Towing with a FJ80 (1 Viewer)

[Shortbus]

[quote author=yomama link=board=2;threadid=8403;start=msg71646#msg71646 date=1070634184]
Cruisercarl,

I tow a 7000lb boat with my cruiser, upgrades of course (turbo, OEM, Kaymar rear bumper, slotted cross drilled rotors) of course the trailer also has brakes.
I have had no problem towing mine around. Go to www.yomama.net and click on "Cruiser and Bayliner". I try not to do over 70 with the package

Yomama
[/quote]

Duke Nukem was a great game. Think I still have a copy of it on a 5in floppy somewhere.

Looks like your cruiser fairly level with the boat in tow. Do you have OME springs?

 

[Brentbba]

Yo,

Glad to see you back. Haven't seen anything from you lately.

 

[upcruiser]

I couldn't see an FZJ80 having much of a problem towing 5,000lb. The factory ratings tend to be conservative. My '92 with 3FE has hauled over 6,000lb. Granted I wasn't breaking any land speed records, and I did break my worst mpg record (5mpg!). I recently towed a Porsche 911 on a car hauler. I figured that the rig weighed in total about 4,500 without much problem, except on big hills. One nice thing about the 80's is that they are pretty heavy and it keeps them pretty stable with weight behind them. That's my 2 cents.

 

[yomama]

Yo,

Glad to see you back. Haven't seen anything from you lately.

Brent, I have been in here, at least usually once a week, depends how busy I am at work. I definetly dont' have time to check this at home.
I hadn't read any posts lately that were worth contributing to.
I am around though...

Looks like your cruiser fairly level with the boat in tow. Do you have OME springs?

Cruisercarl,
I most definetly have OEM springs. Medium in the rear and heavy duties up front. The "J" springs weren't available when I picked up mine so they are the older ones. Love'm though...

By the way, my dad video taped a couple times when he was down at my place helping me......Build the Cruiser. I copied it off to an avi file and once I get it compressed enough I'll post it on my website. Hard to believe even when I look at it now...

Yomama

 

[scottm]

Air Lifts!

I towed a 2000 - 3000 lb trailer for my construction job for a while. With Air Lifts it was significantly more stable, and no sag at all. With more weight, you'll be glad to have a little more stability. No penalty when not towing, same smooth ride as my wife's '97 without the air bags. I also give them a little pressure for road trips with 7 passengers and a loaded roof box, very nice ride.

 

[ppc]

I used Air Lifts in my 4Runner and then in my Land Cruiser for about 5 years they do help but the OME springs are far superior for not much more money and less installation woes. The ride is better normally as well as when towing. Installed them about three years ago. Best investment I've ever made to the Land Cruiser and slap myself for not doing it sooner.

 

[scottm]

[quote author=ppc link=board=2;threadid=8403;start=msg71949#msg71949 date=1070674725]
I used Air Lifts in my 4Runner and then in my Land Cruiser for about 5 years they do help but the OEM springs are far superior for not much more money and less installation woes. The ride is better normally as well as when towing. Installed them about three years ago. Best investment I've ever made to the Land Cruiser and slap myself for not doing it sooner.
[/quote] I'm guessing you meant OME (Old Man Emu) springs. I've heard they're great, but I'm impressed with the stock ride, that's one of the reasons I bought these trucks.

What installation woes? I've put Air Lifts in my Sienna and LC. A little over an hour, minimal tools, under $100 IIRC. I've not installed OME springs, but that has to be more difficult and expensive. With a 5000 lb trailer is the ride more stable with OME springs than with air bags? That's a lot of weight, not only substantial tongue weight, but a lot of side load when turning. At 35 psi (max recommended), my air bags add over 500 lbs spring force on each rear wheel. That makes it rock solid resistant to squat and sway with a heavy trailer. I've looked in my mirror and noticed a 2500 lb trailer fishtailing back and forth, and I hadn't noticed. That was in my Sienna minivan with air bags. For springs to add that much stiffness, you'd have a bone-jarring ride all the time.

 

[Junk]

I routinely tow a total of around 6k using my dump trailer. No worries, but that is with 4.56 gears and blower. Funny when I have the swampers on and blow by people going up hill with a buttload of rock in the back.

Pulled a load last year, short trip, that was about 12-14k lbs - can't remember now, but that was the real weight. Experienced definite shrinkage during the tow, but the truck did fine.

Yes, you need lockers, sliders, custom bumpers, dual batteries and a younger wife.

 

[IdahoDoug]

Agree w/ Scott on the AirLifts vs OME springs for towing (total coincidence we're brothers). To have this level of stiffness, the empty ride would be simply intolerable. In addition, I have a lot of carefully aimed lights and would hate to give up that lighting with an OME while towing. With the AirLifts, the vehicle is EXACTLY the same level as empty - I use a calibrated dowel to adjust the ride height for both summer and winter tire/wheel sets. We tow a 6000lb boat all over the place and I paid $89 for them. Took about 2 hours to install my first set, now down to about an hour after installing 5 sets on various vehicles.

DougM

 

[ppc]

Thanks Scott I did have a typo now corrected to state OME.

Have either of you Miller brothers ever driven or ridden in an OME modified truck? Each individual has their own tastes as to what they find acceptable. I can understand that but look at the number of owners that have switched and very few would choose to go back. It just isn’t a matter of more lift. The normal ride has changed as compared to stock springs yes, but for the better. When you add the Air Lifts you’re only affecting the rear axle making it stiff while towing leaving the front to wallow. With OME it’s a balanced approach affecting all four corners, a matched setup. As a side note I have had Rancho RS9000 installed since about 5k miles under both conditions. They did improve things somewhat on the stock setup but not nearly as much as they did on my 91 4Runner.

 

[IdahoDoug]

Phil,

Nope - not a lot of time. I've been in one for short durations, but long enough to agree the OME spring/shock kit is an excellent product and one I'll eventually install myself.

I've also heard the same extremely high opinion of the OME shock/spring kit from many who's opinions I respect. Speaking for myself, I'm not at all suggesting the AirLift kit is in any way a substitute for an OME kit and I suspect Scott is not either.

For towing, the AirLift kit would still be my choice, however. To have a spring of any type that you could load with 650lbs in the case of my trailer and have zero sag would require, well, a block of iron rather than a spring. It's simply physics that a coil spring with fixed spring rate WILL sag. Whereas the AirLift kit creates an instantly variable spring rate that can exactly account for widely varying loads. No comparison and I don't mean them to be compared.

As for front wallowing - zero. You're thinking of a heavily laden vehicle where the rear is sagging and the front is elevated a bit. This causes the front springs to be artificially in the lower spring rate of their compression travel and over bumps they cannot control the weight of the engine, etc as they were designed to do. Now level the vehicle with AirLifts and the front axle weight is the exact same as an unladed vehicle - no wallowing.

So, no worries on the excellent OME stuff - top shelf in my book. But for heavy towing there is nothing like adjustable springs on the rear axle to control the load. And as mentioned, the lights are pointed exactly where I wanted them while I'm doing the most dangerous driving of all - heavy towing at night.

FYI, My Airlifts have been heavily used for many years now and are one of the best mods I've ever found - great price, too.

DougM

 

[teutonik]

I'm a little late to this topic but have some info to share. I tow 5,000 # trailer with my 93 LC. Also use Wgt. Dist. Hitch. Toyota recommends against WDH b/c they feel it could adversely impact braking. I've experienced none of that after towing 2,000 miles over all kinds of terrain. Only thing I added was a TRD SC to give it more HP and torque. Big difference!!!