Deaver Spring Manufacturing, Custom 10 Leaf Pack
Sierra Madre of Mexico
Full military wrap and tapered ends
Just the thickness of the springs adds an inch over stock height
Statistics
Deaver Springs:
Total Number of Leaves: 10
Total Arch to Top of Leaf Packs: 10.5″
Pack Thickness: 2.5″
Eye Bolt Center to Center: 53″
Center Bolt to Forward Eye: 26″
Weight: 53 lbs.
Lift with 0 Load: 3.75″
Lift with 250 lb. Load: 3.25″
Lift with 600 lb. Load: 2.5″
Lift with 800 lb. Load: Not tested yet
Factory Springs:
Total Number of LEAVES: 3 + 1 Overload
Total Arch to Top of Leaf Packs: 7.75″
Pack Thickness: 1.75″
Eye Bolt Center to Center: 56.25″
Center Bolt to Forward Eye: 26.80″
Weight: 46 lbs.
Lift with 0 Load: Baseline
Lift with 250 lb. Load: -0.5″
Lift with 600 lb. Load: -1.75″ (springs compressed against overload)
Lift with 800 lb. Load: Not tested yet
Why Deaver Springs?
Deaver Spring Manufacturing was established in 1892, and has a rich history in the off-road racing world and with the Southern California OHV community. Their recent successes with super duty ford and Toyota Tacoma trucks have brought them much deserved recognition and popularity.
There are major benefits of using a custom spring manufacturer to build your lift springs. Here are a few of the most significant advantages:
1. The springs are custom tuned to your needs: I wanted a spring set that could handle a 600-800 pound rear axle load, and still provide a smooth ride and flexibility through rough terrain. Mass produced spring sets are tuned for the “average” driver, and are also designed to minimize manufacturing costs. Deaver Springs spent the time necessary to understand my application and recommend a spring for my vehicle.
2. Quality: The manufacturing quality of the Deaver springs is exceptional. This is evident in the quality (and temper) of steel used (American made spring steel), the constant radius rolled arch, anti-friction pads and chamfered spring ends. The springs come painted and include all polyurethane bushings and new, oversized u-bots.
3. Application Specific Tuning: Deaver spends a great amount of time understanding the application that their springs will be used for. On their Tacoma springs, Deaver positions the spring center bolt 3/4″ closer to the front of the vehicle, centering the axle more accurately at full compression. That minor adjustment reduces most of the rubbing at the rear of the wheel well found with the stock springs. Deaver also makes every attempt to maximize the ride quality and flexibility of the suspension by not using tight spring clamps.
4. Safety: The Deaver packs feature a full length second leaf with military wrap on the forward eye.
Installation
Note: The reader assumes all responsibility for using these installation instructions. Expeditions West does not warrant these instructions as being accurate or appropriate for your application. Use them at your own risk.
The Deaver spring kit comes with a set of springs, poly bushings, bushing sleeves, and new u-bolts.
It is first necessary to assemble the bushings into the spring packs, and ensure that the bushings are properly greased to prevent friction and noise. In my case, the bushing slid into the spring eyes easily, with only minor pressure.
Next, I installed the cadmium plated sleeves into the bushings. These sleeves prevent damage to the bushings as the suspension cycles. I used a rubber mallet to install the sleeves into the bushings.
The next step is to properly chock the vehicle and stabilize the truck on jack stands. It is also a good idea to keep a hydraulic floor jack under the axle at all times for safety, and to raise and lower the axle as required.
Next, it is necessary to begin removing the stock leaf packs from one side of the vehicle. This is best accomplished by keeping the springs in a neutral load state with the floor jack. Remove the two factory u-bolts and the spring plate. Slowly drop the axle down a few inches to make the springs easier to move.
After the u-bolts are removed, the spring mounting bolt at the front of the pack needs to be removed. As the bolt is removed from the spring bushing it is necessary to hold the spring pack to prevent it from dropping.
Now that the spring is free from the forward mount and the axle, the last step is to separate the spring shackles. This is actually the most difficult part of removing the springs. The job is made easier by removing the spare tire.
The stock spring can now be removed from the vehicle. Use caution to prevent damage to brake and ABS lines. Shown side-by-side, the stock springs are nearly 3 inches shorter than the Deaver’s, and have a softer rate.
Installing the New Springs
I like to install the bolt in the forward eye first, which makes controlling the spring easier. Then install the rearward end of the spring onto the shackle. This is somewhat challenging, as the bushing will want to slide out of the springs. I used a flat faced crowbar to hold the bushing in place and slide the spring onto the shackle.
Next, I installed the factory shackle. This can be somewhat difficult as the bushing sleeve wants to slide out of the bushing. It’s really not too bad though, and only takes a few minutes.
The center bolts were left slightly long by Deaver to allow for adding an additional leaf or degree shim, so it was necessary to drill out the bumpstop slightly to allow the bolt to go inside the rubber. I drilled the bumpstop out with a 1/2″ drill bit.
The most challenging part of installing the new springs is moving the axle forward the 3/4″ to accommodate the new spring center bolt position. I used a small come-a-long to ratchet the axle forward. It was a very simple and effective solution. The spring will drop the center bolt into the axle spring pad.
Now the u-bolts need to be installed and torqued (65 lbs in this application). NEVER reuse old u-bolts. The treads are stretched (u-bolt threads are rolled, not cut/machined) during the torquing process and cannot retain tension properly if reused.
All of the suspension bolts should be re-torqued at 50 and 500 miles.
The last step is to install the new shocks. I elected to use Bilstein 5100 shocks, which are 1.5″ longer than the factory application, but still allow full compression. Installing the shocks is a simple R&I process.
There are a few other items that need to be addressed, but are not detailed here:
1. A longer rear brake line
2. The active brake purportioning valve needs to be modified to address the additional height.
Impressions
One of my biggest complaints with the stock Tacoma was the factory rear suspension. I had horrible axle wrap and the vehicle rode so poorly off-road that it was exhausting for long trails.
The Deaver springs remedied all of those issues, and provided a payload capacity of 600-800 lbs. over the rear axle while maintaining the required 2″ lift height. With that load, they ride like a Lexus! I could not be happier.
Vendor:
Deaver Springs Manufacturing
Contact: (714) 542-3703
902 E. Second Street
Santa Ana, CA 92701
Cost:
Custom 10 Leaf Pack: Contact vendor
Standard 7 Leaf Pack: Contact vendor
Weight:
53 lbs. each, 106 lbs. for the set
The set weighs 14 lbs. more than the stock Toyota springs
Installation Time:
2 hours with air tools, much longer without
Difficulty (Easy, Moderate, Difficult):
Easy
Specialty Tools Required:
None
Vehicle:
2004 Expeditions West Toyota Tacoma Double Cab TRD
