Before I bought my slide-in, pop-up Four Wheel Camper Swift, before I even knew what kind of camper I was going to buy, I knew one thing was true: my 2020 Toyota Tacoma wouldn’t support the load of it safely without suspension upgrades.
I’m writing and sharing this post with the intention of helping you navigate the intimidating world of truck suspension upgrades, as many blogs before this one helped me. Also, to add a female voice to an arena mostly populated by men.
🎧 I also created a podcast episode about my journey of buying my truck camper, including why I bought it, how I decided on the FWC Swift, lessons I’ve learned along the way and more, which you can listen to here (or anywhere you listen to podcasts!):
You might need to hear this part too – I came into this camper buying decision knowing NOTHING about suspension, payload, tire ratings, air compressors… nothing. But I knew that if I wanted to truly understand what I was getting myself into, I would need to actually LEARN about these things, not just trust that some Joe Shmoe from the off road shop had my best interests in mind when trying to sell me things.
So… where to begin?
With research. LOTS of research.
Save this for later: I also researched the heck out of bike racks – and this is what I decided is the best bike rack for a Tacoma with a camper.
Toyota Tacoma Payload
Here’s what’s important: you need to understand your truck’s payload capacity and why it matters. In short – payload is how much weight of extra gear AND people your vehicle can carry, on top of its natural weight.
My 2020 Toyota Tacoma has a payload capacity of a whopping 945 lbs. That’s nothing, and I don’t even understand why Toyota would create a truck (which is built for hauling cargo) with such a low payload capacity. Alas, they’ve done it, we’ve bought it, and now we need to figure out how to work with it. Note: The 2024 Tacoma is set to have a higher payload, but that doesn’t help those of us with older trucks.
Here are some of the very helpful links that taught me about payload capacity and why it’s important:
- How to Raise the Payload Rating of Your Truck (spoiler alert – you can’t, but this is a fabulously educational post)
- Taking the CAT Scale Truck Camper Challenge
- Tacoma World FWC Thread (this one has all sorts of goodies)
- Wander the West Tacoma FWC Thread
- Do I really need E rated tires? (great for understanding the load on your tires)
Here is a summary of what I learned from my payload research:
- My Tacoma will certainly be over its 945 lb payload capacity with my FWC Swift (mine weighs in at 1100 lbs dry).
- There’s nothing I can do to change my payload rating.
- There are a few things I can do to help my truck carry the load more safely, and that’s what I decided to do.
Tacoma Suspension Upgrades
After massive amounts of research and more learning about brands, types of suspension, typical costs, and where I could get these upgrades done to my truck, I decided to move forward with three things:
Air Bag Suspension
Imagine super heavy duty balloons near your back tires that you can control how much air goes into in order to support whatever weight you decide to put on top. That’s a very basic idea of how air bag suspension works. Of course, there are multiple versions of air bag suspension, and after (again, lots of research) I went for the one that is the most automatic, the easiest to manage and control, AND that serves two purposes in one (I’m ALL about efficiency).
ARB Dual Compressor Air Bags – I chose this because I can control the air pressure from an app for the air bags, and with the “dual” air compressor, I can also use it to inflate my tires AND winterize my pipes in my camper (win win win). Of course, it was also one of the most expensive options (roughly $1500), but it’s DIGITAL = so easy, and also – ask me about that time mere DAYS after I had this installed that I got a screw in my tire and was able to rescue myself from a would-be stranded flat tire fiasco in less than 5 minutes. Worth it already. Note: The screw happened before I upgraded my tires, thankfully!
Additional Leaf Spring
I almost didn’t do this, as some reports I read say that air bag suspension is enough, but… this is my Tacoma we’re talking about here, my baby, my dream truck, and I want to treat it nicely, so I opted to add the additional leaf spring alongside the air bag suspension.
This certainly makes for beefy suspension, and about a 3″ lift in the back, without the camper weighing it down.
BEFORE Airbag and Additional Leaf install
AFTER Airbag and Additional Leaf install
E-Rated Tires
Tires might not necessarily count as suspension upgrades, but to me all of these upgrades are serving the same purpose = to safely carry the load I intend to put on my truck. So they make it into this post.
Guess what – I started with a ton of research – I keep saying this because I don’t want you to just take my word (or anyone else’s) for it. I’m sharing what I decided to do for me and my truck, based on what I learned and what adventures I intend to have with my truck. I very much encourage you to do ALL the research as well, even if you end up making the exact same decisions that I did, because you’ll understand WHY you are choosing the upgrades you’re paying for.
In the end, I opted for the BFGoodrich All-Terrain T/A K02 tires. They have incredible reviews, are top of the line tires, ready for literally all terrain that comes their way, and are least likely to have me trying to change a flat on my own in The Middle of Nowhere, Baja, Mexico.
Truck Camper and Suspension Upgrades – Six Months Later
I’m writing this from inside my adorable FWC Swift in the outback of Sedona, Arizona, January 2024. In between international travels, I’ve been living out of this camper since I got it installed on Summer Solstice 2023.
While I admit it took me a while to get used to the digital controls of the airbag suspension, I now operate them easily and have created my own system for how much air to put in the bags as I drive (which is something that completely overwhelmed me to figure out at the beginning). When I’m driving on highways and regular roads, I set the bags at 15 PSI. On dirt roads I bump them up to 30 (30 feels to bobbly at high speeds), and as long as the ground is flat at night when I sleep in the back, I put them down to 5 so the camper is less bobbly as I move around inside.
The load of the camper is definitely heavy enough to feel every time I accelerate, but that was expected. I drive much more carefully than I used to, because this ain’t no racecar.
When I first had the springs and bags installed, I experienced a shuddering feeling when coming to a stop (much like the shudder when you forget to push in the clutch upon stopping in a manual) before I had the camper installed – this turned out to be drive shaft angle issue and was resolved upon installation of the camper and the weight balancing out the drive angle. She was definitely twerking before that camper straightened her out. Now she sits beautifully evenly, which leads me to believe that I made the right decisions about my suspension upgrades. No sag, no extra stress on my gorgeous, beefy tires (I have a thing for tires…), and a little extra TLC when handling curves and bumps. Those are the results of my recipe for truck suspension upgrade success.
Good luck and happy trails!
Feel free to leave a comment and dare to ask me any questions I might have learned enough to be able to help you with…
