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I do A LOT of towing in the summer and quite a bit of firewood hauling in the winter with my 1999 Tacoma SR5 4x4. I have searched google regarding the Firestone Ride Rite air assist springs but wanted to know if any of you with a 95-04 Tacoma have used them and what your thoughts are. A lot of the info I was finding was from 2010-newer Tacomas but the owners highly praised the ride rites.
In the summer, just hooking my trailer up sags the rear a decent amount, once my gear is loaded its not on the stops but it doesn't take much of a bump for the stops to hit.
In the winter I haul firewood out of the forest and take it home. You all know the beds in our trucks are not that big and I cringe at loading it 3/4 full of firewood because I am hitting the stops just slowing making my way out of the forest, much less doing 40 down the road.
Would the Ride Rites really make it to where I can load the bed full of firewood and level the truck out?
If I only towed and hauled once in a blue moon I would just accept the stock setup but that is not the case. I have had enough of the sagging.
I cant help in the Ride Rite but on my camper I have a Load Leveler on my 2000 runner and camper. It has a bar on each side and will level the trailer with the runner. It also comes with an Anti-Sway bar. If you are pulling heavy loads, trailer brakes are an excellent investment. When everything is hooked up, it makes pulling a trailer a breeze.
The Ride-Rite may be what you are looking for what you are wanting but I have not heard of it or seen one. I would be interested in seeing what you make out on it.
They aren't cheap...but from what I hear they're good. The firestone, especially the double convoluted, are what pretty much every Toyota RV owner with airbags is using.
I have no personal experience with them, but have been hearing about them for long enough that I know they're what I'm going to buy when I buy airbags. I have a 98 Tacoma and plan to tow with it.
They absolutely work, and anyone I know who regularly tows or has a slide-in camper for their Toyota has some kind of airbags, if not the expensive firestone ones.
Thank you both for the responses. I think I am about ready to pull the plug on a set of firestones.
Do I want to spend over $300 on a set? No. But at this point I have to either do this and keep the Tacoma, or sell it and buy a Dodge, GMC, Chevy, or Ford in the 3/4 ton range. I love the Tacoma and the only other real option would be a Dodge Cummins with the 5.9 diesel because those are about the only ones you can find with a manual transmission, And that option is vague at best as the cummins engine is great but from what I have seen of Dodge trucks they are a mess.
I think putting Firestones on the Tacoma is my best option. The 5VZ-FE has a bit over 275K miles and runs like a top, uses no oil between changes or coolant so I expect her to chug away for quite some time although a recent compression test showed lower numbers than I "expected" to see, I guess the good thing is they were all within 15psi of each other.
I am going to sit on this for a bit longer and "think" but I think I know what I have to do.
If I do get them, I will report back what I think after using them with a load and without so that it may help someone else in there decision making process in the future.
Well because I typically get a little extra cash this time of year and you brought it up, I'm going to go ahead and buy them now. This is the best time of year for me these days, so why not.
The load leveler stuff he's talking about, I'm pretty sure, are the anti-sway bars that you can use as part of the hitch connection. Like these.
That doesn't mean they aren't something you want, and they do help a bit with transferring some of the trailer weight off the rear suspension of the truck, but they aren't what you're looking for, really, for this particular problem.
Terry, do you happen to have a link to the setup you have? I would like to take a look at that as well.
I can get a picture of it later today as the wife has the truck that has the setup. I don't have it attached to my camper at this time but I can set it up where it is a little easier to understand. I will try and get it posted up later tonight for you. Well worth the investment and so much safer.
Well because I typically get a little extra cash this time of year and you brought it up, I'm going to go ahead and buy them now. This is the best time of year for me these days, so why not.
The load leveler stuff he's talking about, I'm pretty sure, are the anti-sway bars that you can use as part of the hitch connection. Like these.
That doesn't mean they aren't something you want, and they do help a bit with transferring some of the trailer weight off the rear suspension of the truck, but they aren't what you're looking for, really, for this particular problem.
I am right there with you. Looks like I am going to order the Firestones. Where are you ordering? The best price I have found for my 1999 is from SD Truck Springs for $319.19 shipped.
I found that exact price at truckspring.com, so that's cool. Firestone is saying that I need a spacer kit along with the air bags...it's for vehicles with up to a 2" lift, and I guess for any 4x4 with the TRD package they say you need the kit.
I didn't realize TRD trucks were actually higher...Crappy thing is that it's another $70 for just a couple chunks of metal and some screws...
Oh well. If you don't have a TRD, you don't need to worry about it.
The Anti Sway bar is what I am pointing at. The rusty piece on the far end and the two black pieces go on each side of the trailer tongue. You only need the sway bar on one side or the other.
With the black round bars, (one is installed, one is not for picture purposes) and the two black pieces with the chains on them are mounted to the trailer. With a cheater bar, and with each link, is how much you want to level the truck and trailer. You can sit it level or even with the rear of the truck higher then normal. Another option that is well worth the money is to get electric trailer brakes installed on your truck. Some trailers may or may not have trailer brakes installed on them.
You can adjust the setting of the brakes with a slide dial inside the truck. With brakes applied but just activating the brake lights but not the pads, will determine how much you apply the trailer brakes. I find a side road or parking lot and get mine to how I want them. Once you get them where you want, you can stop and really no longer worry about the trailer being behind you. Literally it is like stopping without a trailer attached.
I pull my parts off if the trailers during the winter so to prevent them from rusting up. You only need the lift assembly and the rusty piece for each trailer you have. I also only use this assembly when pulling heavy trailers and have a normal hitch for light trailers.
People will pull out ahead of you if they see you pulling a trailer and don't want to get caught behind you. Hitting the brakes and not being bossed around by your trailer is one less worry. If you are doing a lot of heavy pulling, the Anti Sway bar, Load Leveler, Electric brakes on the truck and trailer is well worth the investment. Other things to consider are trailer towing mirrors and tranny cooler. Don't use Overdrive when pulling a trailer, it will burn a transmission up.
Just putting this out for others that may not have trailer pulling experience, if it is 5 pounds or 5000 pounds, most of the weight has to be forward of the axles. More weight behind the axles will start the trailer to wig wag going down the highway. Lower speeds normally wont cause an issue but as the faster you go, the more dramatic the wig wag will become. It will be the tail wagging the dog.
Thank you for the pictures and explanation of how that works. Looks very interesting. What I am going to do for now since I both pull a trailer and haul pretty heavy in the bed at times without a trailer is go with the FireStone Ride Rites. This way my rear suspension sag issue will be resolved if I don't have the trailer hooked up. With the trailer hooked up if I still feel I need more I will look into what you have showed here.
And yes, you are correct on electric trailer brakes. I used to work for a company where we pulled a decent size enclosed trailer with masonry items, so the trailer on a normal day was HEAVY. We pulled that with a Ford Van with a Triton V8. I believe it was an E350. The owner had NO brakes on the trailer.
He was a cheap cheap guy. Me and the other guy that normally drove the setup finally told him he had to do something. It was downright scary. He finally had electric brakes installed and...well....WOW! It was no longer an issue and was actually NICE to drive.
83, ok cool, so it looks like the 319.19 is the price to go with. I seen the same kit on ebay for like 390.00. That stinks you have to spend an additional $70.00 for the spacers. I just have a base SR5 4x4 so if it is only for TRD packages I won't need it thankfully.
I've been looking more and more into towing, and yeah, I read about weight placement. I would have, before, put more weight towards the back, so that the weight was off the back of my truck. But I've since learned that's a bad thing. Lots to learn about towing...
I'm waiting until I see what kind of camper trailer I buy before I do too much more. The weight will make a huge difference, obviously, on what I get as far as anti-sway bars, trailer brakes and all that. But I know I want the airbags.
Yeah that was the best price I found. Was hoping there would be some Cyber Monday sales but no...Oh well.
One review of the ride rites shows a guy in a regular cab, maybe 2000 Tacoma with a hot tub in the back of his truck. No sag at all.
I think my truck could probably use new leaf springs, but...I'd still want the air bags for towing or heavy hauling. This will be slightly cheaper, and a MUCH easier install than new leafs, and will hopefully take the extra stress off the leaf springs and I'll be able to put off that job for a few more years.
Let me know how your install goes. I'm in no rush; just need to get it done by March. But probably if I see a day or two of weather in the 40s or higher, I'll get after it. No garage this winter, unfortunately. I'd love to get the onboard air compressor and be able to adjust the ride from right inside the cab of the truck...but that seems a little excessive for me right now
Well hopefully the Airbags do us both well. I will tell you from towing experience with my 99 that its not working without something and I think these will totally fix the issue.
I saw a picture of a guy with a newer tacoma that had a pile of rock in the back of his truck, also no sag. He was over weight capacity he said and said that braking was not fun, also said he did not recommend doing that but showed the firestones doing there thing.
I to probably need new leafs but I was thinking the same thing in that I was hoping the firestones would buy me time on that.
And yeah, I found zero cyber monday deals on these. Sucks.
and sent back the 2" firestone spacers. Something to think about if you haven't already installed yours.
Just be aware that Firestone specifically cautions against using these. They say you need to have the bags attached at both ends. But there are people who have been using the cradles or something similar for years with no issues, according to them.
I don't do much true wheeling these days, but I definitely like to get down some roads in the desert and mountains that require articulation, and will have the truck on a lift here and there, I'm sure.
83, thank you for the info. I still have not ordered my Ride Rites yet. I have decided to hold off until after Christmas. With the warm temps we have had this winter so far, dealing with firewood has been pretty much non existent and I don't tow much during the winter so i am holding off for a while.
Air compressor? Nope. You just fill them to the pressure you want, and you're done. Firestone sells a kit with a compressor and controls so you can inflate and deflate them from inside the cab of the truck, but the basic kit just comes with regular valves, meant to be installed around the license plate. And yeah, you can pump them up with a little bicycle hand pump.
Yep, these trucks aren't full size, that's for sure. But the rear suspension seems to be pretty weak, and if you want to use them like a work truck, they seem to need some beefing up. Or if you even want to run a camper shell without getting flat springs...I may do an add-a-leaf at some point, too, but for now this'll do.
Got mine installed this afternoon. I'll post photos at some point. Went really smooth. I was worried that the Daystar cradles wouldn't fit my truck, since on their site they say they "fit most full size trucks", and all the people in the link I posted have post-95 Tacomas...but they fit just fine.
These things give my truck way more lift than I was expecting. I'll measure and post photos, but I think the max psi is 100. We pumped them up to around 60 just to check it out. At 20 it's noticeably jacked up. At 60 it had at least 4" of lift.
I need to buy an accurate gauge especially for low-psi readings. Most gauges I've used since installing this don't start reading at all until about 10psi, and probably aren't accurate till around 20 or so. Seeing as I start getting lift with any amount of psi at all, I want to keep them as low as possible for normal use; around 5psi. So I'm getting a good quality pressure gauge, plus a nice small floor pump I can travel around with.
11-29-2015, 06:41 PM
