2022 TRD Pro Towing Squat. -HELP Requested

Hi fellow Tundra fans!

I have recently purchase the TRD Pro. In short, I love it!

HOWEVER!!!!….

When towing, the truck squats like nothing I have witnessed! See pic!

I have read a bunch of post with people installing aftermarket lift/air and also a TRD factory lift kit.

Dealer saw pics and load and was surprised at sagging back end.

Looking for suggestions from fellow owners.

I tow the trailer pictured, a couple times per month with an ATV and UTV or in winter with three sleds.

 

What's the tongue weight on that?

Weight distributing hitch will help with the sag too. But welcome to the issues of towing with off road tuned suspensions - there's a reason the Raptor has barely over half the payload and towing of a typical F150

 

Curt 14k WDH for the win… and balance the load

 

Not sure exactly the tongue weight on that load, but I did have the load balanced with the heaviest portion of the load over the rear wheels of the trailer.

I am wondering if there is an aftermarket solution that can assist for the towing application?

 

Just get a weight distribution hitch. Airbags will do nothing but level the vehicle and keep the suspension from hitting the bump stops. A weight distribution hitch will transfer weight to the front axle from the rear axle and make it much safer to tow. It’s like $600 for a good set rated to 10,000 lbs.

 

This is problem #1. You have to know your tongue weight on the trailer to understand if you're over the recommended requirement. Also, you have to understand the overall weight of the trailer and the loads you will carry. You don't need anything fancy to measure tongue weight, as scales are readily available with online retailers.

Once you know your weights, watch this video below. It explains how a WDH works vs air bags. Some folk on here that recommend bags, and while they do they have their place in the market, a WDH will help your situation. They cover why in the video. Your goal is to effectively move the fulcrum point of the load further on the truck and distribute the load more evenly. Reduces the pivot effect and also brings the nose of the truck down to put your steerings/brakes back into play. You are effectively lowering the amount of tongue weight on the hitch to create the pivot by moving it forward. Hopefully, that makes sense.



After you watch that video, start shopping for a WDH. I recommend etrailer, since they are extrememly helpful and have a ton of info on their site. Feel free to buy from your favorite vendor though.

 

Take that trailer and your toys over to scale to get a good of the actual weight and then you can start shopping for a WDH. I'm not sure if I would replace anything on the truck itself as you would lose any benefit of having a Pro

I feel like you didn't do to much homework before you bought the truck an Offroad trim or SR5 you have been better options for towing the Pro suspension is just too soft

 

I am not anywhere close to an expert on towing but from looking at the picture it seems that the height of the trailer frame is lower than the height of the ball on the truck. If so, the truck would be trying to lift the front of the trailer, transferring weight to the rear trailer axle. The towing gurus here should weigh in if this is wrong.

 

It's astonishing how many people tow without any idea of their tongue weight. Also, as others have already mentioned, you want the off-road tuned shocks? Be prepared to lose much of your towing capacity, something has to give to accommodate that plush off road ride.

 

Exactly, if he starts modding the suspension to turn it into a tow rig then the TRD Pro suspension is wasted. Unless he just bought it for the looks. I know the Raptor inside joke is 90% of them never even touch dirt, just the curb at Starbucks.

 

yea... i guess the Weigh Distribution Hitch would help !

 

You need a weight distributing hitch. I think the general rule of thumb is any load over 5,000 lbs, you should use a properly set up WDH. Don't set it up yourself unless you really know what you're doing, the hitch has adjustments so that it sits at the right angle to properly apply the load on distributing bars.

This pic shows our travel trailer with a 950 lbs tongue weight on a properly set up WDH. The front and rear are level. No airbags.

 

You are absolutely correct. I don’t regret the purchase, but rightly or wrongly I didn’t expect quite the amount of sag I am witnessing.

That said, I’m taking my setup to my local scales to accurately measure the tongue weight and have reached out to my local trailering experts to acquire the most beneficial WDH!

 

Looks like an awesome set up

 

I’ll go ahead and suggest something a little different from the others. I actually think using a WDH in conjunction with airbags is a pretty solid set up. If you’re getting that much sag already, a WDH looks like it’s definitely needed, but there’s also an argument that WDH cause a lot of stress on the frame of the trailer (Lippert components rv frames have seen this a number of times) I’m also a big fan of airbags since you can have them deflated for daily driving your rig and not even know they’re there. Then as soon as you know you’re about to load up some big weight, just put a few psi in and help stabilization that suspension a bit.

I personally wanted a truck with the soft off-road suspension for 80% of the time, but have something to stiffen everything up as soon as I hook up my camper and still maintain the normal ride height.

 

Let us know please, whats trailer weight

 

Trailer is listed as 5400lb dry. Tongue weight is MEASURED at just shy of 1000lbs. I bought an SR5 specifically for towing. I personally wouldn't tow anything heavier than this. Get a good WDH, and make sure you set it up properly (ball height is critical). Hope that helps.

 

Your tongue weight is on the high side but I assume that's your loaded tongue weight? I don't know the specs of your trailer but if it has a GVWR that allows for say 1500 lbs of cargo, 1k lbs is right at the upper end. If it's 1k dry, you've got something goofy going on.

 

Nothing quite like having you picnic table 5 feet away from your poop hose. Truck looks good though! I've gone back and forth on if I should get 18s over 17s specifically for towing reasons.

 

That’s loaded weight.

 

Yeah, I was glad we could eat inside.

 

I've also got a 2022 TRD Pro and have the same issue, I have a 20 foot aluminum open deck trailer and when I hook it up empty (unloaded trailer weights 2,200lbs - 250ish tongue weight) the back sags pretty severely The PRO springs are most likely a softer spring rate. With that being said I measured the truck unloaded and on level ground and the back is 3/4" lower then the front so you're starting out with an issue. I installed the rear spacer from a westcott lift (1" I believe) and a set of the firestone coilrite bags as a backup and now I have 1.25" higher in the back-front and with no air in the bags the truck sits properly with the same trailer.

 

Lower the front of your truck so it's raked instead of level.

 

The trailer is 7000lbs

 

Any luck with wdh?

 

I have 22 pro as well, was hoping to tow 7-8k camper, folllowing

 

What are you carrying inside?

 

You make this comment, but my quick research tells me the Pro's towing capacity is 11,180 lbs with a load capacity of 1600 lbs. It sounds like the OP is well within that margin. I think Toyota should lower the advertised Towing capacity of the TRD Pro if it will cause this much sag. I would have made the same mistake until I read this thread. Based on comments in this thread, it looks like Ford did that by lowering its advertised towing capacity with the Raptor.

 

I know this isn’t 7000lbs. And my tongue weight is just a couple hundred pounds. But my Pro doesn’t sag anymore than the 2012 Tundra SR5 TRD OR it replaced.

 

Your research involves you reading what Toyota publishes on its site, I'm sorry but that's not the research I meant. I think most "truck" guys know that what is published on those sites is missleading and its unfortunate because consumers at the end get screwed.

Honestly I think if your buying a Pro or a Raptor or any other offroad specific trim to tow your buying the wrong truck. I wish people would go back to the days when trucks were used as tools instead of what they have become today but that's just my opinion