Toyota TSB 6 pack

This is the results of a homemade Toyota 6 leaf pack. I purchased a tsb set from AK27 a few months ago and wanted to insert one or two of those leafs into my tsb pack. I have the toytec 1.5 tsb aal in right now and will be removing it in hopes to gain more capacity for towing our trailer without sacrificing ride quality. The toytec aal worked fine but the arch of it never really matched the factory pack. I noticed the end of the leaf was bent up and was doing most of the work while the rest was pretty much flat. The only way I could match the arch perfectly was to use Toyota leafs so I thought I would give it a try.



I made two aal’s from the donor pack. A long one and shortone. In the first picture you can see the difference.




I would make the long one from the second leaf down from the top, that wraps itself around the bushing mount at the front, and the second shorter one from the leaf that is right above the thick overload leaf. I would cut the two of them so that they would sit just below their respective leafs in my pack on the truck. See pictures. I drilled holes at the ends for the factory friction pads to sit in. They weren’t round but I cut them to fit into round holes and set them in when the paint was wet so they would stick a bit better.



Install went not bad. The long one was very tight inserting it through the factory clamps that hold the pack straight. With some prying and words of encouragement they went in. The passenger side was worse cause of the exhaust system being in the way. The short one just went in where the toytec aal was.

I gained about ¾ inch of additional height with the new pack versus from the tsb aal. The tsb aal lost 2& ¾ inches with the 670 lbs over the hitch and the new set up loses 2 inches with the same weight over the hitch. I am a little over an inch higher with the same weight in the back. The first picture is the tsb aal with 670 lbs and the second is the new 6 pack with the same weight.





The arch of the leafs are all the same now. The ride is the same as before and feels great. I am looking forward to the first trip with the trailer and will report back how it fares on the highway and post some pictures of the difference with the trailer on.

I put camburg UCA's on at the same time so i will need another alignment before we go on holidays.
Cheers

 

Very nice, I like it! Keep us posted on the ride once you put it to use.

 

Thanks, most of the weight is from the four 90 lb patio stones in the box right at the back , half out over the tailgate to simulate hitch weight and then my wife and son sat on the end of the tailgate. Wanted to have most of the weight over the ball area or behind it as a trailer tongue would be.

 

These are some pics of the donor pack before cutting and what it looked like when they were in my pack on the truck.

 

Some more results. The first picture is our trailer with the weight distribution on and the toytec 1.5 tsb aal. You can see the truck has negative rake but the trailer is level.




Now this was today with our trailer on , NO weight distrubution system and a 2 inch drop draw bar. The truck has positive rake and the trailer is a little nose high.



This last picture has 300 lb's in the rear with NO weight distribution and the 2 inch drop draw bar. The truck still has positive rake and the trailer is nose high by 1/4 inch. As close to level as i can get. More weight would level the trailer out perfectly and the truck still has 3/4 inch of positive rake till level.





I am very pleased with the results of the new aal's. It has settled in to be exactly the same height as before with the tsb aal but my capacity has been increased significantly. The ride is perfect. My wife can not tell the difference. Should have done this the first time.

 

+1 for you! That is an upgrade to be done extremely soon to my truck! I need about 3/4-1" lift in the back to get the look I want and some extra capacity. Very well done!

 

Bumping this for ya man! Can't believe someone else hasn't had anyhting to say about these!

 

Thanks Man. Not in it for the glory. I just did it to make my truck the way it should have been from the factory.
If you are thinking about this I have more pics with some more details if yoiu require.
Thanks for the support.

 

nice alternative to buying a leaf pack

 

Haha I just want you to get the props you deserve! I'm looking into doing it and I'm fairly mechanical so I don't think Id need any more pics if I do end up doing it.

 

looks awesome Neal!

 

Just got back from a 7 day trip with the trailer on the new aal's. They performed better than i had hoped for. We had everything we own in the back and the boats on top with the trailer loaded for camping and the truck is dead level and so is the trailer.
The tongue is a little more that 425 lbs (if our bathroom scale is accurate when it goes around more than once) and the bed of the truck had 2 boats, 2 mountain bikes, BBQ and stand, tool box, folding chairs and tables, fishing gear, fuel, two tanks of water(24 liters) , two rugs and some wood.




This is a pic of it just as we entered the park. I am very happy with the way it handles on the highway. Smooth and steady without any harshness or jarring, even on some bad roads. Hope my results helps.

 

nice work neal

 

If you were to add just one leaf instead of two which one would you add? I essentially want ½-1" of lift

 

Good question...... I think the shorter leaf is stronger than the longer one. I can not be 100% on that but before i installed the whole thing i did some "tests" on them for myself.
I stood on the long leaf flipped upside down and looked at how much it sagged and did the same on the shorter one. Granted the longer one would sag more anyways cause of leverage but it seemed "softer". I think toyota added the shorter one to increase the capacity of the 3 pack.
I have also thought of making the shorter one shorter. The one I put in was a bit longer than the aal from toytec cause i thought if the plan backfired and i went up too high i could cut it shorter while on the truck and avoid the dis-assembly process and the cost of another set of u-bolts or remove it completely as it is the easiest to get back out (being on the bottom).
To answer your question I would try the short one. I think it should give you the 1 inch cause ....

1..... it is the stronger(? i think) of the two.
2..... it is the easiest to get to and install.
3..... you could cut it shorter while on the truck if you got too much
4..... being the same arch as the factory pack, it will conform better to the pack you have and sit a little lower than the toytec aal.(my best guess)




These are mine with the tsb aal in the middle. The shorter one has less arch than the tsb, but sits in the pack better. I think it is a tiny bit stronger as well. I would guess as well when putting the two identical leafs beside each other in the pack they compliment each other and work better. (One being shorter of course)

I am by NO means sure of these things but they have been on now for 3 trips with the trailer and around 5000 km of towing and have held up very well. I think it looks great and even unloaded it is not harsh at all. I would not say it is the same as a dakar pack from ARB but somewhere between it and a factory. I have heard the dakars need some weight to ride better as there purpose is for more capacity but mine don't need that. To bad you aren't closer, I would let you take it for a drive for yourself.

Let me know what happens and the results. Do you know what height you are going for?? I could go out and measure mine in the shop and then you would have some starting points to do the math. Good luck Nick.

Cheers

 

Well done. In both ingenuity and results.

+1

 

Thanks for your help

 

Props to the OP, NIce work.
Correct me if im wrong, but is the TSB leaf in this pic a Deaver leaf? im just looking at the sticker.

 

Yup. It's a Deaver pack. I got mine from Toytec and they came with a Deaver decal on them so I would assume Deaver is making them for Toytec.

 

Very cool & effective......Props to ya OP.