When i came across the need to tow a toy hauler i knew my truck was going to need some upgrades. The trailer is around 26 feet long, weighs 4600 pounds empty and with all of our gear tops out at almost 7000 pounds. Several searches on this forum turned up several options but nobody wrote back and said what, if anything worked for them. This post is a summary of what worked for me. The truck is a 1999 5.2l 4x4 with a stock suspension and minor engine mods. First here is a before picture:

 

I'm no expert, but that first pic makes me wanna think RAM.

 

The first thing i decided to do was beef up the rear end. I was previously towing a 1500 pound pop tent trailer and even that was dragging down my rear end. I figured i had 3 options:

1. Add a leaf: Long track record of being a good product, relatively cheap. downside is the rear suspension gets too tough as reported by some users, I didn't want this
2. Air bag system: probably the best solution but it was about 200 bucks and you need compressed air to adjust them
3: Helper springs: I opted for these because i figured it would allow me to keep the stock suspension feel of my rear end without a load and when loaded keep the bed from sagging. Nobody reported any experience with these but with a cost of around $40 and no modifications required i decided if they sucked i would go airbags.
http://www.jcwhitney.com/QUICK-CHANG...3419_10101.jcw

 

Well it turned out the helper springs rocked. The suspension only felt a tiny bit more stiff and they installed in about 30 minutes with basic hand tools. here is a picture of the trailer attached with the springs installed

 

Finally with any large trailer you want to use a load distributing hitch. This unit was given to me by my dad and $35 worth of replacement parts lost while moving i had it installed. Here is the final result:

 

Yup had i known i was going to end up towing this i probably would have just bought a 2500 or something. We were using a 3500 dually to haul this thing but we dont have it anymore. on the other hand by using a $40 set of springs and a load distributing hitch i saved myself from buying a new truck

 

bravo, looks great.

 

Rather impressive...I cut a fair bit of firewood each year and tow my boat. This looks to be an upgrade that I will do too. What weight rating did you go with, the 2000 lb? Did you have any fit issues at all?

cheers, Mike...

 

no fit issues except i had to remove the rubber bumper thing on the frame that keeps the axle from hitting the frame. i bought the 2000 pound springs since i knew i was going to have a really heavy load.