Coil question for 4th gen

[julesman64]

Long story with a quick question; I have a 2012 PW that I bought new off the lot with a 4" BDS short arm PW lift installed. 5 years later it's riding like a chuck wagon, a real spine buster, and washboard chatters your teeth. Coils have sagged some, want to replace with something other than the BDS coils as I'm not impressed with their degrading over 5 years but only 80,000km.

According to BDS their 4" PW lift comes with 6" springs, to bring it 4" over stock PW height, makes sense as PW's have are taller from factory than regular 2500's. I have no plans to change lift height or anything, I just want to replace what is worn, and try to soften this truck up some.

That being said, I only see Diesel rated coils in 6" from both Thuren and Carli. To be honest I don't want to take the chance of ordering either if they are stiff enough for a Diesel, but I don't see any hemi 6" options. I can't see the 3" sets being tall enough to maintain the lift I already have. So do I chance the 6" diesel coils, or do I just go with the 3" and try to fit a spacer? Does someone else make good 6" hemi specific coils? Thoughts??

[olyelr]

Im sure their 6” diesel springs are way softer than the BDS springs are.

[DamageWagon]

I run Thurens 3” diesel coils on my 2011. We have identical trucks. From a performance standpoint I do think they are too stiff but that normal owners would not notice and would be happy with them. I think the much bigger question is if the BDS kit took care of everything that was needed for a 6” kit or not. Running short arms on a 6” Lift is stupid, your control arm geometry is terrible so every time you hit a bump your axle has to move quite a bit forward.

To run a 6” lift correctly, you need:
- trackbar drop, drop pitman arm, bump stop drops, extended brake lines, possibly extended front driveshaft.

If you do not have all those things I would consider just doing a 3” coil. 6” kits really need long arms and lots of drop brackets or your handling and ride quality will be very poor.

[OffroadTreks]

Ditto Marcus comments. Also, your center of gravity is way off. There are a couple dudes with silly lifts on the FB group and their trucks always look like they're going to fall over.

I'll take performance and handling over looking tall any day of the year.

[julesman64]

It is a full kit, has all the required components. It used to drive surprisingly nice when I first bought it, in fact that was one reason why I pulled the trigger. I made sure when I test drove it to take it down some rough back roads and really bang it around to make sure it wasn't a wheelbarrow. It's just now over time the ride has degraded drastically and I would like to get back to something that doesn't require a back brace and a mouth guard. That's why I'm hesitant to grab springs rated for a diesel, I don't want to spend the cash and be disappointed. I could just replace them with the BDS ones again, but I don't plan on selling the truck any time soon so we'd be doing the same song and dance in a few years. They literally have settled about an inch and a half, seems excessive to me.

[olyelr]

Cant you get spring rate info from either company? I would guess Carli or Thuren diesel springs are probably just as soft as the BDS ones you had.

[DamageWagon]

Your truck should ride SMOOTHER with worn springs in your case. As the springs settle they become softer, the truck becomes lower and the control arm angle improves. You should be feeling the opposite effect. I would thoroughly check all your drop brackets and control arms and see if they are cracked or worn. Control arm bushings go out and it gets tougher. Still, running a 6” kit on stock short arms is plain stupid. That’s the kit makers fault.

[julesman64]

Never could find any actual technical info from either, I'm sure it's proprietary for their secret recipe, although the BDS shows a linear rate of 365, no idea how that relates to OEM or anything else. Also can't comment on these control arms compared to OEM. Like I said, when new it was surprisingly smooth, just the last 18 months or so it's really been bone jarring. Good idea to check the bushings and such, haven't heard/felt anything to indicate a problem but who knows. I'll bring it inside and give everything a good look over.

[julesman64]

So after going over the front end I found 1 bushing that had very slight play, so I got a new set coming. In the meantime I upgraded the shocks all around to Bilstein 5100's since the painted ones from my lift were road rashed and rusty.

Well it turns out as well as being ugly, my shocks were also absolutely toast. The front ones I could compress with 1 hand and after 3 hours on the floor did not rebound. The rears as well I could easily compress with 1 hand and took 30 minutes to rebound 50%. The 5100's seem to have taken care of my harsh ride almost completely, and my ride height is noticeably higher, probably 1.5 inches. Enough so that even my wife mentioned it when I drove out of my garage. Between the ride and the ride height, the difference is night and day, so I'm abandoning my coil quest, problem is solved. I am still surprised that after only 78,000km/49,000mi that my shocks were so pooched. Lesson learned there I suppose. Cheers