My 2006 2500HD handles much worse than my 2001 2500HD or even my 2002 Suburban. My 2004 2500HD was fine. I do have 285's, but that did not make much of a difference. The Suburban does too and handles great. I have tons of sway, it bounces a lot and I'm looking for ways to improve it. Anyideas?

Are the tires the proper load range "E".Ive heard others had similiar issues when putting 285s on the stock rims.

Make Sure Your Tire Have The Right Psi And Add The Cognito Braces.

Do a search for Tom Frederico Sway Bars ... you will be pleasantly surprised. I also intend to change to Bilstein shocks which should further improve the ride and handling characteristics. Tire pressure? I am running 65psi all around now. You will find info on this topic as well.

http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/showthread.php?t=97278

Where is the best place to purchase the Bilstein shocks?

Bilstein shocks and frederico sway bars. Stay away from cognito..
Make sure like was stated above that you are running the proper tire pressure and make sure that (I know this will sound funny but it happened to someone I know) all the rear u-bolts are tight and that the front IFS bolts are tight. Good luck

Make Sure Your Tire Have The Right Psi And Add The Cognito Braces.

Explain how the cognito braces will help the handling of the truck.


I would buy a good set of gas shocks, then maybe a sway-bar upgrade.

You'd be surprised what the tires will do to kill the handling of it. I have 265's on mine and the handling is greatly compromised in comparison to the stock 245s. I guess it's just the price I have to pay to get a decent sized tire on there.

You'd be surprised what the tires will do to kill the handling of it. I have 265's on mine and the handling is greatly compromised in comparison to the stock 245s. I guess it's just the price I have to pay to get a decent sized tire on there.

What is the advantage of going to a larger size tire? I know they look better. Perhaps they are better for off-roading. But, for on street driving, is there a practical reason to put on larger tires (showing my ignorance here)?

What is the advantage of going to a larger size tire? I know they look better. Perhaps they are better for off-roading. But, for on street driving, is there a practical reason to put on larger tires (showing my ignorance here)?

The 245's just look stupid. Maybe I should have just gone to 265's. My Suburban's 285's are very civil. These are Michelins too, not cheapies.

My 2006 2500HD handles much worse than my 2001 2500HD or even my 2002 Suburban. My 2004 2500HD was fine. I do have 285's, but that did not make much of a difference. The Suburban does too and handles great. I have tons of sway, it bounces a lot and I'm looking for ways to improve it. Anyideas?

the chassis and suspension is the same from 2001-2006. i dont see how your new truck would be any worse than your old truck.

the chassis and suspension is the same from 2001-2006. i dont see how your new truck would be any worse than your old truck.

No kidding. But it is and it's a brand new truck.

Bilstein shocks and frederico sway bars. Stay away from cognito..


why stay away from cognito?

I'd like the answer as well. I've recently done the Cognito leveling kit, the pitman/idler arm kit, Bilstein 5100s all around, and Tom Fredrico bars on both ends. While it ain't no M5 ( I also drive a BMW M5, a 2002tii, and have owned 10 other high performance BMWs), it regularly crawls right up the tailpipe of many "sports-sedans" with "high performance" labels....and quite a few "sports-cars" as well. Frankly I wouldn't drive our trucks without Tom's bars, and probably not without Bilstein shocks. The Cognito lift is a solid piece of engineering that gets positive reviews on this site regularly...so what's yer beef?

I'd like the answer as well. I've recently done the Cognito leveling kit, the pitman/idler arm kit, Bilstein 5100s all around, and Tom Fredrico bars on both ends. While it ain't no M5 ( I also drive a BMW M5, a 2002tii, and have owned 10 other high performance BMWs), it regularly crawls right up the tailpipe of many "sports-sedans" with "high performance" labels....and quite a few "sports-cars" as well. Frankly I wouldn't drive our trucks without Tom's bars, and probably not without Bilstein shocks. The Cognito lift is a solid piece of engineering that gets positive reviews on this site regularly...so what's yer beef?

What size tires are you running?

GMC2500HD, I'd also like to know why you say to "Stay away from cognito." I've read nothing but good things on this site about the company and their products. I'm getting ready to order the leveling kit and shocks from them in the next few days so if there are some issues we all don't know about, now would be a good time to spill the beans.

Cognito has built a strong reputation on this and other forums for their products...and they primarily focus on GM products. Here in California where every other truck you see is lifted/modified/hotrodded/tweeked, and you can find a lift/tire/wheel/programmer/wrench on nearly every corner, Cognito is solid.

To respond to rcpd34, I am currently running 285/75/16 Bridgestones on stock wheels, but have chrome H2s in the wings.....and 315/70/17 BFGs in my dreams....oh...wait....305/70/17 Goodyear MTRs....no, wait......

Bilstein shocks and frederico sway bars. Stay away from cognito..
Make sure like was stated above that you are running the proper tire pressure and make sure that (I know this will sound funny but it happened to someone I know) all the rear u-bolts are tight and that the front IFS bolts are tight. Good luck

What Cognito product are you referring to?

I have the steering braces and think they are the best thing I have done to the truck.

I chose the leveling kit because I wanted to "separate" myself a bit from all my "other" brothers and sisters who live large here in SoCal. I also didn't want to effect the handling of the truck as extremely....and finally...I've got twin boys who now weigh nearly 25lbs each....the wifely unit vetoed any higher lift at this point! It still gets the point accross to the sea of toyotas and hondas on the I-5 every day!

Can someone provide a source or a link for Cognito products? I am interested in learning more about them. Perhaps this will solve my problem.

Thanks,

http://www.norcaltruck.com/

I just ordered the upper control arm kit, 4 Bilsteins and the pitman/idler support kit. If you have questions call them and ask for Nick. He's a good guy, took the time to answer all my questions. He said the Bilsteins alone would take care of the pogo stick like ride.

http://www.norcaltruck.com/

I just ordered the upper control arm kit, 4 Bilsteins and the pitman/idler support kit. If you have questions call them and ask for Nick. He's a good guy, took the time to answer all my questions. He said the Bilsteins alone would take care of the pogo stick like ride.

Just sent him an e-mail. Thanks.

Let us know how hard you have to beat on those UCA's before they fit.
Unless "Crapneato" has tightened up on their Quality control.

What Cognito product are you referring to?


Cheese and Rice! it is a lift kit! I love how some of these guys w/ very few posts get all mad when someone says a dirty word about "Crapneato".

Let's do a re-cap, Remember their first kits? with those hideous looking rear spring hanger drops? Yeah that was a good idea! Then they had the weakest drop center-link ever! shaped like an "X" but the biggest weak poitn is that Tubulsr "X" design that puts the front differential out in harms way.
You have to ask yourself "why did they ditch the tubular "X" design on the new 4"-6" kits? Look closely it is almost identical to the rough country kit. Why ???????

What we "few posters" get real tired of are those few "experts" who appear to have had one bad experience with a product and make that experience the focus of many, many posts. In the interest of clarity, please share with we of either short memory, limited capacity, or just plain stupidity what it is about your experience that we should learn from.....given our positive experience with Cognito products?

whoops y mistake

Mr gmc2500hd why do you suggest staying away from Cognito?

And Diesel n dust what bad experiences do you have with their products?You talk alot of Sh-- but dont back it up with any experiences.Are you an installer or what?

Well I just had the "crapnito" leveling kit and and pitman idler arm support kit installed on my truck and it rocks. I love it. It leveled out my truck with the stock keys and I still have about 3/4 in room at the droop stops. The ride with the bilsteins is nice and some of the slop in the steering wheel was alleviated. The 4X4 shop mechanic said mine was the first kit he had installed. He said it went on easy, and he was impressed that the kits did what they were supposed to do. He was especially impressed with the braces. He said it really did tighten things up. Not crapnito, cogneatto!!

Tony

---As for GMC2500HD, I notice he likes to randomly chime in on different threads with something real negative and then you never hear from him again. Don't know what his problem is?

"My 2006 2500HD handles much worse than my 2001 2500HD or even my 2002 Suburban. My 2004 2500HD was fine. I do have 285's, but that did not make much of a difference. The Suburban does too and handles great. I have tons of sway, it bounces a lot and I'm looking for ways to improve it. Anyideas?"
__________________

Had the same problem with my 06. My 03 handled much better than the 06 did and with my driving style the 06 was dangerous. I cured the problem with front and rear Tom Frederico Sway Bars and Bilstein shocks all around.

Ken

hmmmmm silence......

Stingrea,

Do you have the bilsteins and sway bar on the 2006HD already and it still rides bad?

"Do you have the bilsteins and sway bar on the 2006HD already and it still rides bad?"

Yes they are in place along with other goodies. I think what did the most harm to the ride is the Air Bags. But it is hard to tell because I put most of that stuff on all at the same time.

But it is OK. It's a truck and the only time I don't like the ride is going over speed bumps that they put in all the side streets and parking lots. When I'm going through a tight turn towing a trailer (or not) the truck now holds the corner and does what I think it should.

I put a friend of mine behind the wheel (a friend that owns a truck almost like mine) and asked him to see how it handled compared to his. He put it hard into a turn on a freeway onramp that he could only do 35 mph with in his truck and mine was doing over 45. No doubt it put a big smile on his face.

Ken

"Do you have the bilsteins and sway bar on the 2006HD already and it still rides bad?"

Yes they are in place along with other goodies. I think what did the most harm to the ride is the Air Bags. But it is hard to tell because I put most of that stuff on all at the same time.

But it is OK. It's a truck and the only time I don't like the ride is going over speed bumps that they put in all the side streets and parking lots. When I'm going through a tight turn towing a trailer (or not) the truck now holds the corner and does what I think it should.

I put a friend of mine behind the wheel (a friend that owns a truck almost like mine) and asked him to see how it handled compared to his. He put it hard into a turn on a freeway onramp that he could only do 35 mph with in his truck and mine was doing over 45. No doubt it put a big smile on his face.

Ken


I'm sorry but I didn't see the stats on the truck you are talking about. Try making a sig. so people can see what you have. Did you crank on your t-bars to bring the front up?

Nick

"I'm sorry but I didn't see the stats on the truck you are talking about. Try making a sig. so people can see what you have. Did you crank on your t-bars to bring the front up?

Nick"

No, still stock.

Ken