Removing leaf on Deaver springs

Has anyone removed leafs from Deaver springs?

I have the Stage 3 rear leaf springs from Deaver. Supposedly, they should yield about 2" of lift with 700-1000 lbs on the bed. I'm closer to 1100 lbs when fully loaded and that rear is sitting more like 3.5" of lift. It's kind of too much and I'm hoping to bring that down. I could try Stage 2 but those are only rated for 400-600 lbs and I know and far beyond that. Even on a daily, I'm about 800 lbs. Plus, I'd hate to buy another set of springs.

I wonder if I can remove a leaf from the Stage 3 pack and achieve a lower lift. I know others have done this with other brands of leaf springs. Has anyone done this on Deavers?

 

I’ve done it to mine. I have the state 3 Deavers as well but run them as a semi-stage 2. I played with leaf removal and I think I ended up settling on removing the 3rd or 4th leaf to get what I wanted. I will say that I run a mostly empty bed (softopper, which weighs nothing), hi lift jack and 3gal rotopax. But I do have a steel high clearance bumper. I prefer the firmer ride and am happy with the height. For your setup/weight I can’t say which leaf to remove exactly to achieve what you’re after so you might have to play with it. I personally had to break my leaf pack down 3 times to end up where I am now.

 

Good to know you achieved this.

Do you know what was the height difference when you removed the leaf?

Also, removing a leaf gave you a firmer ride? I feel I already have a firm as it is so I’m curious to know how that could be affected.

What was your deciding factor when braking down your leafpack and removing different leafs?

 

I didn’t measure for height while I was testing. Height was an afterthought for me and I was chasing the correct ride by feel.

I meant I have a firm ride because I’m running a stage 2 leaf pack with little to no weight in the bed of my truck. Removing the leaf softened the ride from the stage 3 setup but is “firm” based on Deavers recommended settings.

As far as deciding which leaf to remove I just guessed really. My experience installing icons RXT leafs on several trucks and their instructions for setting the leaf pack as a stage 1, 2, or 3 tells you which leaf to remove or replace. So I kind of used that as my starting point. Even though they’re completely different leaf packs, the idea behind the stack is the same. At least that was my thinking as a non-engineer/dude with tools that isn’t afraid to take stuff apart. Ultimately I’m very happy with what I ended up with and if I ever add more weight in the bed, I can jump to stage 3 by adding the missing leaf back to the stack.

 

This makes sense. I also had the Icon Rxt before the Deaver and it was leaf #3 that was replaceable. That would be my first point of attack when doing this. I know others have done this with Alcan leaf springs so it sounds like #3 or 4 is the golden ticket.

I’ll go after that and see where it gets me. Thanks for chiming in.

 

No clue how I stumbled on this topic, but the single highlighted sentence above just makes me smile.

I might be alone in this, but a commonality I’ve noticed with many (not all) engineers I’ve interacted with is that there seems to be a need to tell/remind you that they’re an engineer.

Could be a prerequisite to obtaining an engineering degree. I dunno. I’m not an engineer either.

Apologies for the thread derail. Back to leaf packs

 

I’m not an engineer but I like to take stuff apart to figure out how they work and put them back together. Most of my vehicles get taken apart to some degree within the first few days of ownership.

 

Let us know how it goes! I'm experiencing the same thing here but with a stage 2 setup.

 

Debating on doing this as well but I have custom XXHD 14-1500 lbs. may need to change my shock mounts too but so far the ride hasn’t been as good as I expected. Rear is more flexy and it’s noticeable but seems too stiff. Height is okay a LT ouch could be a tad lower. Likely sitting around 2.75-3” but this pack was supposed to have 3” lift on it. Do the stg 3 have overload springs? I can’t recall the XHD have 1 and the XXHD have 2 on top of 9 or 10 leaves.

 

Hey man do you have a link to these springs? I just added Stage 3 Deavers and am thinking I should have gone heavier. They ride way nicer than my HD Dakars with AAL but I am concerned I undersized myself.

 

They are not listed on the site. You need to call or have your vendor call. They call them the XHD or XXHD. If you think they are soft now they likely will go flat or soft down the line. What is the truck weighing in now? Funny I am thinking I may have gone too heavy but I think it may some other issues. Truck just needs some tuning (I hope)

But give Deaver a call put in the order then sit back and wait 3 months.

 

Yeah probably should have about three weeks ago

 

Glad I stumbled upon this thread. I have a 3rd gen that weights 6320 lbs (including my fat ass, but fridge and waterport taken out), but I don't think I actually have over 700 lbs in the bed. Have a non hc bumper with a swing-out for now, but that will be replaced with high clearance without swing-out (I tow a camper, so swing-out has to come out for that). I do understand that Deavers are built differently than OME or Icon, that's why I wasn't sure if removing leafs is a good idea.
I run Dakars now, for over 75K miles. They started as Medium Pack, but as I added a buper, I had to add-a-leaf to it. They struggle now, bottom out easily, and by now I gave up on trying to quiet them down...

Thanks for doing the legwork on this!! How long do you run this "custom" setup?? Did you notice any sagging?

 

Still running the leaf pack the same way. Been a few years now. I didn’t notice sagging but I’m not the type of guy to take a tape measure to my truck. My setup has always had some rake to it too so it would take a lot of sag to visually notice.

I will say I’m due to replace the bushings soon so the leaf pack will get broken down and cleaned before going back in.