The War Wagon: A 2005 Toyota Tundra AC's transformation to Overlanding Rig

[CrewServed]

Firestone Air Helper Springs

I mentioned in an earlier post that the back end of the truck was drooping pretty low and that I bottomed out on the jounce stops a bunch while I was pounding around in the Mojave a few weeks ago. I resolved to fix that problem, and concluded that a set of air helper springs was the answer for my situation. It's already been said, but in case someone stumbles on this post by searching teh googlez or the forum for "air springs," "air helper," or "air bag suspension," then this is the quick installation post on it.

Following the instructions included with the Firestone Ride-Rite air helper springs, I jacked the back end of the truck up and put a jackstand beneath the axle. I eventually had to put the jack under the frame and lift that up to get enough clearance to do my work.

Here, I am dry-fitting the new air bag next to the jounce stop bracket. The instructions called for 1/2" of clearance between the lowest part of the frame rail and the horizontal portion of the upper spring bracket. There's a piece of metal strapping included in the kit that can be "borrowed" for this purpose.

I used a center punch to mark my hole locations and then used a unibit "step bit" to drill out the 5/8" holes. I would have used one of my regular drill bits, but I sort of ruined all of them on a previous project. Be careful drilling this part of the frame rail on the driver side - there are a bunch of lines hidden inside (brake lines, I think?), and you don't want to suddenly increase the cost of your project.

In the picture below, the Daystar air bag cradle is sitting all cock-eyed because I installed them with the threaded portion of the mounting bolt going down instead of up. There's only enough clearance between the lower spring bracket and the leaf spring to fit the thickness of a bolt head, not a nut + excess threaded shaft.

I then cut and routed the supplied air lines through the frame rails and found a vertical spot near the rear bumper mounting point for the filler valves. I'm not sure if this is the final location, yet. The plate is 1/4" thick and there isn't much of the valve sticking out of it, so that makes it something of a pain to fill up with different air chucks and inflator valves.

 

[CrewServed]

Ah, and one other thing. I previously had a small Delta portable utility chest just sort of sitting in the truck bed to store my tools and recovery gear. It worked, but not well. I didn't bolt it down because it didn't feel like the solution. I wasn't looking for anything particularly fancy. Just something that bolts down, has a low profile, and isn't enormous, since my Thule Xsporter does gobble up a lot of bed rail.

I settled in on an inexpensive Kobalt aluminum jobbie.

I've put some effort into "de-blinging" the truck, so I hit it with a coat of primer and a couple of rattle cans of Rustoleum truck bed liner. The finish is nicely textured (looks like sand), even if it is thin and apt to scratch easily. I'm not looking for major durability, here. I just didn't want it to be shiny.

That's enough talk. Some pictures for you guys.

I just masked off the lock core. Everything else got sprayed to kingdom come.

Kind of a crappy picture, but I made a 'NO STEP' stencil for the civilian version of a dumba$$ Private.

It's only 12" deep, but again, these are the limitations of my particular setup, and I'm also not a contractor. This was just for basic tools and recovery kit.

 

[stclair]

Tundra is looking great man.

 

[character zero]

Nice work and thanks for the updates! Report back on those airbags!

 

[trailscape]

Nice work and thanks for the updates! Report back on those airbags!

Yeah, this is looking great. Interested in how those bags work for you. I'm trying to decide between calling up Alcan or going this route.

 

[toyotech]

Like that tool chest. Never knew they made them that short. Gonna have to check it out.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[CrewServed]

Firestone Ride Rites Are a Go!

Hey guys, thanks for the awesome compliments!

The airbags are fantastic. I've only subjected them to about 150 miles of on-highway use, and so far, I'm satisfied with the purchase. Installation, as I've already written, is simple and straightforward. If you've got an inclination for wrenching on things and putting holes in metal, then this is a no-brainer. I feel like I shouldn't have to say this, but RTFM before you start! It'll make a huge difference in the ease of the installation. Installing these airbags with one person is very doable. A second person isn't necessary, but could cut the install time down by handing stuff to you when things are out of your reach.

Ride quality and comfort are great. One of the interesting things about having slightly overloaded leafsprings is that the ride was nice and soft. I'd grown somewhat accustomed to the response differences between the front and rear suspensions, so installing these air helper springs had the effect of making the ride seem perceptively rough. That's a silly perception, though, because what had really happened is that my rear suspension once again feels like it did when it was stock and unladen. My tent, rack, and awning system over the bed weighs roughly 200 lbs., and it's remarkable how well the rear suspension is dealing with that constant load.

Another interesting effect of this rear suspension upgrade is accelerator response and perceived fuel economy. Previous to the installation, depressing the gas pedal would cause the rear to noticeably dip. The leafsprings were constantly at that magical point where it was enough to hold the rear up, but loaded enough to where they felt soft and mushy. Each press of the accelerator from a dead stop felt soft and unresponsive, akin to driving a worn-out old Cadillac. You mountain bikers in the crowd have been made physically aware that a soft rear suspension = lost drive energy, so that was a no-go. Now that the air bags are in and inflated to about 25 psi, the accelerator is snappy and responsive. Also, I've got at least 20 more miles than usual on this tank of gas so far. Results are not conclusive yet. We'll see how it does at the pump after I've done the math.

Braking feels more solid and stable than before. The unloading of the rear suspension on a hard braking maneuver would transfer a lot of weight and energy forward over a greater arc, and man, it felt hairy at times. Now, a spirited braking maneuver does what it used to do: Load the front suspension and stop the truck. The rear suspension no longer unloads, and it feels good. Turning is also much, much nicer. The loading and unloading of the outside rear springs and inside rear springs, respectively, is not as pronounced as it was before. Body and frame roll is subjectively reduced, and though I'm not drifting around corners 2 Fast 2 Furious style, it feels nice to have stable turns at higher speeds again. Lower speeds in turns requires more acceleration to reach driving speeds, which requires more fuel. That's gold, Jerry! Gold!

I choose to run the truck with about 25 psi in each of the air bags. I arrived at this by trial and error. I had initially filled up to 20 psi, but found that it was still a bit spongy. Then I bumped up to 30-35 psi, and found it to be too harsh of a ride. So I Goldilocksed that MFer and 25 psi is juuuuust right. Your results may vary depending on your load, but this pressure is great for unladen on-highway use for me. Oh, and when you're filling up your springs for the first time, PULSE THE INFLATOR. These fill up fast, and you can easily overshoot the 100 psi capacity of the bags if you zone out and let your eyes glaze over like they do when you're airing up to go back on the hardball.

In 100 more miles, I'll be inspecting the entire system. I'll post my findings then.

Thanks for reading, everyone, and I hope this has been helpful and useful to you all.

 

[huntsonora]

Right on! Great info as this is my next modification

 

[seanpistol]

Airbags are on my very near future list of things to get done. I'm real interested to hear more about the cradles and how those work for you, maybe with a handful of photos of them while articulated and those things. Let us know!

 

[Borrego60]

I have been thinking about the air bags too. With a 15 gal water tank and camping gear in the bed and 10gal of fuel and 19 gal of water on the horzion trailer plus the tounge weight the truck sags abit in the rear end. I also hit my bump stops more than a few times on the MR. Looks to be a simple and useful mod I might have to do. Beside it would get my head lights back where they are suppose to be at night, on the road and not on the road signs.

 

[CrewServed]

Airbags are on my very near future list of things to get done. I'm real interested to hear more about the cradles and how those work for you, maybe with a handful of photos of them while articulated and those things. Let us know!

When I do the 250 mile inspection of the fasteners and components, I'll take some photographs of the system at full spring droop. In the meantime, here's Daystar's video of the cradle in action on a trail.

LINK

 

[Borrego60]

What made you go with the Drill the hole model, instead of the just bolt on?

 

[CrewServed]

What made you go with the Drill the hole model, instead of the just bolt on?

This is the only Firestone Ride-Rite kit for Gen 1 Tundras that I found. If I'd found a no-drill option, I'd have taken that, but no dice.

 

[seanpistol]

The Air Lift bags also require drilling of the frame. http://wheelersoffroad.com/product/air-lift-317925/air-lift-air-spring-kit-59530-for-99-06-tundra/

 

[SBSYNCRO]

Hey guys, first post on Expeditionportal. SOOOO stoked to find a thread about prepping 1Gen Tundras for actual expeditions! (Found this thread via Google search). I've got a 2005 with 78,000 miles on it that I'm in the process of converting to Baja Duty. I've been an on and off poster at tundra solutions for years (under the same username). The reason for the username? I also used to have a VW Syncro Westy (like stclair) and now that my kids are all grown up, its time to start going back to Baja! The problem is I sold (like an idiot) the Westy back in 2005 because there were no shoulder belts in the back for the kids.

Oh well... Love the Tundra - just finished a big stereo upgrade and some suspension work. After seeing the price of a new truck, I decided to just invest in this one and keep her for another 10 years. Still on the list are second battery, some way to make use of the BRAND NEW XD9000i winch I've had sitting in the garage for 15 years, and a TireGate HG for carrying the second spare and jerry cans + High Lift Jack.

I'll start another thread for my self rather than jack this one, but just wanted to shout out and say how much I enjoyed reading this build thread. I'm taking a similar approach, but using a fiberglass shell on the back, to which I plan to attach a Yakima rack for kayaks/surf boards.

-Brent