Deaver Leaf Pack w/ stock sport suspension

You're not missing anything. I still have the spacers in the front--one of these days I'll get around to doing a real lift on the front end as well. Get the u-bolts and bushings when you order, makes it easy.

 

It really depends upon your budget. It also depends on what you wanna do.
Spacers and pucks and blocks and all that are not recommended but are fine if that's what you can afford And stay within their respective limitations.
Complete suspension retrofit can be pricey so aquiring knowledge by asking questions and doing re-search will cut out all the regrets if you do it wrong.
I thoroughly enjoy that part of it but it could be a headache if you don't understand how it works on these trucks.

 

Vehicle suspension is definitely not my strong suit. Fortunately with a priority in weight tolerance vs off-road performance, it's a little bit less of an infodump

 

When I called to order mine he had already sold the whole run of springs and it took a bit to get them. Worth the wait, but if things are still the same I wouldn't just assume he has them in stock, ready to ship.

 

I had about an inch of lift in the front with adjustable coils, but after a winch and bumper it was back down to stock height. When loaded with my camper though, it seems about perfectly level, so I've left it as is. Obviously I have some serious rake going on when not running heavy. You can see in the first pic below I have about 130 lbs on my swingout, with another 200lbs or so in the bed.



This 2nd image is without the swingout completely, but I did throw 80 lbs of water against the tailgate. The Deavers just ride so much better than most HD leaf packs that it doesn't feel surprisingly rough when unloaded. I've heard it's due to the higher count of thinner leaves for a more gradual spring rate.



One last thing to think of if going Deaver, you should probably upgrade your rear shocks. The stock shocks will act as limit straps for your rear suspensin, as the Deaver's would give more droop. HOWEVER, if you aren't offroading your truck with a wheel or two regularly off the ground, it's probably a non issue, as you'd seldom be hitting full droop hard enough to harm the shocks.

 

I meant that they are flat at ride height. Also springs aren’t a wear item, much like the frame is not a wear item.

 

They may not be a wear item, but overloading a spring can damage it. It will no longer be able revert to it's original state. When this happens you will lose ride height in the rear, leaving less up travel for your suspension, leading to possible poor suspension performance (rough ride, hitting bumpstop regularly, etc). And even if it the OPs current weight/sag isn't enough to damage the leaf spring, you will still get a decrease in up travel and degradation of ride quality (in some situations). He's definitely not going to hurt the truck any with the current leaves, but the ride could definitely improve with a better leaf pack. Though I still think the best for the OP's use case is simply air bags.

 

Deaver can make you a leaf pack for what you are after. You dont have to get an off the shelf one. Call them up and explain your weight

 

I’m skeptical because what you claim doesn’t make much sense from an engineering viewpoint. There’s no way to bend the spring past it’s yield point because the bump stop prevents that. Do you have references for this phenomenon?

 

This is a very simple article, so it's not talking about the real science behind it, and i'm not claiming to know how many oscillations at what range of compression it takes to damage the steel or anything like that.

https://beattiespring.com/blogs/knowledge-center/leaf-springs-durability-q-a

But spring steel has limits, like any steel. You bend it too far, and it won't bend all the way back. And no, the bump stop does not prevent it from going to far. It simply helps lessen the blow when you do surpass the suspension's designed range of motion. A bump stop is not a sumo spring or timbren that is there to help support the load. As an extreme example, think of it like the airbag on your steering wheel. You should never use it, but it's there just in case. If you are striking your bump stop regularly, you are surpassing the suspension's design. These trucks are rated at a specific load, and the springs are designed for it. Quite poorly sometimes, too. The original 2nd gen springs were two leaves plus an overload. You might have heard of the 2nd gen's TSB (Toyota Service Bulletin) for those springs. When actually using the truck as a truck (hauling with 400+ pounds of bed weight), the ride was bad enough Toyota offered to replace the springs with a new pack of 3 + overload, which they also started putting on all new Tacos. The rough ride as Toyota called it was caused by the leaf springs not being able to support the rated weight well enough over bumps and you'd be whacking the bump stops regularly. Most people who owned a Tacoma never noticed, cause most never haul anything. And that's fine, for majority of people the truck rode awesome as it was.

And the main thing the OP needs is simply support for his extra load so that he can still get the correct range of up and down travel for a smooth as unloaded ride. The oem springs cannot do that.

 

My point was that the bump stop prevents the leaf spring from bending to the point that it yields, i.e. deforms. Once the leaf spring contacts the bump stop, all the force is being transmitted directly into the frame instead of the leaf spring.

Yes steel subjected to repeated cycling will eventually fatigue and fail, but we are taking about a long, long time assuming there are no manufacturing defects and the loads are within the limits published by the manufacturer.

Have trust in your Toyota engineers. They might know more than you.

 

This is my final comment in this thread.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Yl1FNX08HFc