516lbs and a add a leaf

1. I assist a friend with his cross town courier services occasionally.
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4. I have between 8-10K miles on my budget lift using a leaf spring from S-10 blazer as a AAL. For the nay sayers that said it would not last-that cheap solutions dont cut it. Before and after pictures today of 516lbs of semi-truck tires. A note that my ride when empty is nearly stock in feel.

 

Surprised no comments...oh well for those that want more carry capacity look no farther than a junk yard and $25 bucks.

 

They will sag out and go negative arch eventually in the 2 years I ran toyota leafs I broke 1 set in half, and sagged out two more in less than a year all using cheap aal got so bad my truck would lean from the weight of my spare tire to the passenger side. They are a short term solution long term they do not stand the test of time. I've had 1000lbs in the back of my truck with the Ome dakars, they took it like a champ and I've still got sOme sweet rake

 

Try it again after a few years of always carrying a load...

 

Springs fatigue over time -whether it is my 66 mustang- the IH I had or the Chevy I owned- this is not meant as endorsement of Toyota springs because they have above average problems-It was a good opportunity to know the exact load weight and for $20 you have to admit that truck is sitting pretty good with that load and having that long aal really seems to help the spring pack support the load better. The local feed store gives a price break at 1000lbs might take advantage of that next time and get a another picture.

 

Most of your ride quality characteristics will be from the front end. I bet the back end will be bouncy as heck. Try driving fast on an overpass with a curve in it, bet your rear wheels jump off the road and to the outside of the curve.

In my experience, the factory springs are perfect for the size of loads that these trucks are suited to move. For instance, one of my heaviest loads was a half yard of limestone screening, 4 bags of polymeric sand, and a flatbed with 6000 pounds of paving stones. It sat about an inch above the bump stops. That would be roughly 1600 pounds PLUS the tongue weight, which was fairly neutral for lower speed city driving. I'd say total was about 2000 pounds.

The problem with the "common" way of thinking of trucks, is that people seem to like the ride height to remain approximately the same when you add a load to the truck. This thinking is unreasonable and inappropriate. There is nothing wrong with it sitting in deeper with a heavy load.

 

I hear what your saying about the spring being able to compress- You may have missed that I have about 10K miles on this set up and using such a long spring as an AAL gave me lift I wanted but also gave a pretty good ride(still has the rake)- which was my main point is that you dont need to spend big $$ to improve the the factory leaf pack.