What would you do?

I have a cracked leaf. I bought the truck with a lift kit installed. Is the bottom leaf the aal? Do you think because I have an aal Toyota would consider them for the leaf recall? Look closely at the 4th leaf about dead center in the first pic.

 

Looks like its a aal. Looks like they took the overload out. I would just get a add a leaf set and call it a day.

 

So the aal is the one that's cracked?

 

Yup

 

The overload is still in there, just the aal is cracked. Buy a new one for $50 and try again or ink up on a proper pack

 

Often "add a leafs" that advertise a lift greater than the thickness of the leaf itself aren't a great idea. The add a leaf has a greater arc than the other leafs and ends up doing most of the work. They wear out spring pads, stress other leafs and because all the leafs aren't working together evenly, axle wrap and a harsh ride are often issues.

On the cheap... replace the add a leaf
To do it properly, get a quality lift spring pack.

I know this because I went down this route and wasted time and money. Yesterday I installed OME Heavys which is what I should have done in the first place. Sometimes it's expensive being cheap.

 

This, because below.

Had the same thing, rocked a longer single 2in AAL for awhile and axle wrap was ATROCIOUS. Been rocking OME mediums for a while and they are FAR better.

 

Well if I'm going to fix it I guess I'll fix it right. Valley Springs and Service makes custom built to order leaf packs here locally, so I'll swing by just to see. Otherwise I guess I'm looking at $600 to $1000 for OME or something like that. So much for the skid plate kit I was going to get next month. :-(

 

I have a 15k mile Deaver U66 pack I’ll sell for $350

 

Well I'm currently a little confused on which step to take next. I have a line on a set of used Deaver 402s locally now too. I'll do some research cause I have no idea what I really need.

 

Do you need a quality high end leaf spring and is it in the budget?

You can buy a lot of AAL's for the price of one spring if all you do is light duty driving. Not the best set up but I'd step back for a minute to see if you really need it.

 

No, I don't need a high quality set. However, I'm a firm believer in the cry once policy. I'd hate to put a new aal in there again just to be repeating the process again next year. Afterall, time is money too.
I'm going to go used and that should save me some coin. I'm just wondering/worried how rough the ride is on the Deaver U402 springs with a regular cab 4x4.