Super Duty Suspension News and Engineering for Ford SuperDuty F250/F350 4x4

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2012-01-30T14:53:00.001-08:00

This is where you'll find the latest insider information on what's happening over at the shop, product releases, R&D, production schedules and the latest builds, Carli Suspension on Facebook.com. Now you can stay connected and receive status on everything that's going down.

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Pintop 2.5 Praise

2012-01-12T10:17:00.000-08:00

Here's a customer submission. Jason was one of our Demo Drivers from the Barstow weekend and now it's his truck that's breaking the 1-ton stereotype. Thanks for the feedback Jason, here's your thread on our blog.

Here’s some pictures to show the white 2009 F350 you guys put together for me and my family. I say that because this is a daily driver-grocery getter-road tripper-chase/play-towing machine! I mean this ol’ girl has got to do it all! We just got back from our annual trip to the Imperial Sand Dunes, Gordon Wells, to celebrate the New Year. The truck performed flawlessly. We towed a small 18 foot travel trailer from the OC to the desert in comfort, the ride was great. My wife actually loves the truck more after the lift!

We got to the sand early afternoon, and already we had a big job for it. My buddy, Brian, got there the night before with his 43 foot toyhauler being towed by his new 2011 Dodge CC 4x4 dually, and he got it stuck. I mean really stuck! I un-hitched my rig, got the straps out, and went to work. I tugged and pulled about five or six times, only to moved him about ten feet. But then another Super Duty came along, we hooked him to me, and tandem pulled my buddy out. Not bad for the first forty five minutes of our vacation!

After setting up camp, I wanted to show Brian how good the truck performed, so we hit the sand highway. We were trucking along pretty good when I felt him staring at me. I looked at him and kinda smirked a “what are you looking at” smile, and he just said that he could not believe my F350 was doing this. He was very impressed.

The next day we went out to do some duneing, and Brian loaded up his two kids and wife in his new 800 RZR, and my wife and I loaded up our three kids in the Big Truck (that’s what our kids call her). He kept looking back, and to his surprise, I was right on him! He even tried to leave me at the sand drags, but we dusted him. His RZR can only do 55-60, and we passed him up doing 65+! Boy was he pissed! He just shook his head and laughed it off though, I think it was more of a shock than anything.

We got a lot of double takes all weekend from other off-roaders, the subtle look of our truck really kept us low key, but the performance blew them away. We went most everywhere in 2WD, and had a blast doing it. We had groups spot us hanging out in the dunes, and stopped to ask if we were okay or needed help. We just smiled and said no. I guess they where’nt expecting to see a 1-ton out in the middle of nowhere!

My wife Vanessa even had a turn at the wheel. I went for a ride with Brian in the RZR, and she had to chase us down to the sand drags to get the keys to the trailer from my pocket, here’s what she has to say: "At first I was nervous and didn’t want to beat the truck, or myself, up too much, after all I drive a Corolla! It handled quite well. I never even thought to put it in four wheel drive. I had three kids in the back and a friend in the front seat to help me hunt down the trailer keys. While parked at the sand drags, a guy next to me asked if we were ok to get back down to the hard pack. I said we were fine, just hunting down our husbands for the trailer key and that the truck rode quite nice. He looked to the back seat and saw the kids watching a movie from a drop down DVD player and asked what kind of suspension we had. When I answered, “Carli”, he replied, “ You mean the DODGE guys?” I said “Yeah but he does Fords too! “ He then placed his head under the front fenders and I resumed my search for my hubby. I had become accustom to strange men sticking their heads under the front of our truck in places like the grocery store, gas stations, even the parking lot at work!"

It was a great trip. No drama, just fun. I can’t wait to get the Big Truck out in the dirt again. But I need some good off road light soon, this trucks can out-run the stock lights at night pretty quick!

Jason Stroud - 2009 F350 V10 Super Duty 4x4, Carli Suspension 2.5 pin top system, 37” Toyo M/T’s on stock Lariat wheels.

Super Duty's Baja 1000 Prerun

2011-11-30T11:21:00.001-08:00

Here we are back in Mexico for the 2011 SCORE International Baja 1000 Prerun party. You'll hear the word party used a lot around here, we also call it R&D. What would you call a 5 tank of fuel, on and off road weekend rip with desert racing's biggest event happening? Research, development and solid good times with friends and trucks. These are fun weekends and if anyone else is ever interested in experiencing the ceiling of bolt-on DIY suspension, on or off-road... come demo our truck or bring yours on the next adventure run south.

This is how we know that our systems deliver more...

San Felipe, B.C., home of some of the most interesting off-road spectating there is. Literally. Where else can you park your truck, dig a fire pit, post up in your camping chair and watch half million dollar off-road projects pound 3" high bumps at freeway speeds?

One of the things that is even more fun about being in San Felipe during a SCORE show, is the drive there. Carli Suspension has tens of thousands of miles of this and it's a big part of how we learn so much. Exposing our systems, components and latest shock tunes to everything on and off-road is our ruler in the measurement of suspension performance.

Shock dynos are cool, in-town testing is part of the game and highway refinements are critical - but when it comes to delivering the suspension system that works everywhere, anywhere you will take your Super Duty, this is the place to confirm or deny whether or not we know our shit.

Here's how it goes, we leave Ensenada on hard pack ranch roads with special features such as rock washboard and rain ruts. Once we're out of town, we find ourselves on trails between ranch roads where our trucks roll through ridiculously deep whoops and rock sections that pick apart 37" tire side walls. After all the ranch running we wind up in the mountains, just shy of pine forest elevation and here we get to haul ass through undulating terrain with a mix of hard pack and sand surfaces.

After the ranches and through the mountains, we get to the desert. Baja desert is special, it will go from lunar-scape red/grey volcanic rock to uni-tone white silt over the course of an hour driving. This terrain eats automotive hardware, that's why desert racing veterans say that the competition doesn't beat you, Baja does. These are the proving grounds for the world's top tire and wheel manufactures, fabricators, racing junkies and of course, shock and suspension manufacturers.

This go around, I wanted to take the guys somewhere new and push the limits a little bit. La Ventana is the name of the area, there's nothing out here but mineral mines, rock washes and the Baja 1000 race course. This is how we double check our suspension theory.

When you drive on rock, you instantly learn whether or not your shock shaft is moving immediately, when it's not, it's because there's too much "nose pressure" with your shock tune. Tuning in small sharp bump compliance is the hardest thing to get right. I could give you a 30 minute lesson on shock tuning and you can get your truck to land a jump, that's not the hard part... the hard part is giving an 8,000 pound jump landing diesel truck, finesse.

This is why we hand the keys out, it's hard to explain, but once you've felt the difference, you understand why we have spent years engineering our signature ride quality. This is just one of the situations where it pays off. When you drive on crappy roads with sharp edged washboard with dried mud ruts, all the little stuff will eventually piss you off when it's rattling your cab and slapping the steering wheel. It's one thing to drive over a short crappy section of washboard or rock... but what happens when the washboard or rock section is 40 miles long? You better have done your homework.

We party like this for a reason. Every time we do, we learn something, apply it and go perform some more research. The Ford Super Duty as a platform is proving to be worthy of these remote weekend R&D drives. The front end and steering is holding up better than the Dodge (I can't believe I just said that), but seriously, it is. Ford got something right there, Sage hasn't exactly been nice to the truck, nor has any of our Demo drivers, and the steering wheel is still at 12 o'clock, it's still tracking straight down the road and there's not a squeak, click or clunk coming from it. That's saying a lot.

We have paved the way in the daily-driver on and off-road setup in the world of Dodge Ram and now have the combination that is doing it all... but it takes a slue of crap to do this as a daily routine. Steering boxes, transmissions, tie-rods, transmissions, steering boxes, ball joints, transmissions... we've killed more parts tuning shocks than some people have racing. So far, the Super Duty needs to get a round of applause for bringing it home on OEM hardware. Nice work Ford.

The progression has gone faster than we thought and with the addition of the full leaf pack the off-the-shelf Pintop 2.5 and custom shock tune is standing its ground with the ballingest Dodge Ram desert trucks there are... miles are stacking up in the Super Duty corner.

In the meantime, the truck is in its final months of riding around on the factory torsion sway bar - for the curious, call up and take the keys to this truck and feel for yourself what all the chatter is about.

Full Spring Pack Debut

2011-11-09T13:03:00.000-08:00

This benchmark is probably the most exciting after the first production shock tunes... please welcome the Carli / Deaver Full Spring Pack. We're going to be talking a lot about Ford's stock rear spring rates and leaf pack design, actually we don't have a choice.

The new Super Duty boasts the industry's strongest GVWR and load capacity and Ford brought this to you using just two leafs with an overload. Two half inch thick leaf springs resting atop an overload leaf doesn't exactly equate to smooth progressive spring travel. It goes from stiff, to stiffer with every inch of compression.

Smoothing out the travel of the factory rear spring pack had Sage scratching his head for a while... it wasn't easy. The very first tunes would have been completed much sooner if it wasn't for these factory rates.

Now we're working with a custom 12 leaf progressive spring pack designed by Sage and created by Deaver. Our design works with 9 progressive upper leafs with 3 progressive overloads. The leaf pack is split, so that the majority of the travel is working off of the upper 9 leafs and once the spring pack is compressed, a progressive 3-leaf overload pack kicks in to keep the GVWR and load capacity up to Super Duty standards.

If there was one truck ever built that needs a progressive rear spring pack, this is it.

This is the first addition to the base system and an upgrade that will be the highest recommended to any customer looking for the most comfort, control and performance. The initial feedback after the addition of this spring, is a sigh of relief... the truck can move so much more fluidly through its travel, it soaks up transitions with more control and the Super Duty is still a Super Duty.

Those are 37" Toyo Open Country MTs dancing with those wheel wells - articulation, check.

The first break in drive was to the high altitude pine forests of northern Baja California. Here at Carli, we like testing in Baja and our Project Super Duty is earning its stripes down here. This kind of weekend drive exposes the truck to everything one would encounter from expansion joint laden freeways leaving California to the Mexican highways and finally... off-road in Baja. Getting into the dirt in Baja means you can take it easy and go sight seeing, or go pound the same bumps as BJ Baldwin and Robby Gordon, it just depends on what you feel like doing. This was a sight seeing drive and we stopped to do some spring flexing and take some notes.

If anyone is interested in feeling the progression, pun intended, come demo drive this truck. The offer still stands and now there's even more of a reason to take it up. Sage is pinning down shock tune refinements for the newly settled rear end and will be heading back down to Baja for some more testing, hanging out and spectating the Baja 1000 with the Carli off-road crew.

The next sweet upgrade will come in the form of a torsion rate sway bar where we can expect to see the front tire tuck up into the fender well and increase the comfort and control of your Super Duty.

Ford Super Duty Demo Drive

2011-09-24T09:00:00.000-07:00

September 24th and 25th weekend our Project Super Duty wasn't just our truck, it was your truck. You got to drive it where and how you wanted to. Welcome to Carli Suspension's field research... featuring you, the customer. This is where we invite everyone to our BBQ, toss up the keys to our project 2011, turn on the cameras and not have any clue what's going to happen.

Turns out, it was fun, everyone learned a lot and we'll be doing this again. Matter of fact, it went so well, the offer still stands - come drive it - just give us a call first to make sure it's not out being a shop truck, or on the lift being an R&D truck. After work and research, it's status is set to demo mode.

Barstow Wash Recon

Waiting for us at the Dealer was a father and son team who lived locally and wanted to be the first in line to kick up some dust. Both of them drove up in F250s, one of which was stock and the other was lifted on a different 2.5 system. No time was wasted, we signed them up and off we went. The best part about this demo drive was, I was the guy who had no idea where we were. I pretty much just sat there and said "sure" anytime I was asked if we could go left or right. This was my local tour through the backside of Barstow and the start of our 25 mile super demo. Thanks guys... if it wasn't for this, Seth's drive might have been shorter.

Demo Drive Gone Media Ops

Robert was our second demo driver on Saturday, and quickly became the demo driver for the rest of the day. I was in Barstow to collect Super Duty media and it just so happened that the media op started with Rob behind the wheel. Thanks for coming out, Robert and thanks for keeping it safe and bringing back something to share. You put as many off road miles on the truck as Sage did the whole weekend.

The Inner Child Wins Again

I met Seth at the dealer and brought him out to the camp in my truck while the Super Duty was being romped around. Seth and I were talking about how he uses his truck and he was adamantly concerned with the street and highway ride quality - and mildly curious about the whole off-road bit. We jumped in and I gave him the lowdown, it went like this: [pointing forward in the cab] "Ok, if we go this way, the bumps just keep getting bigger for like a mile, then it just stays bumps all the way to the highway where you turn right and drive bigger bumps all the way back towards where we are now..." [pointing backward] "Or, we flip it around and go hit the highway". Seth caved into this curiosity and we went straight to Barstow's biggest bumps. I was still concerned with what we had discussed, so at some point I broke it down again, "left we commit to some wheeling, or right we circle back towards camp".

We drove every last hint of sand wash trails, rock crawls, stupid deep whoop trails and all kinds of busted up stuff in between. Seth took it beyond Super Duty boundaries and was bumping on Rubicon status, but he brought it back without a scratch. It was fun co-driving for you Seth.

Here's what we learned

We got to hear it straight from you - while combing through the video I discovered several common threads among the drivers. First nobody could believe a full-sized diesel truck could move like that, everyone that drove it, at some point said the words "I can't believe it", whether it was in the bumps or on the highway. And at some point every driver exercised his right to say "you said I could drive it" and pulled the trigger into whoops way harder than they would their own truck - which, by the way is the kind of stuff that makes grown men smile, and if repeatedly done, people start to get the giggles.

"I am thoroughly impressed."

We also learned that people were surprised that we actually coughed up the keys and let you drive it, thank you for that, we are proud to be the suspension manufacturer that is so confident in our product that we're practicing ride quality demo marketing.

"I would be stoked if my truck
could do a fraction of this."
Sage made it a point to demonstrate the base kit without anything more than what's featured in the product photo. This is Carli Suspension's hand in the all-purpose performs-everywhere Super Duty suspension lift game. Bolt it on and go, unbeatable ride quality and performance.

"I can't actually believe that
a diesel can do this."

We will be setting up another event soon, in the meantime if you want to feel Carli Engineered ride quality, come drive our Super Duty anytime... and for those who have our system and would like to demo the full leaf pack, our latest shock tunes or the torsion sway bar, call us up to make sure demo status is good to go, then take the key. We hope you have the same impression.

"Compared to my lift kit, night and day difference."

Performance 2.5 Development

2011-02-19T16:58:00.000-08:00

The Super Duty Suspension line is steadily progressing. The 6-leaf add a pack underwent a revision that brought us much closer to what we can expect from the stock leaf pack and the 4th set of shocks are being dialed in.

Lucky for all of the Super Duty owners, your project starts out at the height of the company's ride quality and performance progression.

Our King 2.5 shock comes with our custom low-flow pistons, designed and developed for straight-axle short/mid travel suspension performance. The signature Carli Suspension ride quality delivers refined manners for daily driving, towing / hauling as well as getting wild in the dirt. One shock tune that does it all.

This story begins with the first Performance 2.5 road tests.

First things first... off come the last shocks, Bilstein 5100s, and it's time to round up all of the hardware for a set of 2.5 Kings with our Total Control Pistons.

The company is founded on it's ride quality and system performance. Product quality isn't just about building something that stands up to the environment, abuse and a few parties... it's about you loving the way your truck drives, everyday, no matter what you're doing or driving on.

A fine balance is under development; one that will dramatically improve your street and in-town driving, highway commutes, towing / hauling and one that will probably scare you in the dirt with its capabilities.

Lucky for the Super Duty crowd, your performance 2.5 system starts out with half a decade of tuning behind it.

An hour or so fitting the shocks to the truck and it was time for the first drive. Just stepping into the truck and taking a local drive is impressive. As far as a first stab at a tune goes and still working with the stock upper leafs, the ride quality is amazing. The expectation of how much comfort can be pulled out of Ford's platform is growing.

The development of the full leaf pack and torsion sway bar will definitely be finishing touches, rounding off some of the rough edges left behind by the factory leafs and sway bar. The first off road tests will be done the first weekend of March and there'll be photos, reviews and details about the development of the Performance 2.5 tune.

So far, the ride quality is impressing us and the best part is, we just got going on this tune.

2011 Super Duty Project

2010-12-14T16:10:00.000-08:00

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.

Super Duty Suspension Family

2010-05-12T16:49:00.000-07:00

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 shocks 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.

Ford Super Duty Track Bar End

2010-03-20T16:48:00.000-07:00

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.

Ford Super Duty Track Bar

2010-03-19T16:47:00.000-07:00

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.

Super Duty Coil Over System

2009-03-01T12:14:00.000-08:00

Ford Super Duty Coil Over In The Spotlight

Carli Suspension, Inc put's a Ford Super Duty on custom King Coil Overs with an optional dual bypass racing shock through a pure bolt-on application. It's been a long road with the line of Dodge Ram suspension systems and performance components and an unbeatable hand for Ford owners is now available.

This is a complete suspension system that starts out with enough hardware to satisfy the biggest wingnut in the dirt with King's custom racing shocks, sporting a signature Carli Suspension valve profile and tune. This shock package combined with a custom rate leaf pack and King coils is a pretty healthy suspension system... and as if that wasn't enough, you can bolt-on a dual bypass race shock at any time taking your rig from high-performance, to simply rediculous, in the dirt.

All of the brackets and mounts are laser cut steel plate and manufactured in house, which renders an entire suite of powder coated goodies for your suspension system. Radius-Arm drop down brackets allow you to utlize the factory arms and completely reworked shock mounts that deliver more strength, efficient geometry and bolt right up to the factory location are the big ticket items that make this system stand out.

It won't be long until a shiny new Super Duty joins the ranks of Sage's flying Diesel circus in the dirt... Stay tuned.

The System

The Press