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Frequently Asked Questions

Can A.O.R. build a complete Trail Toy for you? (Click on the questions for immediate answers)

What's the difference between A.O.R.'s springs and all the others?

What's so special about the new Orbit-EyeTM Spring?

A.O.R.'s rear springs are longer than stock. Do I have to remove my stock mounts? What if I need to put the stock springs back on to sell my Toy later?

What lift heights do you offer?

What's the tallest tire I can run with A.O.R.'s 5-inch lift springs?

Why does A.O.R. recommend Body Lifts? Isn't the suspension lift enough?

Does A.O.R. offer complete suspension kits, including shocks and everything else needed?

What travel-length shock absorbers will I need? Can I still use my stock shock mounts?

Can I use my stock steering setup with 5-inch springs?

What is crossover steering?

Do I need to keep my Torque Arm?

Can A.O.R. Build A Complete Trail Toy For You?

Absolutely! A.O.R. can build your Toy for you from the ground up. We don’t do a lot of them per year and we don’t do ‘em fast. That’s because A.O.R.’s primary focus is to design, test, produce and sell the finest off-road Toy performance parts on the planet—not run a retail bolt-on shop. However, we do love spinning wrenches and firing up the welder and tubing bender. So if you’d like us to build your dream Toy, give us a shout or zap an email and let’s discuss buildup goals, time and budgets.

What’s the difference between A.O.R.’s springs and all the others?

	U.S. made
	Each set custom-made for your particular needs
	No such thing as one-size fits-all

Every set of A.O.R. springs is custom made to your order right here in the U.S. In fact they’re made close enough to A.O.R. headquarters that we can keep a very close eye on quality and production schedules.

Unlike some imitators, A.O.R. doesn’t believe in one-size-fits-all when it comes to leaf springs for Toyotas. For example, at least some competitors sell identical front leaf springs for both sides of the axle. Excuse me… What about the fact that Toyotas have different height spring perches on the front axle? Oh, that. Well, uh… Other companies give you a spacer plate that you’re supposed to weld on your driver-side spring perch. But what if you want to switch to different springs later? What if you need to reinstall the stock front springs at resale time? Hmmm.

A.O.R makes front springs to work with your Toy. We don’t expect you to needlessly and permanently modify your rig to work with our springs. A.O.R. front springs are marked left and right for a good reason—they’re made different to match the perches.

Of course, our most popular A.O.R. rear spring is five inches longer than stock. And yes, you have to weld on new spring mounts to handle the extra length. BUT, you don’t have to remove your stock rear spring mounts. Kevin designed A.O.R.’s springs to work around the stock mounts. So if you ever need to swap the stock springs back on—to resell the truck or whatever—it’s an easy deal.

Furthermore, A.O.R.’s custom approach allows us to vary the spring pack—even the center pin location--to suit your rig’s particulars. Do it have a heavy winch and bumper? Rear winch? Roll cage? Dual batteries? Heavy tool boxes? Do you tow toys with your Toy? A.O.R. can tweak the spring pack to work best with your rig—usually at no extra charge. Try to get that from a one-size-fits-all spring company.

Bottom line: We hope you’ll shop around and compare our springs—feature for feature, price for price, quality for quality—with any other springs on the market. We’re confident we’ll hear from you again!

All A.O.R. springs:

	Are custom-made to work best on your partular rig
	Are military wrapped
	Front center pin relocated forward to increase tire clearance
	Hand shaped
	Teflon inserts
	Special Long-Travel Keepers

What’s So Special About the New Orbit-Eye^TM Spring?

	Increases articulation
	Reduces harmful twist (lateral distortion)
	Reduces bushing wear

A.O.R.’s Orbit-Eye^TM Spring is a totally new idea in leaf-spring technology. Traditional leaf springs are secured by a movable shackle at one end and by a solid mount at the other. The shackle allows front-to-back movement as the spring’s arc and length change during compression and droop. The solid mount is more rigid. Typically, a spring bolt passes through a bushing that’s held snugly in the spring eye. The bushing allows just a little wiggle room, but not much.

And that’s the problem. If you’ve done much twisty ‘wheeling you probably already know how quickly a spring eye can chew brand new bushings down to dust.

But what you may not realize is that when your axle articulates drastically--one tire is way drooped and the other is stuffed up into the wheelwell—the spring pack suffers damaging lateral twist. The hard mount holds the eye parallel to the frame while the axle angles. But the spring pack is hard-bolted to the axle. So when the axle angles, the whole spring pack is forced to twist laterally.

This torsional bindup or twist has three big negative effects. First, lateral twist increases the spring rate—that is, it makes the springs stiffer. Second, it fatigues the springs and leads to early failure. So when you’re trying to crawl over obstacles, the twisted spring can’t flex as well. You lose suspension travel (axle articulation) and the springs don’t react as well to obstacles.

On top of all that, the twisting pack wreaks havoc on the eye bushings. We’ve seen them reduced to eraser rubber in a single ‘wheeling day in Moab.

Orbit-Eye^TM are the result of A.O.R.-owner Kevin Grove’s years of fighting the problems we’ve just described in his own extreme ‘wheeling. Then the lightning bolt:

Why not put a massive ball-and-socket assembly in the eye instead of the traditional bushing? That’s the Orbit-Eye^TM. It allows the spring pack to pivot freely in the hanger. That means when the axle angles during suspension flex, the spring pack angles laterally along with the axle.

The Orbit-Eye^TM almost entirely eliminates damaging spring twist. Kevin’s Orbit-Eye^TM sprung truck gained almost four inches of extreme axle articulation compared to Poly-Eye^TM springs of the same lift height. And there’s no more bushing munching and early fatigue.

Best of all, Orbit-Eyes add relatively little to the cost of the springs.

A.O.R.’s rear springs are longer than stock. Do I have to remove my stock mounts?

What if I need to put the stock springs back on to sell the truck later?

No, you do not have to remove your stock rear spring mounts in order to mount A.O.R.’s longer rear springs. And you can easily remount your stock or other stock-length springs if you went to keep you’re A.O.R. springs (and we bet you will) when you sell your truck.

What Lift Heights Do You Offer?

Because all A.O.R. springs are custom-made to order, we can provide just about any lift height you might need—usually at no additional cost.

Our most popular springs provide approximately 5 inches of lift over stock. We have to say “approximately” because the exact lift height you gain depends upon how badly your stock springs are sagging and how much weight you’ve added to your rig.

What’s the Tallest Tire I Can Run With A.O.R.’s 5-Inch Lift Springs?

Kevin ’84 Toy gets 26 inches of front axle articulation (from full droop to full stuff) and clears 35x14.50/15 Boggers on 3-inch backspace wheels with with this combo:

A.O.R. 5-inch lift springs, front and rear

Rear springs are 5 inches longer than stock

Front spring center pins are 2.5 inches forward of stock location

Rear spring center pins are 1.5 inches back from stock location

1-inch lift front shackles from A.O.R.

1.5-inch lift rear shackles from A.O.R.

14-inch travel Bilstein 7100 shocks in A.O.R. extended shock mounts

2-inch body lift from A.O.R.

Hannemann fiberglass front fenders

We use Kevin’s truck as a starting point for tire clearance discussions because his setup allows the maximum twist (axle articulation) with A.O.R. 5-inch springs.

However, if you don’t twist the suspension up as much, you can mount even larger tires.

Assuming you want maximum articulation from the 5-inch springs here are some rough general guidelines based on Kevin’s ’84 above:

Without Hannemann front fenders (but with everything else listed above): up to 35-inch tires (but you’ll need to hammer back front fender well’s rear seam at least, and you may need to push the floor further back and cut the bottom rear point off the fender)

Without lift shackles; with stock fenders: 33-35-inch tires

Without 2-inch body lift; with stock fenders: 33s

Without lift shackles or body lift; with stock fenders: 33s

IMPORTANT: These are guidelines only. Actual tire height may be different than advertised height or the height listed on the tire’s label. ‘79-’83 pickups have more front fender clearance than ’84-ups.

Why Does A.O.R. Recommend Body Lifts? Isn’t the suspension lift enough?

Body lifts of one or two inches are often necessary to keep big tires (fat tires as well as tall ones) from rubbing the fenderwells. Suspension lift alone—no matter how tall--will not keep tires from rubbing.

Here’s why: When the axle reaches full up-travel and hits the stock bumpstop, tire-to-fenderwell clearance is the same if not less than on a stock truck. It could be less because the more the axle droops on one side, the higher the tire goes into the fenderwell on the stuffed side—because the axle pivots on the bumpstop.

As far as tire-to-fenderwell clearance is concerned, suspension lift height means nothing when the axle hits the bumpstops. You’re left with stock clearance or less. And if your tires are 35 inches or larger, they’ll rub on just about anything but a street-only trailer queen. To cure the rub, you either have to lower the bumpstops (which limits articulation) or raise the body.

Does A.O.R. offer complete suspension kits, including shocks and everything else needed?

A.O.R. certainly offers everything you need to complete your suspension lift and related mods. However, we don’t put put a bunch of components in a box and sell them as a prepackaged “kit”. Why? Because there’s no way to know in advance exactly what you’ll need for your particular Toy buildup. And there are different options depending on the type of ‘wheeling you plan to do.

Why would you pay for a kit that has a bunch of stuff you don’t need and may be missing other parts you do need? So we’d rather take the custom approach. We’re happy to spend the few extra minutes up front to determine what parts and pieces will work best for your Toy. Then we won’t have to spend way more time later—usually while you’re in the middle of your installation--dealing with typical “kit” problems.

What travel-length shock absorbers will I need? Can I still use my stock shock mounts?

Stock rear mounts allow up to 12-inch travel shocks. Stock front mounts only allow 9-10-inch travel shocks with the 5-inch springs. In short, the stock mounts severly limit front travel. That’s why we offer extended mounts which allow you to mount up to 14-inch travel shocks. And they’re only $69—a small price to pay for increased suspension performance.

Can I Use My Stock Steering Setup with 5-inch Springs?

Yes, but…

Toyota’s stock draglink (front-to-back) steering setup is generally okay for lifts up to 3 inches or so—as long as you keep the center pin in the stock location.. And A.O.R. offers a drop drag link that makes the front-to-back setup work with our 5-inch springs.

But here’s the important catch: With lifts over three inches or so, bumpsteer becomes problematic. And even more important, if you’re into twisty ‘wheeling, you’re gonna HATE the stock setup. Why? Because when the axle articulates, the short drag link angles. This not only binds up the steering system, but it also kills sterering . The more the drag link angles down, the less effective steering you have.

Furthermore, in very twisty ‘wheeling, the steering arm often becomes the limiting factor in axle articulation with the 5-inch springs. It acts like a big metal limiting strap. The axle actually hangs by the steering arm—even a drop drag link. That’s why we see so many broken steering arms on the trail.

Eliminating the stock front-to-back steering not only eliminates this breakage, it normally adds 4 to 5 inches of articulation.

So if you’re serious about getting the most axle articulation from your lifted Toy, you’re going to want to swap to crossover steering.

What is Crossover Steering?

In “crossover” steering, a long drag link runs from the steering box’s pitman arm on the driver side to the steering knuckle on the passenger side. It it literally crosses over the length of the axle. And because the long drag link roughly parallels the axle, its movement also closely follows and matches the axle’s movement when the suspension flexes.