Installed RoadActive Suspension Helper Spring on my 2024 Silverado 2500HD

fondupot · January 16

So I recently installed a set of the Heavy Duty RoadActive Suspension Helper Springs on my 2024 2500HD. My truck is a standard suspension, not the max tow. I have a 30' Gatormade gooseneck trailer that I use for work, and the truck handled it just fine, but it squatted in the rear a good amount. After installing the RAS kit, the squat reduced, and it also became much more stable when towing the gooseneck, loaded and unloaded. The helper spring helps 3 fold. Stability control, Sway control, traction control. The tension on the coil spring is adjustable using some spacers they include. I have it set at the lowest setting, 25% capacity increase. I will probably bump it up to 50% in the next few weeks to see how I like that.

I did a full installation video and review on my YT channel. So check it out if you want. But this kit is a great alternative to airbags, less expensive and easier to install.

UWSkier · January 16

I put those on a half ton Denali to help with towing a 30' travel trailer and they helped a ton. Just don't crank them up too high or your truck sits like a dragster unloaded with the rear up in the air.

fondupot · January 16

2 hours ago, UWSkier said:

I put those on a half ton Denali to help with towing a 30' travel trailer and they helped a ton. Just don't crank them up too high or your truck sits like a dragster unloaded with the rear up in the air.

Yea, that's mostly why I went with the 25% capacity. It did raise my rear about 1" but it's not too noticeable. But the truck looks a lot better, and more importantly, performs better when loaded down with my 30' Gatormade gooseneck. That trailer is 7,000 lbs empty.

Chuck FB · January 20

On 1/16/2026 at 11:53 AM, fondupot said:

Yea, that's mostly why I went with the 25% capacity. It did raise my rear about 1" but it's not too noticeable. But the truck looks a lot better, and more importantly, performs better when loaded down with my 30' Gatormade gooseneck. That trailer is 7,000 lbs empty.

Does it noticeably stiffen the ride on the rear end when the truck is not loaded ?. That was somewhat of the theory of the timbren system, sit with some gap when unloaded but come into play when the truck is loaded. I have used air bags on trucks in the past and its not all roses, but have not tried timbrens and have not had anything to do with this coil assist system.

johnnyquick · January 20

I have these on a 2020 1500 and they helped a lot with the control feeling when loaded with a 24' enclosed car hauler.

I used the thickest disc and left it there rides great and has 1 degree of rake unloaded and at rest according to the angle sensor display.

Did not seem to "stiffen" the ride to me.

Edited January 20 by johnnyquick

fondupot · January 20

15 hours ago, Chuck FB said:

Does it noticeably stiffen the ride on the rear end when the truck is not loaded ?. That was somewhat of the theory of the timbren system, sit with some gap when unloaded but come into play when the truck is loaded. I have used air bags on trucks in the past and its not all roses, but have not tried timbrens and have not had anything to do with this coil assist system.

Expect the same or better ride. I don't notice much difference in ride at the 25% setting. I do notice the increase traction and stability tho. Loaded and unloaded. The Duramax would spin my BFG's if I goosed it before the RAS install, now it hooks up noticeably better.

XY74 · January 20

I put that on an Excursion I had, definitely worked as advertised. It did make the empty ride worse, but that truck was always pretty stiff anyway. Rode and handled much better with the trailer.

UWSkier · February 2

On 1/19/2026 at 8:11 PM, Chuck FB said:

Does it noticeably stiffen the ride on the rear end when the truck is not loaded ?. That was somewhat of the theory of the timbren system, sit with some gap when unloaded but come into play when the truck is loaded. I have used air bags on trucks in the past and its not all roses, but have not tried timbrens and have not had anything to do with this coil assist system.

Didn't change the ride on my half ton Denali but helped with handling a ton when loaded.

PBNB · February 8

On 1/19/2026 at 7:11 PM, Chuck FB said:

Does it noticeably stiffen the ride on the rear end when the truck is not loaded ?. That was somewhat of the theory of the timbren system, sit with some gap when unloaded but come into play when the truck is loaded. I have used air bags on trucks in the past and its not all roses, but have not tried timbrens and have not had anything to do with this coil assist system.

I had Timbrens in the Tundra and I found that the unloaded ride was a bit jarring, I reached out to Timbren and they sent me softer rubbers so I tried those and jarring was not as bad. That was a coil suspension and very soft so you would see significant sag with a light trailer. Air bags would probably eliminate the jarring but they come with their own issues.

If you are looking at Timbrens check out Sumo Springs as well.

Chuck FB · February 8

2 hours ago, PBNB said:

I had Timbrens in the Tundra and I found that the unloaded ride was a bit jarring, I reached out to Timbren and they sent me softer rubbers so I tried those and jarring was not as bad. That was a coil suspension and very soft so you would see significant sag with a light trailer. Air bags would probably eliminate the jarring but they come with their own issues.

If you are looking at Timbrens check out Sumo Springs as well.

I did not realize TImbren offered more than one rubber density for the lighter pickups. Its only been by internet comments that I've gotten the impression some of the other brands out there such as Sumo may be softer but again more than likely the sizes/capacity changes between a half ton or a heavy duty truck. However slide in camper hauling from what I have seen has a marked stability difference between an air bag system supporting too much of the weight ( trying to level the sag of the truck by use of the air bags ) vs Timbrens. Like the neighbor last year did after he bought a Chev 1 ton dually and a full size slide in camper, it was not handling good at all sway wise as the truck had no rear anti sway bar and so he chose to put in a set of Timbrens without doing any other suspension mods and said how it changed the stability and naturally carried the load better as well. Now how that plays out when he drives his truck empty is a good question, yes there is about an inch of a gap but with our lovely roads there would be frost heaves etc that would use that travel up quick.

PBNB · February 8

Timbren has some options when you order, I think they call the softer ones their offroad version.

I added a 1" spacer in the rear which increased the gap between the rubber and the axle as well. I didn't have that truck long enough to actually benefit from them. I had to kick it down the road with the engine debacle that Toyota was swimming in!

I sold them along with all the other parts that I put on that truck.

Chuck FB · February 8

1 hour ago, PBNB said:

Timbren has some options when you order, I think they call the softer ones their offroad version.

I added a 1" spacer in the rear which increased the gap between the rubber and the axle as well. I didn't have that truck long enough to actually benefit from them. I had to kick it down the road with the engine debacle that Toyota was swimming in!

I sold them along with all the other parts that I put on that truck.

Oh, so that is why you sold that truck as I recall you mentioning something about having the Toyota before but did not realize it was not a very old truck. The problem is I believe they are still in the thick of it, replacement engines failing from exactly the same issue or that is what I have been lead to believe and if so that is one deep spiral ( not that GM has anything to brag about with the 6.2 failing on replacement engines ! )

The spacer you mentioned, was that a coil spring spacer you put in to bring the rear up a bit ?. The neighbor had shown me what was left of their Timbren kits as the son put the smaller half ton version on his while his dad put the heavy duty larger unit on his 1 ton. The kits came with a thick spacer to put the Timbren even closer to the axle and in fact would have been right there at the axle with the unloaded truck and that might be relying bit too much of the Timbrens I would think.

PBNB · February 9

Toyota has been dealing with this engine issue for almost 10 years now. They had it in some models before rolling it out into the Tundra in 2021.

We use the truck for our business and couldn't deal with the black cloud hanging over our heads that the engine could fail and we could cause an accident (it seemed that more failures were happening at speed). Not that this can't happen to other vehicles, but putting it in writing to us made us complicit with the potential failure and our business is in safety.

So we jumped into an unknown (GM) and so far so good and no recalls to get in the way of our usage.