Feeling every bump in the road

Got a 2000 Tacoma Prerunner with 160k miles and since around June of this year, I've been noticing that the ride quality has been really rough.

I have 31 inch Big O Big Foot AT tires on 15 inch steel rims. Driving on smooth paved roads is completely fine but if any bump/pothole/etc in the road comes up, it'll be really jarring and uncomfortable. It's bouncy and feels like a bucking horse. I'm driving around the Sacramento area here in California, so the roads are terrible regardless.

I drove my buddy's 2004 Tacoma and the ride was much smoother compared to mine on the same exact roads. How do I get my ride to be smoother? I know it's supposed to ride like a truck but I'd like to have at least a comparable amount of smoothness like my friend's 2004 Tacoma.

What are your guy's recommendations for improving ride quality? New shocks/struts? Front end inspection? New tires?

I definitely know my leaf springs are shot and they're frowning now. Could this be it?

 

Welcome to YodaWorld

 

It's most likely your shocks.

If you want a smooth on-road ride, I hear Monroes are good for that, but generally they sacrifice off-road capability. A very popular shock upgrade are the bilstein 4600/5100s. 4600s are for stock height, 5100s if you want to lift it a little bit. They are more geared towards offroad so on-road smoothness might suffer a bit. That said, my ride (on AND off road) improved dramatically when I went with 5100s from my worn out stock shocks.

Not knowing what else your friend did to his truck, other things likely to contribute are ball joints bushings and tie rod ends. If all the moving bits and pieces of your steering/suspension are original, it's a good bet those are all worn out and could stand to be replaced as well.

Springs don't really contribute that much to the "feel" on the road. All they do is support the weight of the truck. If they are worn out, your truck sags a bit. The shocks are what control how far and how fast they react to bumps.

 

Hi thanks for the reply. I see you're also around Sacramento!

I'm looking towards the 5100s as a shock upgrade but I'm not too interested in a huge lift. I wanted to replace the leaf springs anyways and I was interested in the General Springs HD springs which have a 1.5" lift I believe. Would these work with the 5100s? From what I understand, the 5100s are adjustable in the front so what setting would they be on if I wanted to go with the General Springs?

Did you end up getting new UCAs with the 5100s as well?

I'll get the steering and suspension checked out.

 

what kind of setup does your buddies truck have?
replicate that if you like how it rides

 

What tire pressure are you running?

 

Personally had the same issue, and the ride was vastly improved with new shocks (planning to do coils later this month). The shocks alone did the trick in making the ride much more bearable. I just went OEM Toyota shocks for all four, since I have no lift on a stock 14" tire taco.

Surprisingly the old shocks weren't all to bad looking in terms of how you can squeeze/pull them compared to oem. They actually seemed about the same resistance except for one of them ahah almost thought I'd experience no improvements, but was gladly mistaken.

 

The heavier your wheels the more the truck moves whenever you hit a bump. The truck has inertia and each wheel and axle does too. With light wheels the truck moves less and the wheels more. Older tires get stiffer in the sidewall and have an rougher ride.

 

^^^

Before and after on my PreRunner with Bilstein 5100s on lowest setting running OME 880 springs. PreRunners being 2WD are lighter on the front than 4x4s.

The ride also improved after I replaced upper and lower ball joints. Steering improved after inner and outer tie rod ends. Stock springs on the rear in the picture.

Before



After

 

This is something that I've been wanting to hear/read for a while. Full suspension rebuild is on my to-do list mainly because it's 20 years old and most of the rubber is shot but also because the ride quality kinda sucks.

 

You don't need UCAs with the 5100s. That's really only if you go above 2.5" of lift or if you have money to burn, lol.

The newer 5100s I believe have 4 settings. Mine had 3, stock, 1" and 2.5", iirc, Not sure about the 4 setting ones, but probably 0", .75" 1.5" and 2.5" (that's a guess, though).

For the 5100s in the rear, you do need at least 1" of lift. What worked well for me was a longer shackle that gave me that 1" lift. Then the fronts I set to the middle (1") setting, re-using the stock springs (front and rear). That worked great for several years until I eventually upgraded to Kings. I am still running the rear 5100s, stock leafs, and the shackle, but I plan on Deaver J59's (1.5" lift) with the 1" shackle and that should get me the 2.5" I'm looking for to fit 33's.

If you look through my build thread (link in my sig) I kind of go though my mental math for why I chose the suspension I did.

 

i do the hold push down on bed or jump up and down 3 times and it seems to 'snap' back into place with no after bounce

 

^^ this, had a tire shop set my tires to over 50 psi once and it felt like I was going to lose control of my truck on the ride home, it was bucking and bouncing so bad and harsh.

check your tire PSI

 

Felt like I had wagon wheels on when I put on a set of used tires that were all the way up to 60!

 

If your shocks are original I can *almost* guarantee they're shot.

Springs I CAN guarantee.

 

I thought it would have been the other way around, shocks for sure shot, springs would be a maybe. I get that after time and however many millions of cycles that the springs would fatigue but shouldn't they last longer than the shocks? I wonder if there's any difference between the 4wd coilover set up vs 2wd spring/shock set up and how long the springs would last?

I replaced my original shocks around 170,000 and I didn't have to even push the shock back together, there was NO pressure in any of them.

If the springs were replaced, I assume that would affect ride quality right?

 

definitely, flat worn out springs are going to make the ride super bouncy though in the rear, not harsh (I wouldn't think). But blown out shocks could make for a harsh ride I bet.

 

strange, I don't feel like my rear is bouncy even though my leafs are pretty frowny. I feel like my harshness is coming from the front. I'm sure driving for years on toasted shocks didn't help the front coils...

 

If your ride is bouncy, your shocks are shot. The shocks control how fast and when the suspension moves (in both directions).

If the ride is harsh, it could one one or (more likely) both shocks and springs are shot.

Springs really just support the weight. The shocks control how fast the suspension moves in both directions. Worn out shocks aren't going to slow the wheel travel down enough before they hit the bumpstops.

Worn out springs sag more, so you start out a lot closer to the bumpstops, so even with perfect shocks they could still hit the bumpstops easier.


When I did my 5100s, I KNEW my springs were also worn out, but I was on a budget so I just did the shocks (also shot). The new shocks made a drastic improvement in ride and performance. I did give it a bit of a lift too, which moved the bumpstops farther away, though I never felt like I was hitting them a lot beforehand...

It's a safe assumption that on medium/high mileage trucks, both shocks and springs are going to be worn out. But new shocks will more than likely have the most dramatic effect on ride quality.

 

It was a bit of a joke. Toyota trucks have shit springs, shocks prob. average to above in quality.

Really at that mileage if they are original it's a pretty good bet they both in need of replacing.