More than flat leaf springs -thinking of replacing before Rubicon trip??

These are my 6 year old Zone off road 3" leafs. I have a low COG rig, running 37's - ford 8.8, HD off road shackle relocation bracket, 6" Iron Rock Off road boomerang shackle. I just noticed that my leafs have negative arch right before the u bolt plate, and will prob be worse when the rig is loaded with gear for the Rubicon trip I am doing in 3 weeks. Any recommendation on leafs? I am looking for something that has around 3-3.5" lift height - the lower the better! I was considering OME, Iron Rock, and Rubicon Express. Even though Deaver is local, I have heard they are more for the Jeepspeed crowd.

My RE1462 springs have held up for almost 20yrs now, I'm at 5.5" of lift.

I am running a low lift, probably about 3", with OME springs. I have had them for a couple of years now and am happy with them.

One bit of advice, order just one spring. Wait a few days and then order the second spring. Reason being they will probably be shipped without any packaging, just a label slapped on them. And when you have two of them being shipped you can expect United Parcel Smashers to toss them around together. The end result is that the two springs beat the daylights out of each other in the process of getting to you. OME uses plastic insulators on their clamps. Those plastic pieces will get busted up. And if you are as lucky as me you will also lose a centering pin and have one spring arrive as a loose bundle of leaves. That was fun. ARB sent me a new centering pin, but it wouldn't work. They then sent me a new spring, but it had a centering pin of a different diameter from the first spring. I wound up making my own hardware on the lathe. If I had ordered my springs one at a time life would have been easier.

I cannot help on spring selection although I will be looking to get some in a few months.
That bottom spring look like it is broken/badly bent at the spring perch,...or is it just me who think that?

The IRO with the military wrap is my preferred selection because of the military wrap and the fact they are longer than the OEM packs.

I'd go with the deavers, especially if you're local. They can do a custom lower lift pack like they did for Cal, though the springs come out pretty long that way.

The Jeepspeeders are the primary user, but I have them and I'm not one. They ride very nice.

Deavers. If there's a problem, just bring them back. Tell them what you're doing and they'll make you a pack to suit, or re-arch your existing to new.

https://deaverspring.com/faq-items/what-is-re-arching/

And I would definitely replace that before Rubicon. Broken leaf on the 'Con is not a good time.

I have a pair of seven-year-old Rusty’s Offroad 4.5 inch lift springs that I just took off my rig. They’re old and sagging, but not nearly as bad as yours. You’re welcome to them if you want to pick them up in West LA. They probably aren’t what you’re looking for as a long-term solution, but they’d allow you to run the Rubicon and give you time to decide what to do down the road. You could probably even add a leaf from your existing pack and make something decent out of them.

Let me know if you want ‘em.

Thanks for the offer Nimrod! I bit the bullet and ordered some Deaver springs. They are making a pack for me with only 3" of lift- so I can keep my COG low. It was tough to pull the trigger on some leafs that are 3X the price of getting some RE's or OME's off of Amazon, but I took into account all the rave reviews of their product and they are a local company, using American steel to make them. I'll post pics once I get them on and dialed in !

Cool. Have a great trip!

bajabronco said:

Thanks for the offer Nimrod! I bit the bullet and ordered some Deaver springs. They are making a pack for me with only 3" of lift- so I can keep my COG low. It was tough to pull the trigger on some leafs that are 3X the price of getting some RE's or OME's off of Amazon, but I took into account all the rave reviews of their product and they are a local company, using American steel to make them. I'll post pics once I get them on and dialed in !

Click to expand...

what was the cost? I'm in the same boat as you, just having a hard time with the cost of them.

A local buddy got a set of deavers for his toyota baja stock racer. 1.5 seasons and they are sagging. He call deaver and they said yeah you have to replace them every year. Not really what we expected to hear and maybe that's just on their race versions?

My medium rate OMEs are at just under 4 inches of lift after 4 years. They provide a good balance between unloaded ride and loaded handling-control. They may be on the firm side for max flex - especially when unloaded.


Id buy them again.... dig the quality..

Weasel - The total cost with U bolts and bushings and our horrible Los Angeles, California sales tax out the door for my customized pack is around $900.00. If you just go with the standard 4" pack I believe the pricing is $750.00 for just the leafs. That is compared to RE or OME leafs that are around $300 on Amazon. I was also considering Iron Rock Off Road leafs as well - but the cheapest shipping option they had, since they are on the East Coast was $150.00 which made it $470.00 for their leafs. I would say that if you are actually racing on any spring, which is hundreds of miles of high speed pounding, no matter the leaf, they will wear out fast. I talked to my buddy Wayne who races as well and he told me that some teams change out their springs 2 times a year!

I RE 6.5 Springs they are great I had FT 4.5 before.