Rear spacer, steel, or nylon?

[Terminator03]

So, I’m in a situation where I’m pretty happy with my current suspension which a previous owner upgraded. It has what I assume is Bilsteins and coils from a Tacoma (yellow bodies with blue boots and Toyota labeling). Anyway, I carry a lot tools for renovating properties, so I built a 3/4” finish plywood shelf to organize/carry as much as possible in the rear cargo area. It works very well, but unfortunately has caused a reverse rake. It currently sits at 34 1/4” front, 33 5/8” rear, which would take 5/8” to make level, so I’m considering just adding 1” spacers to the rear for now. I will eventually lift the whole thing more, but this season I just want to do wheels and tires (which is around $2k), so I’m just looking for a cheap solution to make it look normal again for this year. In shopping for spacers, I’ve found the 1” size in both nylon, and steel for the same price. Any reason why one would be preferable over the other? Are the steel ones noisy?

 

[TowMeOut]

Have you considered airbags? I had a similar situation after adding my rear storage box and fridge. I went with a set of the CoilRite (Firestone) air helper springs inside the coils and that pretty much fixed the sag situation. If I'm really going to load up the back (bags of tile adhesive, camping gear, passengers, etc.) I'll throw some extra air in the bags. Most of the time I sit around the minimum 10psi or so. Installation was pretty easy (probably the same as the spacers) and cost about $100.

 

[Terminator03]

Have you considered airbags? I had a similar situation after adding my rear storage box and fridge. I went with a set of the CoilRite (Firestone) air helper springs inside the coils and that pretty much fixed the sag situation. If I'm really going to load up the back (bags of tile adhesive, camping gear, passengers, etc.) I'll throw some extra air in the bags. Most of the time I sit around the minimum 10psi or so. Installation was pretty easy (probably the same as the spacers) and cost about $100.

Someone mentioned those in another thread, but I have no experience with them. I just thought the spacers wold be simpler/less prone to failure, and supposedly they don’t alter the ride quality. Also, I leave the tools in the back all the time since I use the vehicle for work and it’s a pain to unload just for the weekend, or whatever. Honestly, if I had a way to calculate exact coil length and weight, I would rather just replace the springs, but since it rides nice now, and I know how much height I need to level it, or make it slightly higher in back, the spacers seemed to be the logical choice until I can afford to do a complete overhaul of the components.