Are second gens as capable as first gens?

It isn't the bed you should be worried about

 

When I haul stones and topsoil I splurge the 30 dollars and rent a trailer. Why risk your own equipment and paint job when it's easier to load it on something that's better designed for abuse?

"I bought mah truck to do truck stuff," say the contrarians. So do I. I use my truck to pull a trailer. And on Monday morning, I still have an intact suspension to drive to work with.

 

Very good point. I blew out the seals in both rear shocks and likely damaged the leafs springs too. I want a trailer, but still a good idea to upgrade leaf springs on s second gen because the springs are light duty.

 

If the factory springs cause the rear to nearly bottom out at max payload then that is good and intentional design, no?

"She can't take any more captain!"

 

Actually, that's unsafe design. Toyota just had to take into account the most AVERAGE use case and make that the safest and most comfortable possible. Using your vehicle near max capacity is not average. It's all a trade-off. When nearly bottoming out at max payload, this means you do not have proper up travel in your suspension. Suspension is what keeps your wheels properly on the road. If you hit a bump that pushes your suspension up, it instead has to shove your whole truck upwards. You simply can't design the suspension to be perfectly suited to all use cases without some sort of adjusters built in. Air bags are probably the safest option for having the best suspension travel for all use cases. No air when empty, so you are at normal rear ride height (middle of suspension travel), and higher PSI when you are nearing max load to keep your suspension in mid travel as designed.

My Deaver's, loaded, work great. But I'm well aware when unloaded, my rear end has very little down travel, which can be just as bad as not having up travel (this is one of the things i hate about folks running 3.5 inch lifts up front). When I hit a drop in the road, or a big pot hole, my wheel may be unable to lower itself down to the road. But when I'm loaded, which is most of the time I use the truck, the suspension is able to use it's full range of travel.

 

The 2-2.5 inches of lift that is listed for those springs is WITH LOAD. My Deaver Stage 3 are supposed to be 2.5 inches with 700-1000 pounds of load. Unloaded I probably have 5 inches of lift, lol. Look at the pic below where someone spotted me on the highway. That was between selling my AT Habitat (which was on for 3 years) and picking up my Scout. My swingout with water and propane, plus another 7 gallons of water at the tailgate you can't really see, plus camping gear was easily 500-700 pounds.

Now I will add, it took at least 6 months for the suspension to settle when new. This happened to my buddy's raptor as well with Deavers. When first installed it was just plane stupid, but settled a good 1-1.5 inches minimum for me.

 

Yeah, thats too much lift for my everyday use. Deavers have a great reputation but the Dobinson’s don’t ride nearly as high and i wont have to upgrade too many suspension parts right away.

 

You'll be fine. I haven't seen issues with the bed in the 2nd or 3rd gen Tacomas, as far as hauling the things you've pictured.

 

I don’t have this truck anymore. The frame failed on that side and I had a safety cap frame repair. It was always crooked after that.