Field Report
Subject Tacomas - Tires, air bags, and rear springs, Weight issues
Tires:
Whichever manufacture you choose make sure there is letters " LT' before the number. LT (light truck) is a 10 ply rated tire that will support the camper weight. Most Fleet/Eagles regular campers weigh around 1,350 pounds EMPTY... withOUT food, water, clothes and camping gear. These items add another 350 - 500 pounds or more. When we bought the truck it came with "P"265/70R16.(Load range C) Now it has "LT"265/75R16. Load range E and half inch higher.
\We use our rig mixture of offroad (fire road type to semi-washed out trails) and asphalt. If you mount it full time (bolt it down) you will need to weld plates (Go to my Gallery and review the pictures) on the frame to bolt the camper to because the bed floor is plastic composition. Four wheel sells elevator bolts (flat on top) the correct length which is longer than what is commercially available. Because the frame is not boxed we drilled the composite bed 2 sizes larger diameter to allow for frame flex, After over 36,000 miles we have NO squeaks and the locking nuts are still tight.(checked once per month).
Springs or air bags
If you take it on and off buy air bags. We leave ours mounted full time so we have a custom spring set. I went to my local spring shop that services commercial trucks and Motorhomes and had a custom 4 leaf set configured to support 1500 pounds(recently we learned springs are rated to support more weight (1800 pounds) than I asked for) cost $625.00 in 2013. Rig rides about 6 inches above horizontal empty of camping gear and a little higher than level with 500 pounds of camping gear.
Camping weight - Gross 5,500 pounds
Our 4WD Taco without the tailgate weighs 4200 pounds with half tank of fuel - no driver. Our "improved" shell weighs 1,100 empty. Add water, food, clothes and camping gear for a week in the desert (520 pounds) = 5,820 pounds, Add a full tank of gas (130 pounds.- 6.183 x 21) and we are up to a total 5,950 pounds without passengers.
Overloading
The door sticker shows the GVWR as 5500 pounds. Front is rated at 2755 pounds. Rear 3110 with P265/70R16 (Total 5865 pounds) .
The LT265/75R16 are rated at 3415 pounds per tire at 80 PSI. We run ours at 40 psi on the highway so guess they support 1,700 pounds per tire or 6,830 pounds for four. My total weight (6200 pounds - one person. Wife doesn't go to the desert) is well within the tire max.
That is the reason you need 10 ply tires and air bags or custom spring set.
Driving impression
The 4.0 V-6 and trailer towing package - 3.73 gear gives you plenty of power and torque despite the weight. Before towing the Suzuki Samurai and being restricted to 60 mph towing we could easily pass semi's on 2 lane roads without worry. Fuel milege highway: 15.5-18.5 mpg on premium fuel. 14.5 towing the Samurai on flat ground.
The primary issue is brake Fade
Driving conservatively (we putt along at 65-70) and downshifting the auto transmission on down grades, we have not experienced dangerous brake fade and have yet to replace the front brakes,
The 2013 is rated to tow 6500 pounds with the tow package. Our tow vehicle (2100 pounds) is not setup with "working tow brakes". I have considered it though the cost ( around $ 800) is too much at this time...,And I don't really need too... Driven conservatively, Downshifting the auto transmission on down grades = no problem . In 5,000 towing miles we have only had to make one panic stop and the brakes easily were up to the task,