What You Need To Know About Dodge Lift Kits
 Many
off-roaders are keeping their Dodge Ram trucks high and dry with Dodge lift kits.
The best Dodge lift
kits on the market will give you additional ground clearance as well as
fender clearance for installing large wheels and tires, but
traditional Dodge lift kits have many limitations.
While Dodge lift kits might seem like
the right thing to do for installing larger tires, they are
definitely not the best suspension solution if you're
looking for great driving performance, both on and off the
road.
There are several factors involved in
selecting any kind of
suspension system for your truck, but most of the factors
that the companies selling Dodge lift kits will bring
to your attention are almost inconsequential.
The preeminent question that those selling Dodge
lift kits will ask is how high you want to raise your truck.
Most Dodge lift kits will provide around six
inches of additional clearance. But here is where you have to step back and
think about the real function of Dodge lift kits. Look at any Baja race vehicle. Do they sit
as high off the ground as you see with traditional Dodge
lift kits? No, they don’t. And that’s for a
reason.
Dodge Lift Kits - Not About Performance
KORE
doesn't believe in the philosophy behind Dodge lift
kits. Most Dodge Lift kits are cosmetic - an inexpensive way by
which people enhance the looks of their vehicles.
KORE
Dodge Ram suspension is
performance. Instead of many inches of lift with traditional
Dodge lift kits, KORE prefers to
think in terms of inches of total articulation – how far the
axles are allowed to move up and down while managing the
terrain. And this is not just a question of terminology;
it's a question of function.
Dodge Lift Kits - A Violation of Engineering
Design
Many Dodge lift kits violate design
parameters engineered into the Dodge Ram by teams of men and
women with PhD’s in physics and mechanical engineering. The
people at the vehicle's manufacturer generally know what
they’re doing and they don't put lift kits on a stock truck. A universal joint can only move within a very
specific range before it binds or wears prematurely. Wheel
caster and camber are preset at the factory to give the
vehicle good handling characteristics. For the most part,
cosmetic Dodge lift kits do not increase wheel travel – and
sometimes they even reduce it. Cosmetic Dodge lift kits raise
the vehicle’s center of gravity which adversely affects
handling – especially at the high speeds that KORE Dodge Ram suspension
permits.
KORE Dodge Ram Suspension - Superior
to Dodge Lift Kits
 KORE Dodge Ram suspension systems
offer an experience far superior to traditional Dodge
lift kits. KORE Dodge Ram suspension systems generally raise the
truck 2.0 – 3.5 inches in the front – and about an inch or
two the rear. The KORE Dodge Ram suspension
system removes spring sag, providing the
suspension more available
up travel with which to absorb
initial impacts.
You will notice that on your stock truck,
the space between the axle and the bump stop is only a
couple of inches. The springs included with KORE Dodge
Ram suspension
systems roughly double that space, thereby doubling your
available up travel.
Your truck will also lose that “stink
bug” look and have an aggressive, level stance. In the rear, KORE's optional mini-paks replace your overload leaf(s)
providing a progressive, controlled spring rate that the
factory Dodge Ram suspension can't provide. KORE mini-paks provide up
to 50% more effective wheel travel and, depending on the
configuration, do not significantly change the vehicle
height or GVWR.
You might ask that if the engineers at big
manufacturers are so smart, why didn’t they design their
trucks with KORE Dodge Ram suspension?
 The
answer to this question is that the average consumer doesn’t even know
that suspension like this exists, so why would he or she
want to own it? That's why companies selling Dodge lift
kits can convince unwary customers to buy them. The average consumer is satisfied with
1970’s suspension technology -- which Dodge lift kits
only serve to perpetuate -- so that’s how the big
manufacturers equip their trucks from the factory. Their
market research has shown that people will buy their product
anyway – so that’s how they sell it.
KORE is offering
something of the highest quality that the factory won’t
offer because people don’t know just how well their trucks
can perform with it installed. It’s the same reason that
people continue to buy aftermarket “twin-tube” and
“gas-charged” shocks from the companies selling Dodge
lift kits.
The shocks
that come with the Dodge lift kits are hardly better than the OE shocks – and in some
cases they are much worse. The OE shock is at least designed
specifically for the intended vehicle. Many aftermarket
Dodge lift kit companies expect one compression/rebound formula to perform
when installed on hundreds of different vehicles that each
have different weights, spring rates, shock mounting angles
and driving requirements. Most people just don’t know what
good suspension is, so they’re satisfied with the
performance that is offered with cosmetic Dodge lift
kits.
You might ask whether a racing shock absorber just
make your suspension stiffer. The answer is no. And this is the a very important
question because it is a common misconception that in order
to absorb big bumps, you must have stiff springs and lots of
compression dampening. If we were making the suspension
stiffer, then every little bump would be transmitted into
the chassis.
The key is that racing suspension -- unlike
Dodge lift kits -- is
progressive. It’s very soft and supple over small bumps. It
allows the axles to move quickly and react to the little
imperfections on the highway and off-road. The first time
KORE customers drive their KORE trucks down a washboard dirt
road, they can’t believe how smooth, quiet and plush the
ride is. When a larger bump is encountered, especially
something with a square edge, the suspension just tightens
up – as if it knows ahead of time what to do. It’s really
amazing the first time you experience a KORE Dodge Ram
suspension system.
KORE Dodge Ram suspension is engineered to allow the
truck to consistently and reliably attain unbelievable
speeds over some of the roughest terrain on earth - way
beyond where conventional Dodge lift kits can go. KORE does
most of its testing and R and D on the Baja Peninsula in
Mexico where there are few laws and even fewer ways to be
extracted if you break.
KORE takes performance to an
unimagined realm – all while maintaining OE reliability. No
suspension companies have ever done that before - and
certainly not with Dodge lift kits. That’s what KORE is proud
of. Although KORE Dodge Ram suspension systems give an aggressive,
modern look to your truck, KORE is not really selling
aesthetics like with traditional Dodge lift kits. KORE is selling performance. Period. KORE is not
interested in anything else. And neither are the clients who
purchase KORE suspension.
To see KORE's full line of Dodge Ram Suspension
systems, please click the following links.
No Dodge Lift Kits here!
If you have any questions about the benefits
of KORE Dodge Ram suspension over a traditional
Dodge lift kit, please
drop us a note. We'll be happy to help you say goodbye to
the earth-bound world of Dodge lift kits... |
