The Carli Backcountry Reservoir 2.0 system is designed for 2nd gen Ram owners seeking the best ride on and off-road. This system is perfect for second gen Rams that want to have a little dirt-road fun in their truck without losing the on-road ride quality or usability for which the truck was designed. This is the ONLY 2.0 reservoir shock based system on the market specifically built and tuned for 2nd gens.
You’re no longer limited to the highway while gravel roads become uninteresting as you can drive them at speed with one hand on the wheel. Utilizing custom 2nd gen specific tuned Carli SPEC 2" diameter Remote Reservoir Shocks, Carli developed a shock tune that delivers all around comfort and ride quality designed for on-road, in town, highway, towing/hauling as well as slow to mid speed off road use. The Carli SPEC shocks boast aluminum construction for durability and are fully rebuildable for long term performance. This system was tuned and rides best with the Full Progressive Leaf Springs. If you're comparing against the pintop, this system will offer a smoother on road ride with softer feel over small chatter, but falls short of the Pintop's capability for high speed off road smashing. For 99% of people, the Backcountry is the perfect balance of comfort and capability.
We recommend adding a track bar with this system. You can either use the Thuren 2nd Gen track bar or DT Pro Fab track bar. If you wish to maintain your factory sway bar, use the DT Pro fab track bar as the Thuren isn't compatible with inverted 94-98 cobra style sway bars.
On 1994-2002 trucks, we recommend you check the bolt size to ensure the correct arms are purchased. We recommend taking a 14mm wrench and putting the open end against the threads of the lower control arm bolts. If it matches, the 14mm arms are the correct arms to order. If the bolt size is bigger than the open end of the wrench, the 16mm arms are the correct arms. If you have any questions in regards to this process, feel free to give us a call!
The Details:
Your truck will sit 2.5”-3” higher in the front (year/cab configuration dependent) with 50% more suspension travel than the factory platform thanks to the taller, lighter rate coil springs. The rear is lifted 1”-2” via the customer’s choice of a Progressive Add-A-Pack or Full Progressive Leaf Pack. The Progressive Add-A-Pack replaces the factory overload with a 5-Leaf, progressive pack that changes the final rate of the spring pack keeping the rear planted while increasing traction and predictability.
The optional Full Progressive Leaf Pack replaces the entire factory leaf spring assembly increasing travel and drastically increasing comfort throughout the entire usable travel stroke at the cost of a 15% payload reduction from a standard 2500.
When pairing added down-travel with the taller ride height, the position of the factory sway bar will need to be altered as well. For this, we offer extended Sway Bar End Links equipped with ½” FK Rod-Ends and in-house machined 17-4 stainless bodies that are extended over stock to reset the sway bar engagement point. Factory pillow-bushings are re-used to assemble the sway bar to the lengthened link.
This system fits Dodge Ram 2500 and Dodge Ram 3500 4x4 trucks from 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002.
Wheel and Tire:
This system will fit up to a 35” tire with Extended Control Arms – We recommend wheels with 5.75-6” of backspacing. The more rubber, the better the small bump compliance will be at proper inflation pressures. The ride will firm up as you go larger in wheel diameter.
Base Kit Includes:
| CS-DMRC-03-H | Multi-Rate Coils |
|
Carli Tuned Carli SPEC 2.0 Remote Reservoir Shocks, Limit Straps, Reservoir Mounts |
| Front Lift | Rear Lift | Front Travel | Rear Travel | Shock Diameter | Tire Fitment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2.5-3.0″ | 1″ – 2″ | 10″ | 12″ | 2.0″ | 35″ x 12.5″ |
NOTE: the 1994-02 Ram 2500/3500 trucks are notorious for a driver’s side lean up to 1.5″ (lower on the driver’s side than the passenger’s side). Carli Coil Springs and Leaf Springs for the 1994-02 are designed side-specific to lift the Driver’s side more than the Passenger’s side to lessen/eliminate this common lean. However, we’ve had trucks require the taller spring be installed on the passenger’s side to achieve a level stance and trucks that require the same height springs be installed on both sides to achieve a leveled stance. These trucks are not an exact science and were designed long before CAD programs and design standardization. For this reason, we cannot guarantee the truck will sit level side to side nor is the corrective action a “warranty”. Our choice was either discontinue the product line OR present the customer with the design oddities so they know what they’re getting into. As there are not many performance options for the 2nd gen trucks, we elected to keep the product line as the side to side correction can be alleviated with the use of small spring spacers with NO performance degradation.
