Our Design, Your Choice – Coil-over or Air Suspension System for your 2007-2018 Chevy Silverado or GMC Sierra

With the release of the 2007 – 2018 Silverado and Sierra 1500 model truck suspension, Ridetech now offers bolt-on systems for 50 years of GM trucks. In fact, for most models we have a few different options for you to choose from.

You might say we have this formula figured out, and you would be right. We approach every new truck suspension system with the same design criteria…

First, lower of course, but it is actually much more than that. You need to know that cutting springs, removing leafs, and simply lengthening or shortening shackles along with a few other parts can certainly get a truck to sit low to the ground… but trust us, there are all sorts of ways that just making a truck lower can go wrong.

We build suspension kits that make your truck low AND make your truck work – actually even better than it did from the factory. That can be tough, particularly when the platform is a modern, well designed truck like the 1500 series truck. You presumably own one, and you know that right off the showroom this truck doesn’t really do much wrong, but trust us… we can do better!

There are a few critical places we focus an extreme amount of attention on that has earned us the reputation as the leader in lowered truck suspension. Starting with travel. We make sure we provide the maximum amount of suspension travel while lowering the truck because roads have bumps… and if you’re going to USE your truck you will need to absorb those bumps. Absorbing bumps requires your suspension to move, generally more than you think. Travel doesn’t just mean adding a c-notch either, it is about making sure things like sway bars, brake lines, and sensors have room to do their job without interference.

We also take advantage of our ability to dial in more driver focused handling in the suspension geometry with the addition of our tubular control arms. Much more than looking good, and fitting right, our StrongArm tubular control arms are designed to provide enhanced camber, caster and toe characteristics at the new lowered ride height. This means sharper responce, and a quicker reacting driving experience.

Of course, on the rear suspension it isn’t hard to imagine the advantages a well engineered 4-link rear can provide over the original leafsprings. By optimizing link lengths and angles the rear of the Silverado will plant like never before when accelerating and provide predictable hook up in the turns as well.

To further tighten the handling and provide a precise driving feel, we use our own unique Delrin bushings and patented R-Joints to make the suspension as tight as possible while at the same time free from stiction and binding. The result is a suspension that is super fast to react to road imperfections and responds to the smallest inputs in the steering wheel. Oh, and these high tech bushings and R-joint rod ends don’t need grease or maintenance to provide a substantially longer life than any rubber / polyurethane bushing could ever hope for.

Since your definitely going to be taking corners at higher speeds with our suspension, we also include a larger front sway bar and include our premium end-links and hardware to make sure it feels just as connected feel as the rest of our suspension.

You might be thinking… yeah, I know all that, but did you also know that our suspension system for the Chevy Silvarado and GMC Seira shaves just over 100 pounds off your truck. If you don’t think that is a huge deal… consider the last time you placed 100 pounds of sand bags in the back of your truck – could you feel a difference? Well, our suspension kit removes that much weight FROM THE SUSPENSION… the moving part of your truck. Much of this weight is called unsprung weight and race car designers will look for ways to shave grams from this part of their suspension… and we removed over 100 pounds. The difference if huge, and literally effects every other aspect of the suspension in a positive way.

Now, all that amazing hardware bolted to your truck looks great, and hits all the numbers to make the truck work… but where the magic really happens is when we bolt-on the Fox coil-overs or Shockwave air suspension in place. We call the shocks, coil-overs and Shockwaves the brains of your suspension. In a very real way, they run the show and control all the action taking place. We spend all the time in the other areas to allow these shocks to do all they can.

The impact forged aluminum mono-tube Fox shocks look fantastic AND deliver the sharpest and most responsive dampening for your truck. You can choose either single adjustable for simple operation, or go full on tuner mode and upgrade to triple adjustable to gain control over both high and low speed compression as well as rebound adjustments. Either way you know you have the best shocks on the market doing their job to the fullest in the Ridetech suspension system.

Finally, you get to choose if you want all this performance in a coil-over configuration or Shockwave Air Suspension set-up. The coil-over system does offer a lower price, easier install, and requires less equipement to opperate when compared to air suspension systems.

Of course the air suspension route will give you the ability to raise your truck to avoid road obstacles, and lower your truck when parked to achieve that super low stance. There are a few other things you will want to consider such as the ability of the air suspension to adapt to variable loads and maintain consistant ride height when compared to the coil-over fixed spring rate.

However, the fixed spring rate of a coil-over also means you can choose to increase your spring rate (by purchasing a stiffer springs) well beyond what a air suspension could achieve at the same height… this is really only needed in ultra high performance driving applications… but if you want a full-on race truck, coil-overs might be best suited for you.

Either way you choose, the Ridetech suspension is designed to install as easy as we can make it (we include detailed instructions that you can download ahead of time here) and we know you’ll be amazed at transformation it will make on your truck.

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