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2,000-lb Capacity. Convert your vehicle's leaf springs into a mechanically active suspension system. RAS adjusts to your load to level your ride. The system also increases stability, handling, and control by improving traction and reducing sway.
Features:
Specs:
All-In-One Suspension System
When towing or hauling a heavy load, you may encounter a number of problems that can make your driving experience difficult or dangerous, such as sway, body roll, or bottoming out. When your vehicle is weighted down, your factory leaf springs can't counteract these problems to the extent that they are supposed to. The weight will overpower the leaf springs and cause them to twist or flatten out. When that happens, they cannot support, level, or stabilize your vehicle effectively. Additionally, because your factory leaf springs are passive, they won't begin to tackle problems such as sway until those problems have already started.
RoadActive Suspension (RAS) kits enhance those passive leaf springs by converting them into a mechanically active, all-in-one suspension system. RAS kits have variable-rated coil tension springs that automatically adjust to your heavy load. Other suspension systems only solve a few problems and usually at the expense of other improvements your factory leaf springs may need. RAS, on the other hand, is a unique kit that provides everything you want in a suspension system without any trade-offs. It eliminates bottoming out like air springs, reduces sway and body roll like sway bars, keeps your ride level like helper springs, and improves traction and braking control like traction bars. This improves your vehicle's stability, handling, and control while you are towing or hauling, as well as when your vehicle is unloaded. RAS also makes your overall driving and towing experience safer and more comfortable, which greatly lessens driver fatigue.
Each RAS unit has a powerful variable-rated coil tension spring that converts your passive leaf spring into a mechanically-active system. Once your vehicle is loaded, the tension springs immediately activate to absorb and support the weight. This allows your leaf springs to maintain their bowed position and keeps them from flattening out or flipping over, which greatly hinders their ability to bear a heavy load. The tension springs are variable-rated, which means that the heavier your load is, the more assistance they provide to your leaf springs. Because of this design, RAS reacts instantaneously, whereas hydraulics, air springs, and other suspension systems take time to react. And unlike your factory leaf springs, RAS stops sway and sag before they even start to happen. Additionally, when your vehicle is unloaded, the tension springs disengage, allowing your leaf springs to perform as intended without hardening your ride. RAS won't hinder your leaf springs' movement, nor will it cause any friction between any of the brackets.
When under a heavy load, leaf springs are especially susceptible to axle wrap, which can cause wheel hop. Wheel hop is when the tires lose their grip on the road, causing a jarring, up-and-down movement. Axle wrap occurs when the circular motion of the tires cause the leaf springs to twist or rotate. If the leaf springs twist far enough, wheel hop can occur. RAS stabilizes your leaf springs by absorbing the force of the load they're trying to support. This eliminates axle wrap and wheel hop, as well as prevents your vehicle from bottoming out. Because of this, less strain is put on your vehicle. And by reducing some of this wear and tear, RAS helps extend the life of your leaf springs, shock absorbers, shackles, and even tires.
When driving along a curve while towing or hauling a heavy load, the back end of your vehicle or trailer can start to shift with that weight. If your factory leaf springs have flattened or twisted under this load, they won't be able to prevent it from shifting. Because of this, your trailer will sway away from your vehicle. This makes driving challenging and dangerous, as it increases the risk of body roll, which is when your vehicle drastically leans to one side. This can often cause you to completely lose control of your vehicle. Body roll is especially prevalent with multi-passenger vans and vehicles towing long campers, trailers, or boats. RAS provides a much safer ride by reinforcing your factory leaf springs and stabilizing your load. This helps prevent sway from occurring and reduces the chance of body roll while cornering, turning, and swerving. RAS also lessens the rocking motion that happens during windy conditions or when a semi passes by on the road.
When your vehicle is overloaded, the bulk of the weight transfers to the rear axle. Your factory leaf springs then become overwhelmed by this weight, as they are not strong enough to support it. This causes the back end of your vehicle to sag and the front end to rise, which means that the front tires have lost some of the grip they need with the road. In addition to loss of traction, it can also cause poor headlight aim, unintentional swerving, and an extremely bumpy and uncomfortable ride. RAS bolsters your factory leaf springs and enables them to provide support for your load without compromising ride quality or comfort. This keeps your ride level from front to back whether you are hauling a load in the bed or towing a boat, trailer, or camper. RAS also ensures that your tires have the traction they require while braking and accelerating, which improves the overall driving experience.
RAS is also customizable to your vehicle. During installation, the tension setting of the coil tension springs should be increased to exactly 40 percent for improved road handling and support. To do this, rotate the springs while keeping the threaded rod still. As you turn the spring, use a 2mm quarter as a gauge to measure the widening gaps between the coils.
This custom-fit kit comes fully assembled and is easy to install. Each RAS unit simply bolts onto your factory leaf spring with the included hardware, and drilling, welding, and cutting aren't required. First, the axle bracket secures on top of the leaf spring and under the factory U-bolt plate. Then, position the eye hook bracket so that it wraps around the top of the factory leaf spring eye. Once the maintenance-free RAS units are fully installed, you won't need to monitor them as you would with air springs.
RAS is extremely durable and corrosion-resistant. The units are constructed of high-grade alloy steel, and they have an epoxy e-coat on the coil springs to provide extreme corrosion resistance. The brackets on the ends of each unit resist the effects of water and other elements, and they have a salt spray rating of more than 800 hours.
Average Customer Rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars (774 Customer Reviews)
2,000-lb Capacity. Convert your vehicle's leaf springs into a mechanically active suspension system. RAS adjusts to your load to level your ride. The system also increases stability, handling, and control by improving traction and reducing sway.If you're buying kit 2611 for a Magnaride Denali or other vehicle using that setup, you should know this version doesn't include a bracket to go around the U bolts. You MUST drop the axle, remove the spacer block between the leafs and the axle, remove the U bolt locator plate, and sandwich the forward bracket of the RAS between the locator plate and the top leaf. You have to drop the axle because there is no way to remove the locator plate retention bolt from above (if you just turn the nut, that bolt, which serves as the centering pin, just spins in place). If I knew this before I ordered, I might not have ordered this kit. It took me a lot longer than expected to install as it was my first time dropping my rear axle away from my leaf springs. It's not a hard job, just not for the faint of heart if it's your first time. So here's the procedure for a Denali Magnaride. 1. Jack up rear of truck and put jack stands under the forward leaf spring mount points. 2. Working on one side only, place a jack under the axle on that side and remove the lower shock mounting bolt. 3. Remove the Magnaride actuator from the upper Magnaride sensor lever. 4. Remove the U bolts. 5. Lower the jack to guide the axle away from the leafs. 6. Pull out the spacer block and the Magnaride lower actuator plate. 7. Put clamps on the leaf in front of and behind the U bolt locator plate. 8. Grab the bottom of the pin/bolt with a vise grips or channel locks. It's not a bolt you can put a wrench on. 9. Remove the locator plate nut. 10. Put the lower RAS bracket over the pin/bolt and place the locator plate on top of it. 11. Reassemble and torque everything to spec. BE SURE TO DO ONE SIDE AT A TIME to ensure you don't screw up your pinion angle or anything like that.
As for how it works, seems great after first drive. Will be towing with it in a couple days (boat with about 350 lb tongue weight) but I like how it tidied up the back end, which felt a bit floaty without this kit.
Matt
1/16/2023
After a year, Im extremely happy with this modification. I have thousands of miles towing a travel trailer and the improvement is great. I still say three stars just due to the complex install.
The Roadmaster suspension kit did provide the additional stability and load carrying capability for towing a 6000lb rv travel trailer with a 2018 GMC Sierra 1500 Denali with Magnetic Ride Control system. However without the load the ride was rough and raised the rear of the vehicle so that night time driving with dim lights was reduced. The suspension kit was easy enough to remove during the off season of RV use, however is an inconvenience. It would be great to have Roadmaster create a system that would work with the Magnetic ride system without having to install / remove for the use and still continue to have a OEM smooth ride.
Jenny N.
4/15/2022
I reached out to the manufacturer about the rough ride that you have experienced. They did have a suggestion to make. It seems like that the system is adjusted to the 2 mm on the black shim. You can reduce the tension to 1-1.5 mm gap between the coils then it will help achieve a softer ride. You will want to raise the rear of the truck in the air and then leave the axle handing free. Using a dime as a gauge to redusce the gap between the coil springs. The adjustment can be done, with only one side in the air at a time.
I had ordered the wrong Road master suspension for my truck. Once it arrived was extremely easy to return get refund and reorder correct part. Amazing customer service.
Have not installed yet but package came undamaged
Brian
12/5/2022
It works great. Can hook my rv up and drive without worrying about truck sag. Great product.
I am a competitive shooter and take my camper to all my shoots. I have a cap on my truck and the decked drawer system. I also carry 400 lbs of ammo at any given time. When pulling my camper on the highway or over bumps and railroad tracks it was kinda scary. This system stopped the squat and removed the sag at acceleration. I installed sumo springs as well (without spacer) for added sway control when loaded down with trailer. The RAS was great right from the start. It reminded me of the 80’s then we would put traction bars on old hot rods to stop rear squat on acceleration. Same kind of feel with my truck. Some much nicer. With the trailer it removed 1.5 inches of squat on the rear and got my front and back within 1” of variance and before install it was around 2.5 to 3. Took only fifteen minutes per side to install once the tires were off. Great product….
Received these ahead of schedule and all intact. I watched the video on etrailer.com and youtube, very helpful.
The installation is not difficult if you are handy with tools. Aside from it deciding to rain on me during install it was not bad. Suggest you lay out all your tools and include a couple of adjustable wrenches. First off, unscrew that gold screw alot, when you think there is enough, go more, the first side I was short. I wiped down the truck springs to remove any dirt there and set up then tightened by hand, you can't go far that way but gets you started. On the rod with the 2 nuts that will lock together when done, I gave myself about 3" of thread and locked them together to hold the threaded rod while adjusting, no way to hold the end nut, this worked out well. The one thing I would have done different is the adjusting nut is 14mm, I only have a 6" ratcheting 14mm, doable but at the end it tough, I wish I had a 10" or so, there was space in my install. I set mine to high since I pull a 5th wheel so adjusting was the hard part.
I will not know until spring if this helps with the towing as the camper is now stored but very hopeful from others input. If anything changes I will update.
I bought these after a 1000+ mile trip towing my trailer (~8000# loaded) with my 2013 F-150 (HD Payload & Max Towing Package). Installation was super easy. I did not need to take the tires off. There was plenty of room to get behind the tires and place and adjust the springs. Once installed they definitely give the truck a rake. I didn't measure pre-installation because I didn't expect the lift to be so great. I used the black disc to adjust the springs.
It's not too extreme but you can definitely see a difference compared to stock.
As you can see in the pictures, with the springs the drop with a trailer attached is greatly reduced and the truck sits level. Towing was great. I used a WDH before and being able to with springs only and a sway bar is pretty nice. Drop with trailer attached is only about 2.5 inches (see pics)
Straight-forward installation on a 2007 Pleasure way Excel RV (I did it myself in a few hours) although I did have to modify the air bag mounting bracket with a slot to allow RAS hardware to fit. Great installation instructions. Vehicle height is now correct and could be made level by tension adjustment during install. Handing is improved, I was able to remove aftermarket sway bar which improved ride. I have been considering installation of stiffer rear shocks to soften rebound now that the rear spring rate is increased.
I received this kit in a very timely manner always do from etrailer have some issues with the instructions that come from roadmaster not a trailer the bump stop spacer didn’t say that you need to use the original bolt from the bump stop so it slowed me down greatly on the install however I took it out on a quick run without a load I do feel that this has made the unloaded ride smoother tomorrow I’ll be taking the trailer out for a bit and we’ll see how it works there and I’ll update this rating.
Admitedly, I haven't even rolled my '07 Silverado 2500HD classic out of the garage yet, but I'm already very pleased. I had to go to a neighbor for a 10mm hex key socket and was slowed down by my 7yo kid 'helping', but it was still only 90 minutes my jack stands were in use. Easiest thing to do!
My only small downsides so far:
* needed to find a 10mm hex key that I apparently don't own, not sure why they picked that fastener
* wish I put some loc-tite on; just to make me feel better
* distance to drop the axle so the suspension fully hangs was way further than I expected; barely had my jack stands tall enough to get the job done.
These aren't really bad on the product, just notes for future customers. We're towing the 5er about an hour an a half this coming week, hopefully it steadies up a lot!
I had the airbags in the back for years. These far out way them. This is the best thing I ever did!!
Sure beats air bags or blocks! My Gmc canyon diesel is a great puller, needed help with suspension hauling load limit. Easy to install and works great. On high setting it raised the truck rear an inch or two even empty but the way gmc set up the suspension I consider it a good thing.With my tandem axle 16' trailer loaded it's a saving grace.
I own a 2020 F150 raptor, it lacks spring rate in the rear to hold up a lot of weight, other than that it’s a beast Pulling trailers.
Investigated air ride and I discovered It didn’t have the articulation that I needed.
The springs are the fastest way to have additional lift.
I can install them and uninstall them in minutes .
Great product.
Overall, very happy with the product. GMC didn't have any way to improve the truck from squatting when I hooked up my trailer. This kit didn't stop the squatting but significantly reduced the bounce on bad dips in roads, bridge/road transitions and bad railroad crossings.
I Have had this suspension on multiple trucks and i love it . It takes the sway out of the truck when entering a exit ramp and taking sharp turns with a trailer or without, also reduces wheel hop and increases payload in the bed of the truck.I would recommend for all trucks pulling trailers.
I bought this last summer (2022) for my 2020 F150 to haul the travel trailer (summer) and to have the quad in the box (fall) during the hunting season. I mainly used it during the weekends as I work from home during the weekdays. I adjusted the tension just before the winter because I haven't haul anything during winter. As it is now spring, I wanted to adjust back the tension for the rv season and I found everything rusted out (I am.in Canada and use the truck only 2-3 times a week).
I was pleased to use the product back last summer but because of all the rust I found this spring, I'm having a hard time adjusting them and I am also quite scared for next seasons as rust is making adjustments hard.
By having this for less than a year, I am now dissapointed in the product. Before buying this, I looked a lot into airlift a lot but because of reviews, I changed my mind to go with RAS.
Rust is now found on the main threaded rod locking nuts the bolt/tube underneat locking the device was rusted and seized.
This product has worked well for me. I have used this on previous trucks towing a camper. It helps level out the load on the truck. This product does not work on trucks with top overload springs. Unless you remove the top overload springs. If your vehicle is still under warranty taking off the top overload spring may be a problem. But this product has worked well for me on a half ton truck.
Definitely stiffens up the leaf spring suspension not impacting the ride. Just feels like a lot more support.
absolutely did not take 45 minutes to install and still missing a locknut that was not contained in a sealed bag with cardboard box container causing lost parts. Now i have to locate special threaded nut.
Rarely adding an aftermarket "upgrade" to any of my vehicles am I 100% satisfied with the outcome. There is usually a trade off with something. However, this is one of those upgrades that has zero con's that I've discovered so far. I was struggling to keep the leaf springs on my modded out 3rd get Tacoma from "flattening" out because I always have at least 900 lbs of payload in my bed. Adding the RAS has prevented this from happening. I also thought that they would affect off road performance, since I've never seen them in an off road application before, they don't. People on the trail often ask "What the heck?" when they see them on my rig. I tell them that RAS is the easiest to install, most cost effective solution to manage sag without sacrificing ride quality. There is the famously noted "Taco lean" and it's most prominent after fueling up. RAS will help iron this out. I've had them on for about a year now and they haven't needed any adjustments. Kinda like (Ronco), "set and forget it". I don't know their duty cycle is but, I wouldn't hesitate buying them again!
I installed the Road Active suspension standard duty kit on my 2017 Tundra. I was hoping for a smoother ride with and without a load and I was not disappointed. I don’t do heavy hauling, just a center console boat that weighs about 3000 pounds with trailer. My truck definitely has a smoother ride. It is especially noticeable on rough spots like bridge crossings, etc. I set the springs somewhere in between the light and heavy settings. I used a quarter as a spacer. It raised the rear of my truck one inch. I definitely recommend the Road Active suspension and etrailer is the best place to buy it.
Definitely work as advertised. Only thing I would note is at the 2mm adjustment there is a slightly firmer ride. But barely noticeable.
Very easy installation after watching the trailer videos. It worked better than I had anticipated and really improved the handling when towing our camper.
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Jenny N.
1/17/2022
I reached out to the manufacturer about the installation. I found that while all other GMC 1500s are able to use the 4611 easy install bracket, the kits for the 2015-2018 GMC 1500 Denalis are one the few applications where the 4611 kit can not be used and the axle must be ped for the install.