UPGRADE ACCELERATOR SPRINGS, 99-05
The accelerator pedal provides over half of your driving and performance needs. The pedal on these vehicles has 2 springs, a torsion spring and an extension spring. There is more than one spring to protect against a runaway condition if one failed. Except for this protection redundancy, the extension spring on these trucks is nearly worthless, and doesn’t supply any practical travel feel, resistance, or performance feedback. It is fatiguing as well on long drives without cruise control, because you can’t rest your foot on the pedal, it just sinks. The pedal should instead, provide a use-appropriate amount of “feel” or feedback so that you not only have a good idea what you are requesting, but also so that your own body does not provide unwanted input over bumps and during accelerations. A weak or loose pedal causes jerky response, littered with unintended foot inputs. Age can also have a fatigue effect on the accelerator spring rate.
DRIVING -THE MISSING COGNITION
You may really like the way one vehicle drives over another, yet mysteriously you may never be able to put your finger on why. There are many places where this ergonomic impact is felt without any conscious awareness of just what it is, and this is one of those places that happens in the unconcious mind. After completing a round of custom tuning on the duramax equipped truck some years ago, I finally realized that the loose pedal was preventing me from attaining the refined feel I was after. You may have experienced, when going over bumps, engine cycling feedback engine runups that are a detracting driving and contollability experience. This is especially noticeable with high fuel tuning (hot tune). I spent a lot of time trying to tune around it, with frustrating results. These springs reduces all that, as well as reducing the leg fatique. They allow you to drive with your foot at rest, and the increased resistance keeps those pothole runups reduced. If I secretly swapped your spring out for this one, you would be less fatigued, enjoy driving more, and ultimately you would probably never be able to figure out why. Don’t analyze it to much, that is the job for the oem engineer and ergonomics specialist. Suffice that it makes the truck feel more intelligent, more inspiring, more controlled, and more comfortable. Initially these were only for tuning customers, but by request, I have expanded the choices, and made them available separately.
4 CUSTOM SPRING OPTIONS:
HIGHWAY and PAVED ROADS: After doing a bunch of test runs, and evaluating leg fatigue, pedal feedback and vehicle control, I designed 2 new spring options for paved highway use. I suggest that cross country users purchase both of these and decide which is best.
HM: Highway Medium. 2x rate, 2x progressive*. A medium rate spring, HM, with double the stock spring rate, perfect for most light footed, on-road drivers. Lowest fatigue on-road use spring. $8.95
HH: Highway Heavy. 3x rate, 2x progressive*. A heavier one with even higher spring rate for heavy booted drivers, touchy aftermarket tuning or more bumpy conditions. $9.95
Highway Pair, $15 (20% off)
OFF ROAD: These springs were developed to help those who needed more help than the Highway springs provided. Off-road springs will have 4 times the stiffness progressiveness. For example, the 50% throttle position will have 80% increase in spring rate stiffness compared to the 0% position. This just means that they become much stiffer with pedal travel, compared to the hiway springs. If you use rough roads, have size 12 steel tow shoes, or run an extra hot tune, or a combination of factors, then these springs are for you.
OR-M: On/Off-Road Medium. 4x rate, 4x progressive*. This will be considered by many the BEST COMPROMISE spring for on and off-road operators. It has relatively low fatigue properties with a high progressive spring rate. In most cases, if only wanting one spring for all conditions, this is what I recommend, especially if you live where potholes are a battle. $12.95
OR-H: Off-Road Heavy. 6x rate, 6x progressive*. The ultimate off-road heavy ”steel toe boot” option. If off-road, heavy boot operators need the highest available help controlling throttle inputs, look no further. A stiffer spring is not available anywhere. Most should considered this for off-road use only, though some heavyweights might find this is the ideal all-purpose spring. $12.95
O.R. Pair, $20 (20% off)
SPECIAL: Save over 50% and order all 4 springs, $30.
*spring rate and progressiveness factors comparing to factory spring.
THESE CAN BE ORDERED HERE
INSTALLATION: About 1 minute with needlenose pliers. The most rewarding minute you will ever spend on your truck.
SHIPPING: Please be patient, these take up to 10 days to arrive after payment, as I ship them once weekly.
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING
“The spring kit is nice. I ended up using the heavy spring. The part throtle surging/bucking issue it had with the stock spring is gone.” Andy
“Installed the spring from KB not long after the KB tuned ecm, the tunes are great and not to be diminished, as I expected his efi tunes to be great, but the pedal feel is really fantastic. I am surprised GM never addressed the lack of pedal feel on their own now. Can’t wait to tow through the rockies this year!” Timu8
“Hey Michael, You are right about the relationship of spring to tune. I rode with my spring installed while still running my Edge, before swapping in your custom tuned ECM. I was waiting till some warmth arrived before freezing my a** off to swap it out. I concur that the spring did not help even the very meek Edge setting I was rolling with at the time. After the swap, even though not your toughest spring, the total package was a real renaissance for me and my humble LLY. I wish you could help me tune my kids as well as that Duramax of mine! BTW, My first big tow was really good, great EGT’s and temps and noticeable well managed power, it was real smooth, man. Thanks” Timu8
“I bought both springs and am running the heavier spring. GOOD JOB Michael, this was a great cheap mod.”
“I just got my spring installed and It was worth every penny. I haven’t even gotten a chance to really drive very far and I can already say it was a good improvement. I ended up going with the heavy spring, although I probably should have gotten both just to see what they where like. Either way I really like it and just wonted to post it up.” Beanpole2009
“I’ve had my spring for about 3 months now and have been putting off the install because I thought it was gonna be a pain in the a**. But it wasn’t, I put it on this a.m. in about 30 seconds. All you need is a pair of needle nose pliers or dikes. My 7 year old brother could handle this job. I live down some real crappy roads here in Louisiana and the motor surge from the jumpy pedal has been driving me nuts for a long time, but it’s fixed now. Worth every penny, great job KILLERBEE” La77chevy