SUSPENSION
Another handling characteristic that our large rims and tires brought us was wheel hop. For some reason, Dodge didn't take into account the large amount of un-sprung weight we'd be adding to this truck by swapping the stock wheels and tires out for big-rig rollers-go figure. The stock shocks weren't cutting it. At all speeds, you could feel the axles stutter up and down as the truck hit bumps in the road. On the freeway, on a ramp or curve, if you went over an expansion crack or bump, the wheel hop was enough to make the truck skip sideways in the turn, which can be anywhere from disheartening to terrifying, depending on the speed. In order to better tune the suspension, we added a set of Bilstein 5100 Series Heavy Duty shocks from Jack-It in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Bilstein HD shock has more dampening power than stock shocks as well as more sophisticated rebound and compression tuning. Adding these shocks gave the truck a much better ride and eliminated the wheel hop.
That's stage two for our LBMC project truck. Look for Stages 3\4\5 and 6 in the coming issues.