How much weight with stock suspension?

[Oncewaspfd]

Bought a 2018 4runner Off Road last fall. I'd like to start the build soon. I want to start with full skid plates, hybrid front bumper and winch. Will the stock suspension work? I plan on replacing the suspension, wheels and tires, but not till next year due to finances.

 

[skrypj]

Im sure it would work but you will likely get a little nose diving and what not with the winch hanging off the front.

 

[alanymarce]

I guess it depends somewhat on what you're going to do with it, however I agree that it would work. You could drive around the world with standard suspension with no problems.

 

[DaveInDenver]

It'll probably sit a bit lower and nose dive with the bumper and winch. There's no harm in trying it, there's always someone willing to take more of your money if it squats or wallows more than you want. I found a higher spring rate necessary but Toyota put pretty soft progressive rate springs on TRD Tacomas.

 

[billiebob]

Bumper, winch and skid plates should be fine, You might want to lift/level the front if the winch weighs it down butif you plan on a lift/tires next year might as well just do it once.

More often issue will be other overlanding mods like a rack, RTT, cooler, recovery gear, food and clothing. But most of that will be on the rear axle.

 

[Oncewaspfd]

I live in Michigan and don't plan on anything more than gravel and forest roads this year. Could replacing the front springs help to level it and stop the nose dive? Would it be worth doing this?

 

[bkg]

Not trying to sound... rude... but I couldn't imagine putting that much weight on the stock front springs...

 

[tacollie]

You can do it. It will handle and ride different. We have a friend that did front and rear bumper, sliders, roof rack, rtt, fridge, and winch on his stock suspension. He drove it for almost a year before he did suspension.

 

[4000lbsOfGoat]

My 2 cents: suspension is the core of your rig - it is what takes abuse every single mile you drive. Everyone has budget constraints and has to prioritize upgrades but I believe that suspension should always come first. Give the rig the knees you know it's going to need before you start loading it up with other gear. I'm sure you could throw all that weight on the stock suspension but you won't be happy with the way it handles, especially at speed and on poorly-maintained dirt.

If you "don't plan on anything more than gravel and forest roads" for now then why would you need a full set of skids and a winch to start with? In those scenarios you will get much more enjoyment out of your rig if you do the suspension first. Suspension often seems like an afterthought to many people and usually just with an eye towards getting some "lift" to fit bigger tires. In reality, well thought-out suspension upgrades can completely change the character of a rig (for the better) and make the overall driving experience much more pleasant - along with providing a solid base for more upgrades.

 

[direwolf82]

I'll throw my 2 cents in.
I'm going to do all my upgrades, skids, winch, sliders, bumpers front and back and all that stuff before I do suspension.
That way I can weigh everything before it goes on, talk to the suspension gurus at wherever you getting your stuff from and they can figure out what will be best for you and your application.
If you do suspension now you'll just be redoing the springs when you get everything on it, or like some people do you'll be changing springs everytime you add more weight.
I personally think people that do suspension first are doing it the hard way, I'd rather do the work once and then go enjoy it without having the thought of I'll have to redo everything again at some point in the near future.
I'll just be aware of the fact it's not like driving a sports car, it will nose dive and wallow in the corners more and drive accordingly.
People may say it's not safe or whatever, just drive it like it's a truck, as in slow down for curves and leave space in front of you and you'll be fine.

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk

 

[Porkchopexpress]

I have a 2018 4runner and when it was stock, the nose dive under emergency braking was borderline scary, (I have Bilstein 6112 & 5160 shocks now). I think with more weight in the nose I might have lost control.

 

[Timroo]

Not a 4runner, but my 2019 Tacoma TRD OR with stock Bilsteins didn’t love having a hidden winch mount/winch on it. It wasn’t terrible for normal driving at all, but as soon as I got onto rough dirt with any undulation there was more excess movement than I would’ve liked. I had planned on new coilovers anyways, but I wanted to see how it handled. I went with Eibach coilovers with a higher spring rate and was very pleased. Now when I’m off road I can’t even tell there is any extra weight up front. I went with ARB skids (steel, but only 90 lbs for the set) and couldn’t tell any difference when I put those on after my coilovers and leafs in the rear. Good luck!

 

[Old Tanker]

I have an LFD Hybrid bumper and a 10K winch with synthetic line on a stock KDSS ORP suspension. No nose diving. If I look for it, I can see that it rides a little lower in front. I'll wait and do the lift next spring after I decide what to do with the rear end.

 

[KTempleton]

People have been adding bumpers and winches to these things stock for 20+ years. I agree, full skids is probably overkill until you beat the hell out of the stock ones and you'll want sliders before that. Self recovery is never a bad thing. Accidents happen on forest roads too. Sure suspension is important for handling load, but if you did suspension first and went stiffer planning for the weight, you could rattle every damn interior nut loose.
These things are super capable stock. Everyone is so fast to upgrade these things these days before it's necessary

 

[4000lbsOfGoat]

Everyone is so fast to upgrade these things these days before it's necessary

You can call it "upgrading" or you can call it "installing something closer to the suspension that Toyota might offer if they thought they could sell the vehicle for $50-60k"...Sure, Toyota rigs are well-built but they are built with total cost in mind and built to handle the middle-of-the-road user. I imagine that if their engineers were not limited by cost these things would be available with the kind of suspensions that we heavy-users "upgrade so fast" to.

The "high-end" OR and PRO suspensions - a few hundred dollars worth of slightly better shocks - are really the cheapest thing they can get away with calling an "extra" and don't really add much...