Heavy Duty vs Medium Leaf Springs

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ben85

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Got to decide on HD or medium rear leafs.

Often carry little, to no weight. But would like to have the capability to carry heavier loads.

Vehicle is used on & off road. I'm not really concearned with flex unless the HD are going to eliminate it all togeather.

It's going to be a bit of a compromise either way.

Will the HD springs really be too harsh without any weight in the back or is it bearable?

Be great to hear how others leafs are performing.
 
i would say go for the medium leafs and air bags. that way you can have the best of both worlds. let the air out with no load, and put as much air in as you need when you are carrying weight.
if you go to hard and dont have a load in the back the utes do become pretty useless off road. you need to keep some flex so as you can at least try and keep the wheels on the ground, which is especially important without lockers.
all round handling will be better if you keep front and back sort of matched up. not only will it handle better but it will be know where near as bouncy.
a good set of springs will not really be ruined if you do load them up from time to time, you will only need to go hd if you carry a constant load 24/7.
 
I've got EFS H/D leaves in the rear.

Ride isn't that bad with nothing in the back, but defonatly improves with some weight.

Most of the time when going off road I take the fridge, recovery gear, chainsaw etc so it still flexes ok.
 
I've got EFS H/D leaves in the rear.

Ride isn't that bad with nothing in the back, but defonatly improves with some weight.

Most of the time when going off road I take the fridge, recovery gear, chainsaw etc so it still flexes ok.

Ok, so on road unloaded is ok, im not too worried about that anyway.

Hows it go offroad without much weight?
worthwhile or do i need to go with the mediums?
 
its always a personal opinion. we could say go medium but you mite find them to soft or whatever. i would personal avoid getting airbags if your going to think about it. even though chassis bends and breaking is rare it can still happen if not careful. i have the comfort kit from efs and am going to purchase the helper spring from ironman as it will increase my spring rate when needed and its a simple bolt on item and bolt of when not in use. as for flex im yet to give it a good use offroad so im unsure but im dam sure it will flex nicely.

the medium kit ur talking about is from ironman? or from which company? it may be the right kit for you and i wouldnt go any higher unless you gonna carry loads 24/7.
 
you can always get the heavy duty and remove a leaf if you find it too rough, i don't find my HD springs to bad anyway. and it doesn't take much to get the load up to make the D a good choice.
 
I've got H/D and it is a lot better with load. I don't mind the ride on road with no weight but with my tools loaded at about 260kg it is much smother. Off road you do need some weight or it is a bit bouncy and you do lose traction. having said that it is so easy to get 150kg or more before you even realize that other than a shot unexpected trip i've never had a problem.
so in my opinion I love my h/d efs but if you don't have weight everyday your not really using them and should be getting something else.
 
Rusty, its Bluemax, and they're actually called comfort, not medium (4+1 leaf) and the HD are 5+2.
I will probably end up going the comfort, I dont normally have too much weight anyway.
I guess I could add a leaf later if I really had to.

I wouldnt get airbags after what i saw last year with a guy pretty much bend his ranger in half with only a 400kg load off road.


And this year another guy bent his courier, on the same track towing a t-van. When I looked at it, leaves were sitting flat and not far from bumpstops (unloaded). Im tipping the suspension was bottoming out and creating a lever point and bending the poor girl. I bet he would have had no problem if he had HD leaves. It bent right where the bumpstops were.

I think the same thing happened with the airbags on the ranger, created a leverage point and bent right over the airbags.
 

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