Need Some Suspension Advice - Trailer Related

[wellRed]

Good morning.

After camping with our Smittybilt Scout trailer 7 or 8 times now, I have come to terms with the fact that I need to beef up my rear suspension for better ease of use. I currently have the set-up below (2.5 inch) with an SSO front insert and winch for the only extra body weight on the truck. It still has close to factory ride quality and looks great. I would like to keep similar ride heights, but not have so much sag in back when the trailer is loaded, kayaks are on the roof, and rear of truck is loaded (family of four with both kids under 5, they come with lots of stuff).

I did add the lock-n-roll hitch with 4" lift that help level things out some, but not much.

3" lift / leveling kit for FJ & 4Runner

Should I just add some heavier springs in the back?
New kit all around and have flexibility for the future?
Ride quality is my only concern about going heavier, but may be unavoidable.

 

[Jetboy]

If you can - I'd start by moving the canoes to the trailer. No reason to carry the weight on the 4runner if you don't need to.

After that - I would put longer springs on rather than spacers. Spacers are going to end up with a harsh ride as soon as you load it up. The reason is that you'll be riding on the internal bump stops the whole time.

Another alternative is air springs. I'm not a big fan of the ride quality when empty with air springs. They tend to make the rear end very firm after just a little travel - kinda like having soft bump stops that you hit right away. But there's no question that they do a great job when loaded up. If you're doing a lot of towing miles - I'd go for air helper springs.

 

[Hybryd40]

AirLift 1000 air bags. They work great when needed and less then 100.00

 

[wellRed]

Thanks - The spacer lift is already in there, so I am contemplating replacing that lift with something new.

I kind of have a catch 22 with the kayaks being on the trailer. Only practical ways to mount them would require some significant fabrication, or would require loading and unloading them every time to make camp. May be a little lazy on my part, but don't want to do that after loading/unloading at the water. I have tinkered with it a ton, but have not found a "good" way to do it yet.

Plus, I use the boats a lot without the trailer.

 

[Ducmonsta]

Air Lift or Firestone Air bags. No difference when unloaded and makes a world of difference when towing or loaded.

 

[wellRed]

Thanks - Meant to mention to other gents too, not a bad idea there. I had them on old tahoe for pulling around a ski boat years ago. Think they would still function fine with that spacer in there?

 

[wellRed]

Air Lift or Firestone Air bags. No difference when unloaded and makes a world of difference when towing or loaded.
View attachment 295383

Is anyone using these with an ARB of Vivair on-board compressor? Have wanted to do on-boar air for a while now, this might be my chance to add it while disguising it as a absolutely "necessary" mod.

Do you use the manual switch or wireless? I had the wireless on my old tahoe.

Pardon any ignorance that might be coming out in these questions.

 

[BobsTrail]

Air Lifts take very little air, a small cheap compressor will do fine. Vair only if you need to air up.

Check the sticky notes at the top of the forum, [MENTION=65614]Antman[/MENTION] did a very nice compressor mount.

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/5th-gen-t4rs/92013-antmans-thread.html#post806239

 

[wellRed]

Air Lifts take very little air, a small cheap compressor will do fine. Vair only if you need to air up.

Check the sticky notes at the top of the forum, [MENTION=65614]Antman[/MENTION] did a very nice compressor mount.

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/5th-gen-t4rs/92013-antmans-thread.html#post806239

Thanks Bob, will check it out.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[ImfromtheGovt]

In preparation for towing a 16' travel trailer, I installed Bilstein 5100 front shocks and 5160 rear shocks, and a set of Firestone air bags in the rear. My trailer weighs 3210 dry and 4400 GVWR, with a 420 lb tongue weight. I towed it for a 5 hour drive home from the dealership, and it tows just fine.

 

[Jetboy]

I've had a few different setups on mine airbag wise. First I used complete spring replacement airbags from a GX460. Then went back to springs with coilrite ? airbags inside them. Then replaced with lift springs.

The air supply system is usually more expensive than the air bags. So if you want to keep it simple - just use the kit and mount the air valve under the bumper somewhere and fill with your air supply of choice. I would suggest one modification and that would be to run two lines with each having its own air setting. That way you can level side to side and don't have air transfer between the bags - that's not ideal on side hills.

However, having air transfer side/side is really nice when you're offroad in most other circumstances. It allows for full flex. What I did to solve this is build a manifold for mine that uses a solenoid to open the air valve left/right and allow air to flow side to side when open, but not when closed. You could do this very easily and cheaply if you want to have it work manually. I think it'd run you about $15 for two "T" fittings and a valve, plus a bit more time to plumb it.

 

[wellRed]

That camper is sweet man, love the color match. You have me stalking their site now....

 

[DesertCanyons]

Trailer tongue weight

Your trailer looks like it is too heavy on the tongue. The tongue weight should be ~10% of the total trailer weight. The trailer axle looks like it is too far back, distributing more of the weight forward to the tongue. Try weighing the tongue on a basic scale and find or measure the weight of the whole trailer.
I think that's a small trailer. With heavier rear springs you should be able to compensate for the trailer weight. If it lifts the rear you may need longer shocks to go with the springs. Air bags are an option too.