MaNiAk

Hey everybody, I have a fabtech 3'' performance lift in the fron and an AAL in the rear maybe providing 1.5'' of lift. problem is the rear sits lower that the front. I dont want to lower the front, I like the way it looks. Would a complete 7 or 8 leaf pack do the trick to level out my truck? What are the handling characteristics of a new leaf pack vs stock leafs with AAL?

ecchamberlin

I think since you have the front set at 3+"you will need a 8 leaf pack and a shackle to make it level. But it is a prerunner and will perform better with the rear sagging a bit and the front high.

I have a lot of time in on AAL's and can say from experience that the cheap ones from these kits are not a long term fix for anything. They will sag because they are not engineered to work with the rest of the factory leaves like they should. So what ends up happening is the AAL (one leaf) tries to suspend the rear of the truck and all forces placed on each side by its self. It will eventually sag under the pressure.

A leaf pack however is engineered so that all the leaves work together and no one leaf of the pack ends up doing all the work.

just my opinion though.

Tanto

Since you're have a prerunner, you want a higher front or level ride so regardless of what cab you have, a 7 leaf deaver pack would set you straight. An 8 leaf Deaver pack would probably get you about 3.5" with an extended cab and a little bit more if it's a regular cab. Much better flex when you go to a whole new leaf pack like Deavers and consider this:

1.) Stock leaves will break quicker than a whole new set because they weren't designed to do heavy wheeling

2.) Stock leaves even with a AAL or a shackle set will still be worse than a whole new set.

MaNiAk

hey thanks guy for the replies. So do you both agree that an 8 leaf pack would do the trick? I would go with the 7 but I hear that the 8 will hold up better if you are carrying a load. I don't mind a little bit higher in front but I can really see the difference in height. Maybe the 8 pack and forgo the longer shackle.

Tanto

Ok, now I see that you have an extended cab. I would go with a 7-leaf pack because that should level out your ride pretty good, whereas the 8 pack will put your rear up another inch and just look funky. The rear of my truck still stood up after the OME/Tundra lift and a set of top out spacers and only after my 4" TC lift did it pretty much level out (with a bit more height up front).

After the 7 leaf pack, if you want to lift it a little bit more you can always add a shackle, but you can't do much if you're already too high.

Edit: You're right, the 8 pack will handle loads better but it's not like you're going to see a noticeable difference with a 7 pack. I admit that hauling a big grill and cooler with a lot of beer hardly lowered my rear at all.

MaNiAk

Not to many leaf packs out there but what do you recommend?