2021 OR 4x4 Access Cab Taco Suspension

[duny86]

Waiting for my ovrlnd camper, so while I do that I've been trying to figure out what I'll need to do to my suspension to support the bed weight of my build.
This is my daily driver and will see mostly road miles. On the weekends I'll be going on 4x4 roads mostly for accessing trailheads, campsites, etc.
I'm pretty novice about suspension but have been doing a ton of reading and wanted to put my plan here to see if anyone sees anything egregious with it.
I generally like to buy something once and have it last a really long time.

With a constant bed weight of ~680 lbs I was thinking of going with Deaver's Stage III Expedition leaf springs to support the weight, then pairing the leaf springs with Bilstein 6112 + 5160.
I think I would also need to buy extended brake lines.

And I think that's about it? I've read somewhere, someone suggested a taller bump stop because the 5160's don't compress as much as the stock ones? Not super sure on that one.
Anything else?

 

[4000lbsOfGoat]

Congrats on the new camper!

Do you plan to have the camper installed full-time? If not then I would suggest an adjustable shock.

With that kind of weight on the back I would also suggest hydraulic bump stops. They are the cats' nuts with heavy load.

I think I would also need to buy extended brake lines.

I've got Icon RXT springs on my 2018 OR which give about 2.5 inches of lift and it's fine with the factory brake lines.

I generally like to buy something once and have it last a really long time.

I'm not sure about the specific Bilsteins you mentioned (I'm really not familiar with them) but if you want something that will last a really long time then make sure to get something that is fully rebuildable with standard parts.

Cheers!

 

[jasmtis]

I probably wouldn't go with resi shocks for your usage. Remote reservoirs add a lot of points of failure and added maintenance compared with non-resi shocks for performance that few people really use.

I would give Ironman Foam Cell Pros a look, IMO they make the best combination of price, durability and performance on and off the road. I have this kit with SPC upper control arms(they make a kit with their own UCAs as well). I don't have the Constant Load leafs like you would need with your setup, but the Performance Load is appropriate for my setup and they ride great. On the road is stiffer then stock, but in a good way. The truck feels much more planted and less floppy, especially in the corners. On forest roads like it sounds like your usage will mostly be they soak everything up, I can go twice as fast on forest roads and feel a quarter as much as I used to stock.

They are incredibly durable and rebuildable when the time comes(which will likely be a much longer time than with a resi shock). They're pretty new to the US market and not a well known name like Bilstein or Fox etc but they've been a mainstay in Australia for years and designed specifically for the sort of conditions you see while overlanding.

 

[4000lbsOfGoat]

While the Ironman stuff may well be decent quality, there is just no way that I could live with electric lime green springs and accents...

 

[jasmtis]

While the Ironman stuff may well be decent quality, there is just no way that I could live with electric lime green springs and accents...

I kinda like it, it appears a lot more subdued in person(even fresh, but especially now that there's some road grime) compared with their marketing materials but still adds a little splash of color. Pretty sure whoever edits their social media pics cranks up the saturation and lume on greens lol.

More importantly I couldn't live with rebuilding my shocks every >50k miles.

Honestly here's what sold me on the Ironmans specifically if we can talk about the substance and not the color. I use my truck very hard and was worried about aeration in your basic OME Nitrocharger or similar kit, so those were out as I'm a buy-once-cry-once believer. Compared with all the different resi options on the market the Foam Cells stuck out at me because :

1. Resis will need rebuilt pretty frequently if you use them hard. I have 90,000 miles on my 2018 with multiple thousands of miles a year a year off pavement so that could mean as much as yearly given my usage and I did not want to deal with that.
2. The foam charge makes it literally impossible to aerate the oil no matter how badly you manage to overheat them(you would have to work very, very hard to overheat them to the point the foam breaks down). If there's no gas in the shock it can't mix with boiled oil. Plus, they are still rebuildable if and when any of the seals fail, which again should be a very, very long way down the road as the foam charge means that the shock isn't under pressure like a gas shock.
3. Because of the sheer size of them and the fact that the foam charge is more compact than gas they actually have as much oil capacity as most resis. While resis theoretically dissipate heat better because of the increased surface area that the oil can flow through, they are really most effective for racing applications where the shocks are constantly running through the whole stroke. In most overland and off road travel the shocks are not often being stroked enough to force the oil into the reservoirs so more capacity within the body itself will actually dissipate heat better.

I don't have any affiliation with Ironman, I'm just an engineer who did his homework.

 

[4000lbsOfGoat]

We could debate the pros and cons of different shocks all day but it might not matter much since OP seems to be AWOL...no point shouting into the wind!