Stock suspension life?

I was curious to hear from those of you that ran (or are currently running) your stock suspension into high miles, and at what point you had to (or plan to) replace/upgrade. It's not unknown to most Tacoma owners that the stock leaf springs are utter garbage, but I've somehow managed to clock 112K miles on my stock non-tsb springs. They're not broken, but they sure are flat. I haul a lot of firewood, but that is the extent of my major loads. However, 6-8 loads per season (some are hauled in a trailer rather than loaded in the bed) have taken a toll on the springs, and frankly, if my drive my wood supply (parents) to my home wasn't so short, I wouldn't dare do it on the springs I have.

I'm at a point now where if I weren't cheap, and my truck wasn't payed for, I would just pick up a fullsize since I need it. However, I suppose that I will keep my truck for a while longer, and part of me thinks I should replace the coils, struts, and leaf springs if I'm going to continue to haul. I would rather not drop $1500+ into an OME system (which is what I would go with if I were to replace the OEM suspension), but at the same time, I'm not sure how much longer my current suspension will last. I've never kept a truck stock for this long, so this is new territory for me

Just curious to see how far everyone made it on stock struts, coils, springs, etc.

 

10k miles on non-TSB leafs, then from there to 40k miles on TSB leaf springs and from there it was onto a new TSB leaf pack with an AAL and Eibach coils for the front. I was not impressed with the stock suspension.

OP, have you considered air bags for your Tacoma?

 

New shocks and struts at 134k. The stock struts were completely trashed. The rear shocks were very weak but still functioned. My leaf springs haven't seen a lot of loads and I assume it's because the last guy used a tonneau cover doing electrical work. My leaf springs are 3 ply and so I will look to replace or reinforce them. I plan to haul a few 1000 lb bags of gravel from lowes 1 mile to my house over the next few weekends. Then I will see how well the rear holds up. The stock coil springs appeared to be o.k. so I left them.

I would not recommend going over 100k with stock shocks.

 

Well my '11 Taco got uppgraded to OME before it hit 2.5K miles. 885s & Dakars got 3" lift front & rear.
My '95 PreTaco is still on original suspension with 140K miles. The last 8 years it has made at least 12 trips a year hauling firewood 1/4 to 1/2 cord at a time (<1" to axel bump stops). Suspension is OK and since that's all it does it will only be replaced if it breaks.

 

damn, my 07 taco has more miles than your '95

 

About all it's done the last 8 years is haul firewood & get driven when the roads were snowy. And now we have the 4x4 for snow so it only does firewood runs.

 

I should add my rear shocks are not original. I did replace them with 5100s at around 70K miles.

 

I didn't replace my stock suspension till my truck was past 120k miles. I had no sagging problems and have done a lot of driving and traveling in it with a ARE Camper Shell.

Edit: Only reason I upgraded my suspension is because I want to have more accessibility off roading

 

I did 90,000 before replacing the rear shocks with billy's a friend gave me. Springs front and rear are total junk. Put an aal in at 97,000 and noticed one of the billy's is leaking oil. Now I need to replace the front. Only spent $45 on the rear don't think I will be as lucky with the front.

 

Springs and shocks wear out...If my rear leaf spings were flat, I would just go to my local spring shop and either have them rebuild the spring packs for $250 or so (mainly labor) or I would have them cut me some extra leaves, and buy new center pins and ubolts. If they were REALLY bad, put new bushings in the spring eyes...

Howard

 

Sounds good. Not sure what I want to do at this point. I really want out of the truck since I need a larger truck, but at the same time, it's not falling apart, and it's paid for, so I need to assess what I should/can do to keep it capable of handling most of the work I throw at it.

 

If you want to handle loads better and maintain stock height, have you considered air bags? An OME leaf pack is great but will also lift you a couple inches and is not adjustable for the load your carrying. Another option for you might be Timbrens although I think if you're going to spend that kind of money, air bags are a better investment.

 

My rear springs were flat at 60k...somebody said they wear out but this is the first time for me in 30 years of driving.
Airbags were my solution...I like the adjustability.
Front springs are fine...Will add 5100's soon.
Full size truck if you really want a working truck.