[cyclegrrrl]

I just got back from talking to the co-owner of the largest truck camper dealership on the northeast. He has been selling only truck campers for more than 20 years here in New Hampshire. I was assured that the tundra, when properly equipped with air bags and light truck tires, can handle the lance 815 camper that weighs basically 1,800 lbs. dry. He has been putting them on tundras and has yet to see any issues with it - except that the superspring brand helpers do not work with this type of heavy load and are being swapped out by tundra owners for air bags. Supersprings bottom out on tundras carrying campers, he said, and offered to sell me one of the four used sets had. Instead he recommended firestone air bags as well as torklift tie downs.

To double check the info, I went to talk to my friend who is a service manager at a toyo dealership and has done lots of off-road mods to his 08 tundra. he said yes you'll be over the rating, but there should not be any problem with it as long as i add the air bags and beef up the tires. In addition, i have the trd package with gives me stiffer shock and beefier coils as well as the tow package that gives me the bigger 10.5 differiential (the same size ford f150 get for their increased payload package)...

Anyway, I'm going ahead convinced that I will have the same luck with the tundra as I did with my 97 tacoma which I drove more than 10 years over thousands of miles carrying a slide in camper with a dry weight of 1,400 lbs... loaded with fuilds and cargo I am sure I was in the 1,800 lb range... and I took it mostly off-road through really rough areas for camping.

So bean counters we'll find out if this combo works as well on the tundra as it did on the tacoma.