Did the magneride delete with Arnott setup, here is a full run down

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dpollak81

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Hey long time lurker here, but I've gleaned quite a bit of wisdom on these forums and must say thanks. Time to engage and offer some of my own wisdom.

Just wanted to share my experience with doing the Magneride delete on our 2015 Yukon Denali since that seems to be a common topic on here and I know many are looking for answers.

Our Denali has 99k on it and the ride has gotten pretty rough over the last 4-6 months. A few weeks ago the front left strut started leaking fluid onto the ground and the front end was noticeably sagging. I did a lot of reading on here and other places. Our dealer wanted $1200 to replace the one strut!!! I talked to a local GM specialties shop and recommended the ARNOTT setup.

I did a lot of research, and from what I could tell, no one builds an actual magride replacement except AC delco. bunch of Chinese products on amazon claim to be magride but I'm pretty skeptical. In my research I found others had fitment issues and just some other quality bugs typical of Chinese replicas.

So I decided to do the bypass and went with the Arnotts. SK3354 for the fronts and AS3066 for the rears. By they way they are engineered and built in the US for those of you that may find that important. I ordered them from RockAuto with the 5% discount code and all in with shipping it was $1445 for all 4.

Took me about 6 hours to do them all on a Saturday but I had my 12 and 10 year-olds helping so it took a little slower. If it was just me I probably could have knocked them all out in 3-4 hours. Everything seems very high quality, and it all bolted right up. The only issue I had, was the magride electrical connectors on the rear shocks were oriented the opposite way so clipping them onto the holder was a little cumbersome.

As for stance, the front fender is at 35 3/4" and the rear is at 37 3/4" (we have pirelli all-seasons) so I ordered a front 1.5" leveling kit from suspension max to bring up the front closer to the rear.

THE RIDE: It rides much more comfortable then I remember the magrides ever riding. Around town is the biggest difference that I can tell as the whole set up feels less busy. I always felt the mag ride was trying to do too much at lower speeds around town. The impact harshness is also really improved, however my perception might be exaggerated with the front struts being in such bad shape. And the rear auto level works flawlessly so far.

I will say there is one main reason not to do the bypass. With the non magride set-up you definitely loose the sportiness and playfullness the suspension had. We ultimately chose the Denali because of how planted it felt and how well it handled on top of the sweet 6.2. But as time went on I felt we gave up a lot in comfort for that feature. The ride is more floaty and the truck leans and dives more. Not out of control, but definitely noticeable compared to the magride shocks. I felt the magride really shined when driving down decently smooth freeways and that definitely feels different when you do the bypass.

We've put about 200 miles on it on some various roads, so right now I'm pleased with the switch. We'll see how it wears and I'll give an update or 2.

Hope this helps!
 

Joseph Garcia

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Thank you for your post on the results of the conversion. Much appreciated, and our collective knowledge base has been increased. I did the opposite and rebuilt my suspension using almost all GM parts. But, to each his own.

If you want to reduce the lean in your new suspension setup and regain some handling stock handling characteristics, purchase a set of Hellwig sway bars. They are expensive, but well worth it. My electronic suspension (the precursor to the Magnaride), now works very little, as the Hellwig sway bars are handling most of the work on keeping the truck stable on turns, etc.
 
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dpollak81

dpollak81

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Thank you for your post on the results of the conversion. Much appreciated, and our collective knowledge base has been increased. I did the opposite and rebuilt my suspension using almost all GM parts. But, to each his own.

If you want to reduce the lean in your new suspension setup and regain some handling stock handling characteristics, purchase a set of Hellwig sway bars. They are expensive, but well worth it. My electronic suspension (the precursor to the Magnaride), now works very little, as the Hellwig sway bars are handling most of the work on keeping the truck stable on turns, etc.

thanks for the tips on the sway bars. I might look into that down the road, but the handling is still confident and agreeable. It's just not as sporty as it was with the magneride. We have the 20" wheels for what its worth. Might be more noticeable if you have the 22s.

A few more days driving though and it really is a huge improvement in compliance and just overall suspension noise when hitting pavement cracks. Really are pleased with the switch out.
 

Thrust

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Agree with the write up from the OP. 2015 Denali XL with the same swap. 20" wheels as well. The ride is better but not as smooth as I would like. Another reason to not go with the magnaride is the reason it failed at so low miles. Ours went out in the 35-40k range. Why would I install the same parts if they are not built to last, and for what they cost.
 

keg97

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Kudos to the OP who nailed his review of the Arnott kit. I too grew tired of replacing the magnerides every 30-50k miles (GM gonna GM!!!) and found the reviews of the system here last summer. It's been over a year and 30K and I'm very satisfied with the changeover. Like the OP said, you might lose the crisp handling and the ability to switch from Touring to Sport. But knowing I won't be dumping thousands into replacing a clearly ineffective shock more than makes up for it.

I thought of adding in the upgraded sway bars but I'm sitting at 140K miles and am more looking at my next vehicle and planning to hand the Escalade ESV down to my son for his first vehicle. No 16 YO needs upgraded sways!!!
 
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dpollak81

dpollak81

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2k mile update: we’ve put some miles on the Denali since swapping these out with the Arnotts and finally pulled our travel trailer out to the coast a couple of weekends ago.

I do notice slightly less stability with the trailer hitched up this last time. It was subtle. The mag ride rear shocks must have firmed upped with the weight on it, in tow/haul or something. I bumped up the rear tire pressure a little and that helped some. The load leveling still worked perfectly and we run a weight distributing hitch so it was all leveled out. Still towed fine but could definitely feel the trailer a little more.

We are still loving the ride. Very supple and just really soaks up the bumps. I am noticing here and there the handling differences as sometimes you’ll get maybe an extra bounce when hitting a good size bump or when driving some canyon roads there is a slight floatiness that shows up, but it’s still totally acceptable and confident in its handling.

The front finally sagged into its factory ride height it seems but it’s still riding about 1/2” higher up front then I measured up front with the one blown strut. It’s enough that the front air dam doesn’t scrape on everything anymore. I have the 1.5” leveling kit from Suspension maxx I’m going to throw on soon.

That’s it for now. I’ll give an update if I notice any changes or after we stack some good miles on them!
 

Fifty

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The magnaride vehicles use a softer sway bar than the non magnaride vehicles.
So a hellwig or even just an oem bar from a non magnaride suburban will help the swayee feeling you have.

Also keep an eye on the front springs. My Arnott sagged so much In under a year… I’m just hoping it was a one off.
 

Thrust

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The magnaride vehicles use a softer sway bar than the non magnaride vehicles.
So a hellwig or even just an oem bar from a non magnaride suburban will help the swayee feeling you have.

Also keep an eye on the front springs. My Arnott sagged so much In under a year… I’m just hoping it was a one off.
Really? Got any part numbers for the 2 different sway bars?
My Arnott's in the front settled too.
 

Fifty

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I don’t. There is a thread here somewhere with the info.

As for the Arnott… I had to put a 1.5” level and then they sagged even more.

So I pulled them off and put ADS racing coilovers on.

Arnotts response was “that height is with in spec”. I was pissed. I had less than 3000 miles when I pulled them off.
 

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