Sequoia Shocks for Towing Duty?

[Geodude]

Hi All. I'm thinking of replacing the shocks on my Sequoia to get something a bit firmer for towing duty. I want to have a bit less sag as well as tighten up the way the rear-end handles while towing. I'm just trying to sort out what shocks I should be looking at, that would fit the Sequoia.

Alternatively, would airbags do the trick?

Thanks for any advice.

[RockyMtnRay]

Originally Posted by Geodude

Hi All. I'm thinking of replacing the shocks on my Sequoia to get something a bit firmer for towing duty. I want to have a bit less sag as well as tighten up the way the rear-end handles while towing. I'm just trying to sort out what shocks I should be looking at, that would fit the Sequoia.

Alternatively, would airbags do the trick?

Thanks for any advice.

You should be handling any rear sag with a correctly adjusted WDH, not shocks, not airbags. If a WDH is correctly adjusted, the front and rear of the tow vehicle should have an equal drop after the trailer is hooked up.

The problem you are likely experiencing is the gradual decrease in your OEM shock's damping after thousands of miles, especially after thousands of miles of towing. If you have the stock (non-TRD) suspension, this is especially likely to be the case as the Tokico shocks in the non-TRD suspensions were not all that great when new.

I personally would suggest a set of high-end, gas pressurized shocks (e.g. Bilstein) that have valving that's suspension frequency dependent...that is they rapidly dampen out the big amplitude, low frequency oscillations in the suspension while mostly allowing the suspension to react to the very high frequency, low amplitude road irregularities. Plus the high end shocks have components that last for 50K miles or more before damping deterioration is noticeable.

My truck has the TRD Off Road suspension (Bilstein shocks) and it has excellent rear end manners when towing even with around 26K miles on the shocks.

Warning: if you add air bags (or helper springs like RAS), then you've increased the spring rate of your suspension. Unless you do a corresponding increase to the damping rate of your shocks (both the compression and extension rates...which are often different), then you'll lose much of the tuning engineering done by the factory engineers. For good handling and ride, the shock rate and spring rate must be kept matched via suspension tuning methods.

[Geodude]

Thanks Ray, much appreciated.

I've had to turn up the WD lately so there's some age showing on the truck's suspension. I spoke to Andy Thomson at Can-Am RV in London, and he has suggested Monroe shocks. Local places are telling me the Monroe Reflex shocks are good for towing.

[tomhole]

Originally Posted by Geodude

I spoke to Andy Thomson at Can-Am RV in London, and he has suggested Monroe shocks.

He's the guy that pulls a 33' triple axle Airstream with a Jaguar S type.



Not that he doesn't have the expertise to make that happen, but he has a lot of folks on the internet convinced that a stock mini-van can tow the same thing. And that a minivan is safer for towing than a truck.

While I cannot speculate as to the safety of his custom setups, I do take issue with the confusion it creates amongst the lay puller. He provides the justification they so seek in order to tow beyond the specified limits. Not a big fan of that.

Anyway, if I were putting on new shocks for towing, it would be the Rancho RX9000 adjustable shocks.

Tom

[sequoiasoon]

Originally Posted by Geodude

Thanks Ray, much appreciated.

I've had to turn up the WD lately so there's some age showing on the truck's suspension. I spoke to Andy Thomson at Can-Am RV in London, and he has suggested Monroe shocks. Local places are telling me the Monroe Reflex shocks are good for towing.

Do a search on some of my posts regarding the rear load leveling option on the '03's. I posted part numbers on the shocks. It has internal valving to help increase the ride height based on pressure differential. I checked it with a couple heavy loads in the utility trailer (no WDH) and it did bring the height up. Member STARGAZER had the whole description on his website on how it works. I can send it to you if interested (I have the manual on CD at home). It is a totally self contained setup unique to the shock/spring itself. Truck rides as good as other Sequoia's I've been in even when loaded down. Last trip was 6 people with ski equipment and clothing etc for a long weekend.

link with links:
http://www.tundrasolutions.com/forum...ding-leveling/