0210 Crawls Starbucks

And in addition to the cracked leaf in between other leaves, the bottom leaf is also cracked with a piece of it missing entirely, and the remains trying to slide out.



What the hell could have caused that...

 

overloading, tends to be the issue with my broken leaf springs in the past. The last oneI broke, the GF overloaded the truck with a5 peoples scuba gear. Doesn't seem like a lot of weight, but that was 5 tanks each, plus odds and ends for one 2 hour dive, plus 5 people in the truck(my old tundra). Most trucks, well half tonnes are only designed to carry 1200-1400lbs( newer f150's) total. Those Allpros are suppose to be able to carry some serious weight as well, shouldn't have broken like that. Make sure they send you both packs and not just the broken side. Otherwise the truck may sit/ride weird.

Oddly, we just broke a leaf spring on my buddies off road trailer this weekend. Talk about fun trying to strap the axle back on straight enough and wedge a piece of wood btw the axle/frame to keep the trailer from bottoming out on the axle. It was a long 5 hours to get that trailer out and get a replacement set of leaf springs, part of the fun though. Seriously nice trailer from VMI, but I realized that is an anchor if you want to do some real offloading, he was getting hauled all over just on our logging roads here.

Sadly or fortunately this trip, reminded me that i need to get full bumper (too many close calls with deer at dusk) , winch (he got stuck a bunch of times and we just used his winch to haul him out), decent stove(his coleman finally bit the dust after 12 years, and our backup was well, half working). Just means, that i go back to my original plan of buy once/hurt once. My bank acct is going to take a beating these next two months as I start to buy everything and install, sadly I don't have the time to fabricate a lot of the stuff, too busy on the job. Sundays will be my install days though. Dual battery system should be here this weekend, new batteries, here as well, hoping new roof rack/light bar shortly as well.

Canopy, I am talking with them about that tomorrow. I need a timeframe on when it is going to be done or not, so i can start to make plans.

 

Two emails, five phone calls, and a week of time, I finally got the ball rolling with All Pro. The packs are out of stock (of course!), but the replacement should be shipped to me within two weeks, so I'll have it in three. Only one side, they won't send both.

Interestingly enough, two local guys (service manager at the local dealer, and a 2nd gen Tacoma owner) that don't know each other have warned me to expect horror-story-like customer service from All Pro. Not reassuring.

All Pro's John says the culprit is the axle shim. To him, from the photos I sent, it looked like the shim was a half-inch shorter than the perch. I didn't see that in the same photos, and just went downstairs to look at the truck, and confirmed that the shim is actually a tiny bit longer than the axle perch (it overhangs on one side), so if anything, it'll provide more support for the pack, not less.

The problem must have happened during my recent trip, when I had some 800-900lbs in the bed (including the canopy). There was more weight up front (bumper, winch, 2nd battery, me, dog, dog platform, sliders, etc.), but that weight wasn't resting on the leaf springs. Even if it did, since springs are advertised as being meant for a 500lb daily load, they should easily be able to handle way, way more than the entire aftermarket weight that was in the truck during the trip.

So all in all, this is very discouraging, and I've gone from wanting to highly-recommend these leaf springs, to being cautiously worried about their ability to deliver on the "expedition" claim.

 

I wonder if I need to start thinking about adding air-bags on top of these leaf packs for when I actually load the bed... ugh.

 

That is crazy, they should be sending out both packs, as now you have one that is heavily broken in and one that is brand new. Your going to sit lopsided for awhile, until is settles out. Will this have an impact on drive train? Axle? Wheel bearings? Probably not but something to keep an eye on. They must be on the cost savings program, or they have another customer with one broken and figure they can kill two birds with one stone.

Well this sounds like ALLpro will be crossed of my list of companies to do business with if this is how they do their customer service, sounds very similar to an issue i am having with a manufacture.

Thanks for keeping us posted on issues with the leaf pack,

 

I'd personally avoid air bags, its just another piece of gear to maintain that is not really solving the issue of being able to carry the weight. They are made to level out the vehicles after being loaded, stop sway, etc. Not to increase carrying capacity and plus they are really only designed to be used for on road conditions. Read the fine print on them they are not designed for harsh conditions or misuse, all of which we put our offroad rigs through.

Looks like you need a set of leaf springs for a truck. You should talk to Exhaust and muffler in Port Alberta, the guy builds his own leaf packs for transports, and all the logging pickups in the area and for lifter trucks. Not many places do that and he does a fantastic job at it as well, decent pricing.

 

Yeah, I'm not thrilled about replacing just the one side, but there's nothing I can do about that.

Thanks for the feedback re: air bags, and the guy building leaf springs. I think there's a local shop around here that does custom Tacoma leaf springs, too. I guess I'll have to install the replacement springs whenever they arrive and see how it sits.

 

Your welcome, I am by far no expert, but I do read the info net a lot in my free time.

 

is this in the lower mainland? Almost looks like some spots between Sloquet and Pemberton
EDIT: Just saw your above post. Where is this?? I'd love to do some exploring out west

 

The mountain photos are somewhat close (geographically, but not by road) to Pemby. No photos from Sloquet there. Speaking of which, I hear all the snow has already melted and it's a gong-show of people there on a regular basis now.

Everything is within a ~4 hour drive of Van.

 

Cool. I'm planning a weekend trip with some friends this summer..Harrison to Sloquet up to Pemberton via In-SHUCK-ch FSR

 

Nice. Pemby to Sloquet is an easy drive on gravel roads with minimal pot holes and other mini-obstacles. Haven't done the other side, but I know it's doable in a stock Pathfinder, so can't be too bad.

They have road closures going on pretty frequently for road repairs and what not, so make sure to check conditions ahead of time.

And I'd suggest not doing Sloquet on a weekend. I pulled up there around January a year or two ago, at about 5pm on a Friday evening, and got the second to last campsite. It was packed. In January. With snow on the ground.

In the summer I wouldn't even consider going unless it was mid-week.

 

any hints to where your photos were taken? I know some guys don't like sharing secluded spots

 

In the post you quoted:
- Photos 1 and 2 are at Jones Lake in Chilliwack. Used to be an amazing place to camp, but the last few years it has turned into a garbage-filled, party-animal gong-show. It's the new Stave Lake. I don't camp there anymore. Summer time, even weekdays are packed.
- Next photo is a place off a FSR near Squamish, but access has since been blocked off with rocks. This was the last remote place I knew of where you could camp in peace and quiet.
- Photo 3 is one of the hundreds of spots off East Harrison. Again, a gong-show.
- Next few are from the same spot near Squamish, then a photo from White Rock and from a random lake somewhere further down the Fraser Valley.

The rest are from two locations that I'll PM you.

 

Not directly truck related, but I did just buy a bicycle (Specialized Crosstrail Sport in Black) and ordered a hitch rack (1up Single Superduty). Haven't had a bicycle in years. Initially test rode the "base" Crosstrail model and hated the brakes - they did borderline nothing. The Sport was a night and day difference. Going to take the dog out for some dirt trail cycling on good weekends.

With disk brakes on each wheel, my bicycle officially has fancier brakes than the Tacoma .

The rear bumper I'll be having made in the summer will have a second hitch receiver (for the bike rack) on one of the swing outs. Should be a slick setup.

 

oh nice, whom is doing the bumper?

 

its a shame people had to ruin things...

 

Go to Vancouver Island, go off-road/back any service road. It's shocking that for such a green province people use the backcountry as their dump sites.
Especially given that BC is suppose to be environmentally friendly! Also need to teach the locals that lucky lager is not good beer.

 

I believe ignorance is the root cause of that. Every generation is intentionally getting more and more dumbed down.

Haha! The Saturday a week ago my buddy and I ended up at The Cambie and started playing quarters using lucky lager. Between the two of us, we went through at least six pitchers, and then headed to another place to finish off the night. I don't remember much of what took place after The Cambie, but the following Sunday was the worst day of my life.

 

Spent four hours detailing the truck today.

Hand wash, dry, clay, cut, polish, wax. Slave labour, but it's SO satisfying to wipe off that final wax glaze and see the results.

I think I shared a photo of my passenger-side front door's handle after a white F150 slammed its doors into it... well this is that handle now:



The Meguiar's heavy cut compound + dual action polisher took that what paint out in seconds. Very happy about that!