Wheelers 5-Leaf, or OME Leafs?

[Dusty T.]

Time to upgrade the rear suspension! I've narrowed my research down to the OME CS046R springs made by Dakar and the Wheeler's 5-leafs made by Alcan. Mostly looking for something that can handle some carrying capacity that will provide a mild 1-2" lift to boot. I do not want to install a differential drop kit to compensate up front and have limited garage entry height so I'm staying away from a 3" lift. I also want to stick with the stock tire size at 265/70/16 (31") but may go to 265/75/16 (32").

I can't decide which to go with. The Wheeler's 5-leaf pack sounds like it gives me just the right amount of lift at 1.5", but I've read some mixed reviews on the quality of their springs and instances of them flattening out after a couple years. The OME appears to have 6-8 leafs in their pack, and I've read of fewer issues with their quality. My main concern with the OME's is I'll end up with too much lift at 2.25-2.5". With that much lift, I'd imagine I'd need to put at least 2" of lift on the front and likely need to drop the diff, and need larger tires to fill out the wheel wells, etc...

Weightwise, I'm always carrying around 200 LBS in the bed between the canopy, battery, and emergency gear. During road trips, I'll add another 300-400 LBS of water, fuel, and camping gear to the bed, and sometimes a hitch-mounted bike rack with 120 LBS of bikes and rack hanging off the back of the truck. This brings the total weight up to around 700 LBS for a weekend to week-long road/offroad trip.

Those of you who have experience with either leaf pack, please chime in! Hate to spend the money and end up with the same saggy leaf problem I'm having now. I need to decide soon, so I can get these installed during the upcoming holiday. Thanks for all the help!

 

[cruiseroutfit]

Dakar, the CS046R starts as a medium load ~2.5", you can pull a specific leaf to get closer to 1.75". If/when they settle down the road you can re-install the leaf and if additional capacity is needed go further with an AAL thus making them a heavy load @ 2.5". I've run them on my personal Tacoma's for a few hundred k's with zero problems.

 

[Dusty T.]

I called ARB about that and the tech I spoke with didn't highly recommend removing the extra leaf. He was concerned that it would change the dynamics of the leafs and how they will handle under load. I've read about folks here doing that though.... Which leaf is the best to remove? I believe there are two overloads in that pack. Thanks.

 

[cruiseroutfit]

Well call someone who deals with them daily

I respect their advice but we have removed them on customer installs as well as advised many customers on removing different springs in the CS046R. In your case, the upper overload would likely be my recommendation.

 

[keezer37]

Though it's a Tacoma of another time, I recently installed Dakars (CS047) on my truck. I had run OE and a single AAL that originally gave me 1.75' of lift. Though I did not measure, it was no more than 1.5" when I removed them for the Dakars. I was apprehensive about the Dakars with the 2.75" max lift claim. But went with them as tried and true. Let someone else prove the Wheeler's. Anyways, my truck didn't even come up to level. Just a tad off so I ended up putting the extra leaf (D29XL) to make it so. Why I didn't get anywhere near the lift? I don't know. Just relaying what is as sighted. Perhaps I should measure just for posterity. That's my story.

I'd get the Dakars. Put them in as is. Wait, and go from there. The factory rep most likely did not recommend removing a leaf as they have no engineering data on doing such a thing. Gotta watch what they recommend, eh? But you have Kurt who is in the business where the rubber meets the road at Crusier Outfitters so that info I would take as being solid.

 

[4Rescue]

OME Dakars...

I've had OME leaves/suspensions on a lot of Toyotas from my personal 1st Gen to all of our Farm Trucks/my trucks in Australia and I'm in the process of putting OME leaves in place of the coils in the rear of my new 2nd Gen 4Runner project. I've yet to get a "bad" set or find an application where they didn't do everything I needed them to, and they still flex really well off-road for all the load capacity they give. Add in the fact that they're some of the best value suspensions on the market and they get pretty hard to beat.

I'd also agree with Keezers assessment on why the rep. told you not to remove the leaf but as Kurt/others have said, it works just fine.

Cheers

Dave

 

[Dusty T.]

Good info. Which leaf do you remove? I also checked with a local offroad shop and they were not sure about removing the leafs either. I may check again with ARB/Dakar, to confirm. Also, anyone recommend a good shop in the Portland OR Area? The one I'm talking with did a great job welding on the Demello frame plates, but they're leaning toward selling me a full OME lift kit which is more height than I want.

FYI, looking at the Toytec Coilovers (like the adjustability options) for the front, 5100's and about 1.5-1.75" of lift for the rear. I'll be cutting it close fitting into my garage with an OME 2-2.5" lift.....



Thanks!

 

[Arktikos]

NW offroad sells replacement springs that provide much more load carrying capacity than stock ( I think 700 lbs more), yet supposedly lift a max of 3/4". I'd also be concerned about too much lift with OME.

 

[GTABurnout]

I have dakars in the back of my truck. I also have a Icol mid travel in the front. No Diff drop needed. If you have 200 bls in the bed most the time they will be fine. My truck used to run around completly unloaded but the addition of the spare in the bed or in the factory location settled down the back nicely. 30-400 lbs will make it sice and bring it down a little.

OME Front shocks a 885 springs
Dakar rear springs. Stock suspension in bed with stock spare. 265 tires.

same wheels and tires but added Icon Mid Travel up front. And unloaded bed with just a spare in stock location. added sliders as well

285's with spare and High lift in bed.

And loaded down for a week long trip to Cali. Shell, Spare, Highlift, bags, tools, etc...

 

[TacomaJack09]

I wouldn't recommend the wheelers 5 pack, I had it on my 1st gen Tacoma and it settled more than I would've liked. I ran the bilstein 5100's with stock coils on the middle setting, and 5100's in the back with the wheelers 5 pack. It looked great at first, perfect height, rode great, but that quickly changed. I never carried heavy loads, left my shell on full time, and had my backpacking gear in the back most of the times. I would've ended up with longer shackles or an aal if I would've kept the truck (should have). Before it sold, it looked like it was lifted for Baja. I've included pics below but it doesn't capture what I saw in person. Tires remained the same size: 31 x 10.5 x 15.


Right after install:


Month after install:

 

[Dusty T.]

Dakar, the CS046R starts as a medium load ~2.5", you can pull a specific leaf to get closer to 1.75". If/when they settle down the road you can re-install the leaf and if additional capacity is needed go further with an AAL thus making them a heavy load @ 2.5". I've run them on my personal Tacoma's for a few hundred k's with zero problems.

How much lift can I realistically expect with the CS046R's with my canopy and aux battery after the leafs settle? 1.75-2"? Right now, the rear fenders are sitting at 35.5" from the ground with 265/75/16 tires. I'm pretty sure that's about an inch lower than stock height. Would I be looking at about 37.5" after the leafs are installed? I'd love to see some measurements from folks running these leafs. Searched around but have come up with very little info.

 

[pray4surf]

I too have been running the wheeler's 5-leaf pack for about 3 years now. It was a dramatic improvement over the fatigues OE leafs which had a negative arch even with an empty load. I was pleased with the lift I achieved. They cannot handle much of a load though. Loaded for trips with the usual camping/wheeling gear (incl a CampingLab RTT) and I had to take it easy on the bumps. To top that off, I use the truck regularly to haul debris and recyclables. It is not uncommon to load over a half ton of refuse and it sure taxes the leaves.

I was more impressed with the Deaver 3 leaf add-a-leaf we put on my daughters 02 Ex-Cab taco. Since we put her truck into hauling duties on occasion, the same 1000 lb + load doesn't drop the tail end of the truck near as far as mine.

Both vehicles use the Billy 5100 series shocks

It is time for new leaf packs for my truck...

Rick

 

[Dusty T.]

All very good info and feedback, thanks! It's too bad I've read so many mixed reviews on the Wheeler's 5-leaf, because it seems to provide the perfect amount of lift for what I want to do. And they're made locally, too.

At this point, I'm probably going to spring for the OME/Dakars with Nitrochargers for the rear, and Toytec coilovers for the front. Should gain about 3" since the suspension has settled about 1" below stock at this point. I like the idea of being able to adjust the rake to my liking and as the rear leafs begin to settle... Will probably go with BFG All Terrains in the 275/75/16. This setup should suit my needs well. Guess I'll have something to do for the upcoming holiday

 

[Redneck_toy]

At this point, I'm probably going to spring for the OME/Dakars with Nitrochargers for the rear, and Toytec coilovers for the front. Should gain about 3" since the suspension has settled about 1" below stock at this point. I like the idea of being able to adjust the rake to my liking and as the rear leafs begin to settle...

I just put the toytech coil overs, and Dakar rear springs with Bilstein 5100's on my 02 double cab about two weeks ago. Overall, I am very pleased with the setup, night and day difference over the worn stock suspension. I didn't measure before and after, but I know I don't have 2.75" of lift. More like 2". It's already settled a lot. I think you'll be happy with this setup. I opted the the light racing upper control arms. Well worth the money in my opinion. I'll try to post some pics later

 

[Redneck_toy]

Here's a few pics of my truck.







Sorry for the quality, cell phone pics are all I have right now
These pics were snapped the morning after the install. The front has settled down a little since. It now has a more factory stance, or rake to it.