Rear air bags off road questions.

Hello everyone, looking for some advice. I have a 2008 access cab. I am into long overland travel trips. I get into all sorts of off the beaten track places. I have a camper with slide outs built in the rear under a high top cap. I carry a lot of gear in there and a couple sea kayaks on the roof racks. I am interested in installing a set of airbags in the rear to help with the extra weight of all the gear and a steel rear bumper I am in the process of building. My question is, will the air bags impact the off-road capabilities of my truck? I have 2" lift blocks in the rear, other than that it has the stock suspension.

Any help or ideas would be seriously appreciated!

 

Look into daystar cradles if you go with bags. Or better yet a new leaf pack. Replace your worn out leafs and blocks with new leafs

 

I had my leafs re-arched and added a leaf 3 years ago and it's been good. It seems the k.i.s.s. theory has worked best for me but I could be wrong

 

@Overlanerd

 

I've had Firestone Ride Rite airbags for years and love them. The Daystar cradles are the key if you off road. I recently upgraded to OME Dakar springs and kept the air bags - I didn't need the OME AAL, it's overkill with the airbags. My truck is heavy and I tow and haul more weight than a Tacoma should on a regular basis.

 

The Firestone Ride-rite kit did just fine without cradles for the 5 years I had it on mine with stock suspension, no troubles off road without a load and low pressure or with a load and sometimes over 30 psi the bags with a load. "Off road" was very rough roads and cross ditches / waterbars enough to drag bumpers on at times, some angled to flex the suspension right out. If you lift with leaf packs, and use shocks with longer extended length, then do use cradles. Stock height or lifted with blocks, they are fine without cradles. You will need to modify the lower bracket to work with lift blocks though.

 

I also had bags and Dakars for a little while. The problem with the Daystar cradles is this. When you go over a bump, The bags lift out of the cradle and come back down with a thud.

I removed them prior to hitting any trails. Speed bumps were bad enough. I didn't even want to try them off road.

 

My experience has been to remove my lift blocks and add an add-a-leaf to restore some rear height but also add some clearance for the airbag so it's not being a bumpstop before it needs to be.

Additionally, I used a "T" fitting to connect both bags so under articulation, they can pass the air back and forth. Some folks disagree with this method but it works for me better with my camping gear when on the trail.

I tried and removed the cradles. In my opinion, they took up too much compression travel. My bags are only secured at the top. On the bottom mounting plate I put rubber roofing material to dampen contact, provide a no slip surface and this has worked well for 86,000 miles.

 

No experience with airbags on a Tacoma, I just want to see this camper with slide-outs on a Tacoma please.

 

Me too! Never heard of a mini-truck camper with slide-outs!

 

Okay, thanks for all the replies. I was not wanting to replace the springs as the ones I have are in really good condition and I don't want any more of a lift or stiffer ride when I'm running the truck "light". I have come to the conclusion that I will try the bags without the cradles first and test the articulation once installed. Being the stock distance between the axle tubes and frame rails all should be good.

Likely the most difficult obstacle I will cross will be a ditch or ledge.

As far as the "camper with slide outs", I guess that sounds a bit misleading. Homemade bed platform built within hightop truck cap and pull-out drawers underneath is a better description.

 

Good way to tear an air bag. Ask me how I know.

If you go off pavement at all, install the cradles.