Removing a leaf from stage 1 RXTs?

I can't seem to find a post for this specific idea, so wondering if someone has had the same issue. I lifted my regular cab on 6112/5160s with icon RXT leaf packs, left in stage 1 without the extra leaf. It says they should be under 2" of lift, but it seems I got closer to 3" on my truck after 6 months of settling (I also drove around with 300lbs of sandbags in my bed for a month or two which didn't really help them settle). Everything was torqued with weight on it, but my 5160's are still less than 1cm away from being topped out, so I think the regular cab is just getting more lift being lighter and all.

Wondering if anybody has removed a leaf from the stage 1 RXTs to drop them an inch or so, and if so, which leaf you removed. I'm thinking if I just remove the lowest shorty leaf it should help, but I'd rather check here before I go messing with trial and error having to torque my ubolts over and over while I try different combos.

 

That is very odd. I have mine set on option 3 and it gave me 3” of height after settling down. If you’re looking to decrease height I would remove the smallest leaf and see how that goes.

 

Looking at mine (option 1), I don't see a leaf that I would feel comfortable with removing that wouldn't leave the leaf pack overly vulnerable to bending or other damage... But then again, I also tend to put mine through a lot more stress offroad than most do, so I may be looking at it from that angle as well.

How about putting a big heavy rear offroad bumper on yours?

 

Yeah that's sort of what I was thinking too, but I figure that I could get away with removing the really short one on the bottom since my truck is 300-600lb lighter than the regular Tacomas that these were designed for. I'd definitely like to avoid removing one from the middle though since that seems like it'd make the springrate progression weird.

Also, for sure haha. When I have the time and money I'll be fully boxing and reinforcing my rear frame with the coastal off-road high clearance bumper, so I'll save them for that in hopes I can add enough weight to even it out. Problem is I'll want to replace my rusty fuel tank crossmember and rear bed sill, as well as get beefier shackle hangers, so I've gotta save up for everything to do it all in one shot, hopefully next summer. Once I do all that, my rusty-ass new England taco will officially be rust free.

 

Been there done that. Exact same issue.

I ended up removing the smallest leaf on bottom without issue. Dropped it 1/2 inch?

Then I did a long leaf and it did give me the drop in wanted, although it was much too soft for even light duty truck stuff.

My lift was so much on stage 1 with 200lb in the bed they sent me another set of springs that did the exact same thing.

 

Not the same leaf pack, but I did this on a first gen reg cab with an OME leaf pack. I removed the 3rd leaf from the top and it worked out really well.

 

Is yours an access or a double cab? Considering the weight differences are pretty significant between the cab sizes, I'm thinking that the varying lift numbers are due to that (considering I'm 600+lbs less than a double cab). Gonna try removing the little guy, and if that doesn't do much I'll give it a shot with also taking off the 2nd smallest, then next summer when I do frame bracing and a big bumper it'll hopefully be weighed down enough to revert it to at least the one leaf if not full stage 1 again.

 

Those leaf packs were designed to do that. That pack with the 3rd leaf removed just became the "medium duty" pack. The RXT on stage 1 is basically the "medium" dakars, there are no unnecessary leafs to remove anymore.

 

I was thinking of removing the bottom leaf(s), but now that I'm look at the packs, that might just be perfect. Keeps my double wrap on the front mount but wouldn't be too big of a jump in length to the next leaf down (don't want the rate progression too wonky). Thanks for the Reggie cab wisdom lol

 

You'd be better off adding weight to the box instead of removing leafs. The leaf pack isn't really designed to just start taking random leaves out without causing problems like axle wrap. You risk breaking or weakening leafs if they are bending more than they were designed for.

 

Usually advertised lift specs arent based on the small percentage of Reg cabs.

I don't have particular experience with that leaf pack, but try following what others suggested, and see what works for you

 

That is the main concern that has me asking the forums, but considering they were designed for the average Tacoma which is 300-600lb heavier than mine with over 100 more hp, I'm thinking I can get away with a bit of modification if I plan it well. I do want to add weight in the form of frame beefing and a coastal bumper, but I'm not sure that'll be enough on its own to even this out, and I can't get a cap for my uses unfortunately. I've been looking at them and thinking of different combos, and I'm thinking if I were to take out the bottom two leaves and replace them with an overload leaf like dakars have, then that should keep the rigidity against wrap and support for the upper leafs while still leaving my ride height lower.

 

Yeah for sure; should've thought about that when I got em, considering their website shows them on a DCLB (900lbs heavier than my truck lol)

 

What about maybe trying some OEM leafs from a DCSB? (seems there are often people giving these away) Might be a tad stiffer, but I would think they'd sit maybe 1.5-2" taller on yours than they did on the DCSB (certainly not 3" taller).

Another option might be to simply replace the two bottom (smallest) leaves of your RXT with the OL leaf from your stock packs (if you still have them). The OL leaf probably won't be in play at all at ride height, but will still support the pack when weight is thrown in, or if torque moment from the axle is applied to them.

 

If I had thought of this seemingly obvious issue when I lifted it, that would probably have been better, but I spent the money on the RXTs so gotta make em work lol. I was thinking I'll go with that second idea; tossed my rusted to hell stock packs, but the first ebay listing I found for OEM overloads was only $120, so I'll probably grab some of those and try that out. Saves me more load capacity, as well as not having to trim the center pin for the bump stop, so should work out well I think.

 

It's not just about how much weight is on them. The leafs are all designed to work together. If you take one out, the one above suddenly is allowed to flex way more than before. Sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn't.

Taking the bottom leafs out isn't going to make much of a difference for lift other than the thickness of those leafs. And if it does make a difference, that means the rest of your leafs will be W shaped which also isn't great. Adding OL leafs won't do anything for axle wrap until they are engaged, which means you need to be twisted to hell for that to happen (which is too late, the wrap already happened).

I can think of many reasons why removing leafs would cause problems, and very few reasons why this would work successfully. But it's your truck, I just felt like someone had to be the voice of reason here instead of everyone just guessing at things they think might work but they've never tried. I've been down this rabbit hole before looking for ways to make dakars not ride like shit. Long story short, fucking with leafs usually doesn't work out the way you want. And that's for the reason I stated above. Leafs packs are designed to work together. You can't just go removing a piece of the puzzle and expect it to be an improvement. Especially not with highly progressive packs that rely on many leafs. But who knows, you may luck out.

 

lmao
I HAVE fucked around with leafs and done exactly this many times with many leaf packs (just not on an RXT pack w/a Tacoma OEM OL). This is why I expressed concern about taking leaves (besides the smallest ones) out of an RXT pack w/Option 1.
Replacing the two small bottom leaves with an OL leaf from a factory pack is completely fine to do. The 3rd-from bottom leaf at ~32" is slightly longer than an OEM OL @~27" (the ones on my 3rd-gen springs anyway) and so will be progressively supported where it should be. Removing the two small leaves and not replacing them with anything at all is likely to lead to the springs bending at the spring perch. I would agree the amount of drop is likely to be less than an inch (maybe half-inch).

I wouldn't spend that amount of $$$ for this... Maybe check Craigslist, FBM, or even here in BST. Or put up a want-ad here in BST or your local regional forum, someone who just got done putting a lift on theirs might outright give you their old ones (the OL leafs more than likely will be completely fine on them no matter how ratted out they are).

 

Did you do it on a reg cab vs a dclb?

 

I’ve got rxts coming in for my regular cab right now. I was planning to put them in stage 3 but this thread has me reconsidering. Will be using 5125s though so shouldn’t have to worry about shocks being too short? I am planning to put a DCC shell on though and I usually run around with a good bit weight in the rear. My stock springs gave out from being loaded too heavy all the time.

I bought the truck lifted, and I’m not exactly sure what the lift in the front is? I want to say it was a two inch lift. It had a one inch block in the rear and was level, until the springs started squatting.

I don’t mind a little rake but don’t want it to be ridiculous.

anyone with have insight on this?

 

Yeah I'd shop around but I'm hoping I won't have to look any harder. Thinking I'll take out the 3rd leaf since the springs are really stiff all the way through the travel around ride height, and the lower springs will have less to do with that and more to do with support under load. This weekend I'm swapping in 6° shims so I can mess around to see what works with the leaves I have so hopefully there's a good combo.