Video Transcript for Setting up the SumoSprings Solo Custom Helper Springs on your 2016 Ram 4500

Speaker 1: Today on our 2016 Ram 4500, we're going to be taking a look at, and showing you how to install the Sumo Spring Solo Custom Helper Springs for the rear axle. Ask for part number SSR-309-54.If you've ever hauled a heavy load or had a big trailer behind your Ram, you've probably experienced what a lot of us do, when the back end starts to squat down, we may get a little bit of sway and some body roll back there. And when that squatting happens, we're putting a lot of unwanted strain and stress on the rear suspension. It's going to wear things out over time and really, our tires aren't where they should be and our suspension isn't be where it should be either.So the back end is getting pushed down, the front end is getting lifted up slightly, which means our tires aren't going to make full contact, we're going to have irregular tire wear, as well as our headlights being out of alignment. But upgrading the rear suspension is definitely a help with that. It's going to support the load back here, and keep our suspension where it should be, nice and level and it's going to prevent as much squatting, and it's also going to help with body roll because it's going to be able to counteract that and not sway as much.And since it's not pushing down so hard and we have the extra support in the back, it's not lifting up so much in the front, so we'll have better tire wear, better steering response and your headlights will be realigned.So now that we've gone over some of the benefits, and seen what they look like, we'll show you how to get them installed.So here's what our helper springs are going to look like once we have them installed.

Now these are going to replace our factory Jounce stops, and they're going to install in between the frame and our axle.Now here's our factory bump stop compared to our new spring, and you can see there's quite a bit of difference there. Our helper springs are going to provide us with extra support when we're loaded down, whereas our factory Jounce stop is really just there to prevent the frame from hitting the axle. These are going to improve the stability and comfort of our truck whenever hauling a heavy load or towing a heavy trailer. It's going to do that because whenever the suspension is loaded down and begins to come down, this is going to make contact with the axle, and help support that extra load in there. It's also going to absorb a lot of the bumps and shocks we feel when we're driving down the road, and minimize sway, so we can have a lot more comfortable ride.Now, our springs are going to have a progressive rate, which means that if we have a light load, they're going to engage softly, but if we have a heavier load, the stiffer they're going to get.

They're going to compress mainly vertically and have very little outer expansion. So you don't have to worry about any other components that are going to be close to it.Each one of our springs is going to work independently from each other, so it's going to help with those off-center loads, uneven terrain or even when we're turning really hard or taking evasive maneuvers. Our helper springs are going to be completely maintenance free. We're not going to have to worry about air lines, or tubing and worrying about monitoring the pressure inside. It's going to be a simple, one time installation, and we don't have to mess with it anymore.Our springs are going to be made out of a high density, micro-cellular urethane, and it's going to resist damage caused by oils, road salts and UV rays, and is going to work in temperatures from -25 all the way up to 200 degrees fahrenheit.

Our springs are going to have a 2800 pound load capacity. But keep in mind these are not meant to increase the payload of your truck, they're just there for extra support when we have those heavy loads in the back.To begin our installation, we're going to come to the rear axle and right above that we'll have our factory Jounce stop. I already went ahead and sprayed a little bit of spray lubricant on there. It's always a good idea to soak it down because these bolts can rust, because there really isn't anything protecting them, especially if you have a salt truck like we have here.You're going to want to grab a 16mm socket, and as you know you have a bolt on the back side as well as on the front of our bump stop, holding it in place. So we'll pull those out, and you want to hold onto the hardware, because we are going to re-use it.

Now on each side, we're going to have our spring, two spacers, a smaller spacer and a plate, and we're going to have several pieces of hardware and which one we use is to be determined by how many spaces we're going to use. If we use both of them, we use the long one, if we use just one of the large spacers, we use the middle one, and if we don't use either of these, we use the short one.We'll start out by taking our plate . you'll notice the center section is going to have this recessed area in it. We want to take our factory bolts, so the threads are coming up through that area where the recess is. And we'll take one of our large spacers, line it up with the hole that's on top of our spring, and then we'll take the small spacer . this is going to be so that the bolts can clear everything. We'll set that on top, then we'll take our plate with the bolts facing up and set it directly down.Now again, since we're using one of our large spacers, we're going to be using the middle length bolt. So we'll loosely thread the bolt in, then we can grab a 7/32 Allen socket and tighten it up.Now the reason why we put one spacer in, is because our bolts are going to go back into the factory spot. So it's going to be sitting like this once it's installed, and a good rule of thumb is that you want about anywhere from a half inch to an inch of space between the bottom of the spring and the top of the axle when the truck is fully unloaded. So, if you need to bring the spring down closer to the axle, we could add another spacer in, or if it's too close to the axle, we could take the spacer out.We're going to take our spring, we'll line up our springs with the factory holes, we just want to get them loosely started by hand, there is going to be very limited space in here. We should be able to get our finger in there, just enough to get a couple of threads on there, and that'll support itself, then we'll get the other one started as well.Now because of the limited space, we're not going to be able to get a socket back on that bolt, but we can get an open ended 16mm wrench and we'll tighten it up. Now you want to tighten up a little bit, draw the plate up and then move to the other side so it doesn't get in a bind. Once we have both bolts tight on our spring, we're going to go and repeat that same process on the other side.That'll finish up your look at the Sumo Spring Solo Custom Helper Springs for the rear axle, part number SSR-309-54 on our 2016 Ram 4500.