Is it the road or the truck?

Gents,

I need some assistance, first time Taco owner, DBLCAB LB and I been noticing on the highway that the truck has like a vibration but more like a stutter. Feels almost like your on a road with bunch of soft speed bumps. Yet it only happens on certain roads. I don't know if it's the road or the truck. Thanks for the help!

 

Probably the road. I have a new local stretch of highway ~3miles long that has that feel to it. Try driving it in a different car to check for sure.

 

Where are you feeling the vibration? Gas pedal and steering wheel? What RPM range are you noticing it at? What speeds? That sport suspension is stiff/harsh from my experience.

 

Smitty99 is correct, the Sport suspension is harsh and when I was running with it I noticed some washboard effect when the bed was empty. I started driving around with a bail of hay in the bed, that fixed it. Then I got a Bilstein 5100s with new springs and AALs .... night and day difference for the positive.

 

Any lift? Factory tires/wheels? You may be a first time owner but that doesn't mean you haven't bolted up some cheeseball shit suspension and now complain about poor ride.

 

Ha! I have he same feeling - it's in the seat. The steering wheel is smooth. But for me it started right after putting on KO2s, which are promptly being replaced with P-rated Nitto G2 grapplers.

 

I have a Sport and it has a washboard effect on some types of pavement. It's just how leaf spring trucks tend to be. I also think it can be more pronounced in the long bed trucks. It's defiantly just the road if you're only feeling it on some roads. Not an issue with your truck. Just how it is. You could upgrade to Bilstein of Fox shocks like the OR has and this would likely make the ride much better over that type of pavement.

 

Agreed, but it is Stock suspension. Pretty much stock everything but a plasti grill and tinted windows that were done by previous owner. Car has 13k miles on it. I feel it between 60-80mph, I feel it in the seat and it feels from the back.
I will look into the new shocks though. Thanks

 

First I'd go to a local tire shop like Discount Tire to have them balance the tires. Look up road force balancing, there should be a place near you that will have the machines for this and there's a locator online somewhere if you google it. Rule that out before you start dumping thousands into new suspension components. If it's not the tires then you need to look at driveshaft being out of balance or some other issue. I'd take it to the dealer and make it their problem before you dump money into suspension. BTW once you put aftermarket tires and suspension components on there, the dealer will pretty much wash their hands of this issue and blame it on the suspension/aftermarket tires.

 

When I drive over concrete at high speeds my truck will kind of vibrate/lurch. Once you hit asphalt it's smooth sailing, but I definitely notice an odd feeling while driving over concrete at highway speeds. I thought this was a bit odd, but after 6 months of driving it, it's pretty clear that the concrete is the cause for this weird road feeling.

 

stock trd sport suspension is garbage. buy a half decent set of rear shocks and you will notice a huge difference in ride quality. once you remove a rear hitachi shock and physically hold it, you will realize you found the culprit. they were the first (of many) suspension parts ive changed, but i started out looking for better ride quality, lift came later

 

Tires balanced?

Most in this thread are right: the light weight of the truck's bed does NOT bode well for a smooth ride while empty. A bit of weight always helps out. Getting some of those OEM replacment Bilsteins is a great swap.

 

Thanks for the help and insight fellas. I'll give it all a try!

 

that used to happen to me ALL the time until I upgraded my suspension. I have a long bed 2016 too

 

What did you upgrade to?

 

I went with the Icon stage 3. The ride quality is alot better, but the truck still feels like a long bed. the bumps are still there, but I feel like the shaking was reduced about 50 to 75%.

 

I agree with smitty on the road force balance. Sometimes tire belts don't line up so good during mass production, and quality control has a difficult time detecting the issue. This can cause weird tire radius variations at speed. The symptom is usually a vibration around 80 that increases with speed. Bridgestone is battling with this now. OP, what kind of tires are on the truck?

 

You remind me of a buddy that worked as an automotive engineer for Tesla for quite some time. Elon pulled him over to Space X a few years ago. Good to have some big brains around here.

 

Those SpaceX guys are way over my head. I am just a problem solving hack.

 

Try rotating your tires front to back and reporting any differences in what you observe. Be sure to keep all of the other variables the same; like speed, stretch of road, acceleration rate, etc.