Recommendations on forklift and airbags

I’m putting a 1500lbs camper in my bed and I need a torklift tie downs and an airbag or helper leaf. Anyone done this? Recommendations?

 

Several have done helper bags. There's quite a few posts on that. What'd you want to know? Big thing on bags is never to plumb them in a way that they share air.

 

My donor project 2004 2wd tundra had airbags and the front Torklift brackets, but when i purchased the truck, someone had previously removed the airbags. They left the airlines, schrader valves, and Torklift brackets though. I would have REALLY loved to have those airbags!

 

Sure. I used Air Lift brand. They work.

 

Im looking at these airbags but it says 2001-2006. Mine is 2000 am I correct in assuming they will work on a 2000?

Also it says that I can only use this with stock tires but I think I have plenty of room with my 265/70 R17. What do you guys think?

https://pacbrake.com/hp10126-alpha-hd-rear-air-suspension-kit-for-2001-2006-toyota-tundra.html

I got these Torklift tie downs. 887$ after tax! Yicks!

$854 Torklift T2301 T3301 Pair of Front and Rear True Frame Mounted Tie Down Bundle for Toyota Tundra

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B073X48V36?ie=UTF8

 

Ouch! That really stings. I don't have any experience with the Pacbrake brand. I've had the Firestone double convoluted airbags in my 95 Cummins, 98 Cummins, 71 F250 flatbed, 77 F250 lowboy. I have had zero issues with any of them.

As for tire size, 245/70-16 was a stock size option on the 2000 model (including the 4wd trucks). The other optional size is a 265/70-16. I think that your 265/70-17 will be narrow enough to have clearance for all of the airbag brackets. But with that tall tire size of yours, the 3.90 gear ratio is going to suck big time hauling around that much weight. I'd be tempted to install a tire that's the same height at a LT 245/70-16 (or whatever that equals to in a 17" rim). A smaller tire will also lower your center of gravity a little bit for that tall heavy load. Plus if you have a v8, then i'd also lower the ring and pinion to a 4.10 at a bare minimum! Your engine, transmission, and fuel economy will thank you.

 

Great advice. I’ll talk it over with my mechanic and see what he says. Thanks! I do have stock wheels with snows on them right now. I really like my more aggressive off-road wheels though. She looks so small with stock tires on her. Probably best to not go on too rough of trails with that much weight anyway.

 

I can’t imagine how miserable driving a 1st Gen would be with a 1,500lb camper.

My mom has one in her F250, and it handles horrible.

I have Firestone bags on my Tundra, and it’s a nice kit.

 

I’m definitely considering Firestone but I like that the ones I posted don’t require putting holes in the frame. Maybe it’s not a big deal?

 

It’s not a big deal whatsoever to drill holes.

And taking a much closer look at the Pacbrake bags again, to me it looks like the single convoluted airbag doesn’t have the same about of travel that a double convoluted bag would have? Perhaps it’s just the angles of the Pacbrake’s stock photos? But it seems like it would greatly limit suspension travel? Not that you’re looking to gain suspension travel when hauling heavy loads, but i wouldn’t want to limit the current stock suspension travel.

 

Wouldn't this vary depending on PSI? It says you can run them from 10-100psi I assume you can air them down and not have such a stiff ride?

 

Yes, it would also vary with PSI. I’d look into the specs and dimensions of the PB’s airbags. Firestone has all of their’s listed online (you’ll have to do some searching to find them). I suppose if you always have 2000lbs in the bed of the truck (1500lbs camper, plus another 500lbs of water, food, blankets, pillows, cookware, propane, maybe a couple tools, ect) and never have less than 80~100psi in the bags, then you can afford to loose “x” amount of suspension travel. Who knows, perhaps i’m over thinking it, but way back when i first installed airbags in my trucks, i researched what their compression and extension heights were in order to make sure i wasn’t hampering my suspension.

 

1500 is wet weight. It’s like 1200 dry.

Pics for fun.

 

My camper setup is similar to the one above. About 1250 lbs empty and 1500 fully loaded.
I went with Firestone airbags and they have been great. I got the dishes for the bottom instead of bolting the bottom of the bags to the bottom brackets. I have a lift and didn't want to lose travel because of the airbags. I've read about people buying the Amazon version of the firestone knockoff and having good luck with durability and longevity. But it's hard to want to risk an airbag blowout without knowing how they actually hold up. I also have e-rated tires (285/75/16) which are more confidence inspiring when taking the truck and camper offroad to get wherever it is we are going.

 

Yeah yeah, nice camper. Tell us about this fog light mod!!

 

How’s the truck performance? MPG? How sluggish does it feel? I have on board air for off-road applications. Would having that much weight make airing down for rough roads a bad idea? I’d hate to de-bead from all that weight.

 

XLux! I love them! It’s a new company but the guy who started it is the light engineer who designed a bunch of the rigid lights. I have fog and amber drive lights from them in the factory fog cavities. Can’t recommend them enough! The Amber Drive lights are my favorite lights on the truck for sure.

 

Illegal in some states though. There are quite a few states that forbid more than four forward-facing lights, and/or more than two forward-facing fog lights. I can't remember if California is one - it may be they let you have 4 forward-facing lights and 2 fog lights. Other states, it's 4 lights total.

That picture reminds me of a damn UFO abduction, like something you'd have seen in that River Phoenix etc. movie "The Explorers" from the '80s.

 

I thought you just couldn’t have them lit on streets? I never run more than 4 on at once on streets. The fogs and amber drive lights are on separate switches. I only run everything on at once on dark forest roads where the risk of blinding people is really low.

I think Cali requires them to be covered in streets which is fucking dumb. Colorado is kinda just don’t be an ass hole from what I can tell

 

I dunno, even in GA it's a max count of four headlights, I didnt' see mention of "on", "off", or "covered" when I clicked through on the result that had this text:

​

 

Yeah no one in Colorado is getting ticketed. Every third truck on the roads in Denver is breaking that law. Again it’s kinda be respectful and don’t have your fucking light bar on when on the street. I would encourage cops to pull people over for breaking that law but if they are off when they should be off it doesn’t seem to be a problem out here. I’ll definitely be worried when I drive this baby to Alaska this summer though.

 

It's certainly sluggish. I live in the mountains so the mountain passes are slow going, but on flat interstate I can maintain the speed limit (80mph in Idaho). Gas mileage depends on either interstate or mountains and I just accept it and keep an extra 5 gallon can in the back just in case cuz gas stations can become sparse at times here.
I don't air down so I can't offer any advise there. Mostly, I'm driving to rock climbing destinations and just need high clearance or sometimes 4WD and I can get everywhere I need to. I like the e-rated tires to lower risk of a flat tire since our dirt roads have lots of rocks.

 

Ok so I got the Tork lift system installed but I’m stuck on the bags. Seems the inside upper bracket of the air bag is too short. The kit says 2001-2006 but I have a 2000. Is the leaf system different on the 2000 for since reason?

 

It looks like there's two different kits for the 2001-2006 tundras. According to Pacbrake, the difference between the kits are the brackets.

-2001-2006 TOYOTA TUNDRA (2WD/4WD.) P/N HP10126

-2001-2006 TOYOTA TUNDRA (2WD/4WD) Trucks in which the upper jounce bumper pad protrudes 1" below the frame. P/N HP10158

Look at page 7 and 8 in the instructions and you can see the two different styles of brackets... https://pacbrake.com/mm5/pdfs/L6010.pdf

 

Ya I think you got sent the wrong part or something. I have the firestone setup and the brackets were drilled into the frame.

 

They are going to send me the correct bracket. Talked to them today

Its my own fault, I didnt see that part. I thought 2000-2006 was all the same. Why would there be 2 jounce set ups?