How "good" is the bilstine suspension on the tundra TRD offload package?

I'm not a truck guy or a motor head by any stretch, I'm an IT engineer that just wants to go innawoods. So I got myself the 22 tundra on an impulse buy to answer the call of the wild and built it into a live in overland rig.
I share this because while I've put together a pretty capable system from an engineering perspective, I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to the vehicle mechanics.

My concern is I just did some napkin math and adding up vamper top, fueltanks (internal and external) and other support systems, plus two 170lbs passengers, I'm easily at 1000lbs. And the remaining 500 is probably sucked up quick by food, backpacks, misc electronics and other gear.

1st question, am I thinking about payload correctly

2nd question, I just did 1000 mile round trip at 40 to 50mph on a rough dirt road and the truck just soaked up the ruts, even some I probably should have slowed down to 5mph. I feel like the factory suspension and aftermarket bags are "worth the money" but daily driving at payload and even some light crawling at this weight, will it stand up?

3rd and final am I hard capped at 1500lbs payload. Obviously the car won't be slammed like a squatted truck, but I still want to add lights comms, and occationally 5 passangers which could easily exceed 1800 payload. Did I not buy enough truck

 

TRD Off-road Bilstein is an awesome setup for almost everyone like you, despite how your favorite “overland” oriented content creators might make you feel with their expensive aftermarket remote reservoir shocks.

1.) You’re thinking about payload correctly, yes. The most accurate way to actually know your payload is to load yourself, your passengers, and all of your stuff with a full tank of fuel and weigh the truck at a truck stop or any DOT weigh station. Compare this weight with the gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) on the drivers side door jamb sticker.

2.) Air bags are somewhat debated, but I personally like them a lot. Spring rate on any vehicle is determined by the weight of the vehicle, you need a higher spring rate to suspend more weight in the optimum position of your overall suspension travel. Airbags give you an easy way to add or remove spring rate to the suspension based on how much weight you’re carrying. It is my opinion that this benefits the overall handling of an otherwise stock vehicle when carrying more weight. This does not, however, give you an excuse to egregiously overload your vehicle just because you can get it to ride level when you’re beyond your GVWR.

Another consideration is the valving on your stock shocks is set based on stock spring rates. If you start adding a lot of weight combined with high pressures in the airbags, you’ll find that the truck bounces a lot over bumps. This is because there just isn’t enough compression/rebound damping to control the increase in weight or spring rate. This is subjective for everyone, but I’ve found keeping my bags under 30 PSI when loaded up around GVWR is the sweet spot.

3.) You’re stepping into a proverbial shitstorm when asking the question “Is it okay/safe/legal/etc to exceed my payload?”. You can spend weeks reading opinions on every major truck enthusiast website. You do your own research and decide what is best for you.