OME Suspension for Camper

I am planning on upgrading the tired suspension on my '02 Extra cab. I'd like to go with a full OME setup for simplicity and cost. I have a Camper on my truck full time (about 500-600lbs fully loaded). Should I be looking into the stiffer 883's for the front? I do plan on building a thin front bumper, but no winch. Thanks for any experience!

 

Wow, that looks like a nice camper, straight pop up, I bet that is pretty sweet.
Clean rig to boot, well done.
I like my OME set up 883s w/Bilstein 5100s, and the full OME expedition leaf pack with a single AAL w/Bilstein 5125s aft. It rides nice-I drive a lot of gravel roads in the mountains- a bit stiff up front but a winch and front skid is in the cards and that should help bring the front end down and get me some rake.
That said, I suspect that your camper is going to be north of 400# + gear. You might be wise to add an additional AAL and maybe Timbrens. Might be a good idea to check with AlCan for the rear pack.

I generally run with about that much weight consistently and the leaves have settled in and my truck is basically level. When I roll heavy >400# and even tow-2500+ my truck squats quite a bit.
They will ride nice but the design for the first gen seems to favor a relatively flat rear spring anyway.

I am planning to get a Drifter, and will add an Icon 3 leaf AAL prior(thanks Phessor, Mad Taco), see how that goes and may end getting a custom pack made at Alaska spring or AlCan.

 

I would imagine you could definitely use the full dakar setup with AAL at the very least. Others have more experience in this arena than I though and could give you more options.

 

@eon_blue has experience

 

Since all your extra weight is over the rear, your main concern should be the capacity of your leaf springs to carry the load. 883s are front springs, they won't help compensate for weight over the rear.

OME (Dakar) leaf springs are not designed to carry more weight than stock, if you run those with the setup you described they're going to sag something fierce. For 500-600lbs fully loaded, you should ideally be looking into a set of custom leaf springs from Alcan or Deaver. They are pricey but they will build them to the exact specs you want (lift + load carrying capacity). Even All Pro Expo leaf springs are considered 'heavy duty' and rated for up to "only" 400lbs over stock

I used to run OME Dakar leaf springs and they would sag onto my bump stops with my 125lb tent and full bed of camping gear in the back. Maybe 400lbs total? I eventually added an extra leaf to them and it helped a bit, but not much. Ultimately I upgraded to Alcan leaf springs.

You might be able to possibly add 2 add a leafs to the Dakars and make them more "heavy duty"...they will lift your rear end sky high though with two AALs but if you carry a lot of weight all the time then it will keep the rear end down. That is if you really are limited to the Dakar leaf springs.

If you do intend on putting a front bumper on (but no winch) I would look at the 882 springs instead. 882s are 500# springs that provide about 2.5" lift up front, 883s are 590# springs/2.5" lift but they will ride stiffer without the weight of skids and/or a winch on them.

 

Thanks for all of the feed back! I should have clarified a little more in my description: my current plan is to do Dakars with AAL on the rear, (I currently have just stock leafs with AAL and it handles it ok, but I'm definitely hoping for something stiffer). But I will also look more into the Alcan/Deaver route. Does Deaver had off the shelf leafs that would handle the weight well? Or would it all be custom?

The thing I've been going back and forth on is would stiffer springs up front be worth or not, so all the comments have been helpful there!

 

hiatuscampers.com

 

Sorry I forgot to respond to this, thanks for the praise! If you are interested, we actually design and manufacture these pop-up campers: Hiatus Campers (hiatuscampers.com).