OME to Deaver

I am looking for anyone that has gone from a set OME Dakars to a Deaver u402. Is there a noticeable ride quality difference? I've seen plenty of comparisons between the two but I have never seen anyone talk about ride quality vs the two.

 

I went from HD Dakars to stage III U402's

 

Think if you took a blind test you could tell the difference between them?

 

While blindfolded you would notice 2 huge differences...
1. You would "hear" the dakars squeak and the deavers would be quiet
2. Deavers would ride better with the weight on them.
When you buy Dakars, ARB basically made a basic heavier load leaf pack.
Deaver only do leaf springs and they are pure quality and ride. Hence the price tag. If you search the internet on problems with dakars.....you will get a huge result. If you search for problems with deavers, you will get radio silence. The reason why they cost so much is because the are worth the money.

 

Yes.

This.

 

I'm making the switch to stage 2s when ever @WormSquirts gets them in for me.

 

Deaver was waiting on bushings. I'm pretty sure they just shipped, or are about to ship, so hopefully soon!

Dakars are junk. I try to sway anybody who wants to buy them from us away. Can't convince everybody though.

 

Making the switch in a week or so. Currently have heavy OME packs, they squeak if I don't keep them clean. They have also sagged. Currently I have about 50k miles on them with mix of off-road, some towing and regular commuting.

Switching to Deavers largely due to the sag. The noise is annoying but its not a hard thing to blast the leafs at the car wash until the next outing.

I am cautious about getting too twisted up about all the online chatter, one big difference between the two is OME sells volume where Deaver is selling to a smaller market. Naturally, you'll see more reports about the product (good or bad) if there are more of that product out in the world. I do know that OME has revised their Dakars to address the noise.

All that said I am excited to be getting a Deaver pack and hope its an 80k set of packs at least. Heading to Death Valley shortly after getting the springs installed, will report back after a week of shakedown.

 

I own a shop where we sell the dakars, icon rxt, and now deaver. I would say a solid 25% of dakars get warrantied for noise at some point. Even the new ones. They are also designed in a way that the 2nd or 3rd leaf rubs the shackle on compression. At least in most of the trucks I've worked on with dakars.

We sell way more rxt than Dakar, and I haven't had a single one come back or complain yet. I'm expecting the same of Deaver.

I agree that the internet is not a good reference, but in this case, it's justified in my experience

 

Makes sense, having tangible experience of owning a shop and working with each product makes you the sme. Arm chair warriors like myself halve to sift through the noise or better yet go to someone like you!

 

Thinking I'll be making the jump sometime soon as well. Currently have OME HDs, and the squeaking is driving me insane and they're totally flat. Even though I know OME says that's normal, I'm ready to move on. I have a rear high clearance coming soon, so the added weight is going to necessitate a change. Right now I'm torn between state II or stage III. In terms of weight, here is where I am:

Constant weight is 620 pounds:

• Prinsu Top Rack: 50 pounds
• ARE cap: 175
  
• Homemade bed drawers: ~150 pounds
• Rear bumper: 170 pounds (although this doesn't take into consideration the stock tow hitch that is removed, so it is likely less than that overall)
• Tire and wheel on the rear swing out: 75 pounds (again, the stock spare will be removed so maybe closer to a 50 pound increase overall

In the summer months when the truck is setup for weekend camping trips, add another 300 pounds:

• CVT Mt. Hood 50" RTT: 140 pounds
• Dometic CFX3 75DZ: 61 pounds
• Alu-Cab tilting fridge slide: 26 pounds
• Other misc. camping gear: 75 pounds

So for half the year I'm easily around 900 pounds, and the other half I'm around 600. I winter camp too, so a lot of times I"ll add the RTT and then get lazy and leave it on for a month. So its probably more like 8 or 10 months out of the year I'm close to 750 pounds minimum.

I'm thinking I'd get the stage IIIs. I don't care if the ride is a little stiff in the off season. Worst case scenario it should be possible to remove a leaf from the stage IIIs right?

 

Man I must be the one lucky guy who loves his Dakars. Never any noise, no sag after 5+ years, ride great loaded and unloaded.



#2000 in the bed

 

Someone who can't afford the high leaf pack and looking at the $600 leaf pack options out there is one better than the other? I for instance was looking at iron man but are they really the same leaf as dakars with a different logo?

 

I went from medium duty Dakars to Deaver U402 stage 1 and it was a noticeable increase in ride quality. The dakars were stiff as hell even with some weight in the back. With an empty bed the u402 is much more tolerable, with some weight it improves even more. I'm hoping to add some archive hangers to complete the rear setup.

 

funny my experience is the opposite…

Dakars (old set up) no squeaking
Deavers (current set up) squeaks like crazy.

After two weeks of installing my deaver stage 1 they started squeaking. Real bad. Sounds like a clown car is coming from a mile away..

There’s plenty of grease, I pressure washed it and still squeaks. Might have to stop by deavers and hopefully they’ll be able to figure it out.

 

Clearly our trucks are set up differently, but perhaps my experience here may be somewhat informative:

I got stage III Deavers thinking the same thing- that I don't mind a bit of a stiff ride- and -I can just take out a leaf- too.
So my ride stiffness wasn't an issue but the ride height became the problem.
I ended up with too much lift and almost no droop which wasn't good for a number of reasons.

When I asked Deavers, turns out they do not recommend removing any leafs from the pack because they are all specifically engineered to work together. When I pressed, they did finally make a recommendation. I did so and the ride height became more acceptable but ride quality became less tracked and more gooshy (more like stock).
So, if/when you do remove a leaf, it basically negates all the ride quality engineering that you paid such a premium for when you bought Deavers.

It would prolly be best to call Deavers and take their advice based on your setup, if you go that route. They may ask you for the 'corner weights'.

edit: Have you considered airbags? Their on-the-fly adjustability would seem ideal given your differences in weight loads.

 

This is a really great answer thank you.
I don’t want airbags because I wheel the truck in it’s various configurations. If I end up needing to leave the 140 pound tent in the bed or add 140 pounds in the off season to compensate for the removed tent that’s okay with me too.
Good call on getting all four corners weighed. I’ll find somewhere that I can do that.

 

Anything to report?
I have a Habitat full time, and maybe another 500lbs when the interior and full load, my dakar's are louder than a liberal at a gun show and look like a stack of pancakes... need a fix soon! I'm guessing the stage 3 is the only option for me.

 

I called Deaver earlier this week. I have a cap, RTT, drawers, fridge, swingout and other gear and Scott absolutely stage 3. I would imagine the same goes for you as you must have even more weight than me.

 

Sidebar, every time I call Deaver, I never get through. Just have to be lucky?