Air bags, changed to Active Suspension, first impressions

Hauling a travel Trailer with the bed loaded I have always upgraded the rear suspension on my trucks. For my 23' Off Road I went with the Air Lift 5000 air bags. From day one it was a disappointment. The ride was so harsh over bumps with the rear wheels. I could gain some relief increasing the air in the bags but it just became a stiff ride unloaded and still unacceptable on bumps.

Today I switched to the Road Active suspension. I drove out of the shop, around behind to a business parking lot that has those nasty narrow steep parking lot type speed bumps. I have been over them many times in the Tacoma with the Airbags, I had to bring the Tacoma to almost a full stop as the rear wheels dropped off the bump not to get totally jarred with the air bags. I hit those bumps at speed with the Active Suspension, nothing terribly fast but not a crawl, and the Tacoma went over with the rear wheels as smooth as front wheels.

If you ever have had the experience of riding a hard tail Harley, that's what the air bags felt like.

Later when I put a load in the truck or hook up the trailer I'll review how the Active Suspension handles a load.

Here is a youtube review...Not mine

https://youtu.be/JaqCh6R8pvU?si=0M9aEd61VdrIkAug

 

I'm curious about these. I've seen the Instagram ads. Its like steroids for your stock taco springs. Of the two Tacoma's I've owned I have always replaced the leaf packs after a year or two. This might buy a lot of people more time.

 

Yes, my 2nd gen had air bags, my 3rd gen has active suspension. The air bags were easy to adjust and would work well now to level the truck since I have a RTT. I really prefer the active suspension as well for the same reasons you describe

 

I've been running these for close to 200'000kms and I love them. Only claim of theirs i'd have to debunk is that is helps with wheel hop... maybe if our springs had some arc to them so the RAS kept them under more tension but, on our trucks, it does not help with wheel hop

 

weight in the back seems to help me

 

Ya more tension on the springs or heavier springs is all i've really found in life to help with axle wrap

 

I hooked up my travel trailer today.

The truck bed has around 300 lbs of gear in it and the tongue weight of the trailer is about 440lbs, last time I weighed it.

The Road Active Suspension has two settings, currently it is set on the 1st setting, the softest setting.

The rear sagged about 1 3/4" of an inch from the its standard ride height. The front raised less than 1/2".

The truck and trailer set up looks pretty good but the numbers don't lie. The Off Road Taco sets higher in the rear with no load.

I'm setting up a new WDH so I'll probably leave the suspension system set at the lower level and let the WDH deal with the leveling of the truck and transferring weight back to the front wheels.

 

Does the Road Active hardware hang down enough to reduce ground clearance?

 

Nope. Let me know if you need pics

 

As wake100 said...Nope. The suspension components are entirely above, on top, of the stock leaf springs


I just spent a day at an off road park with a lot of fairly rough stuff and never even noticed the rear suspension.