Running J59 Deaver Springs?

I dont like that they add so much more negative arch onto the leaf springs, which just decreases the life on the pack and cuases them to sag more.

 

One reason could be what I noticed with my set up. There isn't much room for rebound. I can tell my rear shocks bottom out over certain kinds of "bumps" which isn't good for the shocks. I haven't had any problems because I only do mild wheeling with mine but for someone who's going to be constantly dropping their rear axle off of sharp edged terrain I could see where it would eventually damage the shocks. That's the reason I'm going to get some standard height, rear shackles some time this summer and replace the 1" longer shackles I have on there. I've got OME Nitrochargers on mine. They are a pretty tough shock so no problems with mine yet.

 

I plan to get my springs/shackles set up first, then get the exact length shocks I need. I will still set them up, at least initially with my 1” shackles, and test and measure.

1” longer shouldn’t affect the geometry too much. The bad geometry (flat/inverted) I have now is more due to the worn out stock springs, lol.

 

I’ve heard you want the shackle at roughly a 45 degree angle to the ground, but there is some slop in at. Like I said in the above post, I plan to just use what I have at first and take a bunch of measurements and flex out the susp and see how it works, and go from there.

 

I am running 6112's up front and 5160's in the rear.... Anyone have this setup with J59's? I have heard some negative reviews on the J66's and the U402 Stage one seems like it adds too much lift...

Thoughts?

 

never heard of anyone running that combo. sorry.

 

When I put j59s on my truck I found that at full droop the length between
shock mounts was 24.5 inches...

I just looked up 5160s for 1st gens at Bilstein's site...

Left:

Collapsed Length (IN): 12.95
Extended Length (IN): 20.66

Right:

Collapsed Length (IN): 13.42
Extended Length (IN): 21.73

I don't have shocks yet... some Kings that I hope will work are being
made now.

-Mike

 

what shackles/shock mounts are you running? all stock?

 

All stock. I don't even know if what I'm doing makes sense... I just want rear
shocks with good action, and I got the deavers because they have more
leaves that are thinner than OEM which is supposed to give progressive
action.

So right now I have the deavers, OEM shackles, OEM shock mounts, and
whatever unknown slap-worn-out shocks the previous owner put on there,
and I'm waiting on Kings that I hope will fit and work when they get here.

-Mike

 

I have the Deaver J59's with OME Nitrochargers all the way around with 880 springs up front. The OME's do seem to be "to short" for the Deaver J59's as I get a "bump" when they hit their limit of length. It hasn't caused any problems for me after 3 years but I don't "wheel". Ome's are also designed for carrying heavy loads which I never do. None the less I am happy with my OME Nitro's and springs up front as well as my J59's and Nitro's out back. I could have a plusher ride with King's or something else but for a DD and mild off roading the cost wasn't worth it at the time.

The only complaint I have with the Deaver J59's is that the paint fell off of them within a month and they turned red with rust. Surface rust is one thing. Rust that actually eats the metal away is another. So far as I can tell it's just surface rust which I won't worry about. I'll be looking at the Deaver's closer during this summer.

Springs that cost $600 shouldn't be rusting inside of a month. Other than that? I love the way they work.

 

Did you custom order Kings for the rear stock mounts, if so, I'd be interested in hearing the details on that.

 

Yes, I custom ordered.

At first (learning curve) I got OEM length Kings to go with my new deavers,
but it was obvious that that was very wrong. D'OH.

So... I talked to the tech at King, and then got the shop where I was
getting the work done talk to the same guy. Some questions went
back and forth and we did some measurements at full droop with
the shocks off and waited a few months and now I have the shocks.
It would be bad at this point to flex my truck over the boulder fields like you see
people on this board doing all the time, because my rear brake
lines are real tight a full droop on the rack now. But I have a new set of
the longer ones from Wheelers now, hope to get them on next week.

I'll never hit the boulder fields anyhow, but I can say that
I really like my truck now, especially compared to how it
was when I got it... there's more than just Kings front and back,
I got a bunch of new steering stuff too.

It is hard to mount Kings of *any* length on a 1st gen's
rear passenger side, the reservoir bottle gets in the way.
It is possible to clock the bottle just right and it will go in.
Neither of the sets I got were clocked right, and clocking it
without putting the line in a bind required releasing the nitrogen,
clocking it carefully and then recharging it.

If I could go back in time I might get some kind of OEM-sized
leafs and use OEM sized Kings. I was after good suspension
action, and don't care all that much about the lift. But the Deavers are sweet.

It would seem like a bunch of tech-savvy wheelers on a group this
size would have already put Kings and Deavers on a 1st gen
and know exactly what sized Kings would be needed to make everything
"just right" but I couldn't find it when I was doing it. As far as my set up, it way
suits me now, but for a "flexer" who regularly has one wheel off the ground and
the other wheel on a fully compressed shock out in the wilderness
somewhere, 1/2 inch of shock length one way or the other is
probably important. You don't want to waste shock travel,
but roughly topping shocks out CLANK over and over doesn't
do shocks any good.

-Mike

 

This is exactly what I'm talking about. I've been on the phone all morning with King, Deaver, and other local socal offroad shops trying to figure this out.

I want to run the Deaver j59 leaf springs for my 1998 Tacoma, along with King 2.5 shocks in the back. Nobody seems to know where to start with the shocks. King says call Deaver for the extended shock length, Deaver says call King, etc. King does not recommend running the 25001-153 shocks with the deavers, as mentioned, they are meant for stock height.

I don't want to get those OEM King shocks and worry about destroying them if my wheels get off the ground at all. Do it right the first time. So pay $200 more for custom ordering shocks, but King needs to know the length and nobody seems to know.

Camburg and some other shops say people run the 25001-153 shocks with the Deavers and have no problems, but how long do their expensive shocks last then? Most likely shortening the life big time.

Do you have the dimensions I should tell King then?

 

I wrote this down in another post:

We did some measuring at full droop and went with 24 inch extended length on the left side
side and 24 1/2 on the right...

-Mike "what finally came might have been 24 both sides ? "

 

That's awesome, thanks a lot Mike. Which is the other post, do you mind referencing that? These shocks were for your 2002 Tacoma right, are they same mounting and shock travel as my 1998?

King did say the magic measurement they need is the extended, but that the other length helps, as in collapsed? Not sure how you'd get that...

Did you drive around to break in the springs first before measuring? So they basically just sent shocks with 24 inches of extended length? It's the same 25001-153 shock, just with longer rod then basically, or do they change valving too?

I like this idea a lot better, then really shouldn't need limiting straps at all.

 

I drove around for two months with the deavers and the clapped out who-knows-what-kind
of shocks that were on there when I got the truck while waiting for the new Kings. Those shocks
were so worn that you could extend and compress them with just your own strength when they were off the truck.
I think we measured again after those two months, but that was when the new shocks had
come in and maybe we just slapped them on. After fighting the reservoir bottle problem,
don't overlook that.

The only difference I specified was the length, so I don't know what else they may have
thought they needed to do.

-Mike

 

Hmm ok. It looks and sounds like the reservoir is hose-clamped to the main tube, you can't just loosen the clamps to maneuver the tube during install?

 

I don't remember how to do it but there is a way to measure the droop and compressed length of the suspension to order the proper length of shock. For my purposes it was never necessary. I saw a thread on this forum somewhere a few years ago that explained how to do it. You might go to the suspension section.

 

Ok. Otherwise thinking just adding 3-4 inches when ordering the kings because like hubcapsc said - something like 23-24 inches at full extension

 

I have OME Nitrochargers in the back with Deaver J59's. The OME's do bottom out on rebound when I drive over certain obstacles but it hasn't hurt anything since I don't "wheel" my Tacoma. I did install the extended brake hose on mine just to be on the safe side.