Please advise (almost stuck) - urgent need info for leaf springs for 1995 4x4 Ex cab - Solved

Situation I am in:
Driving today I notice my rear was squeaking on brake and acceleration. I climbed out of the truck and what appears the right leaf spring i broken just above the axle (like between u-bolts). Toyota Poland let me down this time - OEM springs are discontinued and not available at the dealer (even the price is quite steep). So I am going to get imported a set.

Options:
I don't want any lift, basically stock height. I found in General Springs have two variants for my truck:
1. 1995 - 1996 TACOMA 4X4 REAR LEAF SPRING, 3(2/1) LEAVES for $129.99
2. 1995 - 97 Tacoma 4x4 Rear Leaf Spring, 4(3/1) Leaves for $149.99

Dimensions are same except pack thickness. It appears they will work on my truck, but I don't know if 4-leaves will bring some lift? 3-leaves is what I have now (original). I see they deliver internationally, just need to check if they do Poland (yes delivery cost sucks).

RockAuto ships to Poland and they have two variants (I do not include no-name model):
HUSKY SPRING 90155 Rear; 4WD; 2/1 = 3 Leaf; 1-1/4" Pack Thickness for $102.89
DAYTON 90155 Rear; 4WD; 2/1 = 3 Leaf; 1-1/4" Pack Thicknessfor $186.79


Questions:
1. Which one should I buy?
2. What else should I buy
- shackles?
- u-bolt (then what size)
- other?

This buy is urgent for me as till I get new springs my truck is grounded again (crap).

 

I think your pricing is wrong but anyways The guys at general told me the 2/1 springs cost more (149.99) simply due to less demand compared to the 3/1. I dunno if they will ship to you but people here seem to like them as OE replacement. However, if rock auto is your only option (due to shipping) go there?

New u bolts recommended, I think factory is 2.5” wide, 6.5” long, 9/16” rod? Someone correct me. Also the front eye bolts on my truck were frozen in there had to cut them out, I’d get new ones just in case.

 

Husky's products suck, just put a set on an XJ for a friend. He purchased through RA. Each individual spring was overall shorter than the factory Jeep leafs, the clamps were crude and after installation it sat NO higher than the tired factory springs with 160k on them. You could actually see the main leaf ripple or try to buckle where the second leaf ended, because the second leaf was too short.

We wound up adding 2 leafs per side from the factory packs and got it to sit maybe +1" in the rear.

He also ordered the u-bolts through RA, they were also Husky. DO NOT EVER DO THIS. I was astounded but one of the nuts stripped well, well before approaching anything resembling proper torque. U-bolts were made in India.

Me, I've always just figured up what I need and had the local spring shop bend up u-bolts to my specs.

I'll personally not purchase anything from Husky Spring after seeing the quality of their products in person.

 

Thank you for the info. It's good. I will check if general will ship to Poland (they don't have my country on the on line ordering list, the nearest one is Germany). That needs to be confirmed by phone.
I have read that there is a difference between left and right, but general don't say that. There are other places in US where they sell left and right as a two different products, but none of them delivers to Poland.

 

For what it is worth I have had great Luck with General Spring

 

Juts talked to a gentlemen in general. He said that while 4(3/1) will give some lift but no more than 1/2 inch, so I will be good with my original shocks.

Poland was not on the list on the web because it was not needed before , but they will ship to Poland. He updated the list and I am a bit stunted about the shipping cost to Poland being almost doubled comparing to the our neighbor Germany (100km away). I was expecting actually something close to 400 USD like Rock Auto has via FedEx.

I have prepared the following shopping list:



Now I need to swallow that shipping cost. I know customs will add 23% VAT to it, so it will be close 1500 dollars.

 

You have no spring shops that could make new leaf springs gotta be far cheaper then $1500.00

Even if you had to move hangers to make them work

only doing one spring it will sit different .

 

There isn’t a spring shop in Poland? Leaf springs are ancient tech and not hard to build.

 

Yeah, there has to be a local shop, right?

 

I'm with Wyoming - for $1500 I'd make something from a more common local vehicle work. Even moving hangers if you had to....and even building hangers from scratch and purchasing a welder you'd probably be cheaper.

There's gotta be fab shops there -- I know Poland puts out some really decent cutting tools for machining, so you guys can build things!

 

Like you said, it's ancient technology for cars, so all will have to be very custom order. They do springs for heavy duty trucks (I man "real trucks") and some time ago I was checking my options, any custom spring would be that much. Yes, Poland is not very leaf spring friendly country .

In the meantime I called SDTruckSprings - they are listing actually separate part number for left and right springs. The cost is similar to General, but I will see how they will come up with the shipping. I mean anything around 400 dollars is reasonable. I will get a quote tomorrow. My hope is that SDTruckSprings can ship that set to Australia for less than 200 dollars so I keep high hopes. Rock Auto the same order can ship via FedEx for 300 dollars (or 400 with VAT prepaid), so I guess just UPS is not that "ship to Poland" friendly.

Really my goal is to have all parts delivered for about 800 dollars or less.

I guess I will have to update my build thread "what can go wrong with my truck" - I should have bought leaf springs and put them in the container 4 years ago

 

Don't you guys have junkyards? Or neighboring countries that you can easily cross borders?

 

What about DHL? Aren’t they a Europe based shipper?

 

I would be tempted to find someone with a similar vintage Hilux and see if the distance between the leaf spring mounts is the same. Some googling brought up these companies, if you sent them the specs of the springs you're trying to replace I'd bet they have something compatible.

http://www.psfactory.pl/en/
https://www.lesjofors-automotive.com/automotive-springs/leaf-springs.asp

 

Yes, and they are full of Europeans compacts (VV, Skoda, Renault, Citroen, Audi, BMW, Fiat and many others). From what I saw there are just handful of second gen Tacoma driving in Poland, nothing on the first gen, for sure not from 1995-1996 . All Hiluxes are 2014 or newer models.

The issue is not what I can ship, but what shipping company the store is using. I have no choice and they have a contract with just one shipper who gives them the best rates for 99% of they shipping. Nobody is shipping Tacoma parts to Poland in bulk, so my address falls into that 1% of shipping nobody cares.

That is a possibility. However early Hilux was popular in UK mostly - I have not seen left hand driving Hilux in Europe from 20 years ago. So even early Hilux parts supply is limited.

My goal is to put my truck to work as soon as possible with minimum effort - at this moment I just don't have time and place to do a custom build. This was really very bad timing for that leaf to break. Frankly I don't even know if it broke today or I was driving with the squeaking suspension for some time. Scary, I don't want to think what would happen if the other leaf broke while driving.

At least thank to you guys I have some good info and few options to choose from:

1. If SDTruckSprings shipping falls within 400 dollars I will go for it or if not
2. I will check again with General if they can do something about lowering the shipping or if not
3. Get Dayton springs from RockAuto (for total $650 including with shipping) that I have in the cart.

 

I talked to my "excavation guy" - I called him the day he contracted excavation work for the house I'm building (hence I have no time for anything else right now). He is the guy of many talents (after the the slab was built I contracted him for many other jobs, including the current one of paving my driveway, parking space, patio and walkways around the house) and he knows "people" (I got few other really good contractors from his recommendations). Anyway when I told him, I was late yesterday because the leaf spring broke and I'm looking how to get it fixed, he immediately said: "blacksmith at Brohow". He apparently makes leafs for trucks cheap. I called the guy, and he said, no problem to making a custom leaf for my truck. I'm going to come over there tomorrow so he can look at the truck and give recommendations for either just replacing broken leaf, or fabricating all springs for both sides. The good thing is that he will not only make the spring but replace it on the spot too. I really have no time and space at this moment for such repairs. So I guess I will have the fourth option to fix my truck . I will know the cost tomorrow. SDTruckSprings supposed to call today me with the shipping cost estimate.

 

Support your local blacksmith.

 

I am 100% sure about the quality work from this guy, otherwise my "excavation guy" would not recommend him . Also he said that these custom leaves are cheap - I will see tomorrow what is the "cheap". Apparently his customers are coming from all over the region, for me he is local - 5 miles from my house.

 

I visited the "blacksmith at Brochow". Mostly he is dealing with big trucks but he is also doing vans and pickups. He does not do cars. The oil pit I drove over was just tad below Tacoma's axle track. It is confirmed, the leaf is broken just in half. This is the main leaf (with hangers), so quite scary to drive like that. The "blacksmith" estimated he can make a new replacement leaf and install it for close to 100 dollars. I don't have new bushing, so will have to reuse the old ones. Hopefully it will work. I have scheduled appointment for Monday morning. No communication from SDTruckSprings - no call no email. I guess they can't ship to Poland.

 

He is using the old bushings, the size will be OEM, you can order new bushing and replace as necessary. Lot cheaper shipping than leaf springs. Take pictures.