Lift Question (Kings and OME Dakar Springs)

So I finally got a 1st gen and the previous owner had some quality suspension parts added but I have some questions about ride height, ride quality, and maintenance. Truck will be a daily driver and has about 20k miles on this suspension with mostly fire roads and daily driver by previous owner so suspension still feels great to me.

Truck has Kings 2.0 Standard Coil with Extended Travel ( ) . OME Dakar Springs ( ) with extra leaf installed. And Total Chaos Upper control arms (https://www.chaosfab.com/product/1996-2004-Tacoma-Stock-Length-Upper-Control-Arms-96500)

1. Truck is not sitting leveled and I plan on bringing the coils up a bit to level it out. Should I be concerned about the break line with the extended travel? Also axles/cv boots look shot out so I will be replacing them soon. Any recommended axles? Again this will be a daily driver with occasional fire roads when camping.

2. So ride quality question now. The ride is a bit firm, I like it but I want to confirm this is normal with this suspension set up?
If I remove the extra leaf to soften up the rear, should I expect to loose about an inch of height in the rear?

3. Maintenance question. I have greased the control arm uniball with silicone lubricant, and greased all bushings up front and in the rear. Truck was quite squeaky from the front suspension but once I lubricated and greased all front components the majority of the suspension squeak was gone. Is it normal to still hear sort of crackling noises occasionally from the suspension? Any other suspension maintenance I should be doing aside from the greasing?

These are all my questions for now, so I hope some of you more experienced people can give me a hand. TIA

 

I think removing the extra leaf would be a good start, unless you need the additional load capacity. I don't think you'll lose 1" but it will be a noticeable amount. Raising the front will make for an even firmer ride and put more wear on those CV boots. What are your measurements currently from ground to center of wheel arch, front and rear?

Is silicone lubricant the recommended lube for uniballs? I don't have uniballs but have found silicone lube to not to be very long lasting.

 

What do you have in your rear setup? The rear will be very stiff if you are not carrying any weight. I used to run Dakars, and they would break in. They also NEED to have weight on them and ride nicely. If there is no weight, it will be a stiff ride.

Medium Duty vs Heavy Duty (extra leaf) is around .75," but depending on your load, it could be higher.

 

Front is 36” both sides. I did just put new falken wild peaks 265/75/16 just some added info. Rear I’m about 40” passenger side and 39.5” drivers side. Full tank of gas currently.

And yes, installation instructions ask for silicone lubricant on the uniball.

 

OME Dakar Series with the add a leaf. With what look like stock gen 3 off-road shocks.

 

Changing to a shorter shackle and removing a leaf will help bring the rear down to somewhat match your front.

 

I know ground to fender isn't the most accurate way of measuring for comparison, but in this case it gives me a vague idea of how much lift your front is at. Up front I'm on OME 882's, I would say still holding at +/- 2.5", I also have a 1" body lift and 285 75 16's. My tires are beyond worn and my suspension has a surprising amount of miles on it (now that I'm thinking about it). Anyway, if I subtract the body lift and tire height difference I still come up with a number 2.5" higher than yours. So that would lead me to believe those coilovers are set to near stock height. CV angle would also be an indication of that and maybe threads above the adjustment collar.

I would still recommend removing the extra leaf to start with. If you are able to determine how much or how little the fronts are adjusted to, aim for 1.5"-2" over stock, that will hopefully have you sitting closer to stock rake, or around 1"-1.5" high in the rear.

 

I was told that the coil overs were more or less on stock height but I wanted to confirm so thank you for that.

I will be taking off the added leaf today and adjust front shocks accordingly.

Any recommended axles? Do I need extended travel ones due to the lift now?

 

measure from the center of your front hub to the fender. Do not exceed 23". Anything above this will cause CV boot rips on whatever is on there. I have the same setup. I have 2" of thread showing on my coilover sleeve which put me at exactly 23" in the front (center of hub to fender) In the back I have 24.5" from center of hub to fender. The king coils are great at higher speeds but slow maneuvers or washboards are a bit stiff. Handles cornering better. Any adjustment to the coilovers you might be looking at a new alignment but small increments shouldn't need it.

My Dakar's have the added leaf but I have a topper and carry a 400 lb. Enduro sometimes. I put 4 60 lb. sand bags in the back of my tacoma for winter and what a difference in ride it makes. The Dakar's are not that old. I have about 6000 miles on them now and they are feeling better as they break in.

 

What does the 23" measurement equate to in lift? It's a bit harder to eye ball that measurement with larger tires and wider wheels, but it looks like that would be somewhere around 1.5" over stock? I have used OME 882's for many years without any additional weight, they gave a solid 2.75" of lift for years, I would say I'm sitting around 2.5" today. Sure I've had to reboot a couple times, but I never experienced what I would consider rapid wear of the boots. The boots will deteriorate one way or another in time. This last time I did the boot slide mod so I'm expecting even longer life. Without the boot slide mod I would think 2" of lift, maybe even a little more would keep the boot fins from rubbing in daily use. For ride quality from those coilovers I'm sure the lower the better.

I also have the Dakars, although they may have changed a bit since mine were installed over a decade ago. I added the extra leaf because without it I found the rear sagged too easily with just a fiberglass shell and a few work tools. I never felt the Dakars to be stiff, the past several years I have used the truck without a shell and typically with an empty bed, still no complaints on the ride. I have been considering removing the extra leaf just to bring the rear down a little.

 

I have seen on here that 19-20” is oem. On the ifs I believe 3” is max you want to go. When you measure center if hub to fender (straight up) it gives you an accurate measurement since tires can vary across the board. I never measured mine stock and I worked with a guy with a stock one and his was 19” center of hub to fender (front).

I always have my fiberglass top on and I carry a DR650 on a hitch rack. The Dakars with extra leaf are great for this and when I off-road they are pretty nice. I also installed Firestone airbags to help in case I need it. Sometimes I pull a small job trailer and those help a lot. They also help a lot when I do have the top off and carry 1000# of dirt or rock or bags of cement.

 

For the Dakars ideally I would run a longer shock not a stock length but the 3rd Gen shocks I believe are longer. Other suggestions to remove a leave is the nice especially if you are not running a ton of weight in the rear.

 

So over the weekend I removed the added leaf, and I did raise the front a bit. Rides less firm in the rear and front still feels great.
I did find it strange however that in the Kings instructions it shows that 5 turns equals 1” lift. I gave mine 7 turns but somehow got a little over 2” lift. I was at 36” up front before I adjusted the coilovers and now I’m at about 38.5” up front. I’m guessing it has to settle again but even after driving it a bit it did not settle much. Thoughts?

 

The increase in the front and lowering of the rear may have given the perceived height. My front used to be high, and when I added the rear leaf (opposite of what you are doing), it brought my front down since the rear was no longer "sagging" a bit or lower than the front. You could try going back down a turn on each side and see until you're happy with it.