Pull leafs from an Alcan pack

[Jeffbro]

Hey so I bought an alcan leaf pack about 6 months ago and was expecting it to settle out alot more than it actually has. With a load of about 700lbs the truck will sit level but I don't have 700lbs in the back of my truck most of the time. Would it be bad for the leaf pack to pull a few leafs out so it will settle a little more. Also should I pull the smaller ones or take one from the top and one from the bottom? anyone?

[02tacotoy]

I did this with my all-pro 5" leaf pack. remove the second to smallest one, and see if you like it. you dont really want to mess with the longer leafs and avoid the mini leaf that mounts the pack on the axle.

[devinsixtyseven]

I had my Alcans built for 500# and it took a while for them to settle in.

Put the 700# load in there, and leave it in for a few weeks...sandbags, water, gym weights, whatever. Once I did that with mine (actually it was a 1200 mile road trip with 1000# in the bed plus tongue weight of the trailer), they were pretty good. For the first few months after I got them and before I broke them in they were stupid stiff.

Load it up, forget about it for a while, go cycle the suspension in the dirt, they're not gonna sag much, but they will break in if that makes any sense.

If you have a 1st-gen Taco you should be able to run GVW 6500# with about a 50/50 weight distro, offroad, without breaking anything (unless you trade skinny pedal for skill). Go do that a few runs, they'll feel better!

[joel]

I contacted Alcan a while back about this exact situation and I was told to remove the leaf right after the one with the binders... I did and it seems to work real well so far... I have been flexing and dumping them HARD for the last few weekends without any negative results.

Later
Joel

[Signalprick]

HMMM? I have had the Alcan 5 leaf pack w/ overload made for Wheelers in for about 4 months now and they have already "settled" nearly 3/4" lower than the front which has OME 881's. I was thinking about calling Alcan and getting a AAL made to bring the rear up another 1" but maybe one of you guys could/would sell me the leaves you take out of your pack? PM me if anyone is interested?

[JJackson]

I was wondering the same thing, had Alcan make me a spring pack that was rated 200lbs over stock for carting the quad around without sag. The are certainly stiff (just put them on last week) we toyed around with the idea of pulling one of the leaves (think my pack has 8 or 9). I did load the quad in and going to keep it there this week to see if they soften up a bit first.