just curious. positive and negatives of both please. just got into wheeling

 

You mean stiff rear end springs..?

Well a few things..
Flex like this, Keeps you stable when normally if you didnt have that much flex your truck would be leaning ~~30 degrees and possibly flopping on your side..bad.



No flex, Well bad for off camber situations where it is possible to roll flip or flop, neither is good.
Here you can see, this guys shocks are limiting his down travel, and his passenger rear tire is off the ground, leaving a tippy feeling..



That should get ya goin..

 

Just plain old stiff springs don't feel too good when goin over bumps and wash boards. It would be good if you were haulin or towin heavy stuff.

 

When I first installed my rear springs up front, I didn't have time to do anything in back so still had an old set of stiff lift springs there. Went up to the Rubicon trail to test out the front end and found that the stiff rear end forced the front springs to really work. But it made for a lot more leaning as the rear end would lean the truck over as a rear tire climbed a rock or whatever and force the front end to do all the work. Made for an interesting trip, but I was a lot happier when I got the rear springs upgraded to work as well as the front.

 

As Roger alluded to, you want a well-balanced rig with compatible spring rates front and rear.

IMHO, though, flex is overrated.

What kind of rig do you have? Any mods yet?

 

Well I just found out it iwas not the best choice for "just Wheeling" but its a 2004 V8 5-speed SR5 no XREAS, thank god. I was planning on 5100 both front and back, not chnging my front coils, but adding OME coils to the back. Thought about a 2.5 inch in the front and then with the 1.5 off the coild in the back, I expect to be higher and about level both front and back. Sound right? Should I just get the OME kit complete for three hundred more and make that happen? I read somewhere that OME kits for 4th gen's aren't great.

 

www.toyota120.com is the place for 4th gens I hear.

5100 series shocks are pretty nice.

If you're not changing the coils, where are you planning to get the 2.5" lift from? Spacers?

 

The front are adjustables. either a 1.75 or 2.5 lift adjustment. Coils mount to notch on shock. back end no lift, but I want my gas tank off the ground a bit more, even just an inch

 

I second what TC said about compatible spring rates front and rear. I just put a 'helper' spring inbetween the overload and other leafs to temp fix some sagging leaves in my truck. What I found was that it still flexes well and makes the front end do more flexing making for a more solid feel off road and seems to be better traction.

 

A little stiff in back can be good if you carry lots of weight and drive on the freeway, but to stiff is bad.