3rd Gen Suspension (broke grad student)

Im looking for some advice on suspension for my 19' OR DCLB. I built out the back with a DIY drawer and platform system adding about 500 ish lbs to the bed. It's not riding low but I don't want to risk hurting anything. What's the best but cheapest way to beef it up? Could I get away with just an add a leaf until I can afford a full suspension upgrade? Or maybe just the bigger Leaf pack?

Thanks crew

 

500 lbs isn’t that bad. Just don’t jump the truck. An AAL if you are going to add more weight. You may also want to look into an aftermarket bump stops.

My Timbren’s

 

Even if you are broke during grad school, been there done that, you got yourself a nice truck!

With stock suspension if you take it off road even some what regularly your springs are going to take a beating pretty quick. I drove on the stock suspension until it was totally shot, it only took a year and about 10K miles.

There really is no good inexpensive option here (but it also depends on what you call "cheap"). I am assuming your 500lbs does not include gear. If so with that kind of weight to do this right you will need a new leaf pack and most new packs will lift the back enough that the stock shocks will be too short so you will need to replace the shocks as well. Bilstein 5100's are good and quite affordable, a step up though would be better if there is a lift. A new leaf pack and decent shocks could be had for as little as ~$600-700 if you did the work yourself and have the tools. Which is pretty inexpensive if you think about it.

An AAL is the quickest and least expensive option (~$200) to get you some extra support in the back and you can probably continue to use the stock shock. It will help you in the short term but in my opinion if you are taking it off road it is only going to be a temporary fix before even the stock pack + AAL is flattened.

In general I would say wait till you have the cash to do it the way you want and only do it once. If it were me I would say do nothing and start saving up. Drive it as is and when the rear leafs and shocks are totally shit and you are riding the bump stops more than you want then throw all the parts away and go for the full replacement.