Maiden69

I ended up getting the springs from Ridetech as the AFCOs were sold out when I placed my order, they sell the HyperCo springs. 850# is the right size for this truck if you want a stiffer suspension like I do, that said, I am using them with my Vikings and with no preload I am sitting around 1/2" higher than with what I was running before. If you are running stock ride height, or just lowered with spindles, the 600-700# range will give a softer ride (much like the old Cadillacs which I hate). I ordered the coil-overs for the front from Ridetech as well and will be installing them soon, they are around 1/2" shorter than the Vikings which will bring my ride height back to what I had before the springs. They are a monotube and single valve design, so they should perform slightly different, but I don't foresee any issues because of it.

They are certainly better as far as that they actually asked you for measurements. I think Ridetech uses Fox's coilovers, as their main thing is Air Suspension. Their HQ's are around $250 each, no spring, but are single adjustable. Their 3 way run at $850 I think each. I have a very nice ride now, better than most cars on the road for sure. But after all the investment in suspension that I have done, plus the 4 link in the rear, that will not cut it. The fact that I am traveling down almost 3-4" hitting on the top of the inner fender metal on a coilover that is supposed to have 5.25" of full travel is not good. I bet once the 850lb/in go in I will see the 2-3" on compression I am suppose to have. That will stop me from bottoming out, at least on the highway. Ridetechs are very popular on the muscle car scene, mini trucks from the 80's-2000, and HotRods. They have a few systems for fullsize trucks, but nothing for ours at this time. But since I already have the mounts for the Vikings, I can use those to mount their universal fit shocks, or I can reverse engineer them if I need to make them a little wider.

To have the truck level, you need a 3" difference between front and rear. Almost every 2/4, 3/5, 4/6 drop that I have seen will result in a little rake. Here is a pic on my truck, it's a Crew Cab, and I have a 3/5. That's with a full tank of gas and some tools on the bed. Bed empty and it is more noticeable.

Well, after much deliberation and mathematical equations using the formulas at the Viking website and Ridetech's coilover formulas I found out that our truck geometry calls for a 12" spring with 800 lbs/in for a 1" drop by spring... so, no wonder I am still bottoming out even running the coilovers at 17/15... I ordered some AFCO springs at 850 lb/in, and if the Vikings can't handle them I will buy Ridetech's coilovers and use the Vikings on the rear once I do the 4 link suspension. As a side note, I did ran the 10" math, and they suggest a 1000 lb/in, but this is with the OEM LCA. I had no idea the LCA had so much influence on the spring rate of a car.

I think that’s why you don’t bottom down. You’re running 250lb more in your springs. I think I’m going to get the 750lb that Eibach sells and run those.

I agree. Night and day difference. Which shocks they sent you? I got the C209 with the 12” 600lb coils. If I’m by myself in the truck I rub on big dips on the road, but with the wife and daughter it rubs quite often. I saw some pics on that Atomic website and the red springs they show there look a lot thicker than the ones I have on. I’m going to shop around on QA1 site to see if I can find some 700lb springs to try out. Viking recommend offsetting the compression/rebound at least 4 clicks more on the rebound. I’ll try bringing it down and see how it behaves.

I bought mine from Twisted Metalworkz.

Well, I was on the fence on the Belltech coilover kit for a while now... but the design for me has the same flaws as their struts. They use the filler spring to take up the space of the extra shock travel, which to me is not ideal for a truck. I have installed some of those on cars (KW brand mostly, as KW is the maker of the new Belltech coilover) with good results. Also, they are non adjustable, their old set of adjustable was sold for over $900. For that price I would go for Viking or QA1 anyday. Now they did had single coil coilovers, I wonder why they changed the design to the KW one. What setting are you running yours? I'm doing 10/15, and I am still rubbing the stupid fender inserts on some occasions, and I am not as low as you are right now. I'm at a 3/5 drop. I wish Viking made the 12" springs in 650 or 700lb. I just downloaded their catalog and they go up to 600.

Funny you say that... I had the same experience with the Belltech struts. Mainly because they tell you to swap the bump stop to their 1" bump stop. I got fed up with the ride quality and just installed Viking's coilover as well. I am doing the 4-link later down the year, but I may just do a notch and swap the shock absorbers to the rear of the axle by the summer. I got the 2" Maxtrac Aluminum 2" spindle and lowering 1" with the coil overs.

I guess not all of them, I just searched my 2018 VIN and there is no recall for it.

got the tips installed. Exhaust companies need to produce more 3" tips... Magnaflow, Dynomax, Pypes, Gibson, Borla, all the tips that are decent in this line that I could use were 2.5". The ones I got were 2.5" but I made a 3" to 3.5" round to oval connector and welded it after cutting the end and matching the hole to the 3.5" oval size. The truck drones a little more than with the round tips, but I think it is because the opening on the Gibsons is so big that its resonating under the bed at cruising speeds. I think I will probably extend them all the way out and cut the excess from the top and re-polish.

last 2... I wish the site would compress the pictures. The big mufflers are Dynomax, they are getting swapped soon with two Magnaflow 6" round x 30" long mufflers... just waiting to fab up a new transmission crossmember to run my duals down under the driveshaft yoke instead of under the transmission into the passenger side. Also, decided on this configuration if I need to install J-pipes (quarterwave resonators). They will be a lot easier to mount parallel to the straight runs on the bak rather than in the front next to the mufflers.

Time for a version 2 of my exhaust, not because I wanted, but because I needed to. I added shock extenders a few days ago, and the driver side tube was in the way of the shock, so I was forced to re-do that side... problem is that there is no space to run the tube now because on the back side I have the Hellwig link and on the front GM placed the "splicer" for the brake lines. So I decided to do a center out exhaust. The original plan was to run the same set up as the Gen4 SLP CME exhaust, but I didn't feel like paying over $150 for a set of knock-off cast aluminum pieces that I would had to modify to make them work, so I decided to just run them down the center, as I don't keep my spare under the bed anymore. I am still waiting on the tips to arrive, I ordered Gibson's rectangle sport exhaust tips (which I will still need to modify just easier). I don't know if I will end up using them as I keep changing my mind between them and a quad set up... Old exhaust routing New set up.

This works... I had done a few now, but all the ones I have done are dual exhaust, so I don't know the formula for a single pipe. The formula for my Silverado gave me a tube thats between 28-32" long for each bank, and that's for an RPM range from 1800 (for the 28) and 1600 for the 32). I am changing the mufflers and the routing on my exhaust so once I am done I will see if the drone changes in RPM's before I make them.

GM keeps a flash count on the ECM. Even if you put the stock tune back, they'll still be able to see that it was tuned. Just a heads up Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Yeap... The 2014+ (Or any of the new LT engine computer is basically a "black box"... it saves the times it has been flashed, and which parameters were changed.