in the business. My adventures have names like Cummins Turbo, Carli Suspension, ATS Diesel, Toyo and Red Head written on my Baja mission criticals. The products that haven't submitted to anything I've done to them.

Taking the fun lines out of town means you're participating in Baja's heritage of off-road racing people and places. Everyone that has seen and been inspired by Dust to Glory remembers Coco and his spot on the map.

Here we get to celebrate an awesome weekday, some of desert racing's most popular lines and the fact that there's no cell phone reception or some dude posted up around the next corner with a laser speed detector and nothing better to do.

One of the best things about Baja is that the land is open to you... you can still be wild and free here. Sure there's off-roading where I come from, but it's complete with rules. You can only go so far and then there's something telling you that you have to stop, slow down, go the other way or otherwise be limited. Baja is still old school like that, you are only bound by your respect for other people and the land.

After Coco's Corner, you drive through epic desert that offers a driver everything there is, with infinite straight aways, twisty rock passes, sand washes, silty split track trails and you're in the biggest cactus garden there is. This is where my truck rides the best, I just sit back, unclick my seat belt, get comfortable, play party music and let the miles roll by. At one point my co-driver was kneeling on my center console and hanging out of the sunroof taking pictures and video while I mowed through the desert at 50+ mph. My truck rides down Baja roads like others do on concrete freeways.

The cool thing about having 3" shocks with Sage's do-it-all shock tune is that I get to fly down washboard rock pack at 70 mph with my arm on the windowsill taking in the sights and planning my next photo op - my shocks are tuned for maximum comfort. When I get onto some cactus rally trail littered with sun bleached race markers, I don't have to slow down for every goocher there is, I can maintain my speed and mosh through some desert shit - my truck's built for it, and my shocks are tuned for that too... all in one.

You do a lot of driving on rock roads with breaking-bumps. Those are like big fat washboard, not quite big enough to be called a whoop or a bump and are in such a tight frequency that if your shocks aren't tuned for everything, cab chatter would drive you nuts before you got to your first camp site.

The farther south you go, the better the scenery gets and that stays true until you absolutely run out of earth. The the first taste of this is when you see the Sea of Cortez again. The sand is white, the water is a different color and this makes a weekday taste even better.

Score more points for my Toyo MT / Walker Evan's combo... I still haven't checked my air pressure since I put my tires on in May. I run 34/30 PSI. I don't have to air down to go beach exploring and my sidewalls have enough stand up game to hold cargo tossing corner G's on the highway.

Over a hundred miles of this drive was on beaches, some of it was easy and some of it was deep course sand that took some deliberate thinking to navigate. Baja really does allow you to get your fill of off-road and will put everything to the test right in the middle of your party. It doesn't matter what you want to drive through, you either commit to driving from one point to another, or you commit to driving over what you wish, but not both. If you do enough of this, your off-road game will improve, it just comes with the territory.

This side of the peninsula there wasn't much distance to cover on beaches, this op here was just to go say hello to the Sea of Cortez and get my feet wet for the first time of the trip. This landed me in Bahia De Los Angeles, and since Ensenada, the party hasn't seen a traffic signal. So far the plan was working out perfect, an entire day's drive only passing a few people in the Puertocitos area on the road.

This is what it looks like heading for Baja Sur after Bay of L.A. - humbling views and being able to throw down however you want behind the wheel. There's lots of openness where all you have to watch out for is the occasional wild donkey, horse or bovine. Other than that, it's just you and your right foot.

Some guys do this with a GPS device. I was leaving town without so much as a map. My girlfriend purchased a tourist map last minute because she wanted to know where we were.

Sometimes you have to take a cut-off between two marked Mexican streets on a map, which means the road less traveled. In Baja, these are typically lined with coarse marking ribbon and orange arrows facing south.

Here is a section of trail that is exactly as wide as a full-size truck, with rocks that stick out of the bank that will snap your steering wheel to 9 o'clock in a split second.

This is where you go-go-gadget Toyo side walls, dual steering stabilizers, Red Head steering box and Carli Ball Joints. Here is your 1-ton truck front end nightmare. Sections like this is why desert racing has the attrition rate that it does. Hauling ass down trails like these means that you're going to connect with the shit sticking out of the side of the trail... and when you do, you can only hope it doesn't snap something. I had two contacts down this wash and both times it was like a thousand pound gorilla grabbed one of my Toyo's and momentarily stopped it. My steering wheel went from 12 to 9 o'clock so fast it couldn't be held onto.

But that's why the front end is bullet-proofed... in my world, it's got to be able to do this for an undetermined amount of miles and just keep going.

My truck left Ensenada driving straight down the road, palm steering easily at slow speeds and there wasn't a click or clunk coming from it... and that's exactly how it came back. Nice work Red Head.

This is what it looks like to cross the state line into Baja Sur. Most people go through the whole circle jerk with a military base, agricultural inspection and wash down station as well as the formalities of travel visas. Not here, this is the bullshit-free method of tourism.

All you need is a compass that points north and put it behind you... then a vehicle that can carry all of your stuff and handle the speed and off-road for hundreds of miles a day for two weeks straight.

Full-sized desert balling diesel trucks are probably the best way to do Baja, next to a sailboat or an bush plane... one can aspire, but for now, it's an 06 Megacab with everything on it.

Doing all of this eventually puts you back in the middle of the peninsula and if you want to stick to the Sea of Cortez, your best bet is to jump on the highway and start ripping towards Santa Rosalia

In just two days of adventure driving and around 450 miles later you reach the half way point. Now you're starting to get down to some Baja Sur action.

Bahia Conception is probably the first spot where it starts to look like a tropical paradise... and in Baja fashion, you can drive right up and include your truck in the photos. The beaches south of Mulege are pretty bitchen, the water is clear and the sea looks like a lake with islands and white sand.

Merry Christmas... that's what these photos should say. Heck yeah, truck loaded down with scuba equipment, camping gear, water, food, beach chairs with a hundred pound co-driver... and this is what the earth looks like. Right about here, the trip starts to kick in. Everything behind was cool driving, but the Baja adventure starts when you get out of the truck and start doing things.

I spent a day driving in and out of beach roads, through estuaries and up and over rock trails scoping the place out and playing with my truck. This Megacab has been squeezed through some tight spots. I have video of one tire barely touching the side lugs in a salt water lagoon and the other fully tucked into the wheel well crawling over a muddy rock. Long wheel base beach exploration without having to say no to a tight trail.

Turns out, this is the windy season for that part of the Cortez... and I wasn't going to wait for conditions to change, all I had to do was point my rig in another direction and pull the trigger. So that's just what I did.

We'll get back to the Sea of Cortez later, the adventure had just started and I was looking for near perfect conditions. All I had to do was drive to the other side of the Peninsula and check out how the Pacific side looked, then I could evaluate the two and decide where I wanted to spend a couple days.

This is not an uncommon view for highway driving in Baja Sur. I learned that real quick. Driving the highway in Sur sucks rocks. You spend an hour looking at the exact same view - endless cactus horizon with mind numbing straightness of the highway.

To top this all off, you have to look out for cows. For some reason in Baja Sur, the grass is greener right next to the shoulder of the highway and all cows know this. So as you're desperately trying to reel in the emptiness, you have to watch out for grazing bovine close enough to snap a side view mirror off, or worse.

So, the new adventure motto became "Fuck the highway". The very first road pointing West was taken to where ever it went that wasn't on the road of vast cow-lined nothingness.

Finally we hit something cool. Double-wide washboard gravel roads with banked corners. Sometimes at the shop, I'll pick up the phone on a sales call and chat with a customer and they'll ask [insert Texas accent here] "Yeah, well, I drive on real hard washboard roads you know and, well, what does your truck do on those?" Now I would say, "Ninety. My truck does about ninety on washboard." but that's after the adventure motto update attitude. I charged to the water's edge in search of southbound adventure lines. And I found em.

This brings us to the first real adventure part of the trip. I found the Pacific side really quick and the conditions were much better. The only part that I hadn't considered was, where on the Pacific side I was. There wasn't a beach, it was a mangrove coastline with intersecting sand trails to navigate.

Well I had one thing going for me, that was we're in Baja and you're not lost until you're out of fuel. With the ocean on either side of land, it's real easy to find south, if it's cold water with waves, South is water on your right, warm water and Islands, it's water on your left.

These photos are backwards because I was one tank of fuel away from being lost. Luckily I was still getting over 17 mpg, I had a lot of room before I officially became a victim of my own decisions and had to start asking for help.

This is when things got interesting and the driving started to give some pucker factor. Once I got my truck pointed in the right direction, all I had to do was navigate a maze of trails next to a mangrove estuary. Literally, next to, like the water touched the trail and sometimes you couldn't tell that the trail was wet, until you were in it.

It started out like some kind of mental test. Once the nicely defined trail faded away, you kind of had to just figure it out. The super cool part started when you went from lifting silt off the trail, to breaking through the surface into "ice mud", at least that's what it felt like driving over.

It was weird, you'd be driving along and the next thing you know, your steering wheel doesn't work, your RPM's spike and the truck does it's own 4-wheel drive half pirouette into the rough. Sometimes the little bushes afforded enough traction to get you back on track though.

This went on for too long. At first it was a surprise, then it was something to watch out for and be able to see coming. Then it just got to the point where it was pissing me off. This was the first time I've driven through something like this, and now I knew why there was a maze of trails. Anytime there was an inch of water, every vehicle drove way the hell around it. Wet = bad in this part of the land. The water didn't go anywhere, it just sat there ready to piss off any would-be drivers attempting to cross these paths.

This was the stickiest mud I've ever had blasted onto my truck. I had just washed my rig and it was barely coated in a slight dust and an hour after this crap, it was coated in Toyo thrown fuckall.

This stuff didn't fall off either, it just kept sticking to itself and packing up thicker and thicker. I hated mud to begin with, but this just tops it off.

There's nothing I feared more than getting stuck in Baja. I do so much driving alone, that getting stuck would for sure bring my party to a screeching halt. Not to mention that the guy with the 8,000 pound truck burried to the hubs in mangrove mud wouldn't be the thing that a guy on a horse could undo.

I really don't have an option, I can't get stuck... which means mud and silt make me pucker up and get a little intense. Those are two things where horsepower doesn't always help. In this case, even a flick of the throttle just redlined my motor. This was lame sticky mud in some unknown location along my adventure drive somewhere in Baja Sur.

After I got out of the mangrove estuary swamp maze, I found myself in what I would call B.F.E., but in this case, B.F.B.S., for Baja Sur. There I was with an endless horizon shot with this split track trail going south into infinite cactus hell... and behind me looked exactly the same. This was some interesting terrain too. The cactus was so tough that I clipped a mirror and shattered the glass. Sometimes driving these split track trails sucks because when you're the widest thing to drive down it, both tires are fighting for the low spot at the same time, so driving becomes this constant left-to-right battle where only one side can win at a time.

After finally reaching a terrain change, I hit a riverbed and things went from sandy straightness, to silt. Yay. Silt is my second least favorite stuff to drive through. Not only do you have to roll your windows up, but you never know when you're going to have to go to the mat and get nasty.

Silt can appear to be nothing and a second later, suck you into a moment that you'll never forget. This was definitely Baja adventure driving day...

Time stamp that on the adventure clock.

Finally, on the day's drive, I got onto something that I was happy with. Beach sand. I can predict beach sand. When I got out to take a look around, I spotted the under carriage of my truck - I officially had Baja barnacles.

The entire under side of my truck was covered in whatever the hell I drove through however many miles ago, where ever I was. It was the strangest mud I've ever seen. This stuff lasted just like this, for another 2,000 miles without even flaking off. Only the sides of my truck came clean, but that was from the cactus tearing it off as I pinstriped my way south.

Well at this point in the drive, I had to be deep in Baja Sur, but wasn't quite sure how deep. The good news was that I had a half a tank of fuel left and it was low tide.

This became my personal record of beach driving... the beach run to top all beach runs. This made going to San Quintin feel like a trip to the liquor store. I got my rig up to speed and drove at almost a hundred miles an hour for over half an hour and didn't see a damn thing but birds, crabs and coyotes... yes, coyotes chilling on a beach in Baja. First time for me too. I was passing things so fast that I only got a glimpse, so it took a few times before I actually identified what they were, starting with the crabs and ending with the coyotes.

It was a peaceful beach and I'm sure my Cummins sucking air at a hundred was felt before it was heard and by the time it was within ear shot, everything was getting the hell out of it's way. It was my beach this afternoon.

One thing did change however, and that was the angle of the beach. It started out mostly level and eventually that gave way to a pretty stout angle. If I so much as went left more than a truck width, I would get sucked down so fast overdrive was not an option and it took 70% throttle to maintain speed.

I started to wonder how I was going to get off the beach... Well, get off the beach without airing down or having to turn back. I hate party downers, and having to get out and change air pressure would probably suck, I've never done it, so I'm assuming.

It turns out that when you commit to something, it all just seems to work out. I just studied the waves and timed my approach to maximize the hard pack sand, kept an eye in my rear view mirror studying my tire tracks and staying as low as I could without kicking up any water.

I repeated this analysis at 80+ mph for another 15 minutes until we finally saw something, a pier with two guys fishing on it... which I slowed down to about 60 to go under, then pinned back in. Then I came across some people at the water's edge taking pictures. I pulled up and asked how they got there and first they laughed at me, then they pointed and told me that there's a way off the beach just down from them. Turns out, I hit the beach at the perfect time and cut tracks from where ever I was, to where ever I got to... I spent half the day finding out where I was going at freeways speeds.

After the epic beach run, I was back on sandy coastal straight line south bound awesomeness... I was actually relieved to be on solid ground, I didn't want to be the guy who buried his truck up to the axles on the beach with the tide coming in.

Another round of washboard Baja mail hauling and we saw some man-made stuff, which meant we were close to something, I just didn't know what or where.

The cool thing about being in another county is, you really never know what you're going to see next, it's just less predictable than organized super grid miles.

Here's a case of just that... a school buss that was wider than half the road that barely left enough room for an 06 Megacab to squeeze by with glass fenders and 5" backspace Walkers... how do I know this? Haha, the look on the other driver's face as I went by without flinching was probably what mine looked like when I first went crooked back in the mud slick.

I wound up within cell phone reception and I saw that I had a text message from Sage, it read: "Dude, you passed La Paz and are way south now, it looks like you're right on the water." He knows that there's no GPS in this truck and was seeing my spot track check-in's blow right passed my said destination.

Well, that's my way of driving to Todos Santos. Directions, from the highway, turn right, when you hit the ocean, turn left and pin it... you'll be there in no time. This was adventure base camp Charlie, complete with cell phone reception and mobile broadband Internet, my office for the day.

I spent two days in Todos Santos and Pescador Beaches starting my base tan... but hanging out at killer surf breaks wasn't going to wear down my tires and have me throwing OEM parts in the trash any sooner, so off I went for the Sea of Cortez once again.

What's the motto? That's right, screw that paved road, we're in Baja Sur, where the driving is only good when you have no idea where you are and you have to dodge livestock and rocks.

True to the adventure form, I got on a line heading East that went straight through the mountains to the other side of the peninsula tip. About this time, I had no idea where I was except a half hour from Pescador Beach and finally came a decision point in the day's drive.

Baja cross roads, a paradigm for a cross roads in life. Left or right, which way to go? Left had race course markers, ribbon and arrows were hanging from trees and cactus, which surely meant that was the adventure line, and right didn't have anything. Fun?.. or more fun? I'm rocking 3" King shocks, so I guess we'll have to take the race course to the next place I've never been from where ever I was.

Adventure navigation here is super easy... the worst thing you face is having to turn around and go back to the other way and try it... which I did a couple of times throughout these weeks. But who cares when you're in Baja Sur? you're always 40 minutes from an Ocean with either great surf, or awesome diving, take your pick... if I really wound up lost, the worst case scenario is I admit my map reading skills suck and I go chill out on the beach.

Baja Sur race courses are much like those in Baja Norte where I frequent. I spent half the day not knowing where I was and in 4-low. It was a bitchen drive and I cruised through the mountains from the Pacific Ocean to the Sea of Cortez hearing my Cummins growl up rock climbs and around corners twisting through Sierra De La Laguna, a Biosphere Reserve and another one of Baja's national parks.

Over on the other side, the drive flattened out and at some point I was laying down fresh tracks, and by now I was the only vehicle to pass since the last rain. At one point, I had to stop and drive about an 8th mile in reverse to a point where I could swing my Megapig around.

The funny thing about driving backwards on a trail where your truck is 1 foot wider than it is, you can't see backwards. Both side view mirrors show you cactus and branches and the rear view mirror shows you your cargo and upper spare tire. I had to drive backwards by feel. At one point everything was going just fine and I thought I had it - I felt like driving backwards all the way to where I started and then, blamo - my wheel went full lock right and my truck came to an instant stop. My left front Toyo caught a boulder and stopped. At the time of impact, my truck's momentum was absorbed through my steering system. Score another adventure blow to my Red Head steering box, billet ball joints and dual Bilstein stabilizers. See that boulder on the left of the trail in the top right picture below? That's the one I hit driving backwards blind.

I drove until the path choked down to something that you needed a Jeep to crawl through... a Jeep that you didn't mind scratching up. Navigating these trails, I used my overhead compass more than the paper map in my console and eventually found my way to a road that turned into a street that intersected the highway... and viola, navigation markers were posted up on the side of the road.

For the first time of this drive I knew exactly where I was.

This part of the peninsula is killer, it's a mix of cactus with a tree canopy. A place called Santiago is host to a natural hot spring where you can camp in the cactus forest and swim in a huge pool of warm spring water. This turned out to be an excellent way to kick off the day. Wake up, make coffee and breakfast, then go soak and swim... then return to pack up the camp and charge the Sea of Cortez in 4-hi.

After coming out of the hills I had options... go to La Paz, or head south to Los Cabos? I wasn't done going South and knew that eventually I had to go north, so that meant La Paz was on the way home, eventually.

What's the motto? Right, so off goes the party heading south cutting down every last sandy trail towards the water. Not a cove was missed or a beach was passed all the way to Los Cabos.

From the mountains to the coast, from the rock to the sand. So far the driving had been nothing but killer and I was now at least 1,000 miles into this party with more places to explore and things to do. This was worry-free adventure driving, all I had to think about was where I didn't know I was and where I was going.

Time was ticking down on 2011 and this was about a day away from waving good-bye to an awesome year and greeting the next. Morning drives like this make you reach for the iPod, crank up Sweet Child O' Mine and let your common-rail diesel motor eat it's lunch tearing ass towards your own New Year party in Cabo San Lucas.

Sure enough, eventually I hit the mass of people in Cabo and went to see what there was to see in San Lucas. After having driven over a thousand miles through everything Baja has to offer and getting glimpses of what I wanted to explore on my more than a week long drive north, I didn't really see the romance in the Crowds in Cabo. Maybe everyone doesn't have a long range off-road Megacab with everything on it for raging in the dirt.

That's the long way to land's end in Baja, 1400 something miles on the trip odometer, 32+ hours on the trip engine clock and I had officially driven my truck as far as you could in Baja... my way. This is ringing the adventure bell... all that there was to do from here was party north.

2012

I decided to feed my truck it's spare AFE 7-Micron air filter for the trip north. You really can't drive here like I do without the right parts. All of this is how I pull it off and always drive home. My truck's never been stuck, never broke, never had a flat tire in Baja after having the full package. This is because of the parts that have gone into this. No more flat tires, no more blown transmissions, no more destroyed steering boxes, no more pounded out ball joints... just party on. If I tried this with a stock vehicle, it would die in it's first week in the line of duty.

Now that I had run the whole damn peninsula to the end, it was time to get what I came down for... and that's what Baja has to offer that I can't get at home. It's not just the unlimited off-road buffet that is attractive to me. There's things here that are more special than bottomless silt beds and SCORE markers... all this off-road is just my way of getting there... but this is what it's about. Doing something.

Cabo Pulmo was my first stop after leaving the city. An underwater national park and Baja's northern most corral reef. This is when the mix pays off. You can park your baddass diesel truck, unload all your crap, find your scuba tanks and charge out into the water and go play in a life-size aquarium.

I had everything I needed and at any time, I could spot a cove and make it my own off-road dive site beach camp and sunrise photo location... without having to do a thing. It's already here, all I had to do was show up.

I could start my own postcard business with just the photos from Cabo Pulmo, both above and underwater. Baja has a unique offering to those who are willing to come down and get it.

But for now, enough of all this hunky-dory rah rah sea life stuff... there's still some driving to do, we haven't gotten to La Paz yet, which is where I told everyone I was going in the first place.



Keeping true to the motto, the highway was not on my radar and northbound went the adventure. I found myself on what I called Baja's road to Mordor. It was a slippy little rock trail that at times, was barely big enough for my truck. This went on for over an hour as I picked my way up the Sea of Cortez heading for La Paz. At this point, all of my wheeling was done in 2-wheel drive. I had this pesky driveline squeak which turned into a constant rumble that amplified in 4x4.

Eventually, I found myself in a farm valley and intersected the highway. This is when I reaffirmed the adventure motto with even more epic highway straightness than ever before. I took a photo of forward and backward views of Baja Sur's bullshit straight line stretches.

Finally, the road offered some direction changes and then the adventure descended into the city right at the end of the day. Morning scuba dive over a corral reef and sunset in La Paz - 2012 weekday, check.

I was told that the sunsets in La Paz were purple. Turns out, that's true. The most dramatic sunsets I've ever seen. This made those bullshit highway straight-away's fade in my memory bank and that room was once again quickly filled with Baja Sur awesomeness.

La Paz is another unique thing of it's own. Home to more sea life than you can shake a stick at and beaches where you can walk out into the water for 15 minutes and still not be able to swim. No joke, I tried going for a swim from my truck and after 15 minutes of walking, I gave up and changed beaches.

This is where the wild earth rubs right up against modern day life. There's free WiFi on the Malecon and you can jump on a ponga to go swim with Whale Sharks or watch Humpback whales breach in the bay.

Camping in La Paz beaches is killer, you park in white sand with sea shell patches and swim in what looks like drinking water. Here's a view of Thursday's office.

This was the somewhere around the 1500th mile on this trip and about the time an under carriage rumble turned into a moshing grind that had to get dealt with. I avoided this for days, but it was coming.

You can only lay down 1000+ foot pounds of torque in 4-wheel drive and do 100 mile per hour stints until something finally punches it's wear cycle ticket.

In this case, it was a front drive shaft, freshly rebuilt in May during the same reload when the Toyo's went on and a slue of other maintenance items.

This is the cost of doing business - a bucket of u-joints and this truck will be ready to go another season turn-key in Baja doing exactly the same thing. A small price to pay for exercising your freedoms.

OEM wear parts fall off this truck in the name of living life... but as long as it's just factory wear items being replaced, there's nothing one could complain about.

At least I was laying in a white sand beach under my barnaclized Megacab. This would have made such a mess in the shop, I would have been sweeping up as long as it took me to yank the part. I couldn't image what would happen if I rumbled on this chassis with a Blue Point impact.

I heard a rotational squeak before I even got out of town and thought it could have been a hub, which would have kept me from going much farther... So, in Bay of L.A,, I went to a tire shop, borrowed a jack and had a guy spin the left front tire while I laid underneath. The noise was coming from the T-case, not the hub, so I dropped the truck and split, these transfer cases are bullet-proof and I wasn't worried about anything but a wheel bearing.

Once you get to know your truck, things just start to work out better and you know what you have to worry about. Turns out, it was the dual u-joint thing on the front drive shaft and it held on all the way to La Paz, the super long way.

All this truck needs is u-joints, tires and filters and it will just keep doing this. Now I can say that this truck and package is thoroughly proven, it's the one that keeps standing up to all the Baja off-road adventure a guy can throw at it.

The adventure went all the way north and now I'm shivering in Ensenada wishing for quick redeparture south. I found my lines and the next time I hit it, it'll be even better.

I hope everyone's new year kicked off exactly how they wanted it. There's going to be some adventure driving this year that will make the board as well. I try to get people involved and roll out the red carpet for more participation, but once again, this was a solo mission. This year, a Carli Adventure drive should hit the tip with a solid group of guys and trucks.

A half an hour at the pressure washer and this truck is 2 u-joints away from doing this again. My Megacab bounces back from a party without a hangover.

Everyone behind this truck deserves an atta-boy. In the world of license-plated daily driver diesels, this is putting the "fuck yeah" in truck ownership... and it isn't like this until you have it all. Nice up Cummins... way to back it up ATS Diesel... thanks again Toyo... excellent work Red Head Steering Gears and most of all, thanks to Sage and the guys for doing what you do.

Power Wagon Expedition

2011-12-15T13:55:00.000-08:00

There are quite a few things you can do with the world's most refined Dodge Ram Suspension system packages. Some people drive to work everyday and enjoy Carli engineered highway comfort and in-town ride quality, while some people play in the dirt and experience Carli engineered total control and maximum performance... then there are some people who have farther limits.

Meet Barry and his 2010 Dodge Ram 2500 Power Wagon that has more customizations and add-on's than a millionaire's ex-wife. This isn't for commuting to work or jumping sand dunes, this rig is built for global photo expeditions. The go-anywhere do anything, stay as long as you want, all-weather earth roaming party of one. This isn't the first truck that Barry's built, and when he decided to construct an expedition Power Wagon, he turned to the best in the business for its suspension.

The Setup: Dominator 3.0 with a custom Expedition valve profile and Long Travel airbags -When proven performance and only maximum control will be enough.

Sage and Team,

I want to thank you for providing such excellent products and excellent support. Having come from the professional audio industry and being a passionate landscape photographer I am experienced in both the design/manufacturing and use of high performance/high quality gear. The hallmark of truly professional products is that it inspires confidence and enables higher levels of performance. My Carli Suspension has delivered this in spades.

Having built two expedition overland trucks and traveled 10's of thousands of miles on backroads and trails in the last few years, I can say without hesitation that Carli Suspension has been the single most worthwhile upgrade to the vehicle that I have made. The reason is that the Carli Suspension has increased both vehicle performance and capability while reducing operating fatigue. It has raised both my confidence in driving the vehicle and comfort while in traveling in it. Whether I'm making high speed transits on the interstates, blasting down dirt roads or crawling over technical terrain, the ride is composed, compliant and in control. If I were to describe the feel I would call in sinewy- not harsh and not sloppy but a well controlled and well modulated with lots of articulation and stability - The articulation is unbelievable. Now I don't always drive fast but sometimes there are a lot of miles to cover and not much time to do it. It is nice to know that when I need to make tracks, I can do so with complete confidence and a sense of joy. Having owned many high performance German cars over the years I was surprised to feel the same level of performance and sophistication, albiet for a different mission. Now, I can't imagine owning a truck without making this upgrade.

For me, reliability is paramount. Since I generally travel the back country alone, the chance of getting stuck due to a component failure carries serious consequences. This suspension has taken incredible abuse without a hitch- like flying off of whoops on power line roads and rapid transit over primitive trails. For an empty truck this may be no big deal but my rig when fully loaded and carrying camera gear, back up parts, tools, clothing, food, spare fuel and 25 gallons of water can weigh in at excess of 10,000 lbs. Not one single problem has been encountered.

My Dominator 3.0 has also withstood two accidents without anything more than a deformed bushing. In the first case, I hit an unseen 24" boulder with my right front tire while rolling down a trail looking for a path to cross a canyon. (I know, I should have been looking at the road and not the canyon!) The steering wheel got wrenched around about 100 degrees and the alignment was seriously wacked but, amazingly, none of the suspension was damaged. More recently I was broadsided by a car traveling 50 miles an hour. Thankfully, half the blow was taken by the front axle which helped save me and the truck. The impact shifted the axle about 3" to the right and wiped out most of the stock front-end components but much to my amazement only a few bushings on the Carli suspension system were damaged.

If I sound like an enthusiastic owner, I am. As the saying goes, your experience may differ but based upon MY experience I wouldn't hesitate to recommend a Carli Suspension to anyone interested in quality and performance.

Barry Andrews,
Co-Founder QSC Audio Products,
Co-Founder Visionary Wild,
Wanderer/Photographer

Barry is living life and his retirement dream... free to go about the world with his favorite toys and bring something back to share with all. There's not a better add-a-boy for Carli Suspension than being able to participate in something like this - We like seeing our product be put to use on trucks where the most performance, reliability and quality are not just desired, but required.

There just isn't enough bandwidth to share everything that Barry sent, it took half of my morning to download the sample that I'm sharing with you here. Some of his adventures include Greenland, Antarctica (yes, I said Antarctica), Africa and all over the United States.

This is one of a few trucks that goes to work outside the range of road side assistance, cell phone reception and quick reach of your best friends. For some, like Barry, this is where the adventure begins... and when this is your arena, nothing less will do.

This is getting out and doing Dodge Ram suspension work. Thanks for the testimonial and shout from the road Barry, we'll look forward to another update from your expeditions.

All this suspension tuning and custom piston engineering stuff boils down to you doing your thing. When it's all said and done, that's what it's all about... and in the realm of living life on the road less traveled, this is definitely 'gettin it'. Barry deserves a "well done", "nice form" and a couple other compliments for demonstrating some solid lines.

Sage can take pride in this build and tune, he is able to stand behind the claim that he can setup a truck to do just about anything... it's not always about hauling ass in the dirt - but it is always about comfort, total control, the highest performance and you loving what your truck does where you use it the most.

Baja 1000 Prerun Party

2011-11-27T18:52:00.001-08:00

Earlier this year, I attended an off-road party in Ensenada and in the name of Research, Development and living life, I pitted my Megacab with everything roll-caged, parker-pumpered and window-netted... and the world of bolt-on daily driver off-road performance had a new ceiling; a track day.

Of course I told everybody I know about this, then posted my flying Dodge pictures in my favorite Ram forum and told all the guys that this is an experience that's worth doing. There was enough interest to start pinned forum discussions, preparation threads and get the buzz going... and in the meantime, I began doing what I do... organizing good times. I set the dates, rented the race track, went to a party to evaluate DJ's then personally go/no-go'd each of the models before retaining talent (a tough day at the office). Everything was setup, including a media party the night before at the Carli R&D house. The plan was to have 20-25 Dodge Ram's at the ranch, turn on the music, get the girls dancing then start launching trucks and have photographers lined up in key locations to capture all this madness.

The reason I took the time to explain all this is because the organized event didn't happen, and that's a party plan that needs to be executed. Somewhere a statistician should create the "Internet Quotient", which will be a reduction formula from what people type in forums, to what actually happens, so when you read a thread, you can take all the motivated responses, run it through the "IQ" and be left with the actual value of "ACTION", which in this case was 4 trucks, well actually 5, one was a day late. So here's what happens when we rally up in Baja for prerunning and partying in leu of a private diesel ranch party during race week.

Day 1 - Baja 1000 Course Prerun

Some of the most fun you can have in your specially suspended Cummins powered diesel truck, is mob a Baja race course during open prerunning. It's cool for several reasons; first you get to see and drive on the same corners and bumps that you see Robby Gordon and BJ Baldwin mashing up on Youtube, and the tolerance level is acceptable for making a ton of noise and dust on local ranch roads leaving Ensenada in a roaring diesel pack.

Half of this group of trucks are Dodge Ram pack-leaders in the daily driver Baja off-road scene and the other half were getting their first taste of the action.

The party was an open invitation to those who wanted to put their trucks to work that they were built to do. The entire range of modification was represented, from basic 2.0 reservoir systems with stock control arms, to full custom mid travel bed-cage builds. 4 of these trucks are Carli point rigs, Alex and I live in Ensenada and the other two are my Baja squad leaders, Travis and Ian, who have thousands of miles of this under their belt. This was a joy ride on a Friday afternoon running the first 70 miles of this year's Baja 1000 course.

Getting to the Ojos Negros ranch

The first mission is to get everyone out of town... there's nothing worse than trying to keep a stick of 8 trucks together through a Mexican grid. It's always a mission just to get to the fun stuff.

Once we got on the line, I ordered up the party crew by experience, assigned tail end responsibility, summarized the safety brief and punched out. These are ranch roads, you could drive a Prius up and down em if you wanted to. It's the fun way out of town and a good 15 miles to shake everything down before the rocks, whoops, sand and the jumps.

The start of the prerun begins at the Ojos Negros ranch and this is where you used to see the craziest off-road spectating there is, tied with 100 person crowds standing on the outside of a 90 degree corner during a European rally in the wet. Ojos Negros has been the site of some Darwinian moments during SCORE races - ranch roads with smooth rolling terrain that when hit at 50+ mph is the site of lofting air time for whatever has enough power to make it look cool. In the world of Cummins Turbo, we bring so much custom programmed diesel torque that things get downright stupid. This day, we were the ones standing there taking turns watching each other make runs at pro hucks.

This is where the off-road prerun party, goes Dodge Ram suspension pornography. Now I get to introduce bolt-on daily drivers that are doing things that before only roll-caged race cars did. The performance that is engineered in these systems is more than their drivers will implement - well, most drivers.

Carli Suspension Signature Off Road Package

Alex is a special case off-road partier, he's on his third complete system with this truck and recently bolted on the the entire Sage Carli signature build, which is the Dominator 3.0 system with control arms and front bumpstops, ATS Diesel's custom Baja Edition 48RE, Walker Evan's Beadlocks with Toyo 37" MTs and a Carli low-profile axle truss. The Rigid Industries light bar was his idea, but you might see some more of these around here soon.

I met Alex because he emailed customer service and claimed that he bent a Carli lower ball joint. I personally inspected his truck and found out that he bent everything but a Carli lower ball joint. He's a wildman in the dirt... and grenaded an entire front end on one bump during a prerun - axle, spindle, steering, truss... literally, the entire front end. After we talked and went for a ride in my Megacab, he pulled the trigger on a ground-up Carli build. This is Alex today, flying higher, riding smoother and putting more power to the ground than anything.

I put Alex up to this task and told him to line up and hammer down. As he came around the last corner before this roller I passed simple orders via VHF radio "F#@$#ing GO!" and all you heard was his Cummins spool up, the ATS kick down a gear and all four wheels were firing dust out of the fenders as he charged the blind rise.

His words after landing this huck was "Dude, my legs are shaking". This is not normal driving behavior - putting down over 1000 foot pounds of torque to the ground while charging a blind huck takes more balls than brains, but he landed this setting the bar at a ridiculous height.

A Sage Carli Engineering Signature

Ian went last and I think it was his idea to play it cool taking pictures just see where the biggest huck landed, then go right out and beat it in one shot... because that's what he did. This is Ian's brand new fully loaded 4th Gen on its maiden voyage in Baja... Ian hammers down in the dirt and he's got the perfect system to take him there. This is a 6" Radius Arm Dominator 3.0 5-tube bypass long-travel system, with front bumpstops and Carli low-profile axle truss... sporting the latest King 3" valve profile.

This truck rolled out of the Carli shop 2 days before this photo was taken with Ian's original 6" Radius Arm kit. This is the bolt-on, bolt-off, go back to stock at any time Radius Arm promise in reality. Ian upgraded his truck and took his Radius Arm System with him, going back to stock on his '07 with a box of hand tools - just one of the engineering features that Sage promised and delivered on.

What you're looking at here is where the bolt-up high performance game is today... it just keeps getting better and better. This is the the full kill 6" Radius Arm 3.0 system with Sage's production shock tune. There is nothing out there that is going to kick its ass in the dirt... and nothing that can beat this on the street or highway. You're seeing the best the game has going right now.

Meanwhile back at the Dodge Ram party...

After all the screwing around in Ojos, we jumped back into the cabs for the first part of the off-road driving. There's one cut off trail between the Tres Hermanos ranch and a nice graded road to Santa Clara, it's about 15 miles or so and it is about a 4 on the scale of 1-10 for being off-road.

I brief the guys before every section of the drive then reorder the group based on driving style and experience. This section I told everyone to be mindful of their tires, this section is only used by racers, just a tight trail of rock sections, rocks, more rocks and whoops for an hour.

I sent my most experience guys out front and kept the trucks without 37's, dual steering stabilizers and diff guards behind me and set a slow pace trying to keep everyone moving. Turns out, this time we lost a Yokohama and a BFG AT. Last time it was a Cooper MT and a BFG AT. Travis is 2 for 2 on this trail, every time he drives it, he gives us the BFG salute.

The BFG salute is when the entire party is standing around while you dig around in your chase box and crawl around in the dirt with your boxers hanging out of your pants. 8,000 pound trucks that are this fast in the dirt, need the strongest tire you can get, and right now that is a 37" Toyo MT. For all the time I've spent on just this section of race course waiting for someone to put on a spare tire, I could have posted live blog updates of the prerun with photos in wait. Did I mention that I am not fond of BFG ATs on our trucks?

After all of the tire drama with Travis, we rallied on the hard pack and all gathered around Ian's sidewall flapper to get a view of how Yokohama weaves their sidewall threads. We didn't have to wait for Ian to swap out his spare, he just kept running with a flapper. Yoko's don't have the group stopping reputation that Travis' BFG's do, but Ian has tossed a few tires and wheels in the trash can over the years after these parties.

Why run a tire that you already know is going to get its ass kicked doing stuff like this? Just go Toyo and skip the learning curve on this one, you can have it right from the get go. Now you know.

We made it back to the highway leaving the race course at RM65-ish and drove it back to the coast into a perfect Baja sunset. We couldn't have asked for a better day and this group pulled the first leg of the race course with no less than a flat tire. Solid trucks, solid drivers and we brought back some Dodge Ram daily driver off-road history.

Day 2 - Party Lines, Pacific Coast

The best way to start the day in my town is to roll up to the local eatery and get down on some custom breakfast tacos. Rally point Alpha is the Big Burro where we reboot the food clock and all get on the same page for the day's drive.

Today was going to be a 3 hour tour on Baja's Pacific Coast, and what I call the party lines. Heading south on the coast means that you start in Santo Tomas - there is the first road to the ocean that continues south. We rolled out of the Ejido in a light rain under silver skies. Driving the transpeninsular highway in the wet is about the lamest thing you can do, water makes everything transportation go to shit. Lucky for us, we only had to do a half hour on the hardball to the race course.

The drive from Santo Tomas to the beach is awesome, there's not a bump on it and when done safely, can be a diesel rally. I launched the guys in order of experience, then speed. Putting a point truck out early is critical for safety, Travis is solid on point and it was his responsibility to make this run fast and fun for everyone.

My truck has done this so many times, it's almost on auto pilot. I monitored the party on the race radio and took up tail end in clean air. With Travis out front calling back any traffic, the other guys could focus on their driving and the road, which makes it a hell of a lot more fun.

It can be a very brief drive from the highway to the coast with the right hardware and the point trucks made a mockery of it. I think the time stamp on the cameras from the last group lineup, to the panoramic ocean view is just over 15 minutes. That's moving out on ranch roads.

Next stop, the Pacific Ocean

You can't help but to have the best time doing this... you're out in the country, no cell phone reception, no traffic, no checkpoints, no radar speed traps, red light traffic cameras or any of the super grid bullshit. Just being free and having an epic automotive good time with your friends.

We keep it fun, fast and safe. Travis rolls deep out front and everyone behind gets to relax, not worry about oncoming traffic or hazards, can site see and just enjoy the time. We had all levels of experience out here, for some of us, it was a Carli R&D Baja team reunion and for others, it was their first drive out of the OHV park or sand dune recreation area.

The coast roads are fun, and this is still the way home for almost all of the Baja 500 and 1000 race courses. That means you have either-or's, or what I call man-lines. You can take the maintained dirt road, or you can take the short cuts where trophy truck and long travel hi-horsepower vehicles shave seconds off of their pace. Sometimes these are chewed up super nasty paths blazed into a hillside by sheer force, and other times it's just a rougher steeper version of the long way... it just depends on the weather, the recent racing and the weather.

On drives like this, my truck takes every short cut there is, it's just part of it's charm. The approach to the Erindera short cut from up top looks like a mistake, it wouldn't be a natural thing to drive straight off a bank when a perfectly graded road turns right. I called it out on the radio from being dead last in the stick and hit the short cut, even stopping to let cameras get into position to capture it. This is a real short-cut, when you're racing north and have the power, you take this line.

That is me doing it backwards. The last time my truck went up this, I wasn't even driving, my brother was with his 2-year old kid in the backseat and he asked "Do you think your truck could make it up that?" and I said "Put this thing in 4-low, point it up that hill and watch". These trucks will chew up brutal terrain when properly equipped. This day it was the most tame I've seen it. There was one steep part where I could smell some fluid spills burning off under the hood from the approach angle, but that's it, and the ruts and rocks are mellow this year.

Once you get down off of the hills and are at beach sand elevation, the roads are just pure fun. It's impossible to get lost as long as the ocean is on your right, so after my shortcut, I charged out front and let me truck eat its lunch to the next stop, taking pictures back along the way. I have to keep it chill, otherwise my fresh set of 5 brand new Toyo's will only last me a few months. Cummins, ATS Diesel and Mads Electronics turns your right foot a Toyo MT grinder.

Just before entering Erendira, we stopped at a point to line up the rigs on the waterline, take pictures and share stories. You can't help but to have a smile on your face when this is what you see. This is the reward for getting out and seizing the moment... the Baja experience.

We rolled into Erendira and fired up the local tienda for bottles of soda, chocolate cookies and Spanish 101 with the local kids. This is a town where they see a truck with CA license plates and come running for their stickers, the only thing that passes through Erendira is SCORE races and ponga trailers. It's a quiet farming and fishing community that just got a paved road last year. A line of trucks like this is the scene on any given weekday.

Another taste of pure race course

After the socializing in town, it was time to make our way passed the farms and get to the next leg of the drive. Another section of race course... meaning this isn't a maintained road, it's a wash that only racers use and it's subject to the weather, racing and the weather. Known for it's rock sections and off-camber rutted tight whooped out narrowness, the Erendira wash to Johnson Ranch is another small taste of off-road. This trail is about a 3 out of 10 for Baja.

I stacked up the trucks and sent the experience out front with Ian and Travis, then lined up the rest of the guys by wheel travel and shock size. This is slow going for any vehicle that weighs in like a diesel truck, but it's the most direct route south into Punta Colonet.

We traveled the wash and only ran into oncoming prerunner traffic, a half dozen motos and Householder's 4-seater. The weather was perfect, we experienced no issues and it was a Dodge Ram off-road parade all day on perfect roads.

Ian's brand new truck got him to stop, exit his truck and stand some cactus up that would have otherwise left a pinstripe down his driver's side... and by the end of the wash, the Carli Baja team was already debriefing. Me and these guys have done this wash a few times and almost every time we have new shock tunes or something upgraded, so the time at the end is usually taking notes on what our truck is doing better. Ian has a whole new truck and Travis has an updated ACV tune since their last rip through here.

After Johnson Ranch, the Baja 1000 course comes out of the hills between San Vicente and Colonet... and we kept going south to Colonet point and Camalu. We made a routine stop to say hello to a friend, Richard, owner of Cuatro Casas Hostel, a surf party off-road do whatever you want open 24/7 camp. At some point after arriving, the sky opened up and just started dumping on us.

The good part was, we were only 10 minutes from Pirate's Cove hotel and restaurant and had nothing better to do than line up at the bar for cocktails and a full meal. 5 pitchers of Pina Colada's, 6 baskets of chips, 9 bowls of salsa and whatever the guys wanted to eat... that's what we did while the sky poured down and prepped the roads for our return trip.

This is where the recreation drive went adventure drive. Mud packed up in our tires and the weight of Cummins diesel trucks could be felt as the truck slid downhill on anything off-camber. It's creepy when that happens... you spend all day sliding sideways around rocky corners on a cliff and charging downhill cutt-off's, then 2 inches of fresh mud results in a temporary loss of control. I hate mud.

After dinner and drinks, we forged through wheel deep mud... Camalu was under water. Baja gets its ass kicked in the rain, even after an hour of it. Driving in the wet down here sucks... it's not so much our trucks, its everything else on the road. Most vehicles aren't ready for it and are driving around on bald tires, iffy brakes, no wipers and one headlight. When it gets wet, crazy stuff happens, cars turn upside down and trucks fall off roads. Sometimes it becomes a free for all and there is no lane, there's just where you can drive. Not exactly the pleasure drive the day started out as... but this is when the drive stopped and the adventure began.

After this drive, I swore I'd go anywhere with these guys, no matter what came our way, we came out the other side issue-free and all smiles. The last stop of this drive was at Acambaro to say hi to Juan and family. Acambaro is special amongst the Carli R&D crew as it was the starting sequence for our last adventure drive together.

Juan is always happy to see us and his place has everything you need... this time, it was hot coffee, snacks and a wood burning stove with the opportunity to rally up the adventure drivers for a final photo.

These are the guys and the trucks who got out and did something new and went home with an experience. This is what we encourage and the door is open to getting out of town, having an adventure and being safe and fast in the dirt.

I still want to throw my ranch party with 25+ smoke blowing fence high flying desert diesels with my local racer friends, DJ's, models and an after party at my house... but until we get enough participation, we'll be doing adventure drives - the door is open to anyone who wants to be a part of this experience. And now these guys can help explain what its all about too.

Carli Off Road Proving Grounds

2011-11-08T18:10:00.000-08:00

This is what the Carli Suspension crew does when we're they're not shoving pallets of product out the door and taking sales calls all week. Enter Sage, his two media point men, our trucks and the newest owner of the whole Sage Carli off-road package. One thing we learned after thousands of miles tromping up and down the Baja Peninsula is that it takes the whole package to do this succecssfully. You can bolt up shocks and go pound, but the service life of everything else is on the chopping block as soon as you crack your first smile in the dirt.

Steering systems fail, stock transmissions melt, tires get destroyed, front axles bend, ball joints pound out and motor mounts submit when you do this more than once a year. When you have the entire package, you can do this... every day and turn your truck into a turnkey go-anywhere do-anything off-road exploration adventure lifestyle truck.

This weekend was a local trip to the pine forests of Baja - Laguna Hanson. An easy, and beautiful drive, to some high elevation hanging out with good friends. We get to excersize our trucks, get out of cell phone reception and do a little all around off-road product proving as a crew.

The Whole Package

This truck can leave the garage, kiss the highway goodbye and drive thousands of off-road miles with just the turn of the key. This is the package that has proven to deliver:

Dominator 3.0 w/ King 4-tube Bypasses & Carli Pistons
Chromoly Control Arms
Upper and Lower Extreme Duty Ball Joints
Dual Bilstein Steering Stabilizers
Chromoly Motor Mounts
Front Axle Truss
Front Differential Guard
ATS Diesel Full Billet Custom Carli Baja Edition 48RE
Walker Evans Beadlocks
37" Toyo Open Country MT's
Redhead Steering Gear Box
Single Spare and Chase Box

There are several brands that have not failed us and are part of the equation. I am on my 17th Toyo MT and have still not had a flat tire. My ATS 48RE has laughed off more partying than 4 previous transmissions. Redhead steering gears has worked with Carli Suspension and earned their place here. The best thing about Walker Evans, aside from being the strongest wheel we know of, is that my tire pressure is like a Ronco chicken machine... "set it and forget it". I check my air pressure once a year - when I put my tires on.

If you want to know what are the reliable proven products that have documented more off-road R&D and brought it home - here they are.

This is some slow-speed fun posting up high angles while cranking on a hydro-formed frame and watching Toyo foot prints stand their ground regardless of what is going on. I got my Megcab mostly on this rock a year ago while playing around on a weekday... then Alex took it to a new level.

He parked his truck on this boulder and left his rig sitting there like a billy goat. This is not your average daily driver diesel truck activity... but when you have it all, go ahead and play, your rig is ready for wherever the party takes you.

This truck is a real off-road truck... and it lives the Baja life. He's an experienced co-driver in RECORD and this truck does it all... preruns the race courses, tows the 7s truck and trailer, chases point-to-point races, mans static pits and goes onto the course when it's time to scrape a busted race car off the track. This setup is the swiss army knife of off-road. Alex has been getting in more party miles on his truck since his latest build with more miles and no issues, where as before, it was back to the shop to check something after every romp.

I have to digress from my last post when I said I was taking the guys on the 2nd hardest line there is down here... this weekend turned out to be a mellow run, but we have dates scheduled for a few more drives before the end of the year including a tip run.

The Carli Baja party, (cough) I mean, R&D Continues...

Carli Media Day - Barstow

2011-10-17T23:42:00.000-07:00

This is a Carli day in the dirt, our first media event... and our last romp on local stomping grounds as a crew. We were presenting the Ford system to any would-be demo drivers via "here, go ahead and drive it down the race course" free-for-all test drives... and what do you think happens when every single Sage Carli invention hits the dirt as a rat pack? Taking pictures and trying to film this event was like herding 500 horsepower squirrels.

CT McDonald's Silver Megacab is still one of the best looking trucks to be born at this company... and even today, he's riding on Sage's very latest 3.0 King valving. The 2.5 King shock tuning scored huge out there... but that's over on the Super Duty blog, enough about that here.

6" Radius Arm / Bilstein 2.65" ACV

So enter the cast of the latest advancements in Dodge Ram Suspension Engineering and Tuning. These are the guys with the smoothest riding, fastest shit there is right now. Pardon my French...

You guys remember Shaun, operations manager, tech support, shock builder, installer, customer service, ball joint inspector, shipping overseer and all around wrench. Shaun drives like he works. Right now, there's like one other guy that could hold a candle to the stunts he pulls behind the wheel. Luckily, he's doing research, so it's okay. We're really big on our homework here... and Shaun is our new point man in getting down to business.

The 6" Radius Arm System with the Bilstein 2.65" ACV package is the hardest moshing bolt-on product there has ever been. As far as DIY bolt-on/off Dodge Ram Suspension goes, there's never been anything that could do this out of the box.

Shaun's developing his driving style and experience... but for now, it's hammer down first, think second. Luckily, he's got a truck that can take it and suspension that delivers control at high speeds and in big terrain. What's left behind a Shaun-line... is a path of destruction. Tree branches, entire bushes, huge roost marks... everything but pieces of the truck. Here's a still of a Shaun-line being created.

By the end of the day, the red quad cab in the present Carli fleet gave Greg Foster from Industrial Motoring a ride to come back and explain... somehow, Shaun managed to negative-G his passenger while severely overdriving a whoop section. But now we know that the Radius Arm system is brushing off some serious action and the latest Bilstein ACV reservoir tune is soaking up Shaun-line creating hits... hits that the rest of us would never do to our 45K dollar truck. R&D in process.

Bilstein 2.65" ACV

Enter Travis, sporting a Carli signature build; Bilstein 2.65" ACV, full leafs, sway bar, ball joints, axle truss, dual stabilizers, diff guard, Walker Evans Beadlocks and a custom Carli Edition ATS Performance 48RE... all he's missing is the Toyo's.

Travis is sporting the latest ACV tune and this is his first rip in the dirt with a direct Cummins connection. Having a custom transmission in the package changes the whole game, you can really start driving the truck. He's learned the tire lesson now and is going Toyo here shortly... he's warrantied a BFG tire after every trip to Mexico.

Travis is a our media crew chief and has been steadily growing his driving experience and has logged many R&D miles... and since has pretty much done everything under a Dodge Ram, except removing the cab from the chassis. His lines are pretty hot, he has a lot of confidence in his truck and isn't shy about rolling into the throttle and riding out a whoop section. The Bilstein ACV tune is so composed and collected, you can see it's balance on video. The back does exactly what the front does and the truck stays level... no matter what. It offers a completely different feel than a King, doing the exact same thing.

King 2.5" Triple Bypass Front/Rear

Speaking of King shocks, here's a sleeper of a Carli Engineering Project. Triple Bypass King 2.5's on all four corners. This is the most versatile system available, talk about a bolt-on system that you can literally, make it do whatever you wanted. You have 12 tubes of adjustability built into another DIY off-the-shelf Sage Carli package.

Pat is point man on the lift these days. He was tasked with race truck completion and prep and has assumed most of the mechanical responsibilities that take place in the R&D bay. Pat brings something unique to the crew, that is the most Dodge Ram saddle time a person could have. He used to be a professional driver and it was a Cummins powered Dodge Ram Dually. What happens when you bolt-on the most straight axle wheel travel that is interfaced with King 2.5 race bypass shocks with custom Carli pistons and valve profile... is someone who is as comfortable behind the wheel as your average person in a Starbuck's drive through, except he's in 3rd gear locked with his rear tires about 3 feet of the ground in a slight mid-air tweak... but he's at his resting heart rate in the cab.

It's an interesting combination, this would be like giving a NY cab driver an M5 and a "don't worry, if it breaks on a media day, it's on the company" hall pass. Pat's truck is growing up to be the 12valve envy in the 2nd Gen world.

Performance 2.0 / Long Travel Airbags

Pulling the weight out to the party was Robert's 06 long bed sporting the Performance 2.0 with long travel airbags. He towed his bumper pull out to the Barstow main pit area and even hit the race course for the camera. That's asking a lot from a Dodge Ram trailer hauling daily driver... but this truck had a day living out the Carli Suspension performance spectrum.

From the driveway to the trailer, with the trailer to the dirt, from the camp to the race course... and back. Robert's got the whole package for work and play, so if jumping whoops and making desert trails wider isn't your thing, here's another completely researched, engineered and proven package that's doing it.

The Performance 2.0 still proves to be a worthy competitor in the realm of off-road recreation and with the addition of the long travel airbags, this kit can pull triple duty in a day and shine.

Dominator 3.0

And behind the scene and camera stands Carli Suspension's research Baja party testbed. This was the only truck that drove to Barstow with fresh Baja roost. The Dominator 3.0 is still the suspension system that is doing it all. When this truck is California, it pounds out 200 miles a day on California super grids... and when it's in Baja, it logs 200 miles a week of whatever in the dirt. It Preran every race course there was for a year, co-starred in the Baja 500 Team Lexus Recovery in the Urupan mtns and had its own day on the track. Last Saturday it was pulling trophy truck recovery ops for Jason Whipple at the RECORD San Vicente 200. This is a turn-key, do whatever the hell you want with 100% uptime daily driver, prerunner, chase, recovery, Baja party truck.

Our next media drive is scheduled for October 29th... and it will be in my backyard... Carli Media Day - Baja. I'll be taking the crew for a 3-hour tour on the 2nd toughest line there is down here. In the Dodge Ram suspension and engineering arena, the Carli Suspension crew is demonstrating solid lines in where the high-performance, quality and durability game is, today.

Researched. Engineered. Proven. This is the byproduct of our R&D, experienced drivers, the very latest in straight-axle shock tuning being implemented on seasoned trucks.

Shipping Radius Arm Kits

2011-10-17T21:38:00.000-07:00

The anticipation is over for the first production Dodge Ram Radius Arm systems and pallets are heading out the door. An extra couple of days was taken to design a custom container but we know that our customers appreciate the effort.

Attention to detail, went into every bit of this kit.

Sage Carli's Brand Promise

2011-04-19T22:23:00.000-07:00

Sage developed his Dominator package to being the smoothest street riding shock tune on the market, and took it to the ragged edge of bolt-on off-road performance. If you were to timeline the development of Carli Suspension, you would see years of steady growth in tuning advancements, innovation and engineering leading up to where it is today.

Right now the latest Dominator 3.0 shock tune is out-smoothing the Performance 2.0 in town and on the freeway, Sage's piston and the bigger displacement just does everything smoother... and when it comes to throwing down in the dirt, you can go rub fenders with race cars.

Thousands of tuning miles

Sage brought his pistons to market in May of 2009 with the first 3.0 run. Two years later, the finished tune really is the next level.

Suspension engineering and tuning time is the Carli signature. Sage spent years finding the smoothest combination of port size and shims for our trucks.

Lighter valving means easier initial shaft movement, which is where all of the comfort comes from, the shock starts moving before you even feel a terrain change. Incredibly smooth and fluid transition from low to high speed dampening.

Smaller, low-flow ports create bottom out resistance, when you stab the shock with high shaft speed, the piston ramps up pressure smoothly and finally hits the wall. Massive bottom out resistance. No tubes, no ACV's, your production smooth body King tune.

What you get is a single tune that does it all in town, does it all on the highway, and if you wanted to, you can go put points on the board in Baja with it.

Daily Driver Limits

This is the ceiling of the truck, the next level isn't a shock tune, it's safety, and steering. Until there's a bullet-proof upgrade from spindle to steering wheel and a roll cage, this is about it.

I attended ESSOR's poker run, or Paseo de Pre Runners 2011, just outside of Ojos Negros, Baja California. It's a fun event and basically a family day for the off-road racing community in Ensenada - everybody's there to have a good time. It's not about going as fast as you can possibly go, it's about driving at the upper limits of your setup and bringing your truck home - this is how far you can take Sage Carli's off-road systems.

I was the only vehicle running it without a roll cage, and when I was told it was a pre runner rally, I actually expected to see a pre runner or two. Turns out, if you mark off a course in Baja, post up the start/finish line and open the doors, everything on a trailer with numbers on it shows up. It was game on.

12 miles of ranch roads tied together made the course, small dirt roads with nothing on them that would ruin your day. It's the perfect situation to push your truck; one-way traffic on a marked course, on-site medical and most of all, permission. This let's you process only your driving and the course.

This wasn't your average weekend off-road drive, even for me...

You put a bunch of guys in their trucks with helmets and parker pumpers on, they flip right into race mode and go ripping.

There was blown motors, snapped axles, busted lower control arms... all this event was missing, was lap times.

Mixing it up with race cars is fun, especially when you're rolling with your iPod and 800 foot pounds of torque, but you have to keep it in check. It's really easy to overdrive a truck. You just keep having more fun and more fun until something feels or sounds different, then you learn something. And if you don't have an immediate indicator, then it could turn out to be a creeper and rear it's nasty head about 3 years later in the way of coil bucket cracks or a motor perch nightmare. The learning curve is the hardest thing on your truck.

Once you learn the course, your speed just depends on how hard you want to throw your truck at it. At the bottom of half of the low spots was a g-out turn with a little rut. At prerunning speeds, you roll into it, connect with the rut using your first front tire, then drive out of it.

If you pick up the pace and start driving through things like that, you're talking about cresting a rise, shifting all the weight to the front and taking an edge at the bottom of a hole with your tire turned while carrying speed. Those kinds of maneuvers are incredibly hard on front end gear, ball joints, track bar hardware and your steering.

There was 3 ramps out there with an either-or around them, they were optional and about half the time, half the people took the big line. Jumping diesel trucks is a fine line and you're always about 2 mph away from too fast. I over did it on one of the hucks on lap 7, taking the course back to the pits, and used every last millimeter of travel... and after that, I was just riding the chassis. It goes like this - shock travel, bump stop, tire sidewall, axle truss, coil buckets then anything that can deflect to distribute the load. That's when you're about a step away from bending or breaking something... the limit of everything you got.

The next level isn't bolt-up stuff, you want to go custom.

Anyone that wants to race off-road needs to bring about $10,000 for every 10 miles per hour after 30, that's about what I figure.

These roads break everything and it doesn't matter how much money you spend, the ground will eventually win.

We put six laps on the board for points, collected our cards, then posted up in the pits and made some friends. There was some carnage out there for a few people - my seventh lap was to help our pit neighbor get his rig off the course with a snapped axle. My truck got to do some 4-low Chevy dragging around a 4-Runner with a broken lower control arm freeing up a bottleneck.

This is what it looks like when you take your Dominator 3.0 equipped daily driver on a points run in Baja... but if you want to ride this shock tune's limits, you're going to need some more parts.

I have to tell you guys, that when I said it is the limit of the truck, I wasn't kidding. A day like this costs Sage about $500. I drove just about every bearing and my steering off the truck in an afternoon.

Everything else takes it but the steering... and steering is something you have to do all of it, or none of it. Right now the limiting factor on hardened steering is the sector shaft and after that its the spindle. Doesn't matter how strong your drag link or tie-rod is, you'll always wind up moving the load to something else that can break... bulletproofing one piece isn't a solution. The next level is a real steering box, a Carli ball-joint process made sector shaft and billet spindles. If you had all that, you could probably do this everyday and just replace heims as they blow out.

A gear box, full set of tie-rods, brace bearing, 2 shock bearings and 2 rod ends... in less than 100 miles. Before ATS Diesel built my transmission, 48RE's went out like steering boxes.

That's the price of admission if you want to max out this shock tune for an afternoon. This is the ceiling, for now, and the Dominator 3.0 can take you there, while still being the smoothest riding shock tune everywhere else you use your truck.

That's exactly what Sage promised... the best of both world's.

Trackside with the Dominator 3.0

The Carli Suspension Team

2011-04-14T14:42:00.000-07:00

Sage has been putting in triple time over the last year bringing his new team online and sorting out his facility. Carli Suspension is now poised to take big strides as a team and everyone involved should stand proud of all the hard work they put in.

We moved across the parking lot from the last shop. There's 3 times the room, shop-wise and office-wise, everybody and everything has a home now. The guys set up the building in departments, production, packaging / shipping, R&D and front office. Out in the shop, production workflow is being streamlined and on the other side of the glass, an inventory management system is coming online that will start driving the purchasing process and provide real-time part / order availability. Sage created himself a little monster when he started this business and all of the ingredients are here to take the company to the next level.

The company's reputation has been built on a foundation of engineering, ride quality and customer service. It's a big deal at Carli Suspension and nothing's changed. Today when you call the shop you can dial a department extension which will either ring the back office, the R&D room which takes tech and sales calls, or shipping. If nothing fits, you can hit 0 and get right to the point. Tammy is the point person in the front office and she brings something special that has never been here, Sage can walk to a cabinet, pull records by vender and date and get directly to the answers he needs. Tammy handles things and we've never had happier distributors.

Front Office. Check.

I knew the company was changing when a guy who tucked his shirt came onboard.

Rob is our official collared shirt guy and he's the business pit-bull who has to deal with patent attorneys, contracts and all things accounting.

He's been familiarizing himself with the product line and is learning what's it all about... I think he's now a Ford guy too.

Business Controller. Check.

Packaging has been it's own funny beast in the shop and it seemed half of it happened the day the order was shipping, it was impossible to always have everything boxed, shelved and ready to go. Now we have Ronnie... and Ronnie has an entire room to get it on.

Ron mans the shipping and packaging warehouse. This is where all finished product goes it into our branded packaging with all the right hardware and installation instructions.

This is probably one of the most intense pieces of the company workflow, product always has to get shipped out fast.

Ronnie pulls this line with a smile on his face while cranking satellite radio.

Packaging and Shipping. Check.

Carli Suspension's product reputation is built on solid designs and impeccable manufacturing. Rocking the welding table is "Super Joe". There's not much else to say about SJ, except he is a full blown rockstar under the mask.

This is what the product looks like underneath the powder coat finish. I don't think you could ask for anything more solid and consistent. There's a steady hand behind the welds at Carli Suspension.

Joe loves to burn wire, takes pride in his work and loves what he does here... and it shows. We're stoked on Joe and we know that our customers expect this level of quality and craftsmanship.

Production welding. Check.

Shaun came on board and picked up probably the most interesting of all positions at the company, Sage Carli II. He is tasked with learning everything. Now he's having Sage Carli days. Days where you're hand checking a lower ball joint before it goes into a package, while talking to someone on the phone about death wobble... and after that you have to re-valve 4 shocks so they can get into a box and onto a pallet that's getting picked up at 5 and somewhere in between, put together a Ford. There's no way to train somebody for this, you pick your guy, throw him in it and say "this is what it is"... and see if he can hang. Turns out, Shaun's got mad game.

Shaun pulls customer service, sales and tech support and will diagnose an issue on the phone, help you choose the right shock option for what you do with your truck, hear you out when troubleshooting, and he gets down with all of the distributors.

Shaun is pulling big lines at the company and is pretty stoked to coming online as an operations manager. It's a good thing he comes from a fabrication background, builds his own truck and is an animal behind the wheel.

Get it done, no questions asked guy. Check.

I'm Brad and I do the communicating for the company and pull all of the internet judo. I'm also the voluntary field research off road party laboratory. My truck is special, it's gets to pull sponsored lines as a full-time dedicated Baja desert diesel and co-star in everything as the point media vehicle.

I was able to jump in at every developmental moment for three solid years, from dyno testing shocks to understanding the carburizing phase of heat treat. I got up to speed in a couple of years telling this story and in the process learned my truck, shock tuning and logged about 30,000 off road miles. I basically get to have all the fun and stay on point down in Baja. I represent the product and manage the Carli Suspension brand.

Communication. Check.

Sage started his business by wanting to create the nicest suspension system that works everywhere you use it. Engineered, Built and Tuned... just for you. Now, with 6 refined packages and a bypass system coming online for Dodge, in both 3 and 6 inch heights with your choice of Bilstein or King racing shocks... as well as a fast growing Ford line, I would say it's pretty clear that Sage is serious about his mission.

Sage loves going to work everyday and is stoked on what he does. I think he has the 2nd best job in the whole world.

The business takes a team to function, and nobody is short of things to do. Sage has been spending a lot of time in the shop, working with his people and bringing their department online.

It really can't be any other way, everybody has to pick up their ball and take charge, or else we'll never get the next thing. That's what it's all about, Sage's next invention. The more time that guy has to focus on what he's good at, the more crap we get for our trucks.

If Sage was still taking every single phone call, there wouldn't be a bolt-on front triple bypass shock right now... and if he had to sign for every package and stock every shelf, we might be waiting a lot longer for that custom Bilstein shock and tune - These are the things that make this company special.

Sage wants everyone to be happy with their truck and created a refined package that you can bolt-on yourself and go have a blast doing whatever you do with your truck. That's a pretty cool mission... and Sage put together the people and processes to take things to the next level.

CEO, Suspension Engineer & Tuner. Check.

All of the pieces of the puzzle are here, we have a business admin office, active R&D, streamlined production pipeline, inventory management, packaging and shipping, a voice, leadership and a vision. The company is looking sharp and still has yet to show it's full hand at the table.

There's some things wrapping up, new shocks about to hit a test truck and even some status changing of the Carli Suspension media, (ahh) I mean race truck - a key indicator that Sage is putting more gears into motion... which means more fun for all of us.

Daily-Driver R&D Laboratory

2011-04-13T20:32:00.000-07:00

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)

The Tres Hermanos R&D Party

2011-03-29T08:20:00.000-07:00

This is how we benchmark product quality, thoroughly test new innovations and continue to grow our own experience and limits.

Enter Ian's 6" Radius Arm Dominator 3.0 w/ Long Travel Leafs and 5-tube bypasses, Travis' Bilstein 2.65 ACV and my Dominator 3.0 w/ front bumpstops. Carli Suspension flagship off road systems take to the country putting desert diesel trucks to work, having an adventure and ensuring that your products are tested on the far right of the daily driver bell curve.

My original plan was to take the guys on a little ranch run to test the cameras, shake everything down and get the first rocks and ruts out of the way... then tie into the Uruapan section of last year's Baja 1000 race course and take it back to the highway for lunch. The intention was to do a little "high stakes" driving, strafing ruts, dodging rocks, blind break-overs and practicing precise lines.

This is our post-breakfast ranch rip somewhere between Uruapan and Ensenada.

When you're a suspension company, a shock becomes the answer to a lot of things and Bilstein's 7100 series just picked up another amendment to it's job description. Allow radius arm articulation, while controlling movement. That's what a shock does, it controls movement between two points. The first fitment came by customizing a steering stabilizer and bolting it in, which felt more like what Sage wanted. After that he got with Bilstein and explained what he needed the shock to do, and Bilstein did what Bilstein does, came back with an actionable recommendation.

Ian's been running point on the field testing of the Radius Arm 6" system and this isn't the first time he's been radio'd to throw his truck in a hole, or drive off something he didn't feel like driving off of.

So far, Sage's radius arm solution is doing what it's supposed to, allowing full articulation while controlling movement. This was the first off road testing of the Carli radius arm shock.

We drove into the mountains for about an hour until the trail ended and we were carving fresh tracks. I pretty much got us lost and the guys lead me out of there by a Garmin breadcrumb. I never found the section of race course that I was looking for. On the way out while taking up rear end Charlie, I mounted Travis' camera on my hood and took turns following the guys on the trail back.

Along the way, a factory transmission line press fitting gave way and bled out Travis' pan. This turned out to be a 10 minute stop. Being prepared kept the party moving..

After all of this, it was time for lunch, so we headed down the highway to Acambaro, where we would have originally ended up if we found the race course.

Ian somehow always manages to unknowingly kick the off road adventure into overdrive - While we were saying bye to Juan, Ian hit him up for directions to Ojos Negros.

"Drive into Ejido Uruapan, make a left at the school for one block, then a right... and "Vamanos Cabron" all the way to Tres Hermanos." Doesn't sound that bad does it?

If we had any idea what we were going to encounter, we probably would have at least picked a day it wasn't raining.

We started out early afternoon and the trail got progressively worse as we climbed into the mountains, visibility was becoming more limited and the higher we got, the wetter it was. This trail demanded your attention and didn't offer but one way through.

There's a way to Tres Hermanos from Uruapan using a section of the old Baja 500 race course. If you were to take any race course down here and ask which section is the most brutal, this trail will make the top 3 every time.

This was precision driving in some tight spots for full-size diesel trucks. There were times that didn't allow you to get out of the throttle, fully committed, and others where you had to control the gravity slide of your truck and time it right to engage the next obstacle. It was a solid test behind the wheel.

These are the smoothest street riding shock tunes the Dodge Ram Suspension scene has going right now, taking on one of northern Baja's toughest lines. As far as daily driver bolt-on off road goes, those are double black diamond trails.

I was able to maintain momentum throughout the climb, which meant taking on some of those rocks with one tire, traversing in and out of the rut or having to plow the lip off the mud bank with my diff guard taking long-wheelbase lines through the tightest obstacles. I am damn proud of where the shock game is at these days. I was able to meet that hill on the gas, it was a real-world 4x4 suspension pop quiz... and my sweet riding city tune was exchanging blows with a strong trail - it never bottomed out, I never got thrown from one side to the other and I didn't pound my truck, it was ready for it.

Every truck came out with no issues or so much as a scratch. A weekend like this puts everything to work, you have no choice but to use it all. You have to have a shock tune that delivers when you need it most, soaking up insane blows and rendering total control all the time.

The idea was to take an afternoon drive with a challenging section or two and head back to the ranch for dinner, we didn't mean to drive that cut-off trail.

Day two

RECORD is another racing association and they were having a 200 out in El Alamo, so we were bringing our party to the race. We loaded up and punched out early in the day to go watch some off road racing, BBQ steak, kick back in the shade and hang with the guys.

After watching buggies and trucks hit the course all day, these guys stepped out for a little fun run for the camera. Travis' truck displays impeccable all around control - that ACV tune came out delivering something special for sure. There are two distinct things about what this system does consistently; first, the truck stays level no matter what the terrain looks like underneath it. You can feel how much tuning time went into these shocks when you get a dig on how it's balanced out. Second is the ground contact, Travis' tires roll over the terrain perfectly, you can see when he hops the whoop after the step-down, he lands on one tire at a time, front and rear (opposite sides) and the truck never flinched. The Carli Bilstein ACV tune really came out nice and it stepped the game up. There's one other thing that only this shock package offers - you can't overwhelm it and bottom it out.

Ian was stretching those long travel leafs and soaking up big bumps at speed with his King bypasses. This is where the King 3.0 shock tune was developed, encountering everything off road at all ranges of speeds. This is what these shocks do the best. One thing we learned this year with the King's is that all Sage's piston wanted, was less shims. Sage and I spent a month taking shims out of my shocks and the ride just kept getting nicer and smoother until we reached a point where I can use all of my travel on a speed bump, at in town speeds, and I can travel across Baja on pretty much any trail I can fit my truck at speeds I like to drive. The Carli 3.0 piston/tune is incredibly plush for maximum comfort and it's ready to go to the mat when the trail gets ugly.

On the way home we took another race course line (again I wound up getting off of it and onto another one, one of these days I'll have a GPS)... so we wound up back at Tres Hermanos for the second time this weekend in the dark.

These trucks went to work this weekend pulling strong lines and wrapped it up partying in the whoops and taking the long way home... then drove to work on Monday.

Sage is pretty happy to see his products in action, doing what he built them to do. We only brought back about 40 minutes of video from about 15 hours of off-road over the weekend. We're going to have to go back there and do this with more cameras - the request has been made for a bucket of GoPros. We'll be starting a Carli Suspension media channel and showcasing our quality control, tuning methodology, ride quality and suspension performance in video.

Front 2.5 Triple Bypass

2011-02-16T22:06:00.000-08:00

There's nothing new about a King 2.5 three tube bypass shock... but running them through the coil on a Dodge Ram is.

This is one of those ideas floating around in Sage's head that found it's way to the drawing board.

One of the nicest features of this idea, is that there's nothing to test, develop or sort out, it's a proven shock that has years of R&D into developing ride quality and performance.

Sage knew the shock with bypass tubes would fit through the coil. The challenge was what to do about the reservoir hose.

On a bypass shock, the reservoir hose has to come out of the bottom of the shock body or you start to dilute it's performance aspects.

This is one of those things that just took the time to sit down and figure it out. Sage mocked up a custom 4 tube layout; 3 bypass tubes and one reservoir tube.

This puts the reservoir exit in the right place on the shock to be able to dial those bypasses up for the fun.

Everything had to be taken into account, including how to get the truck back together, there's a certain stacking order that let's it happen one way. There is a lot more to it than just what meets the eye.

The shock tower had to be put on a machine to gain some clearance, a special fitting is required to adapt the hose to the bypass / reservoir tube and everything has to line up and stay in the right place.

This turned out to be a pretty slick move, allowing customers to bolt-up more proven performance. The word on the street is a new steel tower will be coming specially fitted for running this shock. This will be another addition to high-performance suspension options - bolt-on triple bypasses, front and rear.

Bilstein 2.65 ACV System

2011-01-21T16:18:00.000-08:00

Anti-Cavitation Valve, or ACV technology is the new buzzword in the Dodge Ram Suspension arena, and leading the pack in it's implementation is Bilstein. The 9100 ACV shock combination just raised the bar again. Two years ago this shock brought on the development of low-flow pistons for the 2.5 and 3.0 King shocks, and here we are again with anti-cavitation reservoirs from Bilstein.

In order to discuss "anti-cavitation", let's identify what it means when a shock "cavitates". Cavitation can occur on high shaft speed, high piston pressure compression events. What happens is the shaft moves so fast that the pressure overwhelms the gas charge in the reservoir. So instead of filling the reservoir with the volume difference when the shock collapses, it basically shoves the oil straight into the res and creates a vacuum in the shock body. Inside these new reservoirs is a piston and shim stack that controls oil flow. That control won't allow the shock to cavitate. The byproduct of this is an incredible boost in the ability to tune the shock for a wide spectrum of use.

Tuning the Bilstein 2.65 ACV System

About 100 hours of research went into the development of this shock and reservoir tune. Bilstein has been elbow deep in this project and wanted to work with Sage in the development of his signature ride quality. I'm sure they knew what this shock was capable of because Bilstein put their best resources on this project. Steve and Joel are Bilstein's off-road tuners and are the minds behind some of the most successful shock tunes in the racing arena. Lucky for you guys, Bilstein and Carli Suspension put in the time to bring about a new level of ride quality and performance.

Figuring it out

It was initially thought that the ACV would only engage on high-shaft speed compression events and the shock's tune could be (more or less) relieved of high-speed duty and then be tamed for the street, where you rely on the ACV to do the dirty work in on the trail. The truth was, nobody really knew what to do with an 11" stroke 9100 and anti-cavitation reservoirs on a 7600 lbs diesel truck. A lot of time was spent figuring out this shock and reservoir on a Dodge Ram diesel. Some techniques we found created more heat, some would finally flatline, others were more affected by nitrogen pressure and then everything we learned was applied to tune our signature ride quality into this shock.

The first day the truck went out, it was on top of whoops, however that is just one feature of this system. The time was spent tuning in an incredibly refined ride on your way to the big bumps - and it took this to get it there.

Putting in the time

Tuning like this means a lot of working on the truck, a little driving and a lot of talking about what you feel. This is how you get to know the shock and in this case, reservoir, tune and how it handles the input of the terrain with how the truck works. Sometimes you wind up chasing a false summit when it's *almost* great, but you just can't get it right - which is about the time Steve or Joel pulls out a drawer of 140 different shims, suggest trying a new piston and have an entire new idea on what route to go. It's time spent, trying different things and combinations, until you find out how the shock is working with the reservoir and then when you get to know it, you can start playing with the way the truck rides.

All of this time is spent for one purpose, and that is to deliver a suspension system that is comfortable, compliant and delivers a tight, sport-like feel and you can still enter a pissing contest in the bumps and stand proud. It's the combination of both worlds, what the customer wants and what Sage expects his tunes to ride like. We already know that people are willing to sacrifice their street ride for bragging rights in the dirt, but you can have the best of both worlds. The shock can do it, and it's a matter of tuning time before you find the sweet spot. One shock tune, reservoir tune and gas charge that does it all, from your driveway to the jump.

ACVs Clocking In...

There is nothing better than actually feeling what the truck can do with a high-performance suspension system that has been specifically developed for your truck by some of the best in the business. A drive down the northern Baja pacific coast gives you the opportunity to feel what all the hype is about. Paved roads, graded roads, rutted trails, whoops, beach sand, mud, cobblestones and a hell of a view.

This is the end of the R&D cycle. Travis picking his lines through a washout in Baja. The final tape measure is several hundred miles of everything you encounter on a weekend off-road trip in Mexico.

Carli Bilstein ACV In Action

Here's a few still clips of Travis' truck getting to eat it's lunch in Mexico. We paused the trip for a few pictures and video to get something to show... and Travis was more than comfortable getting into it.

Video

Video
Video

Video

This is what it's all about and the product of long days. The good news is that Sage may work the ACV's into the 2.65 system price and offer the 2.65 no/ACV with the Performance 2.5, providing our customers with their choice of shocks, and (maybe) there's a pin-top option in the works.

The best part of the story is that it only gets better from here. In concert with this focus on the 2.65 w/ ACV, there was almost as many changes that went into the King line of shocks. Every time that Bilstein truck rolled out to the desert for a dedicated Carli Suspension tuning day, another effort was underway with the Dominator tune down in Baja.

More tuning resources = more performance

All of this means that the the latest people, technology and tuning ideas are being applied to your ride quality. Sage's relationship with Bilstein is a huge piece of the momentum, he was able to tap into a better understanding of "shock theory" and start hearing a factual approach to tuning.

Bilstein spent the time showing their hand in the Dodge Ram Suspension playground... They slept in their trucks and were working on shocks before eating breakfast. And you know what? You can tell that there's something special in those shocks when you put them to work.

Sage Carli and Bilstein's Steve and Joel, got together, rolled up their sleeves and raised the bar.

Carli Suspension 2011

2010-12-28T21:39:00.001-08:00

Things have taken a strong step forward on all fronts this year... and there's a lot to look forward to as we make eye contact with the new year. 2011 is going to deliver some bar-raising hands, for sure. The Bilstein 9100 ACV and Dominator 3.0 production tunes will be revised and we can finally let these two shocks have an ass-kicking contest in the dirt and get it on video - we're also going to see the production 6" Radius Arm release.

Bilstein has developed a brand new Carli part number custom shock and is giving the Performance 2.0 ride quality and travel a boost. Another development due to the great relationship with Bilstein is the Performance 2.5 system may just come with Bilstein and King shock options at the same price and for the stock tower guys, a pin-top may be on the way.

Carli Suspension has prepared for it's next level and it's coming in the form of faster shock tunes for the off road line, a smoother riding performance 2.0, your choice of Bilstein or King shocks and 3 or 6 inches of lift.

This year has been a lot of heavy lifting for the business and everything is in motion to enjoy the benefits of hard work. Closing out 2010 deserves a quick look back at some clutch moments, big tuning days, peek production, testing and general good times.

Here's a quick pull from the photo library from 2010...

Carli 6" Radius Arm System

2010-10-17T14:54:00.000-07:00

This is something completely new and a unique option for 3 Gen Dodge Ram owners. A completely bolt-on, radius arm system for Dodge Ram 2500/3500 4x4's. This project wasn't easy, there's a lot to be taken into account.

Sage engineered this system with the customer in mind:

100% Bolt-on DIY kit
No cutting off factory brackets
No welding
Return to stock at any time
The kit can be transferred/sold complete
Crossmember designed for easy transmission removal

These were the goals on Sage's plate when he embarked on this project. Before he even got to dimensions, the requirements were to offer a customer-oriented kit. This system was designed for our customers who don't want to cut their chassis, that will take their suspension system with them when they upgrade their truck, install it themselves on their driveway and/or need access their transmission - and wants a great riding, hard working and proven radius arm system.

Once Sage was able to figure out how he was going to pull it off, things went to the computer. Back in April, the crossmember and brackets were designed and then it was onto the arms. This is where things got tricky... This system is capable of 13+ inches of wheel travel (more than the stock driveline will allow) and is also capable of full bump to full droop articulation with precise geometry. Any other radius arm system will bind when articulated, one angle has to change in order for everything to be perfectly happy.... and Sage found a way.

Shown above is the Driver's side radius arm, looking just like a radius arm. Internally, this design has eight separate triangles running the length of the lower arm. The lower arm is where all of the front to back strength comes from.

The lower part of the arm has a full-length internal gusset, shown here creating 4 triangles inside the arm. Above and below are full length external gussets.

You can see the top piece clamped to the arm. This is key set with a plate that is connected to the main box. This creates 2 more triangles on top and 2 more on the bottom.

When this was designed, it was laser cut so that the welds will tie every plate together. First the internal X is welded up on a jig and then the box is added with the external gussets.

This is the strongest thing to ever come out of this shop.

The arms bolted up to the axle and drop bracket on the first try. All of this was done on the computer and the tools and jigs to assemble the system were created at the same time. The biggest factor that set the design apart is that before anything got cut, all of the factory parameters were used in the modeling process.

This system's true engineering feat comes in the form of overcoming articulation bind. The engineering that went into this is where the innovation is truly demonstrated. Over engineered; these photos would be impossible with coil springs in the bucket, shown below is the axle at max articulation, one shock at full bump and the other at full droop. No castor change bind.

Completed Dodge Ram Driver's Side Radius Arm

Completed Passenger Side Dodge Ram Radius Arm

Sage engineered a solution that offers harmonious axle geometry throughout the entire motion range. Ask anyone who has built radius arms and they will talk about castor change bind, it's nothing new. The Carli engineering approach is, however, something new in a production bolt-on radius arm system for Dodge Ram 2500/3500 4x4's.

This project was modeled on a computer using factory chassis parameters to ensure precision before plates even hit a laser table. The answer was +/- 3" of upper arm deflection to accommodate travel and articulation specs that exceed the chassis.

This component is finished off in classic Carli style using chromoly tube, a billet stainless steel shaft and hard ball center joints.

All that was left, was to prove this concept...

Proving the Dodge Ram Radius Arm 6" Lift System

Four Carli equipped Ram's headed out of Ensenada for a week of evaluating the performance of new products, shock tunes and setups. Here's the lineup of some of the strongest Dodge Ram's being exercised at the far end of the daily driver bell curve as far as off road performance goes. From left to right, my Megacab, Sage's Hemi, Ian's 6.7L and Travis's 2500. Every one of these trucks is running something in Development. I'm running new shim techniques in my 3.0 Kings, Sage has King adjustable clicker reservoirs, Ian with the 6" Radius Arm System and Travis with new Bilstein ACV shock and reservoir tune.

The only condition we didn't drive through was snow/ice. Driving down the peninsula on race course means hard pack dirt roads, sand washes, whoop sections that lead to the horizon, rock gardens that are 20 miles long, cobblestones, washboard, silt beds, beach sand, rutted hill climbs - and the best parts are the combos; such as "rock whoops", "cobblestone whoops" or "rock washboard". Baja is just it's own thing and the terrain can change from sand to rock to silt to mud within the same hundred yards... and there isn't anything harder on a vehicle.

These trucks went 1000+ miles in Baja, then drove to work on Monday - Carli Suspension's performance signature.

This is Ian blasting the Gonzaga Bay ramp. This is what you see when we are in the dirt, one truck in the air and another behind it whipped out sideways lining up his next run on the ramp.

The Radius Arm system is delivering incredible performance and proving to be worthy of Sage's quality guarantee. It survived a "day ender" incident; Ian dropped a wheel into a rut that was deep enough to stop the truck in it's tracks - an impact so violent, it caused his tires to turn so fast that he twisted the splines on his sector shaft with the pitman arm. Only the tie rods and steering box took a hit, the passenger side arm didn't know anything happened... stronger than the rest of the truck.

This is daily-driver suspension performance with the brawn to withstand whatever the party requires.

Brute strength was built into this design, including dragging the arms and drop brackets through rock on steep break-overs. Ian wasn't happy about me guiding him onto this line, but it had to be done. Go ahead and wheel, it'll take it. Sage designed this package to take the weight of the truck over whatever you want to drive through and it has been properly abused for your piece of mind -thanks Ian.

Passenger Side Plunge System Demonstration

Shown here is how the Carli Radius Arm System works. This is the passenger side arm with the plunge system; this is how the radius arms articulate while keeping the castor angle and controlling bind. This design offers more articulation and travel than the chassis will allow. In the video clip below, you can see the link in action, allowing the axle to move while maintaining proper geometry.

Direct link to the video on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RersTUXbgCI

The full hotlap started in Ensenada and went to San Felipe to Bahia De Los Angeles to Loreto to San Ignacio to Guerro Negro to El Rosario to San Quintin to Colonet and back to Ensenada (pretty much).

Before the Carli Radius Arm system is "done", it had to do this.

The whole week's mission was to put these products through worse conditions and speeds that borderline on abuse... then hold it there for a thousand miles.

This is how we know that the product is ready for our customers.

Breaking Carli Ball Joints

2010-07-09T15:14:00.000-07:00

The last ball joint, you'll ever buy - guaranteed. That is the commitment that Sage signed up for... and the good news is, he took it seriously.

First we send the ball joint pieces out to be analyzed in order to refine the material, machining and processes - optimization of that triangle.

When it comes to precision, we learned that the smallest detail can make all the difference.

The heat treat process has been specifically researched and instrument tested to ensure a perfect union with the material and how the part is created on the machine.

Science took these ball joints to a new level...

First the material was analyzed, then each of the four parts of heat treating analyzed which resulted in a custom heat treat process, specifically for Carli Ball Joints.

Adel tested these with some giant lab machine that's only mission in life is to break a Carli ball joint. It was a cycle of tweaking the heat treat, testing and measuring.

You keep doing this, until you are certain that this is the strongest ball joint money can buy.

One of the best quotes from the entire month: "The load deflection curve shows excellent combination of strength and ductility. The sample had excellent (very high) yield strength.The high load required for causing these samples to fail took their toll on our machine. This time instead of the sample, one of the attachment fixtures broke."

Sage's ball joints are now backed by some serious instrument and laboratory examination and testing. It just wasn't done until it went here, but indestructible ball joints is what we want customers to expect, worry free and life of your vehicle - guaranteed.

These underwent microstructural examination in order to ensure proper bonding and placement at the molecular level.

All of this means that the exact material selected, the four stages of heat treat and machining processes have been examined as a whole and tweaks made to each to ensure a happy union of those components.

Carli Suspension has their own heat treat table and processing for their ball joints that was specifically created in a lab to ensure our quality standards and confidently guarantee a lifetime auto part.

Adjustable Shock Tuning

2010-06-22T17:40:00.000-07:00

Last Friday I rolled up to the shop and Sage had just returned from King, sporting a pair of their latest innovative secrets - Anti-Cavitation Valve (ACV) reservoirs with 23 clicks of hi-speed compression dampening adjustment. This raises the bar once again... and Sage is pretty excited to get these on his truck and dial in the shock tune and [now] the reservoir tune.

What is an ACV?

In order to discuss "anti-cavitation", let's identify what it means when a shock "cavitates". Cavitation can occur on high shaft speed, high piston pressure compression events. What happens is the shaft moves so fast that the pressure overwhelms the gas charge in the reservoir. So instead of filling the reservoir with the volume difference when the shock collapses, it basically shoves the oil straight into the res and creates a vacuum in the shock body. Inside these new reservoirs are ports and a shim stack that controls oil flow. This won't allow the shock to cavitate. The byproduct of this is an increase in hi-speed compression dampening.

23 Clicks of Compression Dampening Adjustment
When you control the flow of oil into the reservoir, you can slow it down enough to start tuning the hi speed compression dampening. King has a really sweet setup where they built a clicker port into their ACV so that the reservoir has adjustable flow, delivering adjustable hi-speed compression dampening.

This development is really cool in a few ways, Sage has the same lead-time as King does for testing and development, so as King figures this out, Sage will be eyeing the goal line for the HD and diesel market. These should be on Sage's truck next week.

Last Saturday we drove around to every hydraulic shop (that were closed) to get fittings for Carli Suspension reservoir mounting locations.

This certainly takes things to a whole new level. Carli / King shocks, Carli Total Control Pistons, ACV and Adjustability. The makings for serious bolt-on suspension performance.

Ball Joint Science

2010-06-14T18:56:00.000-07:00

The latest augmentation to the ball joint project is officially over my head. Sage found himself at the University of California with the Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Adel Sharif, who is doing some analysis as a consultant with Carli Suspension. Sage is putting his baby into the hands of science before he signs up with the 5-axis CNC commitment.

The good news is, and the short version, is that Sage's design is solid, his materials are strong and processes well chosen. Sage's quest for quality is a diligent one. This is the part where I introduce Adel's credentials, which are a paragraph long and include a bunch of capital letters, such as BS, MS and PhD in concert with postdoctoral publications, and finally, professor. These are found next to words like mechanical engineering and materials science. Sage's ball joint package is on the desk of one of California University's top guys in the world of materials and mechanical engineering.

Adel is going to analyze the materials selected as well as the processing techniques to ensure retaining the design endurance of the parts. Adel's analysis role is even farther over my head than his credentials, so I'll just paste the list from his email:

- Design analysis
- Stress and strength analyses of the components
- Failure analysis under static and fatigue loading
- Materials’ performance and selection
- Processing / Property analysis
- Microstructural design through composition processing techniques
- Finite element analysis
- Endurance analysis

I think the only thing that is left out of that list is looking at a ball joint with "magic glasses" on. Sage is stepping up his commitment with a hired gun that will most likely result in slight tweaks to the design, materials and processes in order to optimize that union.

Ball Joint Production

2010-05-13T16:55:00.000-07:00

We're still slow on some deliveries with the ball joints, but it's for quality. The good news is that Sage is a few time zones away having a conversation that is going to make a big impact here. He's getting a demo on a 5-axis, 1.2 million dollar piece of equipment, in a more advanced shop where each piece will be made by a single machine using one program. You put a chunk of metal in the machine, program it and it spits out ball joint pieces, complete.

As that develops, we are filling orders and everything is in motion. I did a hotlap through the machine shop and got some pictures, you can't walk anywhere without seeing somebody working on a Carli Ball Joint assembly piece. Carts and egg crates packed with ball joint pieces are at most of the work stations.

Before they get to us, each ball joint is pre-assembled (for fitment inspection) on a machinist's table next to an CNC.

Ball joints are still showing up almost every day and we're inspecting and shipping each set that passes our in-house QC. Thanks for hanging in there guys.

Super Duty Suspension Family

2010-05-12T15:28:00.000-07:00

The line up for Ford owners just took a few leaps ahead with the introduction of our new Super Duty Suspension systems. Everything is what you should expect, plush multi rate coil springs, King and Bilstein Shock options, laser cut, dimple died and powder coated components. The systems have been tuned to deliver all around performance for daily driving, towing/hauling and recreational off-road.

New Super Duty Suspension Systems

Pintop 2.5

The Pintop 2.5 is the first step into the King Off Road Racing Shocks with our custom pistons.

Performance 2.0

This system utilizes Bilstein 7100 series remote reservoir shocks with our custom valve profile and delivers unbeatable ride quality for every day use, towing and hauling as well as moderate speed off road use.

Starter System

For those looking for a 4.5" suspension lift that delivers massive gains in ride quality and performance.

New Super Duty Suspension Components

Super Duty Track Bar

We developed our own machined tapered rod end for the axle side that improves the life of front end wear components. Built from heavy wall chromoly stock with a 7/8" heim and a 7/8" shaft.

4.5" Multi Rate Coil Springs

A true multi rate developed specifically for the Super Duty line up. A plush initial movement of the lighter rate delivers on the street and as the compression comes, the rate increases, rendering more control.

6" Carli System Progression

2010-04-21T10:29:00.000-07:00

"Having it all", that's what this kit is all about. A bolt-on Dodge Ram Radius Arm package is in the final stages of modeling, the next step will be an order to the laser cutter and an assembly test. There's some tweaks to be made and Sage isn't done until it offers more than anything you have available.

This kit will allow you to convert back to the stock 4-link and even the crossmember is bolt-in, for transmission removal. Everything is going to be boxed and gusseted on the inside for maximum strength.

This is fresh off of Sage's screen. Once we prototype and start fitting this to a truck, there will be some more tweaks and then our new Radius Arm 6" system will get installed on a test vehicle for ride quality and performance tuning.

The next post about the 6" system, I should have a photo of some laser cut steel and Super Joe burning wire. It's coming guys...

Super Duty Track Bar Design

2010-03-24T11:57:00.000-07:00

Shown below is the Ford Track Bar Tapered Rod End sitting on my desk illustrating the key design improvement. This connects to the axle through a ball joint that faces straight down. In the photo below, the taper that marries up to the ball joint pin is vertical and the rod end points up, towards the Track Bar Bracket. This means that when your axle is at full droop, it isn't cranking on that ball joint pin.

On the other end of the Track Bar is a threaded bung with a Heim Joint. So far we have a few of these running around Orange County and the owner's response was a "night and day" improvement. We're confident that this is exactly what Carli customers should expect.

I've answered some email asking about when these are going to be ready... and the answer is, SOON. Sage is at the photography studio right now (Wed @ noon) wrapping up the new Ford 4.5" Suspension System, Ford Track Bar and a few other things that will be updated on the website and catalog next. We're a day or so from getting these out the door.

Keeping up with demand

2010-03-22T16:16:00.000-07:00

Any business owner would love to have the problems that we're facing, keeping up with the demand. Production-wise, we have things moving along just fine... it's the inventory that's the issue, or I should say, keeping it stocked.

For example, we have 20 sets of control arms back from powder coat, half of them are already spoken for with distributor PO's and as they are being assembled and packaged, another 5 sets sell, so we stack all of the product on the shelves and there's 20 sets standing tall... but only 5 are available. So the biggest issue we're working on right now, is being able to relate data, that of the order pipeline and the production. A system is being implemented and eventually, we'll have RFID inventory tracking and assembly & machine parts accounted for in a system, even before they get to us.

It's a great position to be in as a business, but the only hardship we're dealing with is making sure we don't sell something twice and have to call a customer and apologize because a PO came in while we were on the phone with him and his part just left.

This is the view from the inside of the shop, packaging and boxed product are staged. The wall was stocked a few days ago and all of this will be gone in within a week.

This is the staging area for outbound orders, pulled product waiting for shipping to handle it. It looks like this everyday.

Things are moving quickly and we're working hard towards a streamlined system that will allow for instantaneous inventory snapshots and the ability to manage and track it online. We don't really have a choice, it's time we built a Carli Suspension system for our own office and our goal is to be there this summer.

New Production Welds

2010-03-22T15:48:00.000-07:00

Here's an indication of the steady hand that's behind the welds on all of the Carli line-up. The heat signature behind the weld shows perfect penetration and consistency. This is the footprint of a solid weld, and as I did a lap around the shop I propped up one of the Long Travel Air Bag brackets and snapped this picture of a smoking weld.

We brought in a new production welder with years of experience manufacturing and one hell of a steady hand. Things have been getting tightened up around here and we're stoked that everything still has the signature of Carli Suspension, Inc, even if it's invisible under the powder coat.

Around the shop we call him "Super Joe". Super Joe loves burning wire... and it shows in his work. We're stoked that we're able to increase production levels and quality at the same time. We know that our customers can rely on the highest quality standard available. We'll keep stepping it up and raising the bar, this is a finger print of Carli Suspension's characteristics.

This kind of consistency is what we expect for our customers. As long as the product coming off of our bench has a quality signature burned into it, we're happy.

Ford Super Duty Track Bar

2010-03-19T13:13:00.000-07:00

Stand by guys, we're about to launch another Carli upgrade for Ford Super Duty owners. The Carli Ford Track Bar is .25 wall Chromoly that we bend in-house. It uses a unique bearing end design that relieves some of the stress on the ball joint (axle end) with an angle so the pin stays closer to vertical.

Today the first track bar is going on a new Super Duty and here's Sage right in the forefront of this development triple checking everything and getting this product ready for the masses.

Ball Joint Punctuality

2010-03-18T09:15:00.000-07:00

Thanks for being patient while we try to get everybody's ball joint order shipped. Last night we received a shipment from the machine shop. We had a good run for about an hour with foam inserts, packing tape and grease tubes right up until the very last thing, Sage. He hand inspects every single ball joint that goes into a box and if it is not absolutely perfect, he pauses everything until it's figured out.

Today is that pause. We have a pile of ball joints and a handful didn't fly with Sage. From here Sage hand delivers them to the machine shop and the owner and machinist take turns measuring, removing .0001 from a surface, measuring and given back to Sage - until every one is sorted out. Once again they will be reassembled and hand tested by Sage. This is how it goes, nothing leaves the door until it's right.

Now it's 11:00AM and ball joints are showing back up and after Sage scrutinizes the hell out of them, they will be boxed up.

No ball joint (or any other product for that matter) goes into a box, until it's perfect. That's just how it goes here.

Thanks for being patient guys, we don't like to let anybody down and our only excuse is product quality.

Sage's Obsession with Quality

2010-03-17T18:45:00.000-07:00

Here's a classic example of what makes this company special. Here's a Carli Billet Shock Tower with the steel mounting ring, hardware and machined shock bolt ready to rock. There's a cosmetic blemish on the top of the tower, otherwise a flawless component. It's been pulled from stock and has been sitting on Sage's desk for over a month with a note on it. A customer won't receive a product that hasn't passed the most critical eye for quality, right down to the very last process, powder coating.

This is one of the key differentiators that sets Carli Suspension apart. I've seen a box of coil springs fall off of a pallet, and Sage repackaged them before they went out. Even if the box corner is crushed, it gets dealt with immediately. We know that you can't hurt 40 lbs of wound spring steel by dropping it in a shipping container, but that's just Sage. These kind of events happen from time to time, but the difference is, no customer will receive anything less.

Carli 2010 Heavy Duty

2010-03-17T18:37:00.000-07:00

One of our distributors, 8 Lug Truck Gear in Michigan, sent over a shot of a customer's 2010 2500 Heavy Duty sporting a Carli Performance 2.0 with 34" Nitto's. Sitting level with legit tires transforms the entire attitude of the vehicle.

Carli 6" Dodge Ram

2010-03-17T14:39:00.000-07:00

We're moving full steam ahead with our plans for the Dodge Ram 6" suspension system. Shown below is a shot of our solid works design for the track bar drop bracket. You can rest assured that this will be put through the same scrutinizing that all of our development projects endure.

The product quality will remain impeccable, thanks to Sage's enthusiasm for offering the best solution on the market. Rather than going with somebody else's bolt-on drop bracket, we hired a designer that comes with a trophy truck development background and we're confident that this will hit the mark for our customers.

Stepping up production in 2010

2010-03-17T09:57:00.000-07:00

It looks pretty certain that 2010 is going to be another growth year for the company and we have new hands in the production pipeline. It's business as usual on the welding table and machine-like welds are still what you should come to expect from us. I walked into the production bay and decided to share the QC visual with all of you.

As the things change and the company grows, we have to look deep and react fast while delivering what is expected from our customers. Our production is on a steady climb and you can rest assured that Sage still inspects every ball joint, sees every load of product to and from powder coat and puts his eye on every shipment. The fanatical quality level that Sage started is only getting stronger.

Take a look at the Ford shock mounts coming off of the welding table.

This was taken today, March 17th, to demonstrate the consistency in our production quality throughout the growth phase that we seem to constantly be in. Our rhythm hasn't changed and each passing day we're smoothing out our system.

Any given afternoon, you can observe the pipeline's intensity and right around 3PM the shop energy peaks as the day's orders are headed out the door to our dealers and customers.

Wheel and Tire Size

2010-03-16T10:15:00.000-07:00

Alright guys, I'm fielding a lot of calls about wheel and tire combinations that work with our systems. Here's the elevator version:

In order to run 37" tires, you need to use to the stock wheel size (8" wide with a 6.25" backspacing) and you'll need our control arms and full leaf pack.

There are exceptions to this, but that's our official answer. You can stretch the backspacing to 5.75" but that depends on your tire.

We're all running 37's on stock wheels with our control arms and leaf packs without issues. My truck has Walker Evan's beadlocks with 37" Toyo Projects, with a 5" backspace and I had to install glass fenders in the front to clear the tires. If you don't mind losing a little paint, you can run 37's in the rear with the add-a-pack, but it's going to rub the front of the rear fender well. With stock arms and 37" tires, you're going to rub back of the front fender well.

When you get away from stock wheel width and backspacing, you're going to have to stick to 35's or get arms and full leafs with reasonable backspacing.

2010 Dodge Ram Updates

2010-03-09T16:54:00.001-08:00

I was asked a couple of times about any 2010 updates to the Control Arms, and there is; one of the lower control arm ball centers has a larger bolt hole. We received a shipment of ball centers and our 2010 orders are right in the mix with the rest of the pipeline.

Today we're assembling control arms after receiving them from powder coat, after they're laid out and inspected one-by-one, then they are completed with a pre-lubricated joint assembly and snap ring. After this, they get cleaned, zirc'd, stickered and labeled.

It feels like every time we turn around we're running low on something, but days like this keep us on top of it.

Dodge Long Travel Experience

2009-11-25T10:50:00.000-08:00

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

2009-10-07T09:09:00.001-07:00

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

2009-09-24T13:41:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-08T19:51:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-05T14:52:00.000-07:00

The information in this thread has was updated on 11/1/2010. You can jump to the newest post started 10/17/2010 for the latest updates on the Carli's Dodge Ram Radius Arms in November's thread.

100% Bolt-on DIY kit
No cutting off factory brackets
No welding
Return to stock at any time
The kit can be transferred/sold complete
Crossmember designed for easy transmission removal

The lower part of the arm has a full-length internal gusset, shown here creating 4 triangles inside the arm. Above and below are full length external gussets.

You can see the top piece clamped to the arm. This is key set with a plate that is connected to the main box. This creates 2 more triangles on top and 2 more on the bottom.

When this was designed, it was laser cut so that the welds will tie every plate together. First the internal X is welded up on a jig and then the box is added with the external gussets.

This is the strongest thing to ever come out of this shop.

Completed Dodge Ram Driver's Side Radius Arm

Carli's Dodge Ram 6" Radius Arm System

Extreme Duty Lower Ball Joints

2009-07-28T10:08:00.000-07:00

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

Dodge Long Travel Rear End

2009-07-06T23:24:00.001-07:00

Referring back to the Dodge Ram Long Travel Suspension post that showcases almost 20" of travel with a modified full leaf pack and new spring shackles, the latest news is completed designs and first test runs.

The rear shocks stay under the bed with the addition of a chromoly tube tandem shock mount. The first installation of these shocks is being done with 16" travel, Bilstein 4-tube bypass racing shocks. This new setup has been completely designed in house, including the layout of the bypass tubes that match the bump zone compression travel as well as the characteristics of the Dodge Ram.

These should be debuted here shortly, not too soon for the start of the desert season, which will mean that by the time we all rally up for a Halloween weekend run to the sand, one of our trucks will be dropping 37's out of the wheel well through the whoops and probably sporting a coil-over front end to match.

Just another round of the Carli Suspension delivery and this year is set to be our heaviest hitting movement in the history of the company. Stay tuned for more updates on this project.

The real beauty of this addition is the fact that cost control was implemented in the project, cost control for the customer that is. In order to get this kind of travel the shocks have to be relocated as the compressed dimensions won't allow for longer travel. Keeping the bed of your truck functional means keeping the shocks under it. There are other ways to, however it would lead to a price tag that would create a disadvantage for some... leaving room in the budget for custom shocks or any of the goodies that the company is rolling out.

Lower Ball Joint Surprise

2009-07-03T19:32:00.000-07:00

The lower ball joints have graduated the Carli R&D process and are already getting miles on Sage's truck. It started on Wednesday with the driver's side which brought a new feel back into the front end of his truck. As of yesterday, both sides were done, more measurements taken and parts inspected - then the road report comes in. The front end of the truck feels so tight, it's almost foreign.

So much mico chatter comes through the steering column that you simply get used to it. That movement is coming from the lower ball joints. The OEM parts were fully inspected, on and off the vehicle and were found to be within factory specs and otherwise appeared to be normal, so you would never be able to trace that last "loose" feeling down. After riding around, installing and assisting with the final test installations, the amount of feel is dramatic. At least 50% improvement from the driver's seat is immediately recognized.

We didn't expect this to happen either, the goal was to improve on the design and strength of the lower ball joints, just as we did with the uppers. Creating a two-piece assembly that is hardened beyond that of the upper ball joints was performed right off the bat. The tolerances were closed tightly through the machining process and installation is done with Redline CV2 high performance grease. A zirc fitting is included in the unit that is appropriately located and positioned for easy maintenance.

We are working up a satisfaction guarantee behind these components that simply throws it out there, if you're not satisfied, we'll buy them back from you. There might be a couple of minor revisions to the clocking of the assembly for easier installation, but other than that, it's time to have another release party at the shop.

Carli's Torsion Rate Sway Bar

2009-06-22T19:29:00.000-07:00

We are just another week away from having the first stock back from the laser cutter and off to powder coat. You can learn more about Carli's Sway Bar on the products page that we're still pending the photography for. This is one of the single items that you can put on your Dodge Ram and feel a staggering difference. The factory torsion rate sway bar is incredibly stiff and it marries the front axle to the chassis. The result is a low speed nightmare when traversing speed bumps one tire at a time, exiting driveways at angles and let's not forget that exhausting off road experience going slow in the rough. Carli Suspension worked on a torsion rate that provides all of the high speed stability and body roll management as well as delivering excellent low speed manners from our trucks.

Sway control is effective from 0 to 5 inches of lift and the torsion is another Carli custom tune.

New Pistons Hit Mexico

2009-06-08T09:34:00.000-07:00

It was a last minute jaunt to Baja for half the crew at Carli Suspension. One of us already committed to supporting a motorcycle team for some long time friends hitting the 500 for their first time. Day 1 was purely administrative... and the next morning we decided to make a short blast out of Ensenada via the canal and first leg of the course. Two Dominator 3.0 systems with the new pistons and two totally different tunes.

My Megacab has been riding so supple on the street and highway, I figured that it just wouldn't have enough for Mexico and I'd find my rear axle 4 feet off the ground with my front none. That and if I pushed it too hard, wind up bending something somewhere. Immediately everything came together and for the first 40 miles of race course, every inch of shaft was used, front and rear, without a single solid bottom out. That's when you're suspension is working just right, when you're using all of it and not running out before your travel ends. Everything from rocks, silt hills, massive ruts, switch backs to straight matted into Ojos Negros, my truck has never been more controlled or felt so right.

This is an accumulation of so many things. As these pistons debuted, the tuning was constant all over again. Sage found the sweet spot pretty quick and the truck rides so nice on the street, your gut tells you to bump it up for Baja... but that was yesterday. Before the pistons were swapped out in my rig, the usual discussion floats around the shop and it's only a matter of time before somebody is holding a shim in one hand and a shim in the other thinking about the end result and this time, it was a perfect kill. The level of detail that goes into custom shock tuning grows by the week down here and each stack of shims that rests on a piston surface was a well thought out and tailor made application.

There's still something called preference and some people like their trucks a little tighter than others and there's always the honest guy that admits that his truck isn't going to see any air, but he likes the big shocks and builds a show class vehicle. Regardless of preference or application, you can have exactly what you want here. Call us up, tell us what you want to do with your truck, listen to the information and ask a couple questions and we'll make sure that you're happy. It's been a fun ride getting to this point and now the dedication is starting to flourish. The pursuit of real world suspension tuning that allows you to drive the family around town comfortably and the next morning be moshing down the Baja 500 race course... is here.

PS: Team 349x finished 6th in their class and 76th overall and had a damn near flawless race. Congratulations Tim, John, Todd and Scott.

More Bilstein 2.65 Performance

2009-06-03T09:27:00.001-07:00

Nothing stays the same for very long here at the shop and it's pretty much the standard here. We've been working with Jounce Stops on the Bilstein 2.65 systems and found that we can increase the comfort and performance of the system with just one more tweak to the recipe. The final 2.5 inches of travel is assisted with a rubber stop at the base of the shaft, a Jounce Stop. The durometer of the rubber isn't intended to be a bumpstop, it's purpose is to augment a bumpstop. Whether you're running factory rubber stops or Carli's custom inverted King 2.0's, the Jounce application will increase the comfort of that final shaft movement to full bump travel.

Business as usual down at the shop, another week passes and something else gets added to the arsenal of Dodge Ram performance upgrades. Maximum performance, maximum comfort. Bilstein 2.65 owners should appreciate just one more level of performance from their system.

Check out the rest of the package of the Carli Bilstein 2.65 Dodge Ram Suspension System

Sage's Shock Piston

2009-05-29T12:10:00.000-07:00

Beyond Suspension...

One thing that remains a constant in this arena is the fact that Carli Suspension, Inc continues to look deep and pull out products that are just more well thought out specifically for the Dodge Ram. Upper ball joints, custom inverted King 2.0 hydro bumps, long travel airbags, lower ball joints and the rest of the system component family are hallmarks of the Carli brand. It's been an adventure to watch how quickly things turn a corner when you take a bit of a chance.

Engineered Ride Quality

The suspension tuning had been at an all time high for over a year running... it seemed like every time you walk into the shop, somebody's thinking about how well the Bilstein 2.65 shock performs, which forced an answer out of the King's. The 3.0 line of King's have gone through an incredible amount of R&D, at one point, we had 5 rigs in the dirt, with 5 different tunes - our weekends in Mexico were consumed with shock tune testing. There are so many positive things to say about both shocks that you can't knock either, but that doesn't mean the conversation's over.

King & Bilstein performance attributes brought together...

There's been a silent and friendly competition between the shocks at the Carli shop. Bilstein vs. King as far as how much all around, real world, performance can you suck out of a custom length shock for an 8,000 pound diesel that mobs big lines and has to make it to work on Monday - and do both the best. That's what lead Carli Engineering to developing a custom low-flow piston.

The best of both worlds...

The Bilstein's had more adjustability with free bleed through their piston and shim stack design. The King's always delivered smoother dampening transitions - and we've taken both shocks to their limits and we've only been impressed by them.

Smoother dampening and more performance

It's still a shock piston, fluid passes through it and you can control flow and speed with shim techniques. So what's the big deal? Real world suspension tuning. Every shock manufacturer brings down their flagship race technology and applies it to their major applications. Our entire pursuit started as an effort to refine the performance of the King shocks for how we use them, an entire new design just for heavy-duty straight-axle performance. The piston does so much more of the work, tuning is done with about 40% less metal thrown at it to control flow. The feeling of these pistons steps up the comfort expectation, the slow parking lot stuff, general drivability, lift-off's and landings and all the way down concrete freeways to an off-road race course.

You have more control with a smoother ride and higher performance.

Carli 2.5 Piston

2009-05-26T10:03:00.001-07:00

When something is good, you gotta go with it. Carli Suspension pulls out another proprietary tweak to the performance spectrum spread with their King 2.5 shock piston. There's been a couple of pistons that we've tested and found some results on a shock dyno, yet the net effect we were looking for wasn't found... so I introduce the ground up build of a new piston for the King 2.5 off road racing shock. We've been able to get a 2.5 to stand down compression figures that a 3.0 produces with an inordinate amount of dampening during testing, but if you constrict the flow too much, heat becomes an issue. The 3.0 actually cools itself down during dyno testing after being warmed up to over 100 degrees and when we pump up the previous 2.5 piston with a super low flow design, you need gloves to get it off the dyno.

More about Carli Suspension's 3.0 Dyno testing and shock tuning.

The piston designs born here at Carli Suspension are focused on Total Control. Being able to tune the shock with increased ranges of adjustment allows for an extension of what we've all come to expect from the company. Sweeter street ride and more off road performance all in one package. The pistons are the biggest advancement yet, which wouldn't have even arrived without years of testing and tuning a myriad of shocks in as many applications.

On the tuning bed, a ceiling was approaching working with just valve shims... so after a year of exploring options, the machinist received a PO and now we are the beneficiaries of this initiative. Total Control engineering that results in a technology that you feel in your seat.

Carli 3.0 Piston

2009-05-13T09:41:00.000-07:00

Well, now I have to take a step back and correct something about the 2009 Dodge Ram Radar thread when mentioned some of the goodies that we should be waiting for this year... and there wasn't anything about a Carli Suspension King Piston anywhere. Well there's a reason for that, we didn't know it was coming either.

The entire initiative is spurred by the same thing that drove numerous advancements in shock tuning. Superior ride quality and street manners with the ability to hammer bumps in the dirt at speed - from a single tune. The quest to offer the best of both worlds lead to an incredible amount of intellectual property at the company and now it's just getting crazy, this isn't experimental shock valving that gets a diesel on top of whoops, this is real engineering.

Sage's truck is the first to be outfitted with any King advancements and one ride leaves you speechless... and if you don't believe that statement, come down for a demo and I'll post your comments for the rest of the readers. I've gone through at least 12 different tunes with my 3.0's and although improvements were found, it still wasn't anything close to what the piston delivered on the first installation.

Transitions are smooth, compression ramps up quickly minus any harsh qualities. Expansion joints are miniaturized and curbs don't jerk the wheel out of your hand when you run em over. The design supports Sage's latest shock tuning methods offering 5x the ability to tune bleed - the result? A seat-of-your-pants feel that will leave you wondering what's coming next.

19" of Rear Travel

2009-04-28T09:08:00.000-07:00

Well as we've all come to expect, Carli Suspension is pulling more and more rabbits out of the Dodge Ram Suspension hat and now we change our focus to the rear end. Modifications to the full rear leaf pack and a new Carli shackle design allows for bolt-on long travel Dodge Ram rear suspension. Boasting a bit over 19" of travel with the first prototype, this project is already creating a buzz in the arena.

The design allows for a pinion angle change at full droop which doesn't create driveline issues. Mike's truck has been the lab rat for quite a while and the rewards are always a massive step up in consumer fun for the rest of us. There aren't very many Dodge Ram CTD trucks running the streets that will drop a 37" BFG race tire completely out of the wheel well and below the body line... or I should say, there aren't any trucks.

Here we get to look at the signature of Carli Suspension from a different angle and although dropping jaws in the industry isn't something new, innovations are being released that just didn't happen anywhere else. Sage and the boys get an earned round of applause for another addition to the Dodge Ram aftermarket goodie buffet that is sure to make some waves when it comes time to play.

Super Duty Suspension Praise

2009-03-12T10:56:00.000-07:00

Pick up this month's issue of Diesel World for the latest solid from the press for Carli Suspension. Showcasing their Ford Super Duty Suspension System for the 05 to 08 line of Ford owners.

Dig on the complete play-by-play installation and how to bolt-on pure performance for some of the biggest light diesel trucks. Complete with an optional dual bypass racing shock from King Off Road and sporting that signature Carli shock tune, this is a Royal Flush for Super Duty fans.

It's been a long road with the products for the Dodge Ram and all of this is bleeding over to Ford's lineup and you can expect the same quality in the Super Duty system; comfortable street ride, excellent freeway manners and (of course) the flying diesel circus in the dirt. It won't be long until somebody wants to go huck their F-350 and you can expect that I'll be there with the cameras and the coaching "Yeah, that was cool, but how bout you double your speed and hit it again?" - that's about how it goes on play-day and we always hit the local taco stand on the way home from an addition to Sage's carnival of flying diesels.

2009 Dodge Ram Radar

2009-01-19T19:07:00.000-08:00

Carli Suspension wrapped up the 2008 year with the innovation of numerous tuning enhancements and performance components, some still in the development cycle. This includes the Dodge Ram Upper Ball Joints, Custom 2.0 King Front Bump Stops, Carli Sway Control, Carli Diff Protection, Bilstein 2.65 Suspension System and the Dodge Ram Front End Upgrade Kit. The company has been on a progressive development pace and you can expect the same in 2009 with more features and upgrades for your trucks.

Key items that will be on the radar for 2009 are King Rear Bumpstop system, which is a modification of the existing hydro-pneumatic rear bumpstop brackets and lower ball joints for the Dodge Ram HD series 4x4. Shock tuning hasn't slowed down one bit either, we will be continuously pushing the envelope and pulling more out of our off-road racing shocks while preserving the street ride and comfort of your truck - business as usual.

Stay tuned for some site updates, component releases and performance upgrades real soon.

2008 SCORE Baja 1000

2008-11-23T12:14:00.000-08:00

A la altura del desafio

"To rise to the challenge..." and that's just what the company has been doing for the 2008 year. This year the Baja 1000 started off with almost an strange feeling of calm, compared to last year which felt like a like a claymore mine at a concert. The team was less than half the size from last year which was a huge plus, the Canadian racers from Big Dog Performance brought down truck 807 and 3 people total, leaving our crew to do what it does with little interference. Support plans were drawn up, budgets were set and by the time the truck was getting tested, Mexico didn't seem so far away. One of the tricky things about SCORE racing is all the money that goes into the initiative and some agreements that were still in discussion up in Canada, left the race truck in limbo right up to just a few weeks before heading south for her second date with Baja. We had already planned on completely overhauling the tune on all six shocks and putting on a short list of this year's goodies before testing in Barstow and the team had a miniature renunion in the dirt.

Suspension Tuning

Testing had a couple of issues... last year's rollover tweaked a bit more than initially thought, one of the 3.0's had a bent shaft and the shock reservoir bypassed... but that was all corrected with an hours work. Once the truck was up and ready to rock, the first and immediate difference was in the valving. Sage has been doing his homework and dialed in enough to almost double the speed of the truck in California's biggest bumps. 63 mph down the Barstow main in a straight axle 4x4? Yep. Heck even one of our personal trucks carried the speed of last year's race truck when we were scouting positions to film. Shock tuning and innovation is a hallmark of the Carli brand to to be able to watch it come alive in a purpose built truck is even better. The 4.0s came apart before the truck rolled away from the trailer. Everything we've learned about tuning suspension and bypasses went straight into the project with new bypass valves, check valve springs, valve shims and fluid. The truck was great last year... and the first spin away from camp hailed the difference via PCI. After the install of new internals, all that was left was some tweaks to the tubes to finally dial her in.

Suspension Testing

Once we got the girl up to speed, she turned into a whoop eater in the bumps. We would leave the easy-up, head up the main, out towards the freeway and back down... each lap Sage was relaying what the truck was doing and suggesting the next tweak. When the truck came in, a turn on a tube here, half turn there and it was back out again for another lap. The first couple rounds the feedback was prominent and as the truck came and went the feedback started to get almost a bit experimental, "let's try backing down a bit here..." and the faster and smoother it got. A nice tight ride through the big bumps, but not harsh.

Watch the testing video

Viva Mexico

Good ole Ensenada, Mexico... probably the site of our fondest memories, or at least to and from them. When you go to Mexico, you enter with a clear state of mind... that anything can happen and you just make peace with that, or you shouldn't go. And when you open up to anything coming your way, you should know that you're going to get exactly what you have coming... luckily for us, it's been been great times, huge challenges and events that make us better. This year was nothing short of a classic trip to Baja for the Carli crew. Having one or all of the trucks down here, mostly farther south, has been a pretty common event lately and closing out the year with a number of trips, sometimes back to back weekends. Matter of fact, we all headed south with the same feeling, part of us was headed home and cruised into Mex with a comfortable smile.

We arrived and wanted to take off and hit up the Rumarosa section on Wednesday, however a poor ground left the truck stalling going from WOT to full braking... not exactly an issue you want to discover when on the Rumarosa Grade. Not only that, but the transmission didn't get out of 2nd gear. This is when everybody starts getting anxious. It could be electronic, it could be mechanical and it could be somthing as simple as a sensor or a hard part failure. Everyone's got a theory, but nobody had a definite solution. So what are the options? The ground was fixed in a matter of minutes, but that didn't solve the issue with 3rd gear. The story was, the truck came down from Canada with a freshly overhauled trans, so we ruled out mechanical on the benefit of the doubt. This leaves us with a sensor or electronics. This is when things started to get a bit frustrating... We had a spare motor and transmission, we had a spare ECM... so in theory, we could have swapped out everytihng critical and been done with it... but we weren't that fortunate - having spares means they should be ready to throw in, SKIM keys and all. The brighter side of the issue is that the truck will still do over 70 mph in 2nd gear with the setup we were running... and let's all be realistic here, 70 mph is plenty fast for a Mexican desert race. So now it was off to registration and tech inspection.

Race Time

Friday, November 21st 0900 - Driver team #1 loaded up 807 and headed towards staging, Chase teams #2 and #4 stayed local and #1 and #3 headed through Tecate for the first scheduled stop of the race in La Rumarosa. Once we got out of Ensenda and topped of fuel tanks and dump cans, we were out of radio range of the other chase vehicles and the race truck was in their hands. Having one vehicle stay in town for the start and another depart for Ojos at RM40, we had things covered and confidence was in the air. Being a lead chase vehicle and not having PCI contact with the race truck only sucks when its not at a scheduled pit or observation ontime. When Chase #1 and #3 got into La Rumarosa, we were just ahead of the Trophy Trucks and we had time to dip into Mexicali for a couple of last minute essentials while the race went on.

The race truck departed Ensenada and by RM40 the steering gear box was shot, a brand new box that was installed back in Orange County as a precaution to boot. This was the first delay of the race, but we had a spare on the truck and a chase team onsite to assist with the swap. Shortly up the course from getting going again at RM55 there was a huge pileup that involved several race cars and a local made $60 to put his tractor on the course and help a couple of racers get back on schedule, another unexpected delay. As the chase team waits, our friends back home were glued to IRC tracking with plenty of updates via SMS, so as long as the truck was moving, we just had to sit it out.

As sunlight drew to a close, we had our truck on the PCI and all that was wanted was a splash of fuel, and anytime we stop the truck, we perform a visual and brief tech inspection. All was good and the truck was back on the course and running strong. Chase #1 and #3 went down the toll road out of La Rumarosa and 807 hit the gnarliest grade in northern Baja without incident. We met the truck at the bottom near the road crossing and just as the truck passed us, it blew a tire on a sharp rock and we fed it a little teamwork and she was back on the charge. So far things were fortunate, any incident occurred within reach of a chase vehicle and all of our reports on the go were positive. Things were starting to pick up in tempo and everybody was there to answer the call. Baja racing... a sport where anything can happen and an environment where the "Butterfly Effect" is enumerated, the study of chaos could live in Mexico, theorizes that something as innocuous as the flap of a butterfly's wings could cause a typhoon half way around the world... or an incomplete weld could raise the call on the radio "Chase 1, this is Race... something just broke, over." Sitting in the front seat of my truck in the middle of a silt wash near RM150 I called back to the race truck "807 this is Chase 1, I copy, something broke, are you still moving? Over." Radio silence. Not something you want to receive after a transmission like that. We were only a few miles from the race truck, so we split up... I stayed in the wash and Chase #3 moved their position. In the meantime we were trying to organize a tow for a friend that came across our trucks who had a car stuck in silt a few miles back and now trying to get an update from our race vehicle and describe the situation we're trying to solve from the pit location... perfectly organized chaos with a steady tempo.

Expect everything and you won't be disappointed... but some things shouldn't be expected, so here goes the tale of poor preparation. A weld on the engine cage that supported the upper shock mount for the King Kong wasn't welded completely around. It finally gave up which put all of the forces on a joint of two tubes, which finally fatigued and one of them simply broke clean off. So now it's just after 2100 and 807 Race and Chase #1 and #3 are standing there looking under the hood at a broken tube with the shock pushed all the way to the hood. Well if this didn't start to look like a major problem, I don't know what did. But for the most experienced desert racer, this was a mild delay... but not without the help and presence of Mike from Wicked Creations. Stumbling around in the silt dust and trying to help out a fellow racer, we wound up parked next to Mike's chase rig that was a full blow fab shop, complete with tube, air, tools and a Miller welder. I have never seen anything like it. It wasn't even 2 minutes and people started barking out orders "Get the Sawzall, take that cover off, give me the 24mm, hold the flashlight, we're going to need 12 inches of tube to sleeve this thing"... and it went on like that for a couple of hours.

All of us were in, under and on top of that truck for a couple of hours, sometimes just holding a flashlight or getting ready to pass off a tool... and others, straining with every ounce of energy to perform half of a task while your best friend is 2 feet away with the other half. This is the part of desert racing most people never see. The commitment to stand up to everything that comes your way. A wheel grinder was singing, sparks flying and our crew moving with a purpose. Race cars went by and sprayed silt into the air, spectators came by with a camera... even the Local PD set up shop and just watched the show. All in all, you don't notice everything else that's going on, all you're focused on is trying to get another quarter turn on a 3/8" nut to remove a piece of the dash so we can weld behind it in the next couple of minutes.

A couple intense hours go by and the drivers are suited up again and the truck is stronger than it was when it crossed its first border on the trip down from Canada. Patched, gusseted and sleeved, the team was able to perform CPR on the cage and get it race worthy four feet from the race course. If it wasn't for Mike and Wicked Creations, we would have been scouring the sand wash for a welder and it might be a very different story. A huge shout out to Mike for keeping the race alive for others that weren't his responsibility.

This was the last major issue of the first two driver legs and we made it down to RM270 and hooked up with Chase #4 and set up our pit and got Sage suited up to take 807 through the San Felipe loop. The truck came in and received 20 gallons of fuel, a visual and tech inspection and new drivers. Already this far into the race, being in chase, there was a tempo that had developed and we were never in a hurry to the next stop, although we tend to still operate like we are... but the next few minutes got exciting for Chase #1 and #3. We headed south on the 5 and could hear Jesse on the radio calling out mile markers and at one point I thought to myself "There's no way, did he just say RM295? I think he screwed up". So I got on the radio and asked "807 Race, this is Chase #1, say again, I copy RM295, over." and sure enough, I was the one that wasn't calibrated. Sage was behind the wheel and started driving the truck like it was designed. "Roger 295 and haulin' ass!" came back and I looked out the window and said "We got to go, they're going to beat us to the next pit!" and Chase #1 and #3 left a Pemex around 0300 on a mission to stay ahead of Sage.

San Felipe isn't your average drive in the dirt. Deep sand washes with ruts and whoops that would make for hazards on almost anything are around every corner. Just as we setttled in, another transmission came across the radio "807 Chase, this is Race, be advised we are at RM301 and the transmission has failed." Our stomach dropped and we knew that swapping out a transmission wouldn't be soon enough to make it to the next checkpoint where we would time out of the race. I tried to respond back and we just kept hearing a repeat of the transmission "807 Chase, this is Race, be advised we are at RM301 and the transmission has failed." Well, there's only one thing you can do when your bro's are in a San Felipe sand wash with a dead truck at zero dark thirty in Baja... so it turned into a full blown extraction mission. Access through a chase road and picking our way through trails in the wash, we got to our truck without interfering with any race activity... and where the truck was, there's nothing short of getting gnarly that would change the scenario. I'll just say that the ride out of RM301 in my megacab was the wildest ride of my life... and that of my passengers. half an hour later and one hell of an adventure, we all gathered up and let the adrenaline subside.

Racing in Mexico is one of the best adventures and challenges a man can have, we do it for many reasons and each time we walk away, we're satisfied with the outcome because we stepped up to every challenge on the way. They say that if you simply finish the Baja 1000, it's a victory in itself and for those who have and sometimes haven't, know exactly why. The best part is, we get to sit on everything we learned for a year and our date with Baja will be set again and we can only hope it will be rich in experience.

The Carli Suspension crew in San Felipe, November 2008, we'll be hanging onto that Baja smile for next year.

2008 Race Truck Testing

2008-11-17T13:10:00.000-08:00

We pulled an entire weekend in Barstow testing the #807 Race Truck. Saturday started out with a couple of issues with a Kong reservoir, so Sage and I headed back to the shop for the spares when we got cut off by the fires, which resulted in Saturday's productivity being scrubbed for testing. The prep went fine and we rebuilt three and a half King Kongs and had to wait until Sunday to get back out to the desert and drop on the new reservoir and roll the truck.

Once the truck hit the first whoop, we were amazed at the difference from the last setup and the testing turned into mild bypass tweaks. The truck's composure started to collect, the drivers found their rhythm in the bumps and we ended the afternoon running the middle of Barstow Main at 63 mph on the GPS.

Installation Instructions

2008-11-14T18:22:00.000-08:00

We're putting together an instructional library for all Carli Suspension, Inc Dodge Ram Suspension Systems and Components. Complete with illustrations, where necessary, tools you'll need for the job and step-by-step narrative accompanied by photos. These will be fully updated and available for download in our Dodge Ram Suspension Instruction Library.

We'll be completing this over the next few days and will notify our distributors so they can update their documentation as well. Note: Each Carli Suspension, Inc delivery comes with printed and laminated instructions, however how many of us dive into a project and half way through (or more) decide to look at the instructions - don't worry, if you're one of those (like I am), you can download a new copy from the library.

2008 Baja 1000 Preparation

2008-11-10T11:19:00.001-08:00

Looks like things are shaping up pretty well for the Big Dog and Carli Suspension team! This is going to be an interesting adventure with the first part of the course being a hazard for miles on end. Last night I came out of Baja via Tecate and spoke with team 299 who was pre running the course on motos and they reported a 3 hour traffic jam from a buggy that broke an axle on the course... and the section being so steep and narrow, there was just no going around. Somebody had to produce a welder and repair the axle on course in order to free up movement. This is surely to be a careful execution for the larger vehicles.

So far this year, the Carli crew has been on all of the sections of the course, minus the La Rumorosa section. We have a day planned to pre run that the week of the race from our camp in La Bufadora. This weekend the Canadian team will come down and we're set to do some Kong tuning in Barstow before we depart for Mexico. Everything is staged to be down in Baja early next week.

King 3.0 Shock Dyno Testing

2008-11-04T18:47:00.000-08:00

Tuning Dodge Ram Suspension is a constant process... and today we just added another tool to our box. A shock dyno. Shown here is Sage working with a tech with one of the first 3.0 King Shocks for a Carli Suspension System. We are able to tear down a shock, tune it with whatever valves we like, then reassemble and install on the dyno. From here we can make several passes with the shock connected to a Nitrogen tank so we can adjust the gas charge and run the same valve profile and compare data.

Today was our first day playing with our standard valve profile and one of our latest experiments. So far, we've learned a lot and the theory is starting to take shape. Understanding how to interpret data is important and being able to connect a curve on a graph to "seat of the pants" feel is bringing new light into the world of tuning these race shocks for our Dodge Ram's.

So now we're able to see the transition of force that the shock absorbs, how fast it absorbs it and what happens next. We are able to visualize what we feel after tuning the shocks, which before was impossible. After the first few passes and adjustments, Sage was pointing at a computer screen and able to pick out where the big bumps are absorbed and where those little expansion joints are felt.

After the run of the standard Dominator 3.0 shock tune, which impressed everyone who saw the graph, we valved another 3.0 with my Megacab tune. An experiment that was tried several months ago... and Sage even said "I'm almost scared what this is going to show..." jokingly, of course... and what happen next made us all bug out. First of all, the valve stack and method was something completely different, hence the experiment... and what we found was that the second shock produced over 50% more compression that transitioned in a smooth arc on the graph and had balanced rebound. After someone else asked what was going on and they got the full technical scoop, I heard someone say "Yeah, I remember that Walker Evans used to do that on one of his buggies".

Here's a quick look at the very first test results. What you're looking at is the dyno graph of the shock stroke. Now to make things simple, what you're looking for are smooth transitions and no spikes - this is where ride quality can be visualized. Shown here is the standard Dominator 3.0 shock valve profile. Each test was run with a different gas charge and what we found is that the pressure that is recommended for our valving, produced the best data signature when tested.

The next graph is experimental 3.0 valving for "special case" off-road driving that we tagged with a nickname at the shop, but that's aside the point. What we did was start out with a very low pressure charge and work our way up. You can immediately see a major difference. The size of the visual, when overlaid with the first test, is much bigger, almost 40% more - which turns out to be the amount of energy this valve profile absorbs in the same time and distance. Big bump compression, with the exact same smooth transition. The next thing you notice is the anomaly at the end of the compression stroke, represented with the teal colored line. This was done with the lowest reservoir charge and shows that the shock cavitated. Once we got into actual operating pressures and not testing pressures, that anomaly was reduced and finally with the actual pressure we run with this stack, turned out as smooth, if not smoother than the valve stack with 40% less compression. Smooth transition of energy absorbing and recovery is the key to ride quality, on or off-road.

This kind of research and development is only possible through a tight working relationship with King Off Road. Access to their equipment, personnel and knowledge is a contributing factor in the speed at which our R&D progresses.

We're headed back in a couple days with an arsenal of shocks, various tunes and ideas. This is sure to speed things up with the R&D and help confirm or deny some of the ideas that pop up around the shop. This advancement is only going to lead to more shock tuning experience and knowledge, which means we'll have more fun in our trucks off road and they'll ride nicer on the highway.

SCORE International Baja 1000

2008-11-03T21:10:00.000-08:00

It's that time of year again and the Carli Suspension Team is making the logistical plan to greet Mexico's toughest terrain in a Dodge Ram 2500 HD. Teamed up with Big Dog Performance out of Alberta Canada and racing in Class 8. This year there's some new terrain for the team to tackle as well as something new for everyone. The buzz is some really technical and brutal sections and some relief that San Felipe's biggest whoops have been tamed by recent rains. It's going to be another adventure and test of commitment for all of us. As the dates grow closer the excitement will ramp up, more so for the driver's... supporting this year's race will be much easier than a point-to-point course.

Big Dog Performance will be down shortly to perform the final prep and tune in the King Kong's before heading south. There will be much to do in the coming weeks and as most of America will be visiting family and carving the turkey, some of us will be having a sleepless night in Ensenada just before we launch on a 40 hour adventure that we'll never forget!

We'll get some updates going weekly as we progress and some pictures of the race truck.

Bilstein 2.65 Delivery Dates

2008-10-31T13:54:00.000-07:00

The question has been answered: We will be shipping Bilstein 9100 2.65 systems in Mid-November! We will have our first sets of shocks in from Bilstein in just a couple of weeks. The custom cut shock bodies that go through a clear-powder coat process took the longest to produce. Just to make sure we have plenty in stock, there will be an additional run of 240 shocks that will be available in January.

Our delivery date is scheduled for the 14th of November and a month after that, we will receive another run of the Bilstein 2.65 racing shocks to make sure we meet the demand. In 2009, Bilstein will produce hundreds more of these for Carli Suspension, Inc.

Sway Bar Torsion Rate Finalized

2008-10-14T16:39:00.000-07:00

As with all of the research and development done here at the Carli shop... the final performance call of off road suspension components gets left to Mexico. Another weekend logging hundreds of miles testing tweaks to valve profiles, prototype components and, this round, sway bar torsion rate. Too stiff and you loose low speed articulation and driver comfort... too loose and you sacrifice high speed stability. This has to be something that is tuned just right. Although, still adjustable with a two position sway bar arm, you can tweak it a little bit more to work for your own preference or suspension set up. Our findings are going down into the books and we'll be setting up some part numbers with metal suppliers to get these into production. Along with that, custom laser cut brackets will be fabricated as well as selecting bushing material for the mounts. Carli's Dodge Ram Sway Bar is just around the corner.

Carli Diff Protection

2008-10-14T14:52:00.000-07:00

Taking your Dodge Ram out in the boondocks, whether that means deep in Baja or your favorite local spot, should not be a trip that winds up costing you a set of gears. Having the confidence of .250 wall steel plate constructed differential guards is one of those piece of mind add-ons that any adventurous off road enthusiast should strongly consider. Shown here is my Megacab negotiating the infamous Goat Trail on the SCORE race routes a few weekends ago. Taking a truck this size down trails as tight as this means you're limited in your selection of lines... and as you can see from the photo, there isn't a pretty one to choose from. Once in a while you're going to make contact, whether that is by choice and moving slow and deliberate or by accident - either event can cost you.

The first time to Barstow for a location scouting run, I dropped my front differential down on to the top of a rock buried in a sand wash. The only reason I caught this is due to a flat tire and upon inspecting the rest of the rig, I noticed a steady flow of gear oil coming from my differential cover. Sage grabbed a rock and smashed the cover with it a few times and got it to seal up with just a small puddle of oil under the axle. Had we continued and this went unnoticed, it could have cost a set of gears and a few hours in the dirt removing critical running gear for the limp home.

We installed 5 prototype differential guards on 5 Dodge Ram HD's and headed for hundreds of miles in Baja a couple weekends ago and turns out, one of us took a boulder dead center. An impact that brought a long bed quad cab diesel to a dead stop while slowly rolling down a trail. The incident required nothing but a change in line to correct the situation and the adventure continued. Without the guard... who knows?

Proven strength in the roughest conditions we can subject the hardware to... testing has completed. Now it's a matter of design tweaks to accommodate all 3rd Gen Dodge Ram model years' steering hardware, various stabilizers and their mounting brackets. Stay tuned for the release of Carli's Diff Pro.

Upper Ball Joint Inspection

2008-10-09T13:31:00.000-07:00

With tens of thousands of miles stacking up on the first installations of the Dodge Ram Upper Ball Joint, we finally have a baseline to really dig into the engineering behind the material, machining and processes that comprise the extreme duty assembly. Recently we removed one of the pins and sent it back to the engineer after about a thousand miles of Mex in the dirt, which is like double dog years on hardware. Initially we discovered a bright luster on the surface which was a contrast to that of the newly machined and lubricated assembly piece. What we got was a lesson on metallurgy and just how deep the design was on the processes chosen for this component.

Shown here is a drawing of a magnified view of a machined flat surface. Although by eye and touch, this isn't what you'll find, but with high magnification, any "flat surface" has texture. This is a dramatization shown to explain the engineer's intention with the design... BURNISHING, or to polish by friction was part of the process. The 2-stage dry lubricant applied after machining and hardening, filled some of the pores of the metal and covered high spots. This is a view of the brand new ball joint surface.

Now we get to our latest discovery. When you disassemble the component after some hard use and consistent pressure from normal activity, you will quickly notice a metallic luster on the surface. The two parts burnished, similar to a cylinder wall break in period when the rings find their seat, yet on a much more micro level, the hardened surface will polish itself into an even smoother surface and work even better.

Still flowing the Redline CV2, the ball joints just keep getting better after they've been in for a while.

Lower Ball Joints On The Radar

2008-09-25T10:43:00.000-07:00

After the explosion of interest in the Carli Extreme Duty Upper Ball Joints, the big question is "Where are the lower ball joints for the Dodge Ram?" Well, we've answered the call and we'll be prototyping lower ball joints in the next few weeks. You can expect the same development time as with our uppers and we'll probably wind up improving the design time and time again before the first production run. The upper ball joints were fitted with a two-stage aerospace dry lubricant process and we added zirc fittings for Red Line CV2 high performance grease and if that wasn't enough, we ported the pin for better grease flow. All of this was part of the improvement process on the unique design. We'll be doing this one more time to meet the demand of our first ball joint product.

The lower joint is actually a true "ball and socket" assembly and the upper is a "pivot joint" assembly. There are quite a few differences in the role these components play and the amount of force and direction they are subject to. Priding ourselves on extreme duty level components, the lower ball joints will be another brute strength product to compliment your Dodge Ram Suspension System.

Stay tuned for the development of another Carli only Dodge Ram product.

Dodge Ram Front End Rebuild

2008-09-17T15:37:00.000-07:00

How many miles does it take before you find the front end of the truck, just not as tight as it used to be? For those of us who recreation off road with the same truck we drive in the city, that time is cut down even more. The cause? Simple, rubber track bar bushings, light weight upper ball joints and the OEM emulsion style steering stabilizer. The solution? Even simpler... a 4130 chromoly track bar that can be adjusted for 0 to 3 inches of lift, extreme duty upper ball joints and a Bilstein 7100 series IFP (internal floating piston) steering stabilizer.

After I upgraded to a 3.0 lift and added 37" tires, my stock stabilizer didn't stand a chance. Within a matter of 4,000 miles I noticed a steady decline in how tight my steering was. The immediate difference was felt with the Bilstein stabilizer, night and day from the OEM component. The track bar adjusts so that even if you don't have a lift now, you can still use it when you do, or vice versa. This will keep your front end within OEM geometry while upgrading design and material of critical components.

Everything here is life of the vehicle. Certainly the ball joints aren't going anywhere no matter how hard we punish them in the worst conditions... and the track bar with 3/4" ball and 7/8" shaft is not breaking down. This will rejuvenate that tired old feeling your Dodge Ram develops after the miles start stacking up and it will maintain that tightness without fade.

Check out the Dodge Ram Front End Upgrade System