Riding low

Hey guys new taco owner here (23 TRD OR DCSB). I just put 2100 of my first 5000 miles on the truck through Baja and found myself 1) needing to carry a bunch of water, gas, camping gear, toys like surfboards and 2) off-road into spots where trails were mild but wanting to do more, and felt like I shouldn’t with how squatted the truck was under that weight. Felt like this was a pretty minimal setup (soft topper, ground tent, lean water budget, etc) and the truck is still riding low and heavy. Photo attached.

Planning to do a lot more of this as well as truck stuff like hauling gravel, dirt, lumber for home projects.

I was planning to keep it stock for a while but I’m guessing the answer here is a lift and leaf pack?

Tentatively planning on 6112/5160 bilstein lift and 255/85r16.

Medium Dakar leaf pack? Will that screw up my ride quality when the truck is empty?

Considering Firestone airbags for hauling, Sensible? Overkill?

Do others on here offroad while loaded up this heavy? Should I just grab aluminum skid plates and skip the lift?

sense check me please!

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...ma-is-too-much-weight-for-overlanding.815332/

 

Look inside your driver door jamb. There's a sticker that will tell you what your payload is. That is the total weight for you, passengers, gear and all the mods you put on the truck. It will also list your GVWR. Take your truck to the scale and see what it weighs all loaded up. If it's at or close to the GVWR that would explain it. Tacomas do not have high payloads and changing your suspension won't change that.

Also, the off road suspension of the TRD OR and Pro are squishy to help with bump absorption. That also means they squish under load.

 

Looking at the pic, the truck looks fairly level. It's supposed to squat a bit with weight in it, that is why it has rake from the factory. You don't appear to be nose high, so I don't know that I'd be to worried.

 

Level but low! I was stashing stuff all over the place to even out the weight, Slamming off the bump stops even on the freeway. Will a 2” lift help here or just adding more squish? How do those trucks with 1000lbs of bolt-ons still manage off road?

 

Seems fine for the occasional trip.

 

they should never have 1,00lbs of bolt ons

 

I get what you are saying, I have slammed the bump stops when carrying less than the rated payload.

I am currently running the 3 leaf AAL (it raised me 1.75 in the rear), and then I put a 1.5" lift up front so that it doesn't stink-bug when empty. It runs level when loaded, or when towing the trailer with light luggage in the bed.

I'm thinking about swapping the whole setup for a set of Icon RXT's, though. I probably should have done that from the beginning.

 

Just send it. Or look into airbags with something like daystar cradles. Nothing else needed

 

Check out page 16 of this PDF for payload info.

http://www.tfltruck.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/2016-toyota-Tacoma-Technical-specs.pdf

 

Icon RXT leaf springs were awesome on my truck. Ran them in option 2 with custom fox 2.0 shocks from accutune and they worked well loaded and unloaded.

Let’s be real here… Toyota oem leaf springs are trash.

Just looking at your set up I can tell you are a sensible, no frills camper who goes to Baja to surf. Highly doubt you are over loading your truck.

 

I had medium Dakars on mine to compensate for topper and the gear permanently on my truck. Worked great off road, but would still slam the bump stops when on highway/freeway. My solution was Sumo Springs to replace the factory bumpstops. They addressed the freeway slam and would engage to reduce squat when I was loaded for travel. The first image is installed and the axle unloaded. The second is the truck on the ground showing the air gap before the super bump engages in travel. Very progressive engagement.

 

As @chasecmc said, if you plan to have 1000lbs of bolt ons plus load the bed and passengers, you are going outside the intended designs of the truck and kind of on your own. You can get new leaf springs and suspension to make it not look like it's overloaded, but that doesn't change all the other apsects that makeup the payload rating. Engine and transmission cooling, braking ability, cornering ability, and all the components that will wear faster than normal due to being overstressed from the load. The best case scenario will be premature wear.

You'll see lots of people do lots of things and they'll all say "it's been fine for X miles/years" and they are right... right up until it isn't fine. That's what happened to this guy. He bought his truck based off the brochure numbers and assumed that all the trucks had those high ratings. Turns out, when you buy anything but the basic stripped down 2WD truck, none of those advertised numbers apply.
He ran this setup for over 20,000 miles and it was always "fine" until it wasn't.




If you want to read up on the details you can just search "ram breaks in half" on your favorite search engine. You'll find this one. Lots of people will cite the amount of weight that he was over and how it's different when it's only 500lbs over, but proportionally if you are running that heavy you are doing the same thing.




Now, I'm not saying you can't beef up your truck and do all the fun things. You do you, but make sure you are going into it eyes open and aware so you don't wind up with a nasty surprise. Nobody wants to see you get hurt or hurt anyone else in an avoidable accident.

 

Thanks guys this is all great info!

 

I would skip the bandaids and go with a full leaf pac.

That said, for hauling gravel, dirt, and lumber? I would suggest at the very least,,, a trailer with brakes.

 

I run the IconRXT with Overload Spring. That and an Elka 2.5 IFP. It will still squat a smidge when FULLY loaded. But considering what I carry to get it fully loaded, that's only on 7+ day trips with the dogs and whole fam.

 

Is it the pictures, or is your leaf pack showing the "w" of death there?

 

It’s the curve of the Dakar mediums. They have sat the same since that way from the day they were installed so no change in condition. The trucks hub-to-fender measurements are unchanged from install as well.

 

I think it would help this thread if you could provide numbers instead of pictures. How much does your truck weigh when fully loaded? What is your up and down travel at ride height when fully loaded? How are you determining that you hitting your bumpstops? How often does it happen and under what conditions?

As far as your question about medium Dakars… I have them and they provide a small lift without affecting spring rate as far as I can tell subjectively. Add-a-leafs on the other hand do increase spring rate for obvious reasons. I’m using the term spring rate loosely to describe stiffness of the leaf springs.

 

very important,,,, good call!