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Have you looked through the yellow pages for local spring shops? Check around.

S-10? Toyota? Different prices? Will I be the only one to smack the obvious button?

 

http://www.downeyoff-road.com/home.html

Try this. They don't have prices on their site anymore but when I got mine they were $186 for the pair. Check with member SoCal80, as he just recently purchased some and should have more current pricing. Also wondering about your online name, if you can weld/fab consider a Chevy spring swap. You will want junkyard Chevy leaves for cheap and some hangers and odds and ends. But that will lift the rear end probably higher than you want, requiring some attention to the front to keep things even.

 

I've called a few places. Most of them are more expensive.

Please help me understand why I am having to pay double the cost for somthing almost exactly the same as far as I can tell.

His springs were made by the same company with the same material, and are close to the same dimensions as the replacement Toy's springs.

Unless I am missing something incredibly obvious, it just seems like gouging on the surface.

 

Thanks for the link. $186 is a hell of a lot better than $290. But I don't need the lift.

I am pretty handy with a welder and torch, and I have considered a swap, but after further consideration I feel it is more trouble than it's worth in my situation.

There is such a huge market for high performance 4x4 toyota parts out there, it's difficult to find budget stuff that will just do the job under normal conditions.

 

Yeah. Kinda got that from your original post that you might be just trying to solve your current issue... not start a whole new project. IIRC the chevy's lift the rear 4 or more inches. Some will pooh-pooh the Downey's but hey, they do the job.

 

I just meant the difference in price is just supply and demand -- many more S-10s than Toyotas. Despite the problems we have with our trucks, I can't imagine owning/paying for/fixing an S-10. Brrrrr!

 

Hmm... Just actually looked at the Downey site and prices are listed again. Sorry. $199 now. Still beats $290.

 

Good point.

 

might try http://car-part.com/ to see if you can find anything better in a junkyard nearby - they seem to go for about 50 a side, but who knows if they'll have any more arch than you do now.

 

Why not just go get two rear packs from a junkyard and build your own single 4-5 leaf set? I mean, you want cheap and you don't want any lift...

 

what about getting yours rebent at a spring shop?

 

I don't think you'll be happy with an attempt at re-arching them - it usually fails after a short period of time.

The Downey rear springs are pretty crappy and settle fast. I bought some 3" rears in 95 and they settled to 1.5-2" pretty quickly. So fast that I had to throw longer shackles at the truck to level it with the 3" IFS rancho kit I was running. See if you can get their 2" rears still and go that route. If the truck has a slight rake for a bit, know that it will go away. If you want, you can also throw some ball joing spacers at it or crank up the torsions a tad (1/2-1" max) to level it. That's the route I'd go.

 

No, I have never been satisfied with rebending. They are especially bad about flattening if you use your truck for heavy loads like I do. I don't think they are so bad if you just use your truck for no load off roading though.

 

x2 on adding some more leaves from another spring pack. Once you lift the rest of the spring leaves off of the stiff overload leaf, the ride will be much better. I run a 2 sets of stock rear leaves on the front of my '85 and they are awesome:
- http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/4R_suspe...#CustomSprings

Cost? About $20 for a new set of poly bushings for the springs and a pair of longer center bolts.

 

You mentioned heavy loads. This is the route I'm going with the stock rear springs.

http://www.truckspring.com/firestone...rear-2116.html