Who has removed their Dakar upper overload?

they are the dakar leaf pack and they aren't supposed to look wavy but it is an issue that some dakar owners sometimes find themselves facing. Plenty of threads on TW with W-shaped wavy dakar leaf packs after a year or so of running weight on them. Some people have gotten lucky and OME replaced them under warranty, but some weren't able to so had to either live with it or replace them.

Mine are still okay as well but I still keep an eye on them.

 

Ya they are dakars, I bought the HD pack and already removed the 3rd leaf, to my knowledge I can't remove anymore leafs per ARBs recommendation. I'll contact ARB about the W shape, I wonder if having more arch would improve my horrendous ride quality? These are less than half a year old and I have no weight in my bed

 

Those leaves are trashed. Leaf springs should never be W shaped, and there should not be huge gaps between all the leaves. No wonder your ride quality is horrendous. Do you have proper bump stops installed? That condition is usually caused by people wheeling their truck hard without proper bump stops and forcing the spring into such a recurve that the springs are bent backwards.

The way leaf springs work is that the leaves load from the top down. The main leaves at the top are in contact and support the weight they are designed for. The spring is arched under normal load. As load is applied, the bottom leaves in the pack engage, then the first overload, then the second overload. This gives leaf springs a distinct advantage over coil springs, and it's the reason that leaves are still used today. This progressive stacking gives them the ability to support huge weight shifts. In a hill climb, especially on a rutted hill, leaf springs prevent catastrophic weight transfer that could result in a roll over.

 

Here is a picture of a proper spring set up with adequate bumps. The string that you see is pulled between the bolts going through the spring eyes. That gives me some idea where the spring will be when it is loaded flat. Actually it will be about 1" below that line when it is flat. My bumps are positioned to protect both the air bags and the springs. My springs never go recurve. The top 3 leaves are fully engaged and the next 2 are lightly engaged. Leaf # 6 and 7 are not engaged. If I load the truck in any way that upsets this balance, I bring the springs back to this position using the airbags.

Trying to get additional compression travel by eliminating bump stops is a really bad idea. If you need additional travel from what your springs provide, you will need a redesigned suspension with longer and properly arched springs for that application.

Edit: By the way, this leaf pack is 8 years old, around 125,000 miles, and has seen heavy ranch work, wood hauling, towing, and wheeling.

 

Yeah unfortunatly the way the tacoma was designed with where the spring hangers are, if you have any sort of normal curve to your leaf packs you are looking excessive for most lift numbers.

The "new" Dakar EL095R and 96R could potentially be designed wrong in the sense of leaf lengths and why you get the W shape. Ill agree its not ideal but they do their job.

 

For what it's worth, I've been running these for a couple of years, and I like them. Eventually I will upgrade to an adjustable shock, but these have been fine. They bolt right up, with the canister on top. I prefer that set-up because it keeps oil at the seal. Anyway, like any shock, you need to look at your set-up and make sure you are not bottoming or hanging on the shock at the extreme ends. I would recommend them. Hope that helps.

 

awesome thanks for the feedback! Doing measurements it looks like the 5125's (pn -

$131 33-230337 Monotube Shock Absorber, 46mm

33-230337 ) at 15in collapsed 24.38 extended is ideal for the 95R's and stock bumpstop, more droop and no bottoming of the shock before bump but without leaving tons of uptravel on the shock on the table.

Do the 5125's lower eye fit width wise in the axle shock mounts or do you have to grind them down?

 

I wonder if its more of a shock issue, the rear of my truck with the same setup as far as a leaf (your 96R pack minus 3rd leaf is a 95R pack) with OME N182 with 90k miles on em rides pretty damn nice, soaks up the bumps well, nice n smooth on the road, but i do tend to slam bumpstops pretty easily which leads me to believe its time to replace shocks (and maybe flip that long overload so it curves up)

 

You know, if I remember correctly, I just pulled the steel tubes out of my old shocks (also Bilsteins) and swapped them into the new shocks., but yeah you may have to grind the new tubes if you use them. I had forgotten all about that, because it was basically a non-issue. It took like 30 minutes to put them in. I have a 3" lift with older Allpro expedition packs, and they are perfect in terms of length and damping rates. The only reason I want adjustable shocks eventually is to be able to dial up the damping when I'm heavy on the air bags.

 

thats what i have read, a few mm wider that can be easily dealt with. Awesome thanks man!

 

Also, remember that the shocks are angled. That means the travel of the shock is shorter than the travel of the spring. Does that make sense? It works in your favor. It means if you have like 5 inches of spring travel, you only need like 4" of shock travel.

 

Yup yup!

 

Confirmed with ARB that the "W" shape is normal for these Dakars... Took a couple videos with my GoPro, it was hard to get a side shot but they proved that the upper overload is not contacting the leafs during normal driving, I even captured a few decent bumps in the shots. Second guessing pulling the upper overload now. I think these are just too stiff for an empty bed. I'm considering cutting my losses and getting Deavers or Icon RXT at this point

Let me know if these links work

Bumps at speed - https://drive.google.com/open?id=1NDnazR8lVQZTYZq6Nuunj-Jwz7A4Xko-
Back street driving with turns - https://drive.google.com/open?id=1nfJQaaNs1BRBGyT1rcN0_9q3PTepqqsS
At speed - https://drive.google.com/open?id=1gvue5jk33ZimTa4T_8HhEvopVkgDq9kX
At speed different angle - https://drive.google.com/open?id=1kTxCoTd-1Ff4FiWXXZFt9_LgRqNprYin

 

Remove the 3rd leaf in the main pack before you waste money on a new leaf pack.

 

Already done unless you are suggesting the 3rd leaf in what is now the medium duty pack

 

This, pulling the overload doesn’t change the stiffness (spring rate) of the leaf pack. My upper overload is pulled. The reason I pulled it was to get to my target 2 inch lift and keep the normal operating spring rate intact.

 

I removed the overload from my EL095 before install. I did this because I usually have an empty bed and didn't want much lift. Rides great on and off road, and with fully loaded bed of camping stuff rides level, not sagging. Two small issues, you will need a new center pin because the OME one isn't threaded far enough down. And one of the leaf clamps per side will need to be trimmed down so that it won't hit the frame on full compression. I drilled a new hole through the clamp just below the existing hole, and ran a bolt through, see before/after pic.