Do Suspension Air Bags Increase Towing Capacity?

Towing can be a tense task, and there are plenty of different products on the market that are supposed to help. Some modern trucks are rated to tow upward of 25,000 pounds, so it's vital to the safety of the driver and other road users to ensure that nothing goes awry. If you're not happy with your truck's maximum towing capacity and you're looking for an easy way to bump it up, I've got some bad news; you cannot increase a truck's towing capacity, since it's determined at the factory. You can do a few things to help bolster your truck's ability to handle heavy loads, though, and one way to do that is by installing helper springs, also known as air springs or air bag suspension.

Just because a vehicle is rated to tow a certain amount of weight does not mean that it will be especially pleasant to drive when it's loaded up near that limit. Adding helper springs or air springs may not increase your maximum towing capacity, but they can help mitigate the negative side effects of approaching a vehicle's towing limit.

Adding air springs to a vehicle helps to prevent some of the undesirable side effects of approaching a vehicle's maximum towing capacity like bottoming out, light steering, and poor headlight aim. When unladen, pickup trucks, especially heavy duty pickup trucks, tend to have a rough and bouncy ride quality. That's because they are designed to haul heavy loads, and those heavy loads require a lot of support from the truck's suspension. Engineers have to find the balance between a suspension that can find a balance between unladen ride comfort and heavy load hauling support, and that's where air bags can come into the picture.

When trucks are loaded up with a heavy trailer or payload, all that extra weight is likely to cause the rear of the truck to squat. When that happens, it decreases the amount of weight on the front wheels and points the nose of the truck into the air, which naturally causes problems with handling and driver visibility. Air springs can help bolster the truck's standard suspension and eliminate that squatted rear end, thus making the truck safer and less stressful to drive. There are also products like helper leaf springs that offer similar benefits, but again, there is no way to increase your truck's maximum towing capacity, just ways to make hauling heavy loads less stressful.