Have any of you KMA owners given thought to a group purchase of heavier leaf springs from National Spring?

Seems like we would all have about the same weight distribution in the rear, and the need for better support now that we're adding another 150+lbs if you have the spare on.

If they are all built the same, perhaps we could get a group discount.

Any thoughts?

My only thought is that I can't afford anymore truck stuff for awhile, no matter how much I want it. :( Infact, it may be a very long time before I buy anything else that expensive for my truck. I must not give in to temptation! So, unless my springs get really bad, I'll have to just sit back and watch everyone else buy stuff!

I may have to bail on GOX too, depending on how much progress I can make on the financial front this summer. Hmmm, maybe I should start thinking about a weekend job again...then again, maybe NOT!

Are you really adding that much more weight with the spare back there? I mean, really all you are doing is shifting the weight of the tire, and it's already behind the leaf springs.

Unless the 150# is just the KMA POS?

i would be interested Ian.

the KMA bumper is approximately 120 or so addition pounds. since i have had the bumper the longest and thus the most testing, i will comment on my expereinces with the spring issue.

I am on my second spring pack, the first was giving out a little even before I put the bumper on. once i put it on there in early january, it only accelerated the process, and got bad. so i had that spring pack replaced under warranty. after that i added the SLR shackles. i have noticed that the space between the body and my rear tires getting smaller and smaller over the past month or so.

simply put, the stock spring pack is not meant to carry the weight of the KMA plus the weight of all our gear on an ongoing basis. i think we really are seeing a cumulative effect of the skid plates, rock sliders and rear bumper. i know how bad the front end got when i added the ARB and then the winch. the winch sent the front end sspension over the top and in 3 months time sagged a noticeable 2".

so again yes i would be interested in a group buy, depending on the price.

I am ordering an add a leaf today as I have seen in just two weeks my rear springs sag quite a bit. I would be interested in the group buy as well but my lift will take care of that very soon. If anyone else is interested in an add a leaf e-mail me and I will let you know the price.

Originally posted by Mobycat
Are you really adding that much more weight with the spare back there? I mean, really all you are doing is shifting the weight of the tire, and it's already behind the leaf springs.

Unless the 150# is just the KMA POS?



My spare SSR on a steel rim is 80+lbs. KMA will be another 120lbs. Gear when I go camping or offroading is even more weight.

The skids are another 80lbs or so, and my sliderz when they get here are even more weight. I have upgraded my torsion bars, but seeing everyone elses springs die, I know all that weight is going to drop the rear over the summer so I'm looking for solutions now.

I don't plan on doing a lift this year, but I'm thinking of getting the leafs before summer. I'll be looking into how a group price would compare to just going with the SLR pack.

I am going to have 300 pounds of tongue weight on my hitch plus gear in the back for 3 weeks straight this fall. Am I going to have spring sag? I might go my local dealer with a tape measure and see what the height should be. I might be interested in an add-a leaf after all.

Any thoughts on the Fabtech leaf available at Xterraparts.com?

http://www.xterraparts.com/onlinestore/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=Xterra&Product_Code=FTS204&Category_Code=OffRoad

Originally posted by FSRBIKER
I am ordering an add a leaf today as I have seen in just two weeks my rear springs sag quite a bit. I would be interested in the group buy as well but my lift will take care of that very soon. If anyone else is interested in an add a leaf e-mail me and I will let you know the price.

Steve from Xterraparts was saying they didn't have much luck with Add-a-leafs. He wasn't very specific though. How did Carlton's work out?

Xterraparts is selling the add a leafs by Fabtech designed for 2wd Frontiers, I am getting Rancho add a leafs that are designed for the 4wd Xterra..they replace the overload spring on the X and will give 2-2.5" of lift over a stock X. I have a couple of sources for them and will have pricing tomorrow. I am not sure which ones Carlton has...but I can visually see the difference in 2 weeks of having the KMA on.

Carlton was having trouble with another brand of add-a-leafs and is switching to the Fabtech ones.

Originally posted by wqbang
Carlton was having trouble with another brand of add-a-leafs and is switching to the Fabtech ones.

Carlton's got the ProComp AAL and he has broken 2 of them already ...

I am interested in a spring pack of course but don't have the cash for them and won't for a while. Thus, I'm going with the AAL for the time being, with the shackles. I'll need them both to compensate for the Sway-Away t-bars I am installing next week.

I haven't heard of the sway-a-way t-bars (I searched XOC) and I'll be looking to replace mine soon (I can imagine that my ARB & winch are rapidly fatiguing the stock t-bars).
I'm wondering how the sway-a-ways would compare to the NissMo t-bars. All I know so far is that the NissMo's are thicker and probably a bit more expensive.
Any opinions?

the nismo bars are made by sway away. i don't know if sway away makes a different one or what.

Originally posted by Synchro
the nismo bars are made by sway away. i don't know if sway away makes a different one or what.

I thought they were both made by Sway Away too.

Hmm...interesting.
The Sway-A-Way website (http://www.swayaway.com/PowerBarz%20frameset.htm) shows some Nissan t-bars at 27.5 mm diameter but shows the Xterra t-bars at 26 mm. Xterraparts.com (http://www.xterraparts.com/onlinestore/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=Xterra&Product_Code=99996-T1447&Category_Code=OffRoad) says their t-bars are 27.48mm
The 27.48mm being so close to 27.5mm makes me wonder if there's been a mix-up somewhere.
It's all a bit curious....

From what i have found out(my source sells Nismo parts and Sway Away parts) the Nismo(made by Sway Away) and Sway Away branded torsion bars are exactly the same. Carlton's Nismo ones are white and so are the Sway Away Powerbarz, I would think Nismo would ask Sway Away to paint theirs a different color if they trully were different. Maybe we can get Carlton to take a micrometer and measure at a certain spot and then have Mike, Kirk or Schlud do the same and see if there is a difference. I know Mike has the Sway Away ones for sure...Kirk, Schlud do you know which branded ones you have?

I got mine from xterraparts, so they're the same as Carltons, Nismo. Spencer at SLR said they were made by Sway-Away too.

Schlud do they say Powerbarz on them?

Originally posted by FSRBIKER
Schlud do they say Powerbarz on them?

Mine do.

my nismo bars have a powerbarz sticker on them. it's how i knew i was cranking them, cause now the stickers have a slight twist to them. :)

Originally posted by Synchro
my nismo bars have a powerbarz sticker on them. it's how i knew i was cranking them, cause now the stickers have a slight twist to them. :)


So the NISMO bars are the same as the Sway-A-Way bars ...

Now the only discrepancy is the diameter: Xterraparts.com say 27.48mm while swayaway I believe says 26mm.
I suppose swayaway would know their own product...:)

Originally posted by FSRBIKER
Schlud do they say Powerbarz on them?

Nope. Just white.

then yours are a freak occurance. cause i saw Pikachu's new nismo bars today and his had the sticker as well.

Has there been any solution to the spring issue yet?
How much do they cost? Schlud did you find out anything? (been out of town and out of the loop)

I haven't made contact yet. I'm curious how the add-a-leafs work with some of the MAXC guys. It's obviously cheaper.

Originally posted by Schludwiller
I haven't made contact yet. I'm curious how the add-a-leafs work with some of the MAXC guys. It's obviously cheaper.


You'll know by Monday, I am installing mine this Sunday along with the torsion bars and some other stuff. I'll post pics and info ...


:smoker:

MT, which add-a-leafs are you going with?

Originally posted by Mosi
MT, which add-a-leafs are you going with?



On the leaf itself, it says Rancho part # RS510 and then underneath that it says "P57022". According to Rancho, it is an element of one of the rear spring packages. It can be bought individually but isn't usually, i.e. most retailers would have to special order it. More info on Monday ....

Yea what he said ;) I am installing mine as well this weekend, I can order them from a few sources if anyone is interested after we post the results and some pictures on Monday.

kma?

I'm interested in your findings also. It's funny, I bought an entire lift kit for a Jeep CJ5 (4 leaf springs, shocks, and drop pitman arm) for about half what SLR wants for the rear Xterra springs. You guys are a wealth of information. The quality of posts on this message board has skyrocketed passed the other lame Xterra boards :)

Yeah, I stopped by the 4wd parts center today. The guru there says that Rancho is the way to go. According to him they are less problematic than other aal's. The part# I got was R38 60634. The price was about $100.00. He seems to know alot about Nissan, he has a hardbody 4x4p/u with the Rancho 3" lift on it. He also has the Powerbarz torsion bars. We spent alot of time comparing his p/u to the X, To me it looks just like the X's suspension. This was the first time he's seen my truck since I put on the shackles tweaked the torsion bars and put on the Trxus MT's. While I was there, one of the other techs ordered him a set of the Trxus too. None of them had seen a set until today. They all seemed to be impressed with the sidewalls.

I'm still going to wait until some X owners have a chance to do the mods and review them. After all he has a p/u and there will be a definite weight difference in the two.

Aquamander a $100 is a bit steep, more like $70-75 and I will have my pricing set sometime tomorrow.

Cool deal FSR!

Are you going to set-up a group buy or is that an everyday price? Does that include shipping?

I definately want in.
The SLR stage II lift with shackles actually puts a bit of backwards rake on the suspension. I would like to recover the stock stance without paying $700 for rear springs. Please include me in the group buy. This is exactly the solution I was looking for.

Thanks

Kennedy

The AAL info is in my "Tall T Gets Taller" post in this forum.

Originally posted by xterrabull
Now the only discrepancy is the diameter: Xterraparts.com say 27.48mm while swayaway I believe says 26mm.
I suppose swayaway would know their own product...:)


27.48 is correct... I know because I gave xterraparts.com that number..

My father is a metalurgest for Bell helicopter and I swiped (borrowed) one of his presision measureing devices to get that diameter. :-)

This is driving me nuts! :bloated:
Does that mean that the xterraparts.com torsion bars are made custom by swayaway for NisMo and truly aren't available anywhere else?
The SwayAway website show it's t-bars for the Xterra being 26mm in diameter.
Has anybody w/the t-bars NOT bought through xterraparts.com measured the diameter?
No big deal I guess but damnit I need closure befor I can get on with my life :confused:
(No, not really I guess.)

Originally posted by xterrabull
This is driving me nuts! :bloated:
Does that mean that the xterraparts.com torsion bars are made custom by swayaway for NisMo and truly aren't available anywhere else?
The SwayAway website show it's t-bars for the Xterra being 26mm in diameter.
Has anybody w/the t-bars NOT bought through xterraparts.com measured the diameter?
No big deal I guess but damnit I need closure befor I can get on with my life :confused:
(No, not really I guess.)


I haven't measured, but I'm quite sure it's just a typo on Sway-A-Way's site ... breathe deep and let it go brother ... :D

All the Tbars are the same.
NISMO bars are sway away bars

The difference in diameter is this:
Xterra parts advertises 27.48 mm bars. That number is taken from the number cmxterra provided using the precision measuring device.
But remeber, these bars are powder coated/vinyl covered (not sure which).
The functional diameter of the steel is probably 26mm before coating, that where the difference is occuring.
Just a theory, but makes sense.

I got mine from nissanparts.cc. They came from the NISMO catalog. Upon delivery from the NISMO warehouse, Inside the box for the NISMO bars was an instruction sheet from sway away.

I think the bottom line is sway away=NISMO

The only place you'll find something different is some custom made ones like from SLR or two stage bars which are significantly more expensive

Just some thoughts

Though the diameter may be of some importance strength wise, I think the thing that sets the upgraded t-bars apart from OEM is probably how the bars are heat treated/ tempered. I could be wrong, but when I build molds, I use different tolerances on the heat treatment of various parts. This allows me the finished properties that a givin part may need to perform properly. I know some of the return springs we use have exact treatment tolerances. If these tolerances aren't maintained, of course the mechanism will perform poorly under high speed processing. I think the same principles are in effect here. I can't see where roughly .03" will make that much of a difference. Indeed, that may very well be the "included" (both sides) difference in the coating.

:)

Originally posted by Kennedy
I think the bottom line is sway away=NISMO

The only place you'll find something different is some custom made ones like from SLR or two stage bars which are significantly more expensive

Just some thoughts


Correct.

Thanks to Mosi...I finished installing my Rancho Add-A-Leafs,
Bilstein 5100 Series Shocks(Heavy Duty), and an Idler Arm Brace...

I already had the SLR Rear Shackles installed. The Ranco AAL's gave
me an additional 2.5" of lift in the rear...Of course the Bilstein shocks
help quite a bit...

It rides really solid now...This is only a temp fix till I get a Full Replacment
Leaf Spring Pack...Which is the correct way to go....But for now, I'm very
happy with it now...

Good Luck Everyone:hehe: