 Jon Acuff Occupation: Audi...  Jon Acuff
Occupation: Audi mechanic, because Audi owners pay a lot more money than broken-down truck owners do
Experience: A typical truck owner and dedicated reader since before he had a license.
Why we chose him: We've known him since before he could drive and he's somehow been involved in almost every vehicular "incident" one of us can remember growing up with, and yet we still invited him to the test. But he has great ability behind the wheel, and we knew he wouldn't let us down. |  Frank Gilliland Occupation:...  Frank Gilliland
Occupation: Owner of South Bay Truck & 4x4
Experience: Frank's dad owned a Willys dealership he grew up in. Now he has his own drivetrain shop and works with 4x4s every day.
Why we chose him: Frank probably knows more about these suspensions than some of the suspension reps that came out to help us. He's the one who has to deal with angry customers when something goes wrong with their truck, so he has more than a few complaints to tell these guys about. |  Alex Whitaker Occupation:...  Alex Whitaker
Occupation: Benchmade Knives advertising sales representative, loves knives
Experience: Alex was our wild card, with no real four-wheel-drive experience. But she can twirl a butterfly knife like nobody's business (we brought her for protection).
Why we chose her: We invited Alex because she represented a potential lifted truck owner that has recently become interested in off-roading. We knew that she was fearless and talented enough to pick up some light-duty off-roading quickly.
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 Larie Tales Occupation:...  Larie Tales
Occupation: Owner of Jeeps R US
Experience: Ex drag racer, switched over to four-wheel-drive vehicles as a hobby about 17 years ago
Why we chose him: Being an ex-dragger and old Jeeper, Larie is not afraid behind the wheel. As long as we could keep him at about half throttle, we knew he'd be great for the program. Being a Jeep shop and dealership owner, Larie works with many of these suspension companies already, and knows the way a four-wheel drive is supposed to work.
|  Jerrod Jones Occupation:...  Jerrod Jones
Occupation: Feature Editor, 4-Wheel & Off-Road
Experience: Spent a day or two reading up on what four-wheel drive was before he conducted the program. He should be fine.
Why we chose him: Since this program was his idea, we couldn't really keep him from participating
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At the end of the program everyone was asked to answer a few questions about their favorite suspensions in a few different categories. Now this was based solely on the opinion of each judge/rep, and how they felt about the truck at the end of the week. This has nothing to do with any of the actual judging and scoring that went on, but we realize that sometimes a person's overall impression can't just be summed up with numbers. If we were buying truck stuff, we'd value an experienced opinion on it almost as much as a bunch of numbers some field test came up with.
We think this spot might really have come down to whoever had the most impressive valving in the shocks. And the CST truck had the valving in its Fox shocks just right on. The valving abilities no doubt comes from experience in off-road racing, which seems to have paid off in the form of a very good riding kit. Superlift earned a very close runner-up position. The kit had displayed excellent ride characteristics as well, thanks to some very impressive bumpstops and remote-reservoir shock combination.
Why would you own a truck if you didn't have stuff to haul? Therefore we wanted to simulate driving on road with a loaded bed, and we did this using the Shur Trax water bags. Loading down the beds actually improved the rides of most trucks but made them a little less manageable around tight corners. The Pro Comp and Superlift kits tied for top honors here, both showing admirable driving abilities with loaded beds that seemed to have had many judges and reps impressed. These two might be especially appealing to guys who constantly use their trucks as a loaded-down workhorse, and demand a suspension that can handle it.
This portion almost felt like a gimme for the Rock Krawler kit. With coilovers front and rear and a converted rear link setup, this suspension stood out as more radical than all the others. There was pretty trick stuff on some of the other trucks too, but coilovers, new upper A-arms, and new rod-end steering links helped cinch the deal. Rough Country was right on its tail though. The NTD kit impressed many judges, and the machined-billet upper A-arms were not only strength overkill, but also looked incredible.