In the final tease, we get three images showcasing the 2022 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro suspension changes. These pictures are a bit like déjà vu, since this appears to be nearly the same suspension setup as the Ram 1500.
The images in the gallery at the bottom of the article start with the front skid plate, then the front suspension and finally the rear suspension. We see this is clearly a Tundra TRD Pro thanks to the myriad ways Toyota has spelled it out: skid plate, shocks, red colors, etc.
Let’s break the images down.
On the first image, we can see the red TRD lettering on the skid plate and a red-colored front anti-sway bar. As you’ll see in the before pictures, the current bar is black in design.
This anti-sway bar was first offered in the 2018 Toyota Tundra TRD Sport, and it looks like Toyota is going to make this standard on the 2022 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro suspension.
The TRD Sport anti-sway bar is about 12 pounds heavier than the non-anti-sway one in the 2021 TRD Pro, and it is designed to provide a stiffer ride in the corners and while towing.
With the Tundra having one of the more rough rides in the full-size pickup truck market, adding stiffness seems like a bad thing, but there are other changes.
The second picture shows the TRD anti-sway bar connecting to an arm and bolted to the lower control arm. You can also see what appears to be a new Fox shock attached to the lower control arm. Now, Toyota has used Fox shocks before on the Tundra, yet this looks different.
Again, looking at the before and after, you can see the overall size seems larger, and the piggyback reservoir is not in the usual spot. It could be behind this shock or gone — similar to how the Ram Rebel 1500 uses a monotube shock without the reservoir for the front suspension. Ram also has a coil sprung front end though, which complicates the issue.
Typically, a remote reservoir is great for moving the oil, gas chamber and dividing piston out of the way, allowing for a longer travel for the piston inside the main shock tube. This is important for off-road driving where shock fade is a real issue over time with the shock oil heating up and not allowing the shock to work as it should. Basically, you start to hit the bumps much harder the longer and faster you drive over off-road trails.
Finally, the third image is the most interesting, showing off the coil rear suspension and what appears to be a drag link behind the rear axle housing. This is straight from the Ram 1500’s suspension setup, which first came out in 2009.
Typically, full-size truck suspensions have leaf springs for additional capability when towing and hauling. The idea is the more weight you add to the bed or the rear hitch for pulling a trailer, the less squat you will have as the leaf springs absorb the weight. This sounds great until you realize the compromise to this is a stiffer ride when the bed is empty.
For years, truck owners would simply add weight to the bed in the form of sand, spare tires or whatever, and this would return a smoother ride.
Then, the 2009 Ram 1500 debuted with a 5-link coil suspension. This setup uses coil springs instead of leaf springs and 5 “links” — or pieces of metal — to connect the suspension to the truck.
Basically, the coil spring sits on top of the rear axle, two trailing arms connect to upper and lower points around the axle running to underneath the bed. There are two on each side making up four of the five-link description.
The fifth bar, which you can clearly see in the teaser image, is the panhard bar, or track bar, which runs between the two wheels behind the rear axle housing.
These bars are all designed, sized and tuned by the engineers to provide a smoother ride than a leaf spring suspension.
You’ll also see a yellow/blue cone at the top of the coil spring, and this is the bump stop preventing the truck coil from compressing so much to cause damage to the bed.
Toyota is in a unique position to watch the market unfold and then cherry pick the technologies it wants to use on its trucks. By choosing to go with a suspension similar to Ram’s, Toyota not only addresses one of the chief criticisms of poor ride quality with the current-gen Tundra, but it also goes a step further, joining Ram as the only other truck maker with a rear coil link suspension setup.
We are now just a matter of months away from receiving all the details on the next-gen Tundra, and we can’t wait. If you missed any of the other teasers, check out the links below.