Suspension Upgrade for Overlanding

Hello All,

I am looking to upgrade my suspension to handle the weight of all my over landing gear. I will be living out of my truck for the next couple months.

In terms of added weight, I will have a hard camper shell, a wood sleeping platform, yakima XL roof basket, water/gas cans, cooking supplies/food, and my camping gear for the trail work I'll be doing. I have estimated this will be approximately 500-600 pounds. That is not including myself and other potential passengers. I could reduce the weight of my gear if needed.

I have stock TRD Sport suspension and from my understanding that will not be satisfactory. As stated, I plan to live out of the truck for the next several months and I plan to drive forest roads and do some light off-roading to reach trailheads in Norther Montana and Canada. I will have five consecutive days off every two weeks and I plan to spend much of that time in remote areas. I will not be seeking out any technical "wheeling" trails with this rig but rather be able to reach some remote trail heads.

I would like to keep this suspension upgrade as budget friendly as possible, but I understand "buy once, cry once" and suspension isn't something to cheap out on. I would like to keep this under $3500 but I can spend more if needed. I would most likely get a shop to do the work. Again, I am not looking to go wheeling, but rather need proper suspension to support the added weight and to handle light off-roading.


I am just getting into the world of modifications and I have only a basic understanding of suspension. There are a ton of articles on the web and I am sure this question has been asked on here before, but I was frankly overwhelmed by the many options, so I decided to post. Thank you in advance for taking the time to respond to my post.

 

Labor is going to be a big part of that budget. I'd be looking at some beefier leaf springs (Icon RXT maybe) tuned for your weight, and Bilstein 6xxx. Something like this, but I'd go full leaf pack.

https://www.shocksurplus.com/products/bilstein-6112-assembled-system-16-21-toyota-tacoma

Probably just within your budget including labor.

 

I honestly don't know enough to decide between adjustable and non-adjustable.

I am not looking for any added lift.

 

OME offers heavy load suspension lift kits at reasonable rates. They are quite robust.

Keep in mind that if you decide to go with OME nitrocharger shocks, they are not extended length. Same length as stock shocks. Your downtravel will be ~2.25” vs ~3.8” stock.

 

Full steel armor and sliders, hardtop RTT, Prinsu racks and awning, a steel swingout, a 10k pound grip hoist hand winch and pull-pall, plywood deck and drawer, 15 gallon spare fuel tank, 10 gallons of water, a refrigerator, three truck batteries, solar panels, and a MX camper shell. Tell me this isn’t heavy.

All it has are 5100’s (3rd notch), a single Deaver add a leaf, stock coils, and air bags. Those are all you need. I did not spend that much on it and it rides just fine off and on-road. One cool thing you can do with airbags also is lift the body if you are ever high centered on sand or snow- works well! So you really don’t have to do too much to get a nice off-road camper setup.

 

Might I make a suggestion. Before making a decision take your stock truck off road into most of the common conditions you think you will see.

Keep notes on what happens with the suspension in different scenarios, like washboard at a slow speed vs higher speed, depressions at a slow speed vs high speed, bumps, you get the deal.

Look at each of your notes and decide what you would want the suspension to do/act/behave in each situation. Remember there are trade offs.

This will help you narrow down a decision that benefits you for your expected uses.

 

Be sure to check your weight load sticker on the door jamb. That's for everything in the truck including people. It doesn't matter what springs you use or how much more weight they are rated for. That rating is for the drive line and brake performance as well as what is loaded.

And I think your 500- 600 est is low

 

Yeah I’m over, especially when towing our travel trailer with fore mentioned setup…

 

Just take the truck out and start doing stuff.

Start with easier destinations and build from there. When you start noticing issues, decide if you can mitigate them by the choice of line, increase your skills/knowledge of offroad driving. If not, upgrade.

After each trip, look at what you _actually_ used versus stuff that's dead weight. Safety and recovery gear is important but only bring what's actually useful.