When to add a leaf on OME suspension (1 Viewer)

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Feb 5, 2020
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Location
Harpers Ferry, WV
So this weekend I finally mounted a Warn M12000, still need to wire it in, but it’s to cold for that nonsense. Anyway, I was looking at the suspension, when I was under the cruiser searching for the washer I dropped, and it doesn’t seem like I have much room for travel upward.

Currently have an ARB bumper with a hi lift mounted to it and now the winch, but also running a 4plus u bolt flip kit which adds some height to the top of the axle under the frame. I can see that it looks like the plate for the u bolt flip has already been contacting the bump stops. So I’m wondering if I need to go add and add a leaf to the front springs. The front springs are currently OME CS004F.

Should I go ahead and order the D1XL leafs to add to the pack?
 
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Arb bull bar part #3410100 is 150lbs
Warn M12000 Weight with steel cable 131.6lbs
Hi-lift ~28lbs
Total Added weight = 309.6lbs or 140kg.

ARB spring CS004F are rated for an additional weight of 51-110kg.
I didn't know this until I just looked it up haha. I have the same front springs, ARB bumper, and an 8k winch. I added a leaf shortly after installing the suspension because of the added sag from my bumper and winch, Im glad I did knowing the weight rating of the springs now is not sufficient per ARB's recommended setup without adding a leaf.

Frustratingly, I couldnt find any information from ARB on how much load capacity the D1XL would add to the front of an FJ60. Already your setup is over ARB's listed capacity. I would add a leaf.
 
They dont say explicitly if they heavy plus includes the add-a-leafs but Im going to assume that's the case. I run heavy + add a leaf in front and just a stock OME medium heavy in the rear and I find it to be nicely balanced for my use.
 
Store the hi-lift behind the front seats on the floor. It’s the best spot for it.
I used to bolt my hi-lift standard (slotted bar) under the front ARB bumper using the mounting bolts. While it fit there and was low - it rusts there too. The standard has gotta stay clean and nice - so I put the whole enchilada on the floor behind the seats and for me, it was without question the best location on the cruiser.
I had a Warn M10000 up front (now no longer available) and it weighed 125 lbs with its cable. My front springs had 7 leaves (not OME) and they couldn’t really handle the weight when the cruiser was fully loaded down on long off-road trips.
I eventually had to get them shortened a tad so the shackles weren’t so parallel with the springs.

I drove around for 20 years with that heavy winch bolted to the front. I finally got sick of it and got rid of it and the cruiser drove so much better and stopped so much better without it.

In a perfect world (in hindsight) I’d have a method to easily (highlight “easily”) remove the winch between trips to store it in the garage so as not to haul that heavy sucker around 200,000 miles doing nothing
 
Talked to Jason at CruiserOutfitters yesterday and got the D1XL leafs ordered.
He also hooked me up with the following part numbers that I was wondering about and may be helpful to some other folks.

OME Liner Clip Service Kit, CLK113B, these are the plastic liner that go on the inside of the rebound clips. Mine were cracked and broken when I first received my leafs.

OME Interleaf Liner Pads, IL01YE, theses are the little yellow pads that OME puts between some of the leafs, these shouldn't be necessary in my case since my leafs have less than 10k miles on them, but if you're adding leafs to an older pack it might be a good opportunity to replace them


Store the hi-lift behind the front seats on the floor. It’s the best spot for it.
I used to bolt my hi-lift standard (slotted bar) under the front ARB bumper using the mounting bolts. While it fit there and was low - it rusts there too. The standard has gotta stay clean and nice - so I put the whole enchilada on the floor behind the seats and for me, it was without question the best location on the cruiser.
I had a Warn M10000 up front (now no longer available) and it weighed 125 lbs with its cable. My front springs had 7 leaves (not OME) and they couldn’t really handle the weight when the cruiser was fully loaded down on long off-road trips.
I eventually had to get them shortened a tad so the shackles weren’t so parallel with the springs.

I drove around for 20 years with that heavy winch bolted to the front. I finally got sick of it and got rid of it and the cruiser drove so much better and stopped so much better without it.

In a perfect world (in hindsight) I’d have a method to easily (highlight “easily”) remove the winch between trips to store it in the garage so as not to haul that heavy sucker around 200,000 miles doing nothing

I had my hi lift on the floor for a while, it was always in the way. I keep it coated in fluid film so I'm not to worried about rust. My lift is mounted to the top on the bumper bars, I don't really like it there as it reflects some of the light from the head lights, but it's not terrible. I also pull the base pad off and keep that in a pelican case in the back with the rest of my tools and recovery gear. I do this not just to remove some of the bulk, but to as a tiny bit of thief deterrent. The hi lift will stay there until I get a dual swing out rear bumper with spare tire carrier.

I'm a big fan of winches mounted to a plate on a trail hitch insert. Especially if you have front and rear receivers. Gives you not just the opportunity to remove the winch when not in use, but also to move the winch to the front or rear of the vehicle depending on what you're need is at the time of use. Just route some wires to the rear and front and attach some Anderson plugs.

That being said the ARB... without modification, doesn't allow for this. And I'd much rather have the winch there and not need it, than need it and not have it. My FJ62 is always the vehicle I jump in whenever I get a call from anyone in trouble. Not just an adventure rig. I basically have it set up as a small mechanic shop with the amount of tools I carry. This was always my intention when I purchased it, might not be the use case for everyone else though, so other peoples mileage and opinions may differ.
 
You are in good hands with cruiser outfitters!
 
Oh I should mention, since it was mentioned to me by Cruiser Outfitters, that it's recommend for the U-bolts to be replaced everything you undo them. They're torque to yield and therefore they stretch. I'm likely going to risk it and not replace mine if I can get away with it since I cut mine down and they may be to short with the extra leaf, more than likely I'll be forced to replace them anyways.
 
it's recommend for the U-bolts to be replaced

I’ve read this recommendation on this forum several times but I’m not sure if it’s just everyone parroting everyone else.
For one data point:
I never replaced my spring u-bolts and I swapped out the springs a few times in the cruiser’s 30 year life and the cruiser was way overloaded, way past anything recommended and travelled thousands and thousands of miles on the worst dirt roads in Baja Mexico over the decades- and the original U-Bolts were still fine.

Maybe replacing U-bolts is recommended for Jeeps or Fords, but Toyota’s original U-bolts are on a different level. From my experience, (30 years of torture) they never need to be replaced.
 
I’ve read this recommendation on this forum several times but I’m not sure if it’s just everyone parroting everyone else.
For one data point:
I never replaced my spring u-bolts and I swapped out the springs a few times in the cruiser’s 30 year life and the cruiser was way overloaded, way past anything recommended and travelled thousands and thousands of miles on the worst dirt roads in Baja Mexico over the decades- and the original U-Bolts were still fine.

Maybe replacing U-bolts is recommended for Jeeps or Fords, but Toyota’s original U-bolts are on a different level. From my experience, (30 years of torture) they never need to be replaced.
Yeah, I'm not to worried about it. The issue I have is that I cut mine flush with the bolts so I doubt they're long enough. Just emailed Dave at 4Plus and replacement U-bolts are $9ea. So I'm just going go ahead and snag them in order to minimize down time.
 
Good time to upgrade to the u bolt flip kit.

I have an older set of front ome heavies in my parts stash that I never installed. I'm curious how they compare. Post up your leaf count after you modify yours. I have mediums with an arb and winch and I have no issues. I felt like the heavies were overkill for my 60.
 
Yeah great time to upgrade to the u bolt flip kit. I already had it installed on the front axle, did it when I added caster shims. However, I'm glad I haven't ordered it for the rear axle yet. More than likely I'll be adding more wait to the rear end, eyeing a 4x4Labs rear bumpers, a roof rack, waiting on time to build a drawer system. Plus I keep eyeing a long range fuel tank. This FJ62 is going to be a slow turtle when I'm done with it, but I guess that'll just push me to do a 5.3 swap.

@MDH33 I'll count up the number of leafs for you when I get a chance. I'm also going to measure the gap between the top of the wheel and wheel arch, and the top of the axle to the bump stop.
 
Leaf count could mean nothing, Its about the girth of the leaf too. You'll see some trucks with 3 leafs in the rear meanwhile our OME's have at-least 6 and cant carry as much load. The nerds at OME probably tried to configure a similar driving enviorment for all three weight rated spring sets so it could be # of leafs and girth. Idk. This is my unsolicited opinion on the internet for the day.
 
Talked to Jason at CruiserOutfitters yesterday and got the D1XL leafs ordered.
He also hooked me up with the following part numbers that I was wondering about and may be helpful to some other folks.

OME Liner Clip Service Kit, CLK113B, these are the plastic liner that go on the inside of the rebound clips. Mine were cracked and broken when I first received my leafs.

OME Interleaf Liner Pads, IL01YE, theses are the little yellow pads that OME puts between some of the leafs, these shouldn't be necessary in my case since my leafs have less than 10k miles on them, but if you're adding leafs to an older pack it might be a good opportunity to replace them




I had my hi lift on the floor for a while, it was always in the way. I keep it coated in fluid film so I'm not to worried about rust. My lift is mounted to the top on the bumper bars, I don't really like it there as it reflects some of the light from the head lights, but it's not terrible. I also pull the base pad off and keep that in a pelican case in the back with the rest of my tools and recovery gear. I do this not just to remove some of the bulk, but to as a tiny bit of thief deterrent. The hi lift will stay there until I get a dual swing out rear bumper with spare tire carrier.

I'm a big fan of winches mounted to a plate on a trail hitch insert. Especially if you have front and rear receivers. Gives you not just the opportunity to remove the winch when not in use, but also to move the winch to the front or rear of the vehicle depending on what you're need is at the time of use. Just route some wires to the rear and front and attach some Anderson plugs.

That being said the ARB... without modification, doesn't allow for this. And I'd much rather have the winch there and not need it, than need it and not have it. My FJ62 is always the vehicle I jump in whenever I get a call from anyone in trouble. Not just an adventure rig. I basically have it set up as a small mechanic shop with the amount of tools I carry. This was always my intention when I purchased it, might not be the use case for everyone else though, so other peoples mileage and opinions may differ.
The hi-lift will fit under the back seat. I unbolted the foot pad and replaced the bolt with a large hair pin clip. The footpad comes off the hi-lift fits just fine.
 
The hi-lift will fit under the back seat. I unbolted the foot pad and replaced the bolt with a large hair pin clip. The footpad comes off the hi-lift fits just fine.
Yeah I had it under there but got tired of having to move it every time I would fold the back seat down.
 
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Leaf count could mean nothing, Its about the girth of the leaf too. You'll see some trucks with 3 leafs in the rear meanwhile our OME's have at-least 6 and cant carry as much load. The nerds at OME probably tried to configure a similar driving enviorment for all three weight rated spring sets so it could be # of leafs and girth. Idk. This is my unsolicited opinion on the internet for the day.

I'm just curious to compare the NOS set of OME heavy springs I have to the set he's assembling.
 
For what it’s worth I counted the leafs on my OME Heavy suspension and it’s 6 leafs. I’m fairly confident saying this but may as always I may be wrong.

CS003F Medium 5 leafs
CS004F Heavy 6 leafs
CS005F Heavy+ 7 leafs

If you’re going from Medium to Heavy or Heavy to Heavy+, you’re adding the D1XL leaf. Now I’m not sure if you can just add two D1XL’s to go from Medium to Heavy+. That may be a question for CruiserOutfitters.

Pic below is of my current set up.
OME Heavy CS004F Springs
4Plus U Bolt Flip Kit
ARB New Design Bumper
Warn M12000 Mounted w/o Cable installed or Control Box mounted or wired in.

You can see the lack of space between the bump stops and top of the U Bolt mounting plate.

FD57098B-CB13-438F-967B-0CEDCB483A06.jpeg
 
Finally, after months of tripping over a set of D1XL springs I got them installed. Noticeable improvement. Jacking up the front from the axles it's not hitting the bump stops any more. Whole thing feels better in the corners. I do need to get an alignment done, but overall was pretty simple install. Even ended up doing the classic spring rotation to try to correct my cruisers drivers side lean.

Some notes, I did replace the U bolts for the 4plus flip kit and had to replace the spring pack pin bolts. The one's I had came with my caster shims and were a little to short for comfort. End up using 2.5" grade 8 fine thread 3/8" bolts with the heads turned down a bit to fit into the axle seats.
 

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