Which U-Bolts to get?

So I got a 2012 Tacoma TRD-OR and bought some 3rd gen (2018) leaf take-offs from a buddy of mine who lifted his truck. The question is which U-bolts should I buy? The 2nd gen or 3rd gen U-bolts? My 2012 only has the 2+1 leafs and the 3rd gens I bought has the 3+1, so I'm guessing get the 3rd gen U-bolts? If so, do I buy OEM or are there better aftermarket ones out there? Thanks for the help!

 

I just replaced my leaf springs with 3rd gen take offs with an aal installed. I had custom ubolts made from a local spring shop. Cost me 68$ for ubolts and hardware. I’d inquire at one of them and see what they can do. I also suggest you buy new shackles bolts to incase you smoke one getting them out. 5 of the 6 came out without an issue. One was a mf and was not reusable.

 

If you’re replacing springs, and it’s in the budget, this is a good time to do a u-bolt flip, too.

 

1. Measure the thickness of your 2nd gen leaf pack at the center pin.
2. Measure the thickness of your 3rd gen leaf pack at the center pin.
3. If there is no difference, you can reuse your ubolts or buy replacements of the same length.
4. If there is a difference in thickness, add it to the length of your stock ubolts and buy replacements in the new length.

U bolts can be purchased anywhere. Doesnt need to be from toyota.

 

Huh? Tell me more about this U-bolt flip? And why should I do that?

 

This ^ is the method I used for dimensions of my new bolts. Difference in thickness of old vs new pack.

Attached this incase you’re unsure of the correct way to measure ubolts.

Guessing your ubolts are in the ballpark of
6.5” x 2.5” x .562”. This is the oem size for the 2nd gen 3+1 spring pack.

 

The benefit is increased ground clearance. Bumpstops, spring plates are replaced etc... you dont need it for your leaf spring swap. But if it was something you wanted, it would be ideal to do at the same time. The fact that you've never heard of it would indicate that you probably wont need it.

 

Thanks for this. Your shackle bolt issue is my nightmare. I'm close to 200k miles and they look rusty. I don't want this 2hr job to turn into a 2 day or 3 day job. Everyone tells you it's just a few bolts, pop off the old and pop in the new ones and you're done. Well, that's until you can't get a bolt out or the bolt and bushing are welded together from years of rust and grime. I've seen that too. Crossing my fingers on this one.

 

You got it. This was my first time ever doing a swap and even with the one shackle bolt giving me issues I still did the whole swap in less than 2.5 hours and took a ton of bs breaks in between. I think a person could do this job sub 1.5 hours if they wanted too. For the shackle bolt the nut came right off however the Bolt was seized to the sleeve. I ended up taking a bottle torch to my old shackle bushing and burned the bushing. It didn’t take very much and the bolt came right out after that. I did soak all the original hardware with pb each day for a week leading up to the swap. As an extra precaution and as recommended by some other members I put silver anti seize on the new shackle bolts for extra protection against corrosion. Just be sure to not get any on the threads as it effects torque yields.

 

Stock 2nd gen u-bolts are 8.5" long.


Never reuse u-bolts!!!!

 

Wheelers has some price-conscious u-bolts. They also carry them flip kits, which I like but they interfere with the Firestine airbags. Whah.

 

Yes.

No.

Not trying to be a prick but I think you mean 6.5”. The stock 3+1 leaf spring packs are roughly 1.875” thick at the center pin and the axel roughly 4” in diameter. With 6.5” ubolts this leaves you with roughly .5” of threads protruding past the nut, what is recommended. If the stock ubolts were 8.5” long the ubolts would need to be threaded 4” and you would have 2.5” of excess thread hanging below the plate.

This is an oem ubolt that came off of my truck. As stated in my previous post above.
2nd gen ubolts measure roughly 6.5”x2.5”x.562”. The last picture shows the oem ubolts and oem leaf springs and the reason why I replaced them. The 6.5” ubolts do not protrude below the plate and no I did not cut the stock ubolts down after buying the truck. The custom ubolts I bought from the spring shop measured 7.250” in length to accommodate a thicker replacement pack. I still had to trim them down a bit after installation so they were contained in the plate but still leaving .5” of thread below the nut. Roasted shackle bolt thrown in for good measure and why you should buy new ones when replacing.

 

Don't know about your '13, thought all 2nd gens were the same,
but I do know on my '06 when I went to 1in blocks I needed 9.5" and when I dropped back I needed 8.5" and yes I did measure them.

 

Agreed…I installed the U-Bolt flip and unloaded it was great and the fluffy soft bump stop is wonderful.

But put a bed cap and fill the bed with camping gear, the frame is squatting on the bump stops and I miss my airbags. I’m probably going back to spring plates and airbags shortly.

 

Are grade 5 any concern to y'all? I was thinking of going with grade 8 with the black zinc coating. Not sure if it makes a difference either way?

 

I could be wrong but I believe typical .562” ubolts come standard as grade 5 unless otherwise specified. Not sure what the oem shackle bolts are.

Regardless, I bought zinc coated grade 8 everything (ubolts, washers, shackle bolts, nuts, etc) for extra piece of mind.