Rear spacer blocks with a rack and tent?

this combined with new 34s and I can finally hit the speeds I was looking for. Small washed out gulleys are no longer a reason to slow down, the truck has limits beyond what I'm comfortable with now. Very very pleased.

 

That's great to hear! My current stock set up(not for long) with 265/70/70 is great, but definitely the experience you just described. That's a great ride when your truck goes further than you do.

 

Thanks, that makes it much more clear. The shocks blew out, but the rest of the suspension was ok. I've never blown out any shocks in that that short of period, but I have remote reservoir shocks now as well. I still think they are likely overkill for me, but it's good to hear your story.

 

I think a good progressive AAL is probably all most people need to support the weight of camping gear + RTT, fixes the suspension being overloaded the correct way for the cheapest price.

I just like to go fast and expect a lot out of my equipment, so I had to go a bit bigger.

 

How do you determine the suspension is overloaded besides comparing your payload to the payload rating of the truck? I suspect people might be upgrading their leaf springs prematurely only because the truck doesn't sit as high as stock.

 

So... I mean, OP says "I don't do anything, I have some blocks. Me and my girlfriend sleep in a tent on the bed" and folks are talking about overheating their stock suspension doing extreme racing on washboard/rutted roads. EHHHHHHHHHH

edit: yes, I agree, everyone should spend too much money on suspension because it's just freakin cool. BUT come on. I think OP was pretty clear on his scenario.

To somehow say that your stock truck needs new suspension to hold 600 lbs for a weekend camping trip seems excessive. It's a truck, it comes from the factory with the ability to carry a load. That's the ordinary, normal, i-need-a-truck use case.

 

I will chime in and strongly recommend upgrading your rear leaf packs.

This is what can happen to stock Bilstein's with a rack, tent, and some gear in the bed on the Mojave Road. Just cooked these fuckers. The one shaft is buried inside the lower shock body. Truck looked just fine sitting still, but the leafs could not keep up.

Blown Bilsteins by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr

 

I’m running Deaver single AAL with Sumo Springs and have had good results.

2.5 ADS, too.

 

Leaf springs causing shocks to overheat? Huh? Care to elaborate?

 

It's classic Tacomaworld. Sometimes I wonder if half the people posting are working for the vendors.

 

I do it as much as I complain about it. We all hate "that guy" and we're all "that guy."

 

@gudujarlson, I’d like to know how that works, too.

So, basically y’all are saying no bedrack and RTT unless you get an Add-a-Leaf …or better? Or, just not ride around with the RTT all the time when you’re not on a trip?

 

Could I get an AAL that adds 2-2.5" of lift? Most that I find are 1.5". Does anyone have any recommendations?

 

The OP literally stated: I just bought a bed rack and rooftop tent which in total weights about 170lbs together,


That's not sleeping in the bed with a bed tent.

Yes, stock suspension is not meant for continual 600lbs load offroad. You will wear it out. Get out more and you'll run into the same problems others have. Acting like we're the villains for steering OP towards an AAL instead of a block setup using real world examples? I don't get it

 

Yeah the 170lbs, plus camping gear ect in the back. So perhaps 200-220lbs continuously. Then an extra 300lbs with people sleeping in the tent, so roughly 500lbs static weight at some times.

 

What? I'm not sure if you are trolling me to get me to waste a bunch of time typing up a detailed explanation of a simple phenomena. Correct me if I am wrong.

 

That does not sound like anything to worry about. Note that there is a big difference between a static load (sitting still) and a dynamic load (driving on a road). The dynamic load causes more stress over time to your suspension and has higher risk of damaging things and/or causing them to wear out faster. However, a load of 200lb is nothing to worry about. That’s on par with a load one might find in the bed of a pickup during a Minnesota winter to improve traction in 2wd.

 

Shocks heat up because they remove kinetic energy from the system. Springs store and release energy (ie they transfer energy from kinetic to potential and vice versa) but springs do not create new energy. Therefore I do not understand why you think leaf springs could be causing the shocks to overheat.

 

I don’t understand why you are talking about a 600lb load while driving off road when the OP said a 200lb load while driving and 500lb load while sleeping. No one said you were a villain. We were just making joke about the typical pattern of spreading FUD on tacomaworld. A few posts from now someone will bring up lemon laws.

 

A nun walks into the Tacomaworld pub and grill. The nun asks the bartender, “The parking lot at the grocery store is really rough. Is there anything I can do to protect my taco from damage?”

The bartender says, “Sister, you are fine. The stock taco is plenty capable of navigating any grocery store parking lot.”

The first guy at the bar says, “Your stock taco is a weak gear hunting sloth! You need a tune!”

The guy sitting in the corner says, “Mam, I highly recommend full armor from CBI!”

A guy sitting upstairs runs down the stairs and yells, “Lady, lady, lady, let me tell you a story of how I destroyed my stock shocks in a grocery store parking lot!”

... someone fill in the punch line, please