Left springs kits

[big sky trapper]

Well im just about ready to order my lift kit for my old 84 toy and would like some real information. (Ive posted on several other sites and recieved little to no reply's or the usuall " imature comments" ... "That brand sucks my brothers ex GF sitser inlaw's cousin had one and its junk" type answers. (One thing I really enjoy about this site is the lack of that stuff! )

What i want out of a lift is a fair ride or at least no worse than my factory 20+ year old worn out springs and shocks, with a modest amount of lift to allow a variety of larger tire sizes aand little more ground clearance, And slightly larger load capacity. Completly bolt on with no welding ect required. I dont have any expectations of it riding Like a newer suspension rig. But dont want a totally bone jarring ride either.

I have it down to two choices. both in the 2-3 inch range. neither should require any steering upgrades ect at the time of install.

The rough country complete "kit" with rear springs. which seems complete but Ive heard rides like (enter your choice of bad words here) Too its perfect. Now all the "rides great flexes good" answers come from non toyota owners usually a blazer/ chevy truck owner. priced about 625 with shipping

And the OME kit. This one includes a few extra like greasable spring pin's and new shackles. Priced about 900 with shipping. This one Ive only found a few actuall installed with really nothing either way to say about it.

Does any one have any first hand experiance with either on a leaf spring toy. Either actually owned one or personally ridden in one.

Thank you again for your comments

 

[DaveInDenver]

I would avoid Rough Country leafs, they are stiff and not a great match on Toyota trucks. There is nothing wrong with them, just that they do not flex very well on mini trucks.

OME is a good choice, good ride. They will sag down, but you have the choice of matching your use and weight to spring rate. The old springs are listed as 50mm lift, which is 2". If you go with medium springs, they are good for about an additional 250 lbs over stock. The lights are good for about 125 lbs over stock and the heavy (or what they used to call constant load) is good for about 500 lbs over stock. Good spring, not cheap.

I use 2" Northwest Offroad stage-2 springs. These are made in Canada and mine have settled to about 1.5" of lift. I leave the WilderNest on the truck all the time, so that's about 300 lbs, along with my Hi Lift, shovel and axe. In all I figure about 400 lbs of constant weight and the springs are about 5 years old now. I run a +1" longer shackle, so have a high side of 2" lift and it's a very good combo with a 33" tire. I can recommend NWOR springs highly, although I hate dealing with NWOR the company. I paid around $300 I think for the set. That is a bare spring price IIRC, so add some for bushings, shackles, etc. If I could, I would use a 2.5" stage-2 NWOR with a stock length shackle, but they only come in 1.5" and 2".

Downey makes good springs. They have a softer ride and will lose more lift than other makes. But they are better for crawling. Never used a set, but there is plenty of experience with them and they are fine.

Neither of my shackles or spring pin are greasable. I have poly bushings and they do squeak. But every few months (usually twice a year) I take everything apart, clean and regrease them. If you are planning on running greasable parts, plan on modifying the bushings, shackles and hangers. Toyota uses a sleeved bushing in the spring bushing eyes and a 14mm bolt. On my truck (a '91 IFS), the top, frame-side bushing is not sleeved and uses an 18mm bolt. So if you plan on running greasable pins, you need to get shackles that use an 18mm bolt and leave the sleeves out. But there are no shackles designed to use an 18mm bolt in both the top and bottom, so you need to drill them out and find an 18mm greasable bolt and as near as I can tell just about no one else has thought about this. You see greasable spring parts all the time with sleeved bushings. This does absolutely nothing, since the grease is forced into the sleeve and if you are lucky a little of it makes it between the bushings an shackle, but none of it ends up in the bushing flutes.

Since you are running an '84 it doesn't help you, but I have 25mm Sway-A-Way torsion bars in the front. They have held the lift (I have them cranked) with the ARB bull bar without much fuss. I'll get around to putting the ball joint spacers soon enough.

Shock wise, I have KYB Gas Adjust (which aren't adjustable) on all four corners. I hate them in the back, way, way underdamped. In the front, they are OK. I paid about $60 a piece and so I am living with them for a little while longer. They will be replaced with OME shocks.

 

[big sky trapper]

Very very good info thank you!

On the OME I was looking at the heavy rear's and the med fronts. then every thing else that come in the "kit" But with this info Im thinking I will go ahead and order the complete OME today! My rear springs are sagging pretty badly and I havnt even put the topper on yet! plus all the other goodies that always end up in the back.

2 inches of lift I think will be easilly sufficient for my travels and still maintain a good C/B.

Again thank you

 

[DaveInDenver]

You can't go wrong with OME, good stuff and they work well on Toyotas. The stuff isn't cheap, but really the only problem is they can sag more than you expect. Going with heavy springs should keep that from happening, though.

 

[cruiseroutfit]

I've done quite a bit with the OME stuff on this era' truck... installs, sales, etc. Always a great ride/fit for those looking to run a 32-33" tire. You can't beat the quality of the OME products IMHO.

If you can really score the authentic OME stuff for $900, I would jump on it... that is a killer deal (far, far under retail)... Make sure they are sending you all of the parts you will need (U-bolts, bushings, etc).

Here is a pic of a recent install the customer sent me... he was beyond please with the end result