Looking for leaf springs?

I drive a 2011 Tacoma, 4wd, and I'm gonna be carrying a fiberglass camper (It's a 77 sunrader). The camper is about 1200 lbs. and it rides well but does squat just a bit and I'd like to add a leaf spring kit, but I have no idea what to get. I'm not sure what each weight rating actually means, whether I'm actually increasing my payload or just helping it ride better? I'd like to lift my truck a bit too but that's probably going to be down the road.

I am seeing a lot of different options at very different prices but I don't know what the big differences are.

 

You have a 1200lb camper on stock suspension? Have any photos to post? That poor truck...

Leaf packs usually have a weight rating for the added items over stock. For example, a Deaver Stage III leaf pack is designed to work on 05-23 Tacomas with 700-1000lb added over stock. From what we've seen, this leaf pack can handle a bit more. Adding a different leaf pack does not increase your payload capacity. Payload is the total weight a truck can carry SAFELY down the road. So if you go beyond that, your frame, brakes etc are not designed for that weight.

Adding a heavy duty rear leaf may help, but now your stock shocks are absolutely maxed. I would suggest a combination of front & rear suspension to support the entire weight of the truck.

We have some packages for Tacomas, but we would probably suggest making some changes to our existing kits to accommodate that weight. Take a look here and shoot us a message if you have some questions.

 

I'm also running a 2011 Tacoma, and I'm a huge fan of the Deaver U402 Stage 3 leaf springs. They handle that kind of weight extremely well.

 

Thanks! I don't have the camper sitting on it right now, I just mounted it up to move it when I first bought it. It's gonna be my living space for a good while so I'm looking to upgrade before I put it back on my truck. This is the only photo I have from the day I moved it.

I'm not sure if I can afford a whole suspension upgrade, but I don't want to skimp out either. I'm quite new to all of this and I don't want to mess things up for myself down the line, but idk what should be my top priority. I've seen multiple people recommend the Deaver u402, but I'm wondering what else I might need/what I should get first while I'm saving up for upgrades (I double checked and the camper says certified wet weight 1150 lbs.)

 

Also was a bit confused on the difference between a "helper spring" kit and others. I was looking at the Hellwig EZ-990 I'm not sure why these are so inexpensive or if something like that would be worth looking at.

 

1150 lbs is beyond helper springs on stock leafs alone. The pic looks like you are riding on bump stops.
General Spring and Skyjacker are cheaper new leaf spring brands, but better than stock. General advertises 500lbs cap heavier than stock. Neither is the strength that you need but is better than where you are at.

 

I'm not just trying to shove product your way, but if you are committed to running that large of a camper, its going to need some work. We've worked with Truckhouse on a few builds and we've gotten them to ride pretty well, but they are running a lot of high end stuff. Aside from just stiffening up springs to account for added weight, the center of gravity on the truck is now pretty high. As it sits now, I bet it would be pretty scary doing high speed turns on the street.

How are you planning to use the truck mostly? Driving it daily, weekends etc? If you are planning to drive it a lot, I think comfort and safety should be up there on the priority list.

 

As @AccuTune Offroad said, we really need more information about your use case. Will the camper be on the truck full time? Traveling a lot of miles? Or will it be off the truck for extended periods of time, and the truck driven around a lot without the camper?

Will you use it just on pavement, or will you be hitting forest service type roads as well?

And something we should have brought up IMMEDIATELY... what tires are on your truck? If they aren't already, you really REALLY need to get some E-load tires. They are rated for higher weight, have heavier duty ply ratings and can be run at much higher pressures. This drastically increases control when loaded, and are far less likely to blowout. I've moved my camper at 35 PSI before and steering lag is laughably bad, and it also increases the tippy/rolling feeling side to side. I run at least 50 front, 55 rear, if not 55/60. You can't run pressures like this in a P or SL tire. As a single example, my Tacoma came with SL tires that were rated for ~2400 pounds per tire, where my current e-loads are ~3400 pounds per tire.

 

My steering was pretty even keel actually when I drove it, but I was also being careful.

I'll be parked at a campsite all summer long and only really driving it on the weekends, during the week I'm gonna be working on a farm nearby the campground and so I'll be taking my bike to work. The camper is going to stay on the truck, on a pretty manicured type of campground, from late April to November. As it stands, I have enough to spend around $1500 now and I'm planning to save up as I work this summer so I can upgrade before November, because I'll probably travel after the holidays. Again, I'm totally willing to make the upgrades I need, but I wanna start with the imperatives while I save up.

I'll have to check the tires after work today because I still have the ones from the previous owner on there

 

With only a $1500 budget to get this thing relatively safe, I'd be trying to find a reasonably cheap set of E load tires (preferably all 5 as your spare should be the same rating), and then buy a basic air bag kit for the rear (firestone ride-rites as an example), or use something like Timbrens or Sumo Springs. No on-board air would be needed, a bicycle pump would suffice. The air bag kit/Timbrens/Sumo Springs would really be a bandaid until you could afford Deavers. Your use case I'd normally skip those and go straight for the custom leaf pack, but the leaf pack would eat up 80 percent of your budget. Even Sumo springs and E load tires may be beyond your budget, but you really need them.