Adding Load Capacity w/ Blistien Coils

97 Tacoma single cab w/ Blistien shocks. I'm fairly certain it has also been lowered a bit, maybe 1" from stock.

I need to increase my load capacity, I use the truck for work and often carry drywall and heavy loads which I simply don't feel comfortable carrying with the 3 leaf springs I have in the rear. Ideally I would like to take the truck back to stock height and in addition add leaf springs, this would allow me to run a taller tire and add comfort/ load capability in the process.

What are my options?

More leaf springs in the rear? If so, how many?
Will the Blistien coils be sufficient? Or should I look into putting stock suspension back in?
Where is the most common place to get leaf springs? Can napa/orielys order them? Or am I stuck going to the dealer for $texas?

 

Check out Wheelers Off-Road for a pair of OME front coil springs like 881's and pair it with their Wheeler's 5 leaf rear leaf springs:

 

Contact "4WD" here to talk with him about adding springs or go to a spring shop and have leaf springs added. A spring shop will make springs for. You can either install them yourself or have them do it.

DO NOT GOT TO TOYOTA DEALER, NAPA, OR A PARTS HOUSE.

 

If it matters the truck is a 2wd, with a 5speed manual and the 2.7L 4cyl.

 

Oh then yeah what I posted wont work.

 

Also, trying to stick with stock or lower ride height, not looking for a lift (although I do realize adding leafs will lift the rear a bit)

 

Yeah I checked out the link and thought.... I don't think this will work =p

Thanks for the suggestion though =)

 

are you a five lug?
edit: derr you're a six lug (Bilsteins)
if it's lowered, usually it takes a lot of modding to lower a six lug. to reverse it may not be cheap. and to lift a five lug is a chore and half.

if you are a six lug, however, the coils are not by Bilstein and the shocks are not what you should be worrying about when talking about load capacity. it's the coils, and if they're stock, they're crap. get OME or Toytec coils with new shocks (standard length shocks will not work)

 

Just a sec I'm going to confirm all this...

 

5 Lug
Shocks are for sure Blistien

I don't want to raise anything if I don't have to, I simply want to be able to carry more load in the bed without hitting bumpstops.

These pictures should help..... Looks like the U-joints are flipped in the rear to me.

I really just don't know what has been done to the suspension here... I'm not farmiliar with truck suspension. However, it looks to me that if I were to add any leaf springs the rear shocks would be maxed beyond spec.

 

Could I install these http://timbren.com/ses-kit-lookup/ and be okay?

They look like they might be too tall =/

 

oh wow you are a five lug, I'm surprised! the previous owner must have swapped for bilsteins. that's not a factory thing, I don't believe.

unfortunately this is bad news for you. trying to add lift or load capacity to give luggers is a real PITA. I'm sure the rear can be converted to spring over axle quite easily, but the front is another story. lifting the front of a five lug usually involves stacking lifts to yield very little lift (in terms of how much a 4x4/prerunner can achieve) and to get much higher would require a full LT conversion, I believe.

 

Yeah, looking at how tight things are up there I figured it would require much more involvement than simply swapping coils/shocks.

Would the Timbren's be a suitable solution for the rear?

I'm really not concerned about the fronts, they do fine. But the rears give me concerns when I'm stacking drywall or a full load of wood on the racks.

 

Would it be possible to put in a smaller spacer between the leafs and the axle, then add a few leafs to make up the difference?

 

no adding different bump stops will not help, you'll just be riding bump stops still. and they don't make AAL's for five luggers, I don't think, even if they did they wouldn't increase ride height because the springs are under the axle not over.

honestly outside of converting the rear to spring over axle I'm not sure of how to increase your capacity on five luggers. maybe try those spring helpers? they're like leafs that are mounted and sit above the whole leaf packs and are connected to help distribute the load. but I've honestly never heard of anyone here using them and they look a little gimmicky but hey, whatever works

 

From reading the Timbren's literature it sounds lilke the whole point is that I ride on the bump stops, and that they act more like a spring than a regular bump stop when carrying a load.

I will look into it further, might have to do something drastic!

 

You are correct on the Timbrens. That is their intended purpose. Would airbags be an option?

 

They might be, however, I figure for my purposes I'm going to get the same performance out of the Timbrens.... without all the extra supportive elements of airbags (compressor, air lines, regulators, etc... )

I just need to carry heavy shit every now and then, and I don't want to sacrifice my already good ride quality.

 

it looks like lowering blocks are between leafs and axle, take the blocks out and your rear end will rise, whatever they did to lower the front may be a bit harder to correct...you will have to get shorter U bolts to reassemble....

I would start with getting the blocks out first and see how the rear hangs...

more pics of the front suspension???? did they use lowering spindles?

 

Yeah, +2 on taking the 2" block out of the back to get that back up and looks like some different coils will be needed to get the front back up. Do the back first and see what the rake is then you'll have idea on how much the front needs to go up to be where you want it......unless they did use drop spindles then you'd just need the stock spindles. From what I can see they appear to be stock ones which would bring us back to needing different coils.