lowering and towing?

n2oiroc · #1 (**permalink**) 01-17-2006, 02:23 AM

i want to lower my 06 tundra double cab 4x4. probably a s.o.s. 1.5" front and 3" rear. i will be towing a total of 4,000 lbs in the winter and am concerned about the rear sagging or bottoming out. what is the best way to lower it without problems? am i stuck with just 2" shackles? also any pics of lowered trucks would be appreciated! thanks!

sprj8008 · #2 (**permalink**) 01-17-2006, 09:17 AM

You're going to spend a lot of time on the bump stops if you lower and tow 4000 pounds. Even a weight distributing hitch isn't going to get you where you should be. If you have to do this, look at the SOS 5 link and airbags. At least then you can adjust for the added weight. It'll likely ride poorly with the trailer on either way.

n2oiroc · #3 (**permalink**) 01-17-2006, 10:49 AM

thats a bit farther than i wanted to go. could i just throw a set of helper airbags on? isnt that what dueceswild did?

sprj8008 · #4 (**permalink**) 01-17-2006, 12:09 PM

There's lots of ways to lower the truck and others to tow, but I fear there's not much way to do both. If you run shackles you effectively limit the travel between the bump stop and the axle. If you have 4, and you take away 2 your shocks need to fully damp the suspension travel in 2 inches. This is unloaded. I've done this and found the stock shocks are no where near stiff enough to manage the truck's rear except on the highway. Even some of the Alberta highways cause bottoming unloaded with the lower shackles.

I considered running the shackles and airbags in my truck to run stock height without the trailer and be able to control the hide height once the trailer was installed. I own the shackles, but the truck rides so poorly with the in, I run stock.

If you install the shackles (I have some in the garage I'll sell you for $20 plus shipping. I've also got some coil springs ($20) you can play with if you like.) and remove the bumpstops, you should have enough shock to run comfortably, unloaded on most roads. If you install airbags with this setup you'll be slightly lower than stock if my guess is right. You will be susceptible to bottoming out really hard if the axle hits the frame.

With my 4000lb 5th wheel on the truck, I'm slighly below level with some camping crap in the box. I'd be on the bumpstops with the shackles installed. If you had bags you might be able to correct this, but unloaded you still have to keep some air in the bags which may not give you the ride you want.

I bought the springs and shackles to lower the truck a little. I liked having 2" lower front as the steering was more responsive, but I was too close to the bumpstops. The truck looks good 2" lower. If you changed out the shocks to somethign stiffer, you may be able to deal with the shorter suspension travel. It's not expensive to play with, but having gone through it, towing is a challenge.

The other hand, the shackles take 10 minutes to remove if you need to put the trailer on.