Sloppy truck steering

Alright so in pursuit of living out my dreams of building a nasty track truck, I've been trying to find answers to every little bit and piece to upgrade. My steering on my 2010 5 lug isn't all that problematic, ie. Theres not like any excessive play that would have me thinking it's something being worn out, it just feels like, well... Truck steering, if that makes sense. Just not as sharp and precise as I'd like it to be. There's just a little play in the wheel and I can't seem to find a good idea on how to seriously sharpen it up. So my question of the day is this: what parts of my steering system could I replace to take all the slack out of the steering? I've been thinking maybe something like replacing the steering shaft or the bushings, and I would really like not having to replace the rack all together. Anyone got any ideas to make it feel like a newer car?
I never really had a problem with it untill I started driving my old man's brand new Volvo, which has razor sharp steering, and made me notice all the slop. I always get great ideas from all my TacomaWorld homies so toss we ideas at me dudes.

 

Getting digressive valved shocks like icon or bilstein 5100 could tighten up the feeling a bit if your shocks are soft it could make it feel a little sloppy

 

Yeah I'm planning on doing a set of qa1 proma star coilovers with their stud top conversion. Hopefully those will help a bunch but I would still like to upgrade the steering system in some way. I'll have to add to this thread when I install those.

 

slop = real world mileage accumulated

 

Haha yep, all 29k of em

 

You have an 11 year old truck with nearly 30K miles.

Suggest to take a close look at all the steering and front end suspension components. Simple things like bushings can age and loosen leading to the steering play you don't like. Gears will wear making greater clearance between mating teeth. This is in the pinion and rack components.

Shocks won't do much to eliminate the "slop" in the steering.

 

Good idea I hadn't thought of the rack and pinion gear. I'm trying to work my way around and replace all the bushings in the truck with either new rubber ones or poly where possible.

 

truly cant discount / dismiss components when U r having issues