Hammer Hangers® by Archive Garage 2005-2023 Tacoma Shackle Hangers

Anyone else run into this annoyance? We’re having the time of our lives trying to get the shackle to line up with the hammer hangers. We’re reverting to ratchet straps…

 

At about 7:40 in it looks like the shackle gets removed from the leaf pack, installed in the HH, and then bolted back to the leaf pack.

 

We tried that method and couldn’t get the front eye to line up. In order for the whole rear to sit in the hanger before doing the front eye we had to wedge the front eye of the spring to the right or left of the eye bracket. Then we couldn’t move the leaf spring from to get it back into alignment with the front eye because it was wedged. I’m thinking the Dobinson’s springs require the stock position?

 

And you may be the first one experimenting with V3's and Dobinsons. The video has the HHs hanging loosley, and then he torques the bolts after the shackle install, but that may not make a difference if the leafs don't fit in the new position.

 

Could be the geometry is different slightly. I haven’t heard of many people running the V3’s with Dobinson’s. We got it, though. We had to ratchet strap it in there and perform surgery to get the bolt torqued down. Man what a pain. Also that grease bolt isn’t making contact and I know I need to hack that exhaust (before anyone asks)


Onto welding the shock towers… and then doing it all over again

 

It's not the HH. I just installed Dobinsons leaves to my truck. I attached to the stock hanger/shackles first and then had to ratchet the leaf springs forward, in combination with jacking up under the axle to align them vertically.

 

Thanks for the confirmation. Glad I’m not the only guy out there with a set of ratchet straps trying to muscle that thing in there.

 

I installed v3 with dobinsons last weekend. Just had to lower the axle a little bit to give slack and hammer it in.

 

Mine go on tomorrow....

 

Did you get the greasable Dobinsons bolts as well? Did they fit into the frame mounts at the front of the leaf spring?

If by "mine" you mean Dobinsons leaf springs AND greasable bolts, please report back on if the greasable bolts fit into the frame mounts at the front of the leaf springs.

 

https://www.dobinsonsdirect.com/pro...kit-for-toyota-tacoma-and-tundra-2005-to-2018

According to the product description from Dobinsons :
These greasable pins replace the factory bolts at the ends of the leaf springs to enable you to grease the Dobinsons greasable bush kit, and will suit the following vehicles: Toyota Tacoma 2005-2017 Toyota Tundra 2007-2018
Can be used on the fixed end, or on the shackle end. Order 2 kits for 4 bolts total, enough for 1 vehicle.

 

By "mine" I mean Hammer Hangers. I have heavy dakars as of right now but will be going with deavers very soon.

 

negative. A hollow suspension bolt doesn’t sound like a good idea to me, and @ARCHIVE recommends against using them with the hammer hangers if I remember correctly.

why introduce a weak point in your suspension?

 

I don't see the point of a greasable bolt on the shackle. Any grease on the bushings just gets caked with dirt and it isn't like the U-joints on the drive shaft where you push the old grease out with the grease gun. Any time you want to add grease, you'll still have to loosen/remove the bolt to get the old grease and dirt out. At that point you might as well clean the bushings and re-grease them as well.

Edit: the only pro I see to it is if the bolt is full of grease, it has a more grease volume at the expense of the volume of the bolt being hollowed out. That may also be a con if you're doing anything faster than crawling.

 

PLEASE DON'T USE the Dobinsons greasable bolts, they don't fit, they ram into the Hh tube upright, they also use split lock washers, terrible idea for automotive use, will rust up right away

And obviously it would be pointless for anyone who has Archive shackles which have a grease fitting in the shackle. That is the right way to grease shackles. The bolts are doing it backwards

 

I see you put a washer under the head of the grease bolt, please make sure the bolt threads are not jamming into the Hammer hanger tube.

I don't approve of using any bolt in the Hh that we don't supply, and if anyone cracks the Hh by doing this, it's on you, no warranty assistance.

 

Yes there is daylight between the threads and the hanger. The washer is there as a spacer per Dobinson’s instructions.

 

I was not suggesting or asking about a greasable bolt in the shackle itself, whether OEM or HH shackle.

I was purely asking about the fixed end of the leaf spring at the middle of the vehicle. Under the cab. Toward the front. However you want to word it.

I do want to reiterate in case anyone else misread my post - NO greasable bolt in the shackle!

 

So in the past, I have been saying Dobinsons springs were a good option that didn't need modification. That was true then, however, Dobinsons made a change to the 110 and 111 leaf packs that will now interfere and likely damage the Tacoma shackles, stock or aftermarket, stock hangers or aftermarket.

Now, ALL Australian spring brands need modification to work properly with the Tacoma shackle arrangement. This is ludicrous that the Australians don't design for the application, just take their Hilux design (different shackle arrangement) and shove it out there for Tacomas.

 

the 112 leaf pack is the same. You can add that to your list, lol.