Leaf Springs

[SK1]

Hello all,
I know there are many suspension threads out there; sorry if these questions have already been answered. My truck is a '99 tacoma regular cab. It's my daily driver on windy but paved mountain roads. It sees lots of forest service roads in the summer, but no Rubicon trail type stuff at all. The camper will be on all the time, which is why I've been focusing on beefing up the springs instead of other solutions.

1. What are your thoughts on adding a leaf to the existing spring set, vs. getting new leaf springs?

2. For sway and cornering stability, do you guys think a sway bar and light truck tires would do the trick? Other thoughts? Timbrens? (in addition to springs sway bar and tires)

3. What should I spend my $$$$$$$$ on first?

Thanks for the advice,
Sarah

 

[Cort]

Sarah,

I would replace the leaf springs with a custom set such as Deaver's and put on a set of E-Rated tires. Several members have gone this route, including myself, and have been very happy with the results. I have since sold my Tacoma, but when I had it the camper was on all the time and I was very happy with the suspension setup. I had also added OME front coils and replaced all the shocks with Bilsteins. After doing what I mentioned above there was no need for modifications such as sway bars or timbrems.

Cort


Hello all,
I know there are many suspension threads out there; sorry if these questions have already been answered. My truck is a '99 tacoma regular cab. It's my daily driver on windy but paved mountain roads. It sees lots of forest service roads in the summer, but no Rubicon trail type stuff at all. The camper will be on all the time, which is why I've been focusing on beefing up the springs instead of other solutions.

1. What are your thoughts on adding a leaf to the existing spring set, vs. getting new leaf springs?

2. For sway and cornering stability, do you guys think a sway bar and light truck tires would do the trick? Other thoughts? Timbrens? (in addition to springs sway bar and tires)

3. What should I spend my $$$$$$$$ on first?

Thanks for the advice,
Sarah

 

[Skeeter]

Custom springs and bilsteins is all I did and it works great. I dont do hard 4x4 roads so this worked for us. There is another company in Grand junction that does a good job building custom springs. I think they are Alcan.

 

[ski3pin]

Sarah, we do not have a Tacoma but a similar size truck. We started with airbags and got familiar with carrying our camper on our trips. Then like Cort, we spent the money on a custom set of rear leaf springs from Deaver. The truck and suspension takes us where we want to go without worries.

 

[SK1]

Thanks guys, sounds like custom springs are the way to go. How many leafs are in your spring set?

 

[Cort]

Mine was a 10 leaf pack. Best way to get them ordered correctly is to weight your truck empty and then weight your truck with the camper and all the gear you typically take on a trip. With these two weights Deaver or Alcan can build you a set of leafs to suit your needs.

Cort

Thanks guys, sounds like custom springs are the way to go. How many leafs are in your spring set?

 

[randygirl]

We have a Tundra and originaly only did the air bags and E rated tires. Went to Alaska and everywhere in between last summer and had tons of problems with the air bags. Upon return home, replaced the shocks with Bilstein 5100's and got a custom leaf pack from Deaver made. Getting ready to put the camper on in a week, so I'll let you know how it goes.

 

[RC Pilot Jim]

Hi Sarah,
You probably already made your decision. Here is my two cents worth.
I have a '99 Tacoma XCab 4 cyl, 4WD. I replaced the stock 3 leaf set with a 5 leaf set to carry up to 1500 pounds. Cost was $625.00. I have Bilsteins, a sway bar, and D rated tires (31x10.50 LT). My 2012 Eagle Shell with options weighs 840 pounds. Camper is bolted down and sits level on the truck.

We had an Xtra leaf for about 8 years until one spring broke fall of 2011. Since the truck was only 12 years old we decided to replace the original spring set with a custom one as we wanted to purchase a 4WC in spring of 2012. We travel on very bad roads in the desert so did not want air bags or super springs. We are very happy with this set up.

 

[SK1]

Last spring I came to the forum with what seem to be some pretty common questions-- 1. How do small trucks like the tacoma do with the weight of a pop up camper, and 2. How to upgrade the suspension to help carry such weight. I now have a camper on a small truck with a system that works well for me, so I thought I would share my experiences.
My vehicle is a '99 4-cylinder single-cab 4WD tacoma, manual transmission. The camper I found is a 10 year old phoenix, slightly heavier than I wanted with a dry weight around 900 lbs with the solar panel. I bet when we load up to go on a trip with two adults, two dogs, all our stuff propane water etc. we are a few hundred pounds over the gross vehicle weight rating. I have had no problems with it at all. The camper is on all the time, and the truck/camper combo is my daily driver. Functional differences are as follows: My mpg has gone from 25 to 20 with the camper on. I drive up steep hills (like donner summit or brockway summit) about 10 mph slower and one gear lower than before. Power and speed on flats hasn't changed. I take corners and curves more slowly than before, probably more than necessary. When traveling at highway speeds, particularly with the camper loaded, I find myself most comfortable driving right about the speed limit in the right hand lane with the big rigs. On the mountain roads I usually drive, I've had no problems accelerating to pass slow drivers, swerving to avoid tourists, and doing some light off-roading in the summer time. So for those of you with small underpowered trucks- you should be fine carrying a camper as long as you do it right!
This brings me to my second point. Doing it right for me involved beefing up the suspension and tires. All of the good things I just wrote about the handling of the truck occurred after I made the following adjustments- I bought Alcan leaf springs made for my year truck (found them used off this forum) and had them installed along with new rear shocks. This has been a great choice for me since the camper is always on. It's extremely stable. I also added light truck tires which has helped, but I think the rear suspension makes the biggest difference by far. This spring I will put new shocks and a lift kit on the front, and I will be done. The disadvantage to my approach is that I spent more than I would have with airbags even with used springs, I now can't take the camper off for very long, and if I ever want to sell the truck it will limit my buyers market. For me the simplicity, reliability and stability of new leaf springs outweigh any concerns. Ironically though, after he finished installing the new springs, my mechanic told me "you've got yourself a badass set up here, but next time talk to me first I would have told you to get airbags. They're cheaper and more versatile". So there you have it. Doesn't seem like there's any one right answer out there. I'm really happy with my setup, it works really well for my needs. I hope this helps anyone with similar questions.

 

[Hittheroad]

We had a 99 Tacoma and added super springs (single leaf addition). They did the job. Today I would also add 10 ply tires.
Super springs were super - I once used the truck to pick up a 1,000 lb load only to find out it was 1,000 kg.

 

[steelhead]

Thanks for your follow up post. We will be buying a FWC Fleet in the next few weeks to ride on a Tacoma 4x4 v6 Access cab and have been really struggling trying to decide between springs and air bags. Reading about your experience is helpful - thanks again.

 

[buckland]

Hello all,
I know there are many suspension threads out there; sorry if these questions have already been answered. My truck is a '99 tacoma regular cab. It's my daily driver on windy but paved mountain roads. It sees lots of forest service roads in the summer, but no Rubicon trail type stuff at all. The camper will be on all the time, which is why I've been focusing on beefing up the springs instead of other solutions.

1. What are your thoughts on adding a leaf to the existing spring set, vs. getting new leaf springs?

2. For sway and cornering stability, do you guys think a sway bar and light truck tires would do the trick? Other thoughts? Timbrens? (in addition to springs sway bar and tires)

3. What should I spend my $$$$$$$$ on first?

Thanks for the advice,
Sarah


Hi I have an 01 Tacoma, with 2011 Eagle. Went 1 year stock leaves with Armstrong riderite airbags (great)... but this last year I was worried about the weight so I added a 4 leaf. Springy w/o the Eagle but real glad I did that. I feel much better. IT rides flat and straight... very rough terrain, over beaver dams etc.. the combination of the two make it work just fine.
Rob

 

[WaltK]

Hello all,
I know there are many suspension threads out there; sorry if these questions have already been answered. My truck is a '99 tacoma regular cab. It's my daily driver on windy but paved mountain roads. It sees lots of forest service roads in the summer, but no Rubicon trail type stuff at all. The camper will be on all the time, which is why I've been focusing on beefing up the springs instead of other solutions.

1. What are your thoughts on adding a leaf to the existing spring set, vs. getting new leaf springs?

2. For sway and cornering stability, do you guys think a sway bar and light truck tires would do the trick? Other thoughts? Timbrens? (in addition to springs sway bar and tires)

3. What should I spend my $$$$$$$$ on first?

Thanks for the advice,
Sarah


Add a leaf vs entire new spring set you get a properly engineered set, while the single leaf added never exactly matches the rest of the set. Better to go whole new springs.

My 4x4 Extended Cab Ranger had standard springs that were well worn, so I got 5 leaf progressive heavy duty new springs, replacing springs, shackles, spring bolts at the same time. Also replaced my bilstein's with a new set at the same time. Progressive design springs will balance well over a wide range of load, and these work well all the way from unloaded to camper on and probably beyond. My load rating went from 1250 lbs to 1750 lbs. With the camper on the truck is exactly even, with no load it's about a inch high in the rear. I'm using a Eagle which started as a shell and I'm adding appliances and etc to match what I want. The Eagle shell was rated 550lb, but will have somewhere around 300 more lbs added by the time I'm done. The Eagle is a very good size match to my Ranger, nothing sticks out beyond the truck, which suits the sometimes very narrow outback roads I use.

Really before going for such a large FWC as you mentioned you should update your tires first if they are old or thin sidewalls, and do the springs/shocks together afterwards. Note new springs tend to take a little while to settle to their final behavior so good to get them a little ahead of the camper.

 

[RC Pilot Jim]

Thanks for your follow up post. We will be buying a FWC Fleet in the next few weeks to ride on a Tacoma 4x4 v6 Access cab and have been really struggling trying to decide between springs and air bags. Reading about your experience is helpful - thanks again.


Hi Sara,
Your first post says you have a '99 Tacoma so I am assuming you have the 3.4 V6.

Fixed springs or air bags depend on your application. If I was going to take the camper off when not camping and the camping was in mostly commercial campgrounds I would buy air bags or overload springs because the stiffer springs ride like a "lumber truck" no weight on the truck bed.

The '99 in my photo has a 5 spring custom pack and a rear Helwig sway bar. My 2012 upgraded Eagle shell weighs 900 pounds without water, food, offroad safety equipment(chains, Hi-Lift jack, etc, etc). My camper is bolted permanently on the truck and I use it mostly for offroad exploring the deserts in California, Nevada and Arizona. I don't want airbags because I don't want to risk tearing out the lines, mounting hardware or holing a bag in the back country.

This month I bought a 2013 Tacoma Access Cab 4WD and had a custom 4 leaf pack installed on it, as I am moving the Eagle to the new truck and "BOLTING" it down (See POST "Bolting FWC to 2005-2013 Tacoma - Jan 2013) I upgraded because the additional weight is too much for the 2.7 liter 4 cylinder in the '99.

Weight
I am assuming you are purchasing the kitchen model. The dry weight with a refrigerator is 1200-1500 pounds without food or water so make sure whatever you purchase suspension wise supports 1500 pounds