Folks -have to tell a story. First, here's the current situation. Getting ready to install lift. Already have Adjustable 5100's up front on zero setting with stock coils (sounds silly but front shocks needed replacing and already knew I'd be purchasing them in the near future). Was planning on leaving the stock coils on and lifting the shock perch to it's 3rd setting when we installed the lift.
Decided since I'm replacing basically the entire suspension with brand new stuff, probably ought put new coils up front, too.
Getting everything from Toytec so I decided on the 3" Toytec/Eibach coils, essentially rendering the adjustable part of the 5100 useless (being I'm only looking for 3"). I'm pretty sure all of this is fine and run of the mill stuff -here's the crazy part.
There's plenty of threads and research to find about spring compressors. The overall sentiment tends to say take the coilover to a shop and have them re-assemble them for a small fee. I would think any professional mechanic shop would have access to at least some fairly heavy-duty spring compressors and this should be a simple task.
We used a set of Harbor Freight bolt-claw ones to swap the completely destroyed stock shocks with the 5100's without much concern. My brother did express concern with using them to compress a longer spring enough to get them on (I'm assuming similar to the amount of compression that would be needed to install a spacer). They were fairly stressed just dealing with the stock springs.
Long story short -called all sorts of shops, including my normal shop, Toyota dealership and Local truck lift specialty shop - all said NO. Can't do it or too much liability. Only one I found was a suspension shop that said they wanted $100 a side. Not doing that.
This is what I described and asked: Can I bring you my coilovers and new coil springs? Can you then swap the springs out and re-assemble?
That's it. Don't require coilover install or anything else, just change the springs. Are all of these folks not understanding what I'm asking them to do? Am I describing this incorrectly? I understand this is a slightly dangerous job, but it's not that complicated of a procedure. Are IFS coilover set-ups a rare thing? Most folks couldn't seem to understand the difference between a coilover or strut. It seems a pretty simple procedure to me, providing you have the gear and necessary safety precautions.
Sorry about the long ass thread, just wanted to be thorough with my question.
Thanks everyone -

If you've already compressed the stock coils then Eibach coils won't be significantly harder. Just tighten them in small steps alternating sides...

Your Not crazy Spring compressors are not super scary, just use caution be smart about it and take your time.
I would use two pairs of compressors on each spring (4 clamps per spring) I used just one pair and they slightly bent with the tundra springs, I at no point felt in danger while doing the swap though.
You can rent spring compressors for free from O'rielly's for 48hrs. Not sure if they have a store in your area but I think most auto parts stores rent them for free.
I didn't have the trouble finding a shop to do the labor like you have experienced but I could justify spending more on assembly than I did on the 5100's!
There were some shops that said they would do it for 50 dollars but I would trust them to touch my car.
And to my surprise after reading the horror stories and cautionary warnings about spring compressors on this site I found them to be rather straight forward.
Bigfish had posted along time ago a good point about making sure you get the spring fully compressed before assembly. I did not follow his precautions correctly and cross threaded the top nut on the shock shaft... mangled the thread and it led to a bunch of problems. Just make sure the spring is completely compressed and that there is no resistance on the nut so that you can easily thread it by hand (the metal of the shock shaft is extremely soft).

if you rent them, make sure you bring cash or a card. you get all the money back but it's purchase cost to rent. I think its probably $65 for the compressors.

You're not crazy, they just don't want the liability. Usually most places will refuse to install aftermarket parts unless the purchase them or make you aware that they will not honor any warranty or parts or labor.

I saw someone selling some spring compressors on CL the other day for $15.

When i took mine in around christmas to get the coils swapped, they did it for free. thats how hard it is, but they werent on the truck either.

I bought the cheap-o harbor freight spring compressors, but after looking them over i decided to rent the ones from autozone anyway, the ones from harbor freight are just too scary to trust my life with. I literally threw the harbor freight ones away without even using them.
During the compression of the TRD tundra springs with the autozone compressor, it was evident that the compressors were not made for such strong springs, but they worked.

I wouldn't trust the cheapest set I could find. My boss had a spring pop loose on our strut tamer and it broke his leg.

On my first spring install I used a hydraulic press (a friends) and compressed them. It was pretty easy and safe.

Second time I just used the weight of the truck to compress them and it was no problem. I did not use 5100s. I used OME 883 springs with Rough Country Nitro 9000 shocks from Wheeler's Off Road.

I don't know if it will work with 5100s, but here are links:

Anyone Tried This Shock Disassembly Method?

no need for a spring compressor

^ I don't mean to get the thread off topic but do you have any pictures of those rough country shocks installed with the 883's? They are consideribly cheaper than the ome ones. Did you still end up with around 3" of lift?

On topic, I would try the jack method with the parts on the truck. It seems pretty harmless even if it doesn't work but the theory makes sense to me.

The Rough Country shocks raise the front about 1/4" over stock due to the spring mount plate position. I have an ARB bumper and winch which dropped it about 1". The Rough Country shocks will give about the same lift as stock shocks. I've had them on for 20K+ miles and they ride and handle great with the OME 883s.





Back to topic

pppssssshhhhhh......... just use 3 ratchet straps on each coil and wear a football helmet. it will be fine!

football helmet and lots of whiskey. got it. seriously, thanks for the replies. Yeah, Audi, we used harbor freights and got quite a bit of bend just doing stock coils. My buddy got a hold of a beefy set from the dealership he works at. He has no concerns with them. I was more in awe of the shops' reactions to my request. thanks, folks -