Does anyone have advice on how to cure the Carolina Squat aka sagging rear condition?

My non-ACE D2 has F/R steel bumpers, winch, sliders and HD OME all the way around and the fronts sit 4-3/4in from top of tire to the fender arch and the rear sits at 3-3/4in. Probably gets even worse when fully loaded for camping. :/

I was going to try...
A) Swapping to OME MD springs in the front
B) Adding 1-2in lift spacers in the rear
C) Airbag helpers (rather not unless absolutely necessary)

 

Spring spacers are about your only bet if you are already running HD springs. TF also sells .25" shims to can stack to trim it how you want. I have 2" spacers with factory springs and with a full tank of gas it squatted a bit so I added .5" spacers to the rear to even it out.

 

Air helper springs or air bags. They are cheap and easy to install. I have them for 6 years now and they never made any problems. I can adjust for load and get the truck perfectly level (camping gear for 5 people and I have a hitch rack which puts additional stress on the rear springs). I just inflate them and they hold the air for weeks. Probably not the best solution for heavy off-roading due to limiting articulation, but I didn't feel any problems on easy trails.



Now I have converted to MD OMEs, I inserted some rubber spacers to make up for the 2" taller coils. The setup can be improved by inserting an air connection between the two air bags controlled by a valve, which would improve articulation when needed.

 

what brand bags are you using?

 

Coil-Rite 4121. I just checked, it looks like they got discontinued. You have to find something by diameter and length that fits. With upgraded (taller) springs this is better anyway.

 

You can double-check me using this Firestone reference guide: https://www.firestoneairide.com/cont...rr-catalog.pdf

I found that the 4121 kit is recommended for stock D2 and used the 6003 air spring which is 4.75in width and 10in length

The 4150 kit uses the 6023 air spring which is 4.75in width and 12in length so I may try that since I'm running +2in OME suspension.

 

The things that are missing in the 4150 kit are the upper supports which came with the 4121 kit: https://www.firestoneairide.com/rr-k...W237604121.pdf , but that is something that can be improvised. They are made from plastic. Also the 4121 kit did not contain the lower pads, but the customer support send me a pair. They are needed to protect the bag at the bottom against the sharp edges of the hex bolts. It can be improvised with rubber pads as well. I used those as spacers as can be seen in the picture above:

 

Here is another possible option from Air Lift: https://www.airliftcompany.com/shop/60917

 

I checked my old OME suspension receipt and it turns out that I had EXTRA HD springs in front and HD springs in the rear. Now that I have rear steel bumper and 32in MT on the back door John@ExpeditionExchange recommended going with extra HD springs to level things out.