BP51 HD Dakar Springs without added rear weight

Is anyone running the BP51 setup with the rear HD Dakar springs (EL0956R) and without any added weight? If so how is the ride quality and rake?

 

If you get the heavy set you can remove the addaleaf. The heavys have an extra leaf. Only difference between them and mediums. If you buy mediums you can order the leaf seperate later if you find you need the extra capacity

 

Overall the bp51s are great. I have the medium leafs thouht. One thing to keep in mind is that the shocks were designed to be loaded up over stock. Everyone says overall they are even better with the truck weighted down.

All I have is sliders. I had to set my front up with almost no preload are all to get a even lift. You can tell that with a bumper/winch/etc the preload would be a little bit more giving a better more consistent ride

 

So I originally did with my bp-51 setup and it rode nice and even with the front without any weight. However, once I put the camper, rooftop tent and also had the load of my camping gear my rear sagged. So I ended up having to pull the rear leafs again and added a Dakar AAL on top of my EL0956R setup. I feel it actually improved the bumpiness too of the rear with the weight. Now it has a rake without the tent and gear which I'm totally fine with it and I think it looks good at the current height. Beats having the rear sag with gear.



Oh and also as far as ride quality. I always felt this setup was more bumpy/stiffer than stock on a regular road but when off roading or on uneven regular roads is where it shines. Especially when going at a good speed. It smoothes out and I can go faster than others on the trail with me and saves me from getting thrown around. When I used to run stock before this the truck felt more "squirly" and less predictable. The bp-51 soaks up those dips.

Side note: now want to get a similar setup for my Wrangler since I get spoiled off roading with the bp-51.

 

Hey man!

I’ve spent a bunch of time in Tacomas with bp51s but with the medium load rear leaf springs. I’d make sure to lower your compression and rebound in the rear to help soften the valving as much as possible if you have no weight in the rear. Once you throw some weight in there later on, then you can increase your compression and rebound a bit.

The front BPs arrive from the factory set to heavy loads and that’s why they’re usually so tall up front on stock front ends. Another interesting note, the rear leaf springs aren’t actually “Dakar” springs anymore. ARB changed their leaf spring manufacturer a coupe years ago hence the new EL part numbers instead of CS part numbers.

Hope this helps!