[robnolimit]

I'm doing a little research for my next article, and that took me out to Energy suspension. I have used Energy products for many years, but this was cool to see the place. I had an informative talk with some of the suspension tech's and learned a few things. Most of this will be in the next Street Trucks, but I wanted to share some here.
The goal of upgrading from rubber to urathane is to gain control over some of the forces that are pushing and pulling parts of your truck. With cab, bed, and core support mounts, the goal is to get the cab to help add strength to the chassis, and reduce flexing from bumps and corners. This may make the truck feel rigid and bumpy, but what is really happening is that you now feel the true suspension action. Engine and trans mounts will hold the drivetrain better, and deliver power to the axle with less loss. Torking the motor up takes power. Single rotation bushings, such as A-arms, sway bars and, leafs springs and trailing arms, are designed to limit any other motion, and act more like a bushing or bearing.
Then we discussed different suspensions, and came up with a few surprising conclusions. We agreed that for any performance build there would be gains in using urathane cab, bed, core support and motor and trans mounts. I even tossed in the concept of a urathane 'coupler' that would bolt in between the cab and bed (more on that later). Again, we thought that the front suspension, and both front and rear swaybars should get the upgrade. Here was the surprise. We did agree that for a 'drag' oriented project, urathane in the rear leafs or trailing arms would be a plus, but after some thought, that this may not be the ticket for going around corners. The idea is that urathane would additionally restrict the axle from articulating in a corner. We would want the springs/shocks/sway bars to control that, and/or, let it happen. But, we do both think that urathane in a 4 bar is the way to go. Just some food for thought.