Tundra Towing - What's next?

Previously I had a 2013 Tacoma long bed pulling a 3800lb travel trailer with the E2 sway control, E tires on the truck and Timbren bump stops. This combo pulled great but we wanted a larger trailer so it was time to upgrade to a Tundra.

I currently have a 2016 5.7 4x4 Crewmax and a 26' trailer with a 6600lb dry weight and 700lb tongue weight (on the sticker, not measured at a scale). I'm using an Equalizer 4 point sway control.

My typical route is 200 miles round trip and I've towed this twice. The first trip was with the hitch at its lowest angle and it didn't feel like I was getting much out of the sway control. For the second trip I increased the angle of the ball one setting and the ride was much improved. For my next trip I'm going to set the angle on the 3rd setting and I figure that's where I'll find the sweet spot.

After reading through some threads it appears my next options for improving the towing experience are either to add air bags, a sway bar, load range E tires, bump stops or new rear springs.

I daily drive the truck 70 miles so I'd prefer to not lose the nice ride. What's everyone recommend for the next mod that'll make the biggest difference?

 

plenty swear by air bags, but I suggest you move to E load tires and add the sway bar first. The factory tires feel squishy and the sway bar will help with on-road driving even when you are not towing. How many miles are on your truck?

 

I have 95k miles and brand new tires. It's probably due for a set of shocks all around.

 

You have rear sway bar

 

I would vote to try new shocks first. I also tow a travel trailer about the same size as yours and I have the same hitch setup. I don't notice much sway but I do notice that it still squats the truck and bottoms the rear end out of large bumps. That being said I have debated about installing airbags for a while now. My one concern is the ride quality of my truck when it is empty. It's not apples to apples but I installed airbags on my 2014 Tacoma and the towing was so much better, but the empty ride was rougher and the back end was very bouncy. Now the Tundra may not have this problem because of the extra weight over the rear end, but I still am hesitant to install airbags. Another though is they also make some type of spring that almost looks like a large bump stop (I can't remember the same of them right now) but that is an option I have thought about also. It looks like they don't engage until you have enough weight on the rear of your truck to squat it down at little bit.

But to answer your questions the airbags made a night and day difference on my Tacoma when I would pull our 20' TT.