My Taco Upgrade

The Saints

The Saints

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 22, 2009
Messages
239
Location
Santa Cruz, CA
So back when I got my camper, I added a Super Spring to my suspension. But it seemed that when I went over bumps, it would bottom out. Now that I think about it, that just may have been the Super Springs kicking in and doing their job. Anyway, I had some custom springs made for the rear end and replace the shocks with something longer. Now the truck sits higher by about 2" in the rear, even with the camper. So the plan was to lift the front with some billet spacers. But instead here is what is happening to my 02 Taco.
I am replacing the stock front bumper with an ARB Deluxe bar bumper, and putting a Warn XD 9000 winch in. Then, I will replace the coils with a pair of Old Man Emu ones, and replace the shocks with the Bilstein 5100's. That will take care of the extra weight, and lift the front end. To finish this off, I will add a differential drop to ease the CV joints.
I hope all this works. Now, I have to finish saving up for all this, so I'm looking at July to be complete.
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If you go with OME coil in the front you might want to use OME shocks as well. The 5100 are design for stock coil they might no have enough damping to control OME coil since they are stronger than stock. :)
 
good advise. I was talking with a friend and he suggested the same as you, go with the OME package set. So enough said. OME, all the way around.
 
So back when I got my camper, I added a Super Spring to my suspension. But it seemed that when I went over bumps, it would bottom out. Now that I think about it, that just may have been the Super Springs kicking in and doing their job. Anyway, I had some custom springs made for the rear end and replace the shocks with something longer. Now the truck sits higher by about 2" in the rear, even with the camper. So the plan was to lift the front with some billet spacers. But instead here is what is happening to my 02 Taco.
I am replacing the stock front bumper with an ARB Deluxe bar bumper, and putting a Warn XD 9000 winch in. Then, I will replace the coils with a pair of Old Man Emu ones, and replace the shocks with the Bilstein 5100's. That will take care of the extra weight, and lift the front end. To finish this off, I will add a differential drop to ease the CV joints.
I hope all this works. Now, I have to finish saving up for all this, so I'm looking at July to be complete.
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Scott, where are you getting this done? Thinking about some mods to my Tacoma.

Will
 
I met a pretty nice mechanic in Scott's Valley. The name of his shop is Ben Lifted. He pretty much specializes in Toyota's. Every time I tell him I can get a part for a certain price, he calls back within a day and tells me not to bother, he can get it for cheaper.
 
I am interested in your custom rear spring solutions.

I recently purchased a 2004 Tacoma that has an ARB bumper with Warn 8000 winch and Old Man Emu front coils and OME Dakar "heavy" rear leafs. The total lift is supposedly just over 2 inches. I made the assumption the OME springs would handle an FWC camper.

When I purchased my 2009 FWC Eagle and put it on my Taco, the rear springs sagged 5 inches on drivers side and 3 inches on passenger side! I put Air Lift helpers on it. They seemed to work ok, lifting my truck back to the unloaded height with 55 lbs of air in the driver side and 35 on the passenger. I took it on the maiden journey on a dirt road that had some washboard and potholes. 20 miles into the road, the left airbag blew out. On the way home, the right airbag failed also. The support team at Air Lift shipped me out a couple of replacements. After installing the replacements, I took my truck to 3 local Air Lift installers and had them check out my install to determine why they had failed. They all agreed that the install looked good and suspected that the failure was probably the loosening of a bolt in the spacer (required for the 2" lift springs). I put in new bolts and torqued them up to the bolt rating using loctite blue.

I took a trip to Bryce Canyon with the replacement bags installed and the camper loaded for a couple of days stay. The roads were all pavement. With the same inflation (55/35 psi) the truck was level, but it would bottom out occasionally on service station entries, drainages across paved streets and patched potholes.

A couple of days ago, I put the camper on the truck and headed out for Kolob Plateau. The road there is paved most of the way, but has a few rough patches. I aired up to 65/45 psi in the air bags, hoping to eliminate the bottoming out. I hit one dip in the road that bottomed out the suspension. After that, the truck started driving like it had little or no springs on the left and bottomed out on every little bump. I stopped to check out the problem, and found that once again the drivers side bag has failed. I hadn't even left the pavement!

I'm suspecting that the drivers side spring has sagged under load to the point where the air bag won't handle the load. My camper is only 690 lbs plus the options, gear, propane, and water. I suspect the total weight is still under 1,000 pounds. The truck is rated for 1,300 total, so I should not be having these failurs. I am to the point where I want to just get spring packs that will handle the loaded weight of the camper and abandon the idea of air bags. I know that many people with these campers run Air Lifts and don't have problems, but I really don't know what else to do.

Sorry to post such a lengthy request, but your thread here caught my interest when you said your new rear springs are at 2 inch lifted ride height with the camper on. That sounds like just what I need. Where did you get them? Also, how is the ride when loaded and empty?

BTW- the OME front coils and OME nitro shocks seem to work fine. Just the rears are the problem.

Gil
meach4x4
2004 Tacoma Extended Cab
2009 FWC Eagle
saggy ome rear springs and blown air bags!!! :mad:
 
The Gen1 Tacoma OME leafs do not hold much weight.

The Gen2 Tacoma OME leafs hold a ton.


That seems odd. I wonder why they didn't upgrade the gen1 Tacoma OME leafs? My springs are less than two years old. Seems wierd that the "heavy" OMEs for gen1 would still be unsuitable for carrying a popup. I am planning on calling the distributor that sold them to the PO and see what's up with them. If they don't have some sort of help on them, I'll be going to Alcans before I blow any more air lifts.

Gil
 
That seems odd. I wonder why they didn't upgrade the gen1 Tacoma OME leafs? My springs are less than two years old. Seems wierd that the "heavy" OMEs for gen1 would still be unsuitable for carrying a popup. I am planning on calling the distributor that sold them to the PO and see what's up with them. If they don't have some sort of help on them, I'll be going to Alcans before I blow any more air lifts.

Gil


Yeah, it's odd. All I know is I have read a few times that the Gen1 OME leafs do not hold a lot of weight. Try going with a custom set of Timbrens with your OME. I really like mine.
 
I spoke with the distributor for OME products and he said the OME "heavy" springs for the Taco are only good for about 300 pounds payload. He recommended going to a custom spring like a Deaver or Alcan if I wanted to carry a 1000 pound camper.

I went ahead and ordered a set of Alcan springs that will be built to handle the weight of the camper. The ride will be stiff without the weight of the camper on it, but I feel the tradeoff is acceptable in order to have solid support for the camper when I'm doing back country roads.

Gil
 
SilverTip, A diff drop is if you lift the front up too much and need to lower the differential to avoid wearing out your CV joints.
As for my front bumper, I had a change of heart. I am going with a bumper that looks similar to the ARB one, only this one is from a company named Aluminess. The bumper is made out of aluminum and weighs half, only 70 lbs. It does cost more, but it seems the campers we put on our trucks that we love so much, weigh less and cost more. Going down to San Diego in October to surf and gonna swing by the bumper shop and have them install mine. Then winch, then front suspension. By then I'll know what I need up front.:D
 
The OME heavy coils I have on the front seem to do a good job with or without the camper on. I have an ARB bumper and Warn 8000 winch and it really doesn't feel too heavy with those coils.

I received the Alcan custom rear leafs today. They are really impressively built (just like other Alcans I've run on Jeeps. I'll be installing them tomorrow and will update on how I like them.

While I've been waiting for them I've been using the Taco empty. Today I did about 120 miles of dirt roads. Even with the OME rear springs they tend to bounce and lose traction on corrugated road. I have to drive really gingerly to keep from going to 4 wheel drive on hills. They do flex up, but you really have to have a lot of off camber to force them to flex. So I am surprised they don't flex easily but can't handle much load. What are they good for? Anyone want to buy them? :oops:

Gil
 
Yeah, it's odd. All I know is I have read a few times that the Gen1 OME leafs do not hold a lot of weight. Try going with a custom set of Timbrens with your OME. I really like mine.


That is odd. I put the the heavy OME rear leaf springs on my 86 and they were too stiff with too much lift. I couldn't even hook my air bags back up. I took the heavy leaf out and the lift/ride is very good now with the camper. The OME springs were $100 each at 4 Wheel Parts.

CWD
 
I think basically that everyone has different ideas of what they want and get just that. I have heard alot of people saying air bags are best, helper springs are best, etc. I feel you get what you want and end up happy. I am so far with mine, but it might be a rough ride for someone else.
 
I found a good reference tool for Taco mods to be www.tacomaworld.com
Check out the pro and cons of the Diff drop before you decide- it's been hashed over pretty well on the site.
Best of luck on your build!
 
Next week I get to take my trek down to SD and get my new bumper. They will install it for $60.00, and I am getting some PIAA driving lights installed in it too. Some how I want to hook them up to my high beam switch so they come on only when I use the high beams.
 
[/quote]I am getting some PIAA driving lights installed in it too. Some how I want to hook them up to my high beam switch so they come on only when I use the high beams.
[/quote]

Well that is easy enough to do, that is how I have mine hooked up. You should think about a manual override as well.

Cort
 
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