2011 Super Duty Project

This is the first week in the life of Carli Suspension's project Super Duty
... and, the development of your ride quality and expectations.

Sage Carli and his 2011 Ford Super Duty 4x4 - this relationship is going to lead to a new level of engineering, ride-quality and off road performance out of a bolt-on suspension lineup with a system for any Super Duty owner.

Things happen pretty quick here; the truck has less than 300 miles on it and it's transformation is well underway. It wasn't long before the wheel well gap doubled and Sage was elbow deep in his new engineering target.

One day in the shop and the truck looks like it just graduated Marine boot camp, standing tall and looking sharp for it's first day on the job.

The Carli Super Duty project truck's job description isn't going to be a light one, the first day was spent flexing springs on the PCS Proving Ground's "south loop". Through our network, your project starts out on the same private proving grounds where vehicle projects take place with off road specialists such as Land Rover or Jeep and where the Ford Raptor was developed.

To top off the resources applied to the start of this project, Bilstein's shock trailer was present with their most talented suspension tuners on our coast. The day was spent riding 4 deep in the Super Duty; Steve and Joel from Bilstein and Sage Carli up front with Larry Rae (the trail guide and owner of the PCS ranch).


It's as good as it gets for your ride quality - Our 2.0 shock comes with the combined knowledge and experience of 3 of the top suspension tuners from Bilstein and [us] the creator of the suspension system - working together on your custom shock project. Combine the suspension and tuning knowledge with Bilstein's 2.0 shock which has more than one piston to choose from, about 100 different shims and more bleed techniques built into the piston design, and you have all of the ingredients to a well refined, custom tuned daily drive.

The shock is where the magic happens; once the spring rates are figured out, the shock internals deliver everything you feel in the seat. Days like these are priceless when you are a company working your way towards delivering the nicest riding Super Duty Suspension system available... and this is where we're at with it.

Getting down to business

This suspension system is not being focused in the dirt on tight trails; this kind of driving let's the guys figure out what the truck wants from the shock and when it wants it.

Those are 37" Red Label General Grabber Race tires... stuffed on one side, and hanging on the other. This is being done with the Carli add-a-pack under the factory upper leafs - the full spring pack is in development. So far, this truck is checking out on the trail. This is being done with the new Bilstein 5160 remote reservoir 2.0 shock package (the shock hasn't even been released on our website yet). The prototype mini-packs underwent their first revision after this test session and a different piston was experimented with which was found to gel better with the way the truck works. This was a huge day for the Ford project.

The Carli Suspension signature ride quality delivers so much comfort on-road that it will surprise you with it's off-road capabilities. Our Performance 2.0 is being developed jointly with Bilstein, resulting in a custom Carli shock for our 4.5" Super Duty systems... this is the start of our daily driver ride quality guarantee.

Daily Driving Testing

Robert drew the long straw this weekend and took the new outfit on a weekend road trip to Ensenada, Baja California.

The Super Duty Performance 2.0 suspension system is oriented at delivering the daily driver's dream. A luxurious highway drive with outstanding compliance and in-town manners, with the ability to drive maintained dirt roads at respectable speeds in control and without hurting the truck.


This was an easy mission, no 5th wheel, no camper and packing light - pretty much how most trucks are setup for the majority of their use during daily or weekend driving. Getting out of town challenges us, it is easy to make a truck ride nice in Orange County, a road trip down south exposes the system to everything it is designed for.



Leaving the shop, it's typical commercial grid driving with rippled surfaces, rail road tracks, dips and asphalt / concrete transitions - all the things you feel in the seat when you drive in-town. The freeway expansion joints pick up in San Juan Capistrano and can make downtown San Diego seem longer if the truck's not happy. The whole point is to tune all of this down to traces of feedback through the truck to your seat.

Baja provides a unique opportunity to develop our ride quality for people who have seasons where they live - which means those US and Canadian post-winter drives on busted up pot-holed asphalt roads have been accounted for, by guys who don't experience heavy winters.

Sage's Super Duty is poised to grow up and be a big boy in the desert someday, but for now, the focus is on refining the composure of the truck for the daily drive, the development of the 5160 shock and tune, a full leaf spring pack and a torsion sway bar.

Ford stepped it up with their recent debuts, a refined industrial look and a power plant that is raising the bar. It's a perfect time for Sage Carli to deliver a suspension system of equal refinement, engineered and tuned just for you.

Today the project Super Duty is a few changes away from showing it's hand. Project updates will be posted here as well as our research, engineering and prototyping of the new components.