Firestone airbag/day star upgrade on 3rd gen and now harsh suspension

Seeking advice re suspension upgrades for firestone airbags .

I have a 2020 TRD sport dclb 4wd and upgraded my rear suspension for a cross country overland trip this past summer. i had to do this on the cheap at the time. I have Firestone rear airbags and daystar cradles. Suspension did what I needed it to- handled light 4wd out west and in the UP, and there was good response to bumps w my loaded rig (family, rtt, rack, fridge, bikes, gear, food, water etc).

On the way back I noticed really harsh bumps w the rear on bridge expanders etc. I left the rtt on the truck (200# bed weight all in) and unloaded everything at home. The harsh rear axle ride continued even though I dropped my rear psi from 20 to 10 to 5.the drop in pressure did help but not eliminate the harsh ride.

Something has to be done - my truck bangs w a new harshness vs when I first put on the Firestone’s. Going forward I now have the money to upgrade the suspension properly as that seems to be the correct path. I am considering bilstein 6112.
My question- am I going the right direction? Could something have happened on the trip which needs to be fixed instead of upgrading? If I go 6112, or 5160, would I still need AAL w the air bags?

Thanks in advance

 

A couple scenarios

1.) You are bottoming out the airbags and limiting up travel.

2.) You are light enough now that the additional spring rate of the airbags is making the truck feel stiff/harsh.

Now much bump travel do you have with the airbags installed?

 

I spent this weekend camping and loaded down and can now answer. When loaded w 20# pressure, the ride is truly great but indeed I notice it does bottom out w big hits. Then unloaded, at 20# it seems harsh. But when I drop the pressure, it is back to bottoming out. So , seems like both. I think a bit more travel would help. If I go 6112 / 5160 I have read a setting of 3-4 will give just u dear 2 “ of lift . Input?

 

A heavier shock with bigger diameter will likely combat this more than the mini-resi 5160. So I'm voting 6112, buy once, cry once.

The TRD sports suck at trucking, so even a 4600 would likely fix this issue.

I'm going through the "lite" version of this with my add-a-leaf and I'm deciding between a 4600 or 5100 haha

 

Thanks- so 6112 all the way around, no need for AAL correct, since I have airbags?

 

I put firestones and daystars on my 2nd gen on the stock suspension and the stock rear leaf's didn't do anything to help the airbags out. Ride was constantly rough unless I had my rack, tent, and all my gear loaded down. I got to the point where stock leaf's were sitting on the bags even at 5 PSI. I would have to deflate them completely (pushed all the way up, negative PSI) to get my ride quality when not loaded.

Once I did my lift I went Icon leaf's (paired with B110's) to get some lift and now I the ride is much better. I am not bottoming out the air bags ever. Stock leaf's don't give a lot of distance between 5psi and the daystars. I know 3rd gens sit a bit higher but I would bet you are still sitting on the bags at 5psi?

 

Thanks AStinkyBumb - your summary is close to what I am experiencing. I'll check out your build page .

 

Stock suspension? If so, in my experience try ditching the day stars.
For me they limited up travel because of the height of the cradle and without a lift provided little to no benefit as the airbag didn’t really restrict droop.

Getting rid of the cradles was an improvement for me, but with airbag acting as bump stop the sweet spot of the right air pressure was so narrow when unloaded that most of the time I was just getting a s&#t ride. Ultimately I ditched the bags because of this and got a leaf pack and a lift which has been vastly better.

I know some folks have great experience with air bags, but I can’t imagine ever running them again.

 

Yup like samsquanch said the daystars are about an inch thick which raises the contact point of the airbag up an inch so up travel will be limited by 1 inch. On my second gen that 5psi suggestion from firestone had the airbags already contacting the daystars. If I didn't have the daystars they would have been stretched a bit allowing the leaf's and shocks to dampen up travel a bit making the ride less harsh.

if you are just daily driving there isnt much risk to the airbags if you compress them most of the way up so they pull air instead of push out air when you open the valve. the biggest risk is sand getting between the ripples and rubbing over time. They should still keep enough air to act as a bump stop but not transfer all the compression into the body of the truck. thats what I did at least, until I had a rear lift to get the bags off the cradles.


NOW i hear the metal underside of the bags smacking the cradles when i forget to deflate them because they are just far enough off the cradles when inflated that up travel over big bumps clacks them together. trade one issue for another

 

That sounds about right- the bags seem to have caused a loss of travel. Illl see what I can do. I assume if you remove the cradles, then you have to install the bottom of the bags to the frame as per instructions?

 

Yeah, you should install the fasteners at the bottom of the bag per the instructions to ensure they stay in place. I had minimal impact on suspension sag doing so, hopefully your experience is the same!

 

You are bottoming out on the bags, which is not a good thing. Installing the bags, you had to cut off the factory bump stops.

If you can find a set of these, it will be a huge help:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...lip-daystar-cradle-bump-stop-sold-out.638699/
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...lip-daystar-cradle-bump-stop-sold-out.638686/

Or just get the correct leaf spring pack, Deavers are awesome! And pair with correct rear dampers. You will still need to add aftermarket bump stops, so pair them with U-bolt flip plates.