Treating my AS to a soft ride

[Rollertoaster]

Hi John

I know its you--when you get it all figured out you can explain it to me.
This stuff gets debated endlessly, we can discuss it some more when we go camping. Like your moniker!

Terry

[tpi]

I'll refine my earlier post.. the Tundra should not be off by much towing a 23. I'm very happy with the way it pulls my 25 in stock condition. I feel no need to make modifications for the way I tow and use the trailer.

Some people love to make adjustments striving for perfection. This can be expensive and frequently not of much real value in the end. It can also be fun and pay off with results once in a while.

I'd take a long hard look about how much you're really going to use the trailer. Most of us forecast lots of use at the beginning but reality sets in. What may be beneficial for 20,000 mile per year heavy user won't be as much value for a typical user. Working for small incremental improvements have less payoff the less you tow.

Give it a try the way it is. On smooth roads it will be silk. On battered roads you're heart will ache for the trailer, but when you stop and open the door it will be OK. Not a whole lot you can do to change the fundamentals of this. Slowing down will probably do the most.

[Scott J-24]

We have Airlift airbags on our 2010 Tundra that were installed by a local 4 wheel drive specialty store a few months ago. It took 4 trips back to get the job done correctly because one of the bags wouldn't hold air. We are up camping in Santa Barbara County and had pulled into a local store for supplies. Another shopper found my wife and told her he noticed the right rear breakline was rubbing on the leaf spring and looked like it was wearing thru. After looking at it, sure enough it had started eroding the breakline. I believe when the airbags were installed, the bracket that holds the breakline was not properly reinstalled allowing the breakline to rotate and get abraded by the leaf spring. If this good simariten hadn't noticed this, the breakline could have failed catistrofically. The truck goes into the dealer first thing Tuesday for a new breakline. Even if the 4 wheel parts store offered to fix it for free, my truck will never have work done there again. if you get airbags installed, make sure they don't make the same mistake they made on mine.

[Luftnoggin]

Thanks for your replies. Will leave the rig as is for now. Just 15,000 on the Tundra. Eventually upgrade the shocks. Certainly have no complaint with all the towing I've done (all 75 miles so far).
The Dog

[CrawfordGene]

The Tundra is a pretty soft riding truck as are other Toyotas. We have an '07 double cab with 6.5' bed and the TRD option (includes Bilstein shocks). We have towed closing in on 40,000 miles with little incident. Some rivets popped in one area over the kitchen early on, but the ones I replaced them with have not popped after many more miles. I think it was the original riveteer doing a bad job. But the combination rides smoothly unless the road is bad.

But your question was about spring rate and air bags. I don't feel we need them. And, you can also add a leaf spring, but whether that is a good or bad idea, I don't know.

Gene