2016 Tundra 4wd Crew max trd offroad towing setup

[buellfire]

I'm in need of a better suspension setup for my Tundra. Most are looking to better off-road performance to tackle rocks and or higher speeds. I use mine to haul our camper and dirtbikes/MTB to different areas. I know that no suspension system can increase my GVWR, however the factory setup was weak when new and now just wore out. I recently installed Timbrens and now it just feels like I'm on the bumpstop all the time. Our camper is a 2021 Bigfoot 25b25rt with a weight of 4800lbs and a hitch weight of 860lbsI , in addition have an equalizer 1000lbs load leveling hitch. I do have BFG A/T E tires in 275/70/18 size so a little bit of lift would be ok.

Who makes a good system that will improve the ride and weight carrying ability of this truck.
Thanks
Shawn

 

[LandCruisinMy93]

My Mileage may vary, however, I had to haul a few larger travel trailers to Yellowstone for work. I have an 8ft bed and Air Lift bags in the rear. It handled smoother than the company F-250s. The only downside is when you're not towing the bags airlift brackets seem to rattle when going over bumps and stuff.

Also, Keep in mind that a leveling kit kind of screws up your rig for towing, The forward rake on trucks is intentional It is meant to level out when loaded.

 

[buellfire]

What I was thinking if I installed new springs in the rear with increased arch, I would have more room for suspension travel. In addition to the rear do new shocks, springs, and control arms to increase front travel. I bought my truck in the winter of 2015, and I still really like it, but the AEV Ram Prospector XL diesel has caught my eye. Was thinking if I could do a bit of that to my truck maybe I would be happy for a few more years. As a 35 year owner of nothing but Toyota's not sure if I could swap a Toyota for a Ram but the Cummins diesel would be nice.

 

[Jetboy]

I have firestone airbags. They're great. Handle trailers like yours with ease and add a lot of stability by firming up the rear end. I've also hauled as much as 2500lbs of combined cargo load and tongue weight without issue. I'm not a big fan of timbrens for the reason you don't like them. They're bump stop/overload springs that ride like bump stops. Air springs are mostly invisible when not hauling and do a better job of adjusting to any load you can haul in a tundra.

The challenge I've found in addition to airbags is shock damping. The OEM TRD 4x4 ones I had (yellow bilsteins) were significantly under dampened for the big road swails I see a lot in Alaska. It's a damn rollercoaster a lot of times. They have what feels like almost no rebound dampening and digressive valved compression. The result is that the extra load blows through the low speed compression easily and there's not a lot of damping after that. I swapped for Fox 2.0 shocks this winter and performance is TBD at this point. The fox shocks are a huge improvement unloaded. Much more plush/soft ride on the washboard chatter and a lot more rebound damping really cuts down the double head toss on curbs and such. I'm really happy with the price/performance mix and optimistic the progressive damping and significantly higher rebound damping will improve towing as well. We'll see. I think I'm going to get my trailer out for memorial day (still a lot of snow around here). I'll report back.

If the fox 2.0's aren't good enough, I think the next step for me will be to look for adjustable shocks. Bilstein 8100s are pretty high on the potential list due to the range of adjustments available externally. Or one of the variety of others. There's a lot of options once you get into the $500 per corner range.