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

OME Dakar springs from Wheeler's. I had the whole ome setup but went with the 5100's when I did the hammer hangers. I think I removed one leaf when I installed them but that was years ago.

*Edit
Think I went with the HD Dakars but took one leaf out. Long time ago, don't really remember.

 

Your shocks will limit your down travel but you could use Archive 3.6 shackle to keep stock height.

 

I've heard a few different lift results with Dakars from 1/4" to 3/4" using stock shackles. My edit: old 3.6" shackles dont work with Dakars, but the 4.9" will keep it a hair lower than stock hangers, but longer shackles won't droop out as far, not a problem with 10" shocks

 

What were typical lift results with deaver u402s?

 

@ARCHIVE stock shackles

 

1/4" to 1/2"

A little extra lift is good to get more clearance to bumpstop.

 

Well for one, qtr inch is nothing to cry about, more than that i wouldnt be a fan of.. I'm not out of the market entirely for new leafs. I could probably afford a new set given it rides better. I was looking into all pro expos but I don't carry weight in the back and apparently they lift a bit more than other brands. Time to get back to the drawing board and figure this one out. I've heard good and bad about deaver as well. @90yota you rocking these hangers yet? Always been a fan of your build.

 

Oh yeah!!!

 

A few quick updates. I re-torqued everything after about 200 miles, for the frame bolts I just hit it with a torque wrench, and found one that I hadn't quite gotten there.

For the bushing locations (front leaf mount, rear leaf to shackle and rear shackle to mount) I loosened them while the truck was at static ride height and then re-torqued to 89 ft-lbs. Felt a little bit of energy let off on the driver's side leaf-to-shackle joint but otherwise it didn't seem like any bushings were getting too twisted, having been torqued at "best guess of static" with a jack under the diff.

It's settled somewhere in the neighborhood of 1/2" so far- so my lift number is now down to about 1" with the hangars.

I hate to be the one to disagree with Eric 'cause he made them, but based on these measurements I think 1/2" of added height is just a bit on the conservative side.

Still rides fantastically better than stock.

 

Also, TL;DR because this isn't what the thread is about, but I solved the mystery of the PRO leaves, as another forum member was generous enough to let me inspect his.

It's just an angled shim. Packs are exactly the same.



Top is PRO, bottom is "universal fit 2016"

I'm guessing it's because of the vibration TSBs.

 

Thanks, I feel there is a portion of your lift from the springs you put in, you changed them out with the Hammer hangers, so 2 things at once, not really A-B comparison. Maybe there is an aspect though with the Access cab vs Double cab, AC's might get a tad more lift. Still average lift is about 1/2", some say they get 1/4".

On my DCSB with TSB springs, I got exactly 1/2" lift, but another variable is I have Fox 2.5s that actually added about 1/2" lift beforehand because they exert force.

Can you measure your height from top of axle tube to bottom of frame rail both sides? Stock DC'S are ~8.25"

 

To be fair though, the springs were the same exact part number, the only difference being one was 700 miles old and the other was 13,500 miles old. A ~12,000 mile difference on the same exact spec leaves should not throw off that much aside from the standard installation / jumping in the bed / torquing bushings / settling cycle a leaf usually goes through having swapped vehicles.

Anyways, it's hard to tell the exact measurement rolling under there with a tape measure, but my axle tube to frame rail is roughly 9.5" both sides.

I think maybe your foxes threw the calculation off a bit, or it's something special about 3rd gens or 3rd gen access cabs.

 

That is about 1" lift, but I honestly haven't measured many Access cab's at the dealership, every DC I checked is about 8.25", but recently learned there was a surprising weight difference on the rear axle between DC and AC.

I found my notes on the Hammer hangers install, top of axle tube to bottom of frame rail:
Ride height with stock 3/1 TSB springs + Hammer hanger + stock shackle + Fox 2.5x14": 9"
Ride height with stock 3/1 TSB springs + stock hanger + stock shackle + Fox 2.5x14": 8.5"
Ride height with stock 3/1 TSB springs + stock hanger + stock shackle + stock shocks: ~8.2"

 

My initial impression was how beefy these hangers are and the craftsmanship behind them. The guys at Archive are on point with their products and don't miss any details. In order to do a comparison and to allow me to plan for future modifications, I decided to cycle the suspension before and after the install so that I could compare my measurements accurately. I started the project by stripping my Dakar leaf pack down to the main leaf. This would allow me to cycle the suspension without a tremendous amount of force. There are differing opinions in choosing this route to cycle suspension and the accuracy of the measurements, however I did not have the equipments to bump a leaf pack assembled and I figure the margin of error is minimal for my use.

Leaf pack stripped and mounted with spacer to imitate an assembled pack. I found some spare metal laying around but the overall height was thicker than an assembled pack so keep this in mind when looking at the data. Spacer measured 3' and the assembled pack was 2 1/4". 3/4" difference when comparing measurements.


Next I worked on the rivets that keep the OE hangers to the frame. As many have heard, these were a SOB to remove and despite all of the different techniques used by other members, these still took a fair amount of time to remove completely. I started by cutting the head of the rivets off with a cutting wheel and grinding them down completely. I read that someone had an issue when doing this as they couldn't see where the rivet was once completed, however if you look closely you can see a vague break in the metal. Enough to drill or hit with a punch and know you're hitting the rivet.



I then used an air hammer and worked them out. It sounds a hell of a lot easier than it was but I'll spare the prolong details. I found the bottom rivets more difficult to remove to do the fact that they go through the factory crossmember that the spare tire is mounted to. I could get the rivet out of the frame but the crossmember was too flexible to allow me to hammer the rivet from the bottom. I ended up drilling a hole through the rivet and then actually using the air hammer from the top. With a chisel tip, I was able to get between the rivet flange and the crossmember to pry them apart. Again, took longer than I'm making it sound.

Side by side comparison between OE and the Hammer. These things are overkill considering the frames of our trucks and paper thin but this will eliminate any concern you may have for bending an OE hanger.

 

It was requested that I measured from the top of the axle tube to the bottom of the frame and I feel that this option was best for comparison as it was consistent and gave me solid measuring points. I marked the bottom of the frame roughly in the center of the bump stop pad so that I was measuring the same point every time. With that said, this information does not tell you anything about shock selection other than the amount of travel the leaf provides.

Stock hangers-

Drivers side on ground: 11 1/8”
Passenger side on ground: 11”

Drivers side at full droop with shocks: 14 1/4”
Passenger side at full droop with shocks: 14 5/8”

Drivers side at full droop without shocks: 15 1/4”
Passenger side at full droop without shocks: 15 1/4”

Drivers side droop stripped leaf: 18 3/4"
Passenger side droop stripped leaf: 18 15/16"

Drivers side bump stripped leaf: 8 5/8”
Passenger side stripped leaf: 8 3/8”
(this is done with bumps in place since they will be limiting the bump travel while assembled. This number likely varies per the amount of force applied since we are dealing with a rubber compound but it's close enough for my use. The leaf stays virtually flat at this position so any further would decrease the leaf pack life.)

Hammer Hangers-

Driver side droop, stripped leaf: 18 3/4”
Passenger side droop, stripped leaf: 18 7/8”

Drivers side full droop, leaf pack assembled: 18 1/4”
Passenger side full droop, leaf pack assembled: 18 3/8”

Driver side on ground: 12 1/4”
Passenger side on ground: 11 7/8”

You can see that the Hammer hangers gave me about 3" of additional down travel over stock and I gained roughly an inch +/- 1/8" of lift at ride height. My leaf pack cycles about 10.5" with no limitations and my shocks are now limiting my down travel by about 4". Needless to say a shock relocation and 12" shocks are very high on the priority list when it comes to future mods.
(Keep in mind that the space I used was 3/4" thicker than the assembled leaf pack when you look at the stripped leaf numbers and try to compare them to the assembled leaf pack numbers.)

Also note: I did notice that my rear shackle was very tight when I was disassembling, especially on the driver's side, so I think I could have gotten more out of the stock hanger with the assembled leaf however it was nowhere near 3" difference so either way I gained droop.

I know there are others who may be more experienced have installed this product or just straight up know more than I do regarding suspension and I'm curious to hear results. I know the information may vary and I'd like to hear any feedback about my approach to acquiring this info. @tetten @jberry813 @MojaveMadman to name a few

 

Once the rivets were removed it was time to drill the new hole in the frame. Archive designed these hangers with slightly different geometry than stock to optimize longer leaf pack and shackle combinations. With that said, the Dakars are shorter than some of these other aftermarket companies so he recommended I move the hanger to the foremost position. This requires one new hole being drilled into the frame. From my understanding, this gets you very close to the factory hanger geometry as far as where the shackle mounts but more data would have to be collected to be sure.

Hole drilled and hanger mounted.


Leaf assembled and drooped


I believe that the additional droop is mainly due to the additional inclination that the Hammer hanger allows the shackle to use. I've heard from other readings that you can achieve this by cutting the factory hanger but never really tested the idea myself. It's very clear that the shackle drops another 15 degrees or so. I don't have a pic of the OE position but it's pretty much level.

 

If you want to watch mine in action I will be leading guided trail runs Friday at 11 and Sat 9:30 and 11

 

So.... the gouges there... I am not sure if those were caused by rocks or by the actual leafs under full droop and then getting caught on that one part of the hammer hanger?

Now that I look at the picture, it honestly looks like those are cause by the leaf springs somehow.

But yes, I did use the hammer hanger as a small skid plate over the weekend.

 

I flexed out the rear this weekend and it looks like some hammer hangers and a shock relocate are definitely needed at this point. It's kind of hard to see but the tire is actually almost an inch off the ground here.

 

judging by the wear patterns in the powdercoat that looks like leaf contact to me. Mine did the same, I limited travel before contact to avoid the issue. Thats my biggest complaint with these hangers TBH.