I've had Downey's 3" lift leaf springs in the rear of my 4runner for a little over a year (5,000 miles) and in that time they lost all of their lift, and in my opinion they are just too soft. After seeing Roger Brown (4crawler) combine two different leaf packs for the front of his 4runner I started considering combining my stock pack and downey pack to make one pack with 6 or 7 leafs. Here's his write-up http://4crawler.com/4x4/4R_suspensio...#CustomSprings . Besides the obvious benifit of picking up lift from just adding more leaves, could this give me a stiffer pack that wouldn't sag so badly? Has anyone tried this? Should there be any specific order of how I stack the leaves? Or am I better off just selling my stock leaf springs and buying an Add-a-leaf? Thanks for your help.

 

Cant comment on the actual tech your asking..
But i was thinking about the 2" downey rears...
I have a pickup so idk if they would actually lose the lift as badly as yours have...Do you have alot of gear in the back of your runner?
Cause I never have anything..

Oh and, I thought you were selling..?
What happened to that ?

 

Mine settled too and I'm not sure if they'll stop. I also was considering this. At worst you would waste time.

 

it would probably work but im sure if you just add 2 of the longest leafs from your stock pack you will get what your looking for

 

I had the Downey 3" on my pickup and while they didn't lose their lift (maybe cause it was a pickup and lighter in the rear), they were way too soft. Even if I put a little camping gear in the back the rear sagged badly. I eventually added some coils like Zuk did. That fixed my sag problem and it was cheap.

 

See why even waste my money on the downey springs then, Might as well just zuk it to begin with

 

Just curious, did you install the load leaf (from your old spring pack) with the new spring pack? I only ask because I was browsing downeyoff-road.com and remembered reading something about it.

 

Yes, I have done this. I started with the second spring from the factory set used a recip saw to cut military wrap off (spring steel is a PITA to cut) Used a drill to remove rivets in brackets. Used overload spring too went to Lowes for a bolt to use as a longer center pin (ground the head round to fit in spring perch). With time and several trails I added one or two more to the Downey pack. I've since swapped them out with a set of Allpro 4" springs, I'd post picks of the Downey/factory pack but they're covered in snow right now. They worked fine with the extra leaves though I'd didn't get to see them flex I got complimented on more than one occasion from a trailing rig. I only swapped them out because I put dual t-cases in, which required cutting off and rotating spring perches, since I only wanted to do this once I changed springs and added shackles at the same time.

 

After working almost all day and not spending a cent, I've finished one side of my 4runner. So far, so good. For the record the Downey 3" springs had 4 leafs where as my stock pack only had 3 (not counting the overload leaf). Now that I think about it why would a decent lift kit only come with 4 leafs and tell you to use your stock overload leaf? I bought the Downey kit for two reasons, because it was the stock lenght since I don't have access to a welder and because it was cheap (could this be because it only came with 4 leafs?). Ok, onto the write-up

Downey Pack currently on my 4runner (from top to bottom)
-first downey leaf
-second downey leaf
-third downey leaf
-fourth downey leaf
-toyota overload leaf

Stock leaf pack
-first toyota leaf
-second toyota leaf
-third toyota leaf
-stock overload leaf

New Hybrid pack
-first downey leaf
-second downey leaf
-second toyota leaf (choosen beacause it had more arch then the first toyota leaf)
-third downey leaf
-third toyota leaf
-fourth downey leaf


I orignially planned on running the stock overload leaf, but my stock U-bolts weren't long enough and I'm too broke to buy new ones. Removing the stock overload leaf and adding two leaf springs also allowed me to use the stock center bolt of the leaf pack.

After finishing up one side tonight, I measured both sides to find out that I picked up an inch and a half of lift! I went from 4.5" between my bump stops and 6" between my bump stops (keep in mind this is with my 4runner on an incline pointed downhill). The only thing I'm worried about is if I load up the 4runner with 4 people and camping gear without the overload leaf, but I guess only time will tell. Looking at aftermarket lift leaf springs most companies run 6 or 7 leafs without an overload, so I hope it'll be alright.

After all this time telling people not to buy Downey springs because they are too soft I'm starting to think about telling people to buy Downey springs and combine it with their stock leafs to save money.

I'll post pics tomorrow!

 

Please do post pics! I'm trying to go cheap with my newly aqquired '84 4runner thats in desperate need of springs!

 

Look in the classifieds I just sold mine, but the picture is still there.