AAL question

I have a 23 OR DCSB. I have Bilstein 5100’s all around. Right now the front is set at the middle clip giving me 1.1” of lift. I want to bump that up to the top clip giving me 2” in the front. I got the wheelers 1.5” AAL for the rear and have read some controversy online about keeping the overload spring in or not. I know I’d be looking at a 2” lift in the rear if I do keep it in and once the leaf springs settle I’d be around 1.5”.

I don’t ever haul a load in the back so not concerned with losing payload if I remove the overload. My concern is the truck being leveled. I know the leaf springs will settle eventually which will end up giving me an approx .5” rake in the back if I keep the overload in. Since I prefer it to be leveled would it be smart to remove the overload to give me the 1.5” lift in the rear and once settled it should bring it down to 1” to give me that 2/1 level I want?

Am I thinking about all of this correctly. Thanks for the help.

also if I decide to remove the overload do I need to take off the bracket on it and put it on the new AAL? That part I don’t understand in the install.

 

I just added the wheeler's AAL, keeping the Overload spring in mine, which gave me an increase of ~ 1, 7/8 , putting me approx 1" over stock due to my medium payload. (would probably be close to 2" if I diddn't have extra weight on my vehicle)

I opted to go with 1.5 in the front, so I'd have around .5" of rake, but then again my net lift in the rear is only 1" over stock.

BTW, here are some minor things I encountered with the Wheelers AAL that I diddn't account for.
- You will need to cut the front bracket off the OL spring if you opt to keep it as it would otherwise collide with the guide bracket on the AAL.
- Unless you add a rubber pad to the front of the OL spring, the rivet from the AAL is likely going to chatter against it.
- You need to cut one of the rear brackets on the factory leaf off so that the rear bracket of the AAL doesn't collide with it.

You probably want to keep the OL if you plan to haul anything heavy or tow, it can get in the way and colide with object if you do more extrreme offroading tyhough.

 

i appreciate the advice and insight. I’m probably going to remove the overload as I don’t ever haul anything in the back and would rather get closer to level with the 1.5” of leaving it out. The thing that doesn’t make sense is the brackets that are installed on the stock overload. Does the new AAL not need these on?

 

I bolted the hanger bracket for the rear parking cable to the AAL's guide and will be keeping an eye on it for rubbing incase I need to make an extension or offset bracket for it.

 

I added a 1/2 inch 4 degree shim under the leaf pack when I added an add-a-leaf. Killed two birds with one stone. To attach the parking brake cable I drilled/tapped new holes to the existing bracket.

 

I didn’t get a guide with my AAL? Am I missing something?

 

Ohhhh, that's a single leaf AAL (which will likely ride very harsh with a stock load truck) I assumed you got a 1.5" progressive AAL pack.

 

But yes, in this case I'd personally want to keep the OL spring in to act as a guide...

 

I have the bilstein 5100’s all around. They used to be set to the top perch so they were at 2” up front. I have the Icon AAL and the headstrong off road 1/2” shim under the Icon AAL. I took the overload spring out. With that combination, the truck was perfectly level or occasionally appeared to have a slight squat depending on where it was parked. I hope that helps.

 

Your AAL is not multi-leaf with guide brackets, you need to keep the overload, so i assume your lift will be 1.5" with the OL retained.

PER ". (NOTE FOR MULTI-LEAF AAL INSTALLATIONS: The multi-leaf Add-A-Leaf packs are designed to replace your factory overload leaf for maximum performance. In some cases customers have opted to retain the factory overload leaf for extra load stability and additional ride height.)."

 

ahhh damn. I knew something didn’t make sense. Yeah it’s just the single AAL. That kind of sucks cause I called Wheelers to ask these questions and they said I could use this with or without the overload. Which didn’t seem right to me cause of the guides aren’t on it. It seems leaving the overload in is going to give me a 2” rear lift. I may just go with the Icon AAL then. Well fuck lol

 

You'd have to confirm with them, but my assumption is that as the instructions only specify to remove the OL for the Multi-Spring packs, they figured the OL into their 1.5" lift spec, so you'd be getting 1.5" not 2"

 

yeah I’m gonna call and talk to someone else cause the guy I talked to at Wheelers said I could keep or remove the OL and with it in that would give me the 2”. I really appreciate your help and reply’s though man!