SumoSprings Solo Custom Helper Springs - Front Axle

Video Transcript for Installation: SumoSprings Solo Custom Helper Springs on a 2012 Chevrolet Silverado

Hello, neighbors. It's Brad here at etrailer, and today, we are taking a look and installing the SumoSprings Solo Custom front helper springs on a 2012 Chevy Silverado. Now, when having suspension modifications done to a vehicle, it's generally not the first thing that people think to upgrade, unless you are dealing with a vehicle that's heavy, or sways, or is just a rough ride. And then after a few jostles, you finally decide it's time to upgrade. And sometimes with suspension things are worn out and you gotta replace shocks. And there's a lot of different components that can make for a better ride.

And one of the ones that I think is a nice, easy quick installation that's maintenance free, is gonna be these helper springs and what they do is they simply take out the original bump stops and these ones are going to be a much better padding. So reason being, it's a nice urethane construction and they're actually progressive Springs. So what that means is it's going to absorb that first little bit of bumpy ride as you're daily driving. But when you have that heavy load it's going to actually have a different compression ratio. So it's gonna tighten up and hold that heavy load with no problem.

Seeing that it's urethane, overall, weather, heat, cold whatever it may be. These are gonna hold up for a long time. And when you're driving, first turn you're gonna notice there's less sway. And these all are taller and wider than the original ones. And so you're getting a better contact patch.

You're getting more spring to actually compress. And so you're gonna feel that with every bump and every turn. Now, as far as bump stops or ground Springs as sometimes they're called, your bump stops in the front are there to really make sure that your suspension's not bottoming out but sometimes those bump stops really don't cut it much or the travel isn't really what you want it to be and it's gonna make that front end seem kind of just not supported and going to a heavier duty helper spring or SumoSprings like we'll be putting on here should really make a big difference as far as the front ride quality. Now we've just installed airbags in the rear on this and that's made a big difference, especially in a truck as weighted down as this one is. So as we go over these bumps here the front definitely, it's uh, you can feel the heft of this truck and that front hitting these speed bumps on our test course, there's a lot of bounce to that front.

So just hitting the speed bumps, there you go. One, two, you can kind of still feel it reverberate and overall it's uh, this suspension feels like it's overworked and it probably is for being a long life as a work truck. It's probably seen a lot of weight and it's seen a lot of rough roads. And I think having a little bit heavier duty helper Springs especially with a truck with this much equipment loaded should really make this a lot better when driving around normally and that's the glory of suspension mods, is it's one of those that you can feel every time you hop in the vehicle. Every time you drive, it's gonna be there and it's gonna be a huge difference in the vehicle. So I'm gonna kind of drive around our parking lot. I'll hit those bumps again, to kind of get a feel, and that way we can get a before of what it looks like and an after, and hopefully we'll see a difference in the way that the truck actually handles and we might be able to see it. But most of suspension is really one of those things that you're gonna feel while driving. It's, it's hard to quantify it per se but it's something that you feel with every bump, every turn, so it should really make a big difference and it shouldn't be too hard of an install as well. So now we have our front SumoSprings installed and let's see what they do. So I'm gonna kind of go through our parking lot here and make our way to our speed bumps, essentially our driving course, and that's really gonna simulate those bumps and uneven road and I think that's really where we're gonna see the difference that these make. Now when this truck first came in, was definitely loaded up with a lot of equipment and you could totally feel the weight and now he has rear air airbags and the SumoSprings in front. Now we tested the airbags and noticed quite a bit of difference, but I think this is really gonna be a huge upgrade in that front and already, it just seems a lot more poised. It's soaking up those bumps a little better than it was before. So now this is where it's gonna shine going back over those bumps. Oh wow. Much, much better. Before, it kind of rattled you around and you'd really hear that weight slapping around and while the rear helped, the front is really, really making a difference here. It just feels like it has. almost like having a car with blown front struts and then putting new ones on. It's a little more buttery smooth. It's definitely, definitely absorbing. Now, the install itself got to be a little bit tricky. It's not particularly hard, but sometimes to get those to compression pop in, can be a little tricky but I'm telling you it's worth it because for a pretty quick install, the difference that I'm noticing already, even just steering, is huge. Let's hit these bumps. Now before I was hitting them at about five miles per hour and this truck would really just rattle all over the place. It just jostled about and that weight was really throwing the truck wherever it wanted to be and now the truck seems like it can handle the weight. It doesn't seem like it's stressing out the suspension. And I think the neighbor who owns this vehicle is gonna be really happy and he's gonna notice it as soon as he leaves the parking lot here. I'm telling ya, the front, before it just kind of bounced around. This is a lot more supple. The dampening, it feels firm, but it's not bouncy. It really is just soaking this up so much better. So definitely a difference that I see while driving the truck. So if you've ever had adjustable suspension on a vehicle it's really nice to be able to have that dampening bumped up a little bit more, but can get expensive to have that adjustability. These ones, you put in place, and that progressive spring action really helps with the daily driving portion of it so you don't have to worry about softening it up. And when you need to go to a heavier load it's actually gonna compress in that progressive manner. So you don't have to adjust for it to be tighter. It's gonna be where you need it to be when you need it to be, and that's gonna help a lot with driving. So overall installation is pretty quick. You can do it at home. You're gonna need some jacks. You might need a pry bar, probably gonna need an extra set of hands. It's a little tricky. Getting them out, no problem. Getting them back in, you are kind of pressing them in and they kind of pop into place, but using the leverage of the vehicle, we've kind of found a way to get those installed. And we had it done pretty quickly. And so for a quick install and relatively good price it's really a suspension upgrade that you'll never have to worry about and it's always gonna be there every time you drive the vehicle. So let's take a look at that installation and let's get these installed on your truck. To begin our installation, you're gonna want to jack up the front of your truck. Now make sure that you have your emergency brake on and I would highly suggest chalking the rear wheels as well. That way it's not moving when you have it raised up. Also once you do jack it up, you're gonna wanna make sure you have jack stands in place. This is a heavy truck and I don't wanna rely just on the Jack to hold it up. And once it's raised up, you're gonna see here. They have a bump stomp. There's one in the front, and then there's also one right behind it back here. So before trying to pry these out, what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna take just a bit of heavy duty silicone spray here and I'm gonna just spray 'em up and that's gonna kind lubricate here and hopefully make it a little bit easier for these to pop out. So, go ahead, spray those in where they Mount. So I've sprayed these two. I'm gonna go ahead and do that on the other side. So now I'm gonna just, I'm gonna try to do this by hand and see if I can get any movement out of it. Sometimes a little twisting, to kind of unseat it, and pulling, will give you a little success, just like that. Pops out fairly easy. Now, if you are having issues, getting it out, putting a pry bar under there and just kind of working around the edge will make it a lot easier to pop out. But the fact that I was able to do that by hand is a really nice thing to see. So I'm gonna go ahead and I'm gonna remove the other three and then, we'll our new ones in place. So here we have our old bump stops and as you can see, they've seen kind of better days but even just side by side, with the new SumoSprings, you're gonna see not only is the SumoSpring taller, so it's actually going to grab that compression a little bit earlier, but it's also it seems a little bit softer and so hopefully that's gonna allow that weight to kind of compress more and having more body means that it's gonna be able to handle that weight a little bit better. Also looking at the diameter, that weight's gonna be able to disperse over a wider contact patch. So it should absorb quite a bit easier. So let's go ahead and get these in place. Now, these are really kind of tricky to get in as the diameter of the puck that actually pops into this cup is a little bit larger than the OEM. So we're able to get the other side in and really what it comes down to is we're going to use the weight of the vehicle to help kind of press this in and with some pry bars on the bottom, we're going to get it to where it's kind of seated and then really going back on the edge with the pry bar and kind of pushing that lip in that should get it popped into place. So I wanna show you how to get this one in. So here I have our large channel locks here holding on to it to kind of keep it squared up. I also have my pry bar here. The truck is raised up on this side. So being very careful, we're gonna try to lower it down in place and see if we can't get this to pop in. Going down. Just like that, a little pry with the pry bar on that motion, pops it in place. So we'll go ahead and do that on the other ones. Now it may be tricky. You may have to do it a few times, but once you get it seated like that, you're looking good. We're gonna go ahead and see if we can't use that same method to get this one in. So let's give it a shot. As you can see, I'm gonna have my pry bar under here and that's gonna give me that leverage upwards. There we're gonna go ahead and lower it down and once that kind of compresses I'm gonna give it a little upward pressure with my pry bar and it should pop into place. ReadyMmhmm. And I think we have success. So now we can raise this up, get our tools out and then take it for a spin. And that was a look and install of the SumoSprings Solo Custom front helper Springs on a 2012 Chevy Silverado. Thanks for watching..