Rear leaf springs weight rating choices?

[saum14]

ok I m looking for rear springs for my extra cab , been looking at ome , every one i speak to has different ideas , Each arb dealer , Tells me smth different , Most say to use med springs , others say use heavy , What i have is a 2100mm long tray and its all steel , From what i have found it weight is 240kg , Being a extra cab a lot of the tray hangs past the back wheels
from what i understand from the last person i talked to is , light 125kg med 200kg is the same as light just with more arch in the spring heavy 400kg same as med just with a extra long leaf under the military wrap leaf , then another person i talked to said heavy was different used thicker leafs

What i m thinking the med might not hold the arse end up over time , And if the heavy has just a long extra leaf then if should not be that much stiffer then the med200kg , I have a set of bilstin front struts with 3 extra grooves 7mm apart and i think i will use kings front springs

Who is using ome rear springs and whitch ones , what do u think of the med , heavy , or have u gone from med to heavy !

cheers

[9W6VX]

Title edited for clarity.

[McSumWay]

On my old car I started with OME mediums. I had a tuband canopy. When I added a long range tank and drawers they sagged after a week in the high country.

Went back and they added extra leaf and was advised that the heavy duty pack was the med with extra load bearing leaf.

[Drew]

My last lux was another extra cab but tray back, I lifted it 4in, used a 2in spring in the rear with a 2 in block to keep a decent ride. All i can say is unless you are going to be caring arround 500 or so kgs all the time DO NOT get the heavy duty springs. I got the medium and the ride was great empty and i regulary had a 300kg shooring rack on the back and 20 roos or pigs on it. When the rack was full it did squat a bit but it could be over 1t sometimes. A mate had the same setup and went with the heavy springs because its all he could get at the time and you needed a kidney belt lol he hated it and so did eveyone who rode in it lol

[tasibrett]

Have you considered air bags. Bose sell a kit for under $500 which with in cab controls gives you exactly the ride hight you want. I saw a new set on here not long ago for under $300

[saum14]

thanks for replies , i was talking about ome , Reason being is i can get them cheap , At the moment i m about 120kg over standed .And when i picked my lux it wasn't really sitting arse end high . thats why i thought the med ome springs might not hold the arse end up.

most other brands med springs are 300kg , so i would choose med springs .Just ome med are 200kg. Had a talk to caloffroad they do skyjacker 250 kg with 3in lift

cheers

[tonymtber]

Have you considered air bags. Bose sell a kit for under $500 which with in cab controls gives you exactly the ride hight you want. I saw a new set on here not long ago for under $300

I'm thinking about the same thing!

Looking at putting extended shackles in to give it a bit more height at the back & then add the air bags for when I need to load it up. Might even possibly take out a few leafs from the spring pack to soften the ride up a bit.

[rodw]

Not OME, but I have the TD medium 300kg spring which is fine. I do carry all of that weight now with canopy and drawers. Light wa sno good I replaced them. At 240 Kg, I'd go up a level if it was me.

[Drew]

Becareful on doing the airbags to get height, air bags are only supposed to keep the height when its loaded up...prevent it from saging. A mate tried to get out of it cheap buy doing the front 40mm and using airbags in the rear with new shocks but shock springs. On rough sections of road the rear wheels would bounce off the ground and the ride in the back of his twin cab was unbearable. Now he has 40mm springs in the rear with the airbag and it rides fine again.

[markp]

I have an xtra cab as well. I am running the ome heavy (400kg) springs. My all steel tray is 188cm long and i have a 140l long range tank. The springs are nearly 50000km old.They carry a load well and ride well empty.I have done 4 trips up cape york on them and am planning two trips next year. I have no doubt they are up to it

[Brookster]

I agree with markp; My OME heavy springs are fine; I carry around 150kg on a daily basis with regular additional loads from towing and extra loading in the tray (alloy triple M). The suspension is supple throughout the load range. The OME front coils/strut set-up complements the rear leaf set-up; the Hilux drives so much better than the standard vehicles I drove pre-purchase. While I don't admit to knowing much about airbag boosters, I reckon you are better off matching springs-to-use with good shocks to match. (remember the pump-up shocks in the 1980's which were notorious for over-stressing shock mounts?).

[tasibrett]

Becareful on doing the airbags to get height, air bags are only supposed to keep the height when its loaded up...prevent it from sagging.

Too true, I should have made that clear, I use them to keep my headlights aimed correctly when loaded and it works great.

[tonymtber]

Becareful on doing the airbags to get height, air bags are only supposed to keep the height when its loaded up...prevent it from sagging.

Too true, I should have made that clear, I use them to keep my headlights aimed correctly when loaded and it works great.

Yeah Drew I've seen that before as well....not good! The air bag is basically fighting against the spring to get the height.

When I do mine I'm hoping to get the lift by using extend shackles & maybe get a slightly softer ride...if not I'll pull a few leafs out as I only load it up when we go away & the air bags will handle the load easily.

[Drew]

Another simple idear instead of using lift blocks is if you have an old set of springs lying arround cut the center out of 2 leafs, as they alrady have the hols in em just ad a longer center bolt and u bolts and your away, good option instead of extended shackles

[worklux]

I Have OME 884 springs and struts in the front and 400kg springs and shocks in the back on my Extra cab. I have ARB steel BB, dual battery, up front, with steel tray, 140L tank, 3 large tool boxes on the back and have regularly had loads on which would be 5-600kg.
I mainly put them on because I put bigger wheels on and also with the tool boxes needed the extra ride height
I find the ride great and it handles a LOT better with decent wheels, ( I did put 265/75-16 Goodridge MT's on 16-7 Black sunnies, but now back to 255/70-16 AT's for less road noise and dont have to balance them every 5-10,000km) I hard heard with the 400kg springs it would be too hard without a load on but I trusted my local ARB bloke (Seto's 4WD) and haven't been dissapointed yet!
I do get flashed a lot when towing the horse float tho but the float sits front high when hooked up to the ute.
MIne had airbags on when I got it new but I found with the stock suspension it bounced a bit with a lot of weight in the back. So I'm assuming the sirbags do OK unless loaded up on rough roads!
I think finding someone who has experience and knows what they are talking about makes a big difference. I'm not an expert so I tried to get info of guys who thought they were, then figure out whats the best thing to do for me from that.

[saum14]

g'day all . i went the heavy rear springs . What made my mind up was i went and got some retaining wall blocks with std springs and on way home was hiting on bump stops . 66 blocks @300mm long . Would have been under 500kg

At start she was sitting 705mm on drivers side 700mm on passanger side at the rear was 745mm each side from bottom of 15in rims to tray

Now 775 mm from bottom of rim on the front 835mm on rear , so i gained 70mm in the front . 90mm in the rear

used bilstin with king hd spring on number 3 groove . Ride in the arse end feels about the same as std springs

cheers

[Far North Boar]

Saum14 what brand leaf springs did you use? do you have extended shackles as well?

[saum14]

Naah I didn't use ext shackels , The springs are old man emu , Heavy 400kg , suprised me how much it lifted the rear
cheers

[camwill69]

You may shot me down but what are your thoughts,

I believe the harded you go with your springs, front or rear, the less articulation you get. More presure reqiured to compress the spring and so on.

I believe you would be better going a soft spring and using packers such as strut spacer or diff blocks to get the desired hight so you get reasonable articulation.

I think it works for me compared to some other trucks I have been wheelin with. Either that or my LSD is the only one still working in the country after 110 000 km. I dout it.

Cam

[MADDOG]

It all depends on what you set your rig up for. I get off road as often as I can, but I've got mine setup to take a load of firewood (which gets me in some pretty sticky situations). When I'm motivated I'll get 5 or 6 loads of wood in a weekend and it weighs more than a ton if it's green. When I told my mechanic (All Terrain Mechanical in Albury. Great service ) that I would be collecting firewood, his supplier said he wouldn't warrant the suspension if I went a medium rate spring. I know I'm not going to get the articulation that would get me further up that hill, but you gotta do what ya gotta do. If you're a daily driver you set your rig up for how you use it. Yes softer springs give you more articulation, but my ass would be dragging on the ground with a load of wood in the back..............my 2 bob