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

Good luck getting them off in reusable condition.

 

It's possible if you use a little caution. Did it on my last truck, reinstalled them when I traded it in for my current truck.

 

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just ordered mine, cant wait

 

FINALLY, Took the opportunity of the long weekend to knock out my Hammer install!! @ARCHIVE Garage You guys got that figured out really well! I had no trouble removing the old hangers.

The instructions are pretty self explanatory. Little confusion about the forward and re hole positions. When I managed to get the first hanger off it made more sense.

Managed to keep the old one is good shape if anyone wants them?

I did find the trick to the front rivet on both sides is easier to remove with an air hammer and sharp chisel. Also helpful if you have cut side fenders from a HC bumper, allows a ton more work room for drilling the two side rivets out.

 

@dumontrider

 

Good lookin' out thanks. I got a set that aren't in great condition but should be good enough. If someone is wheeling a stock rig hard enough that these not perfect hangers break....well buyer beware and whatnot. I got the driver side done today. Hopefully passenger side tomorrow and I can finally get it to the dealer for the leaf spring recall they've been hounding me about.

Mmm basic bitch stockness:

 

Last call for the 10% sale, code drops off tomorrow. Thank you for your orders, we appreciate the support

 

Did mine last weekend. It was a bit of a battle getting the old ones off but install went fairly well on my own. Definitely worth the trouble!

I used an angle grinder with cutoff disc to score the heads enough for an air hammer with chisel tip to sheer them off. Then hammered the factory mounts off and finished removing the rivets by drilling out the centers and hitting them with the air hammer to punch them out. For some it helped to use the air hammer with chisel tip on the backside of the rivet to finish getting them out. It also helped a lot to use vice-grips to keep the factory crossmember tight to the frame when hammering out the bottom rivets. After getting the rivets out and drilling out the holes to 1/2" I cleaned up the area with a flapper disc on the grinder.

Driver side is easy enough to work on, passenger side the exhaust kinda gets in the way. Had to disconnect the last exhaust hanger and use a clamp in spreader mode to push it down enough to get out of the way. It also made it way easier to unbolt the front of the leaf springs so that they could be moved out of the way on each side while working.

I've had the HHs on for a little over a week now. The ride is immediately noticeably better in the rear. More stable and controlled. It's like my truck switched from double shot espresso to decaf. No more jitters or nervous feeling rear end. It's actually more relaxing to drive now, weirdly enough.

I had Elka 2.5 DSC and Dakars (medium duty) on the back before the swap. Only thing I replaced was the hangers and added the cross tube. Previously I was never really that impressed with the ride even after dishing out for high-end shocks and leafs. I still could feel a weird fast double-bounce over every bump that didn't seem to be dampened by the shocks. I experimented with different shocks and even adding weight in the back but could never get it to go away. Now with the Hammer Hangers it feels like a new truck with the same suspension put back on. I can tell how much the flimsy stock hangers were actually flexing. It's most noticeable with small fast bumps like rough pavements or cracks in the road. Before it felt like a lot of those bumps never really reached the shocks. They were obviously handled by the flex in the stock mounts and frame, with only the larger bumps going into the suspension. Now it feels like my suspension is finally allowed to fully do it's job. Wish I would have started with these. I likely wouldn't have felt the need to go overkill on the shocks lol.

 

Thanks for the review and for explaining how critical the Hammer Hangers are to the foundation of the suspension. Great shocks can't make up for the flimsy stock hangers, but once HH are on, what a combo!

 

No problem! Great product! I'm almost mad that I wasted so much time and money trying to figure out how to tame the rear end before I installed HHs lol. IMO, this should be the first thing people do before they start replacing shocks and leaf packs.

 

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Does anyone have a recommendation for replacement inner bushing sleeves? I see all pro has them but no one seems to put specifications on their products anymore to verify fitment.

 

For what springs? I wouldn't trust those All Pro bushings, for a long time they were supplying narrow.

 

2.5" wide Tahoe springs. I have the energy suspension bushing kit but the GM stuff is 3" wide vs the 2.875" you mentioned for Toyota.

The plan is to use a Tacoma specced sleeve inside the Tahoe specced bushing.

 

The Tahoe poly bushings are 3" wide, don't do that, it won't clamp down properly. The bushings may split.

Don't want to discuss this in my thread, you could message me, but Tahoe springs will not work well, they'll move your axle forward too much, unless you get the main leaf remade

 

Finally got around to installing my hangers this weekend. Ended up not being too bad, but I was dreading it going in and had no illusions on what I was in for. To do it right, it's a 2- to 3-day job: First day is removing the existing hangers and prepping the frame for paint. Depending on what you are using for cleaning the frame and neutralizing rust (solvent vs. water-based), you might need to wait a day to paint to let the water fully evaporate. I ended up doing POR-15 for paint, which is a total POA to prep for, but it does hold up if you put in the effort. Then need to wait another 24 hours for paint to cure before bolting the hangers on.

A few things I wished I had done, which came back to haunt me:

1. Thoroughly clean the inside and outside of the frame before starting. Otherwise, you will we dealing with dirt falling on you in addition to hot metal shavings.
2. Use face shield instead of eye protection, to keep hot metal shavings, etc. off your face and out of your mouth.
3. Installed these before I installed leaf springs. Not having to work around the leaf springs would make the process less frustrating.

A few things that made the job more bearable:

1. PPE. I normally don't bother wearing gloves and eye protection for most jobs (I do wear normal prescription glasses, so getting stuff in my eyes usually isn't a problem). This is one job where PPE is highly recommended.
2. Order and method of hanger removal: Use angle grinder cutoff wheel to remove outer rivet heads -> pry off hanger by hammering in flathead screw driver/pry bar between bottom of frame and hanger first, once off the bottom rivet studs, then pound in flat head screw driver from the sides to pop hanger off upper rivet studs -> then either grind rivet studs, or cut them off with a carbide multi-tool blade, flush with outside of frame -> use ball joint press to pop out upper two rivets (could use a air hammer here instead if you have one) -> clamp cross brace welded washers on lower rivets to frame with vice grips, center punch lower rivets, use high quality cobalt 1/4" drill bit to drill out 3/4 of the rivets (don't have to go all the way through), then use 1/2" drill (black oxide works well enough here) bit to drill out the lower half of the rivet (at which point the upper half should pop off).

I would recommend drilling out the lower rivets by hand-guided drill (don't put the drill on jack), as you will need to re-direct the drill a bit while drilling to keep the drilling relatively centered on the hole in the frame. I would also check that all holes line up with the new hangers by test fitting before prepping the frame for paint. First hanger took about 3 hours to remove, 2nd one took less than 2 hours once I figured out what worked and got to it. One of the biggest time wastes ended up being the removal of wiring harnesses from the frame (to allow the use of the ball joint press), as the clips were all in-filled with dried mud and didn't want to come out.

As for my impressions, it's an improvement. I'm not going to say it has changed my life, but there is more control in the back. Before, to keep the back end from kicking out on washboards, I would have to adjust the clickers on my rear shocks (2.5" Radflos) up 6 clicks firmer. This would keep the rear end relatively planted, but with the downside that the ride became harsher. Now I can keep them on the softest setting, if I wanted to. The ABS still kicks in if I do WOT acceleration on washboards, but the end still stays straight while the brakes are clicking away. There really isn't reason to accelerate like that on washboards, and I don't fault the hangers for losing traction (its a spring/shock issue), but it's a good test of how responsive one's suspension is. I should also note my primary reason for installing these, was to upgrade the bed payload capacity to a honest 1/2 ton, and not having to worry about the hangers caving in on me at some point in the future.

One interesting item of note. My rear shocks were originally sent to me over-pressurized (they apparently forgot to reduce pressure after checking for leaks). Not knowing any better as the shocks were new to me, I ran them over-pressurized for about 2500 miles, before the seals finally burped shock fluid the first time I got above the tree line. I will say that while the ride was a bit harsh for those first 2500 miles, the truck felt like it was glued to gravel/washboarded roads. I didn't have any issues with rear jitters and the stock hangers, and it would take forest road curves like I was on pavement. Once the shocks came back from the warranty repair, I lost the control and stability I had, but the ride was more supple. Moral of the story, I guess, there is more than one way to skin the cat on rear end stability. These seem to be the best way if you want to keep your suspension as soft as possible.

 

Hammer Hangers in stock

Heads up, we have Hammer Hangers in stock now, including shackle and cross tube options

Eric

 

Doing my 63 swap in the next couple weeks. Would these work for that?

 

Not straight forward, HH would have to be moved back about 4" right where all HC bumper frame plates reside