Noob questions about suspension and payload

A few people have talked about how hauling heavy payloads have flattened their leaf springs. Others will respond by talking about adding a leaf, or airbags or active suspension, etc. This leads me to two questions:

I have a regular old 2WD SR5 DCSB. What should I do if I'm going to be hauling a fair amount of weight from time to time but have no plans to do any offroading?

When I started looking into adding to my rear suspension, almost everything was talking about lift. Will improving the rear suspension (like by adding a leaf) always increase lift? If not, what kinds of suspension will not add lift?

Both of these questions are aimed at the fact that I might be hauling somewhat heavy payloads or trailers and it sounds like if I'm going to be doing that, I need to do something to my rear suspension, but I don't know what that is.

 

Firestone Ride-Rite or SumoSprings
Both will pretty much keep you at stock height and allow for better load carrying support.
SumoSprings are a bit more “easy” to use. They are basically and “overload” support.
They only help when there is heavy enough load to make contact. Think of the as “big bump stop”.
But with a “softer” bump to rest on.

The Ride-Rite is an Airbag support. It’s adjustable for different loads.
But you have to add or release air for each load. (Different psi for each load)

 

Perfect. That's exactly the kind of info I was looking for. Thanks.

 

Variable weights sounds like airbags are your answer.

Sumo springs are a cheap solution but won't prevent sag in the future.

Add-a-leafs increase ride height and ride firmer unloaded.

 

If found that once the sag sets in, it seems to stay there.
It doesn’t seem to get worse. Mine has reached a point and so far, it hasn’t gotten any “lower”.
I do tow and haul fairly frequently, and have a tool box in the bed. Probably a constant 150lns in the tool box. And hitch weight of 250-400lbs when towing.

 

The TSB springs seem to do that, but they are starting to break from constant loads like canopys.

If I had any kind of constant load I'd run an add-a-leaf personally.

I like airbags but I'm too cheap to pay for the compressor variant.

 

Are there different kinds of airbags?

 

Yeah, I do have the TSB.
We have Ride-Rites on our Ram 1500. So far they have been great.
Can’t say I’d put them on my Tacoma. Mostly because I have access to a bigger truck if needed.

 

They all work the same. The difference is manually airing them up.
Or Auto-level with onboard compressor. I haven’t seen an Auto-level for the Tacoma.
But I haven’t looked either.

SumoSpring isn’t exactly a spring or and airbag.
It’s like a big hard neoprene foam sponge.
Much like a bump stop.

 

Basic air bags are firestones, they have 2 lines with tire valves, you have to set and monitor the pressure with a tire gauge.

The systems can get more elaborate but will maintain a set PSI for you so you don't have to worry about it.

Basically airbags are usually 250$ the onboard air is usually 300$ more.