Suspension. As mentioned in the preview article in last fall's Diesel Tech, Fahlen chose the Carli Suspension Dominator 3.0 Suspension system (www.thecarlisuspension.com). The suspension includes an impressive list of components, including 3-inch King Shocks, both front and rear, front coils, rear full leaf springs, limiting straps, an adjustable pan rod bar, billet aluminum shock towers, chromoly control arms and stainless steel endlinks.
"Carli Suspension does three things very well,"_ Fahlen said. "They are accessible and provide good customer service. The suspension provides unbelievable off-road handling and control and lastly, and most important to me, they make a truck with excellent on-road manners. No other suspension company can match all three of these traits at once. I have had two products that have been updated at no charge to me because a better design had come out since I bought the kit."_
He continued, "The first time we had the truck out in the sand dunes, we had four people in the truck going over big whoops and each one of us was in tears, laughing at how well a full-size truck could eat it up."_
We asked Fahlen to break down how he uses his truck-on road versus off road. He said, "I use it 90 percent on the street. The other 10 percent is spent playing in the dirt and towing a travel trailer."_ It's because of those percentages that on-road handling and ride are so important to him.
He did point out, "The ride and handling are good, but my truck doesn't have the latest valving. I went riding with Sage Carli and his rides phenomenally. Even with my setup, it is better than stock and handles really well for a big, heavy truck."_
He plans on updating the valving so he can even further improve the on-road ride.