Extremely bumpy ride - tokico problem?

I am proud to say that I am the owner of a 2001 toyota tacoma 4x4 double cab 3.4L engine with magnaflow exhaust and a 3" lift. I love the truck, but my only problem is that the ride is extremely bumpy. I mean, not normal truck bumpy, but shake the teeth out of your head bumpy. I am wondering if this could be from bad shocks or could the lift somehow cause this. The truck has 128,000 miles on it, and it still has the original Tokico blue gas shocks on it. I am going to replace the CV boots soon as they are starting to leak, and if it's worn out shocks, I'd like to replace those while I've got everything off anyway.

 

I have a 2001 prerunner with the stock tokicos at 80,000.
However I do have the OME 881 coils which should be a little stiff but I think it rides really good.
Dont think it's a coil issue. Doubt if it's a shock issue. what air pressure are you running in your tires. Overinflated tires can cause this.
Shocks are dime a dozen though and I would go ahead and replace them while your doing the cv's.

 

What kind of lift do you have?

 

I have the tires at 26 psi. I am not sure which lift it has, the lift was done by the previous owner.

 

How could I go about finding out what sort of lift it has?

 

Post pictures of the suspension, front and rear, and we can help you.

 

Thanks!! I will take some pics and post tonight after work!

 

If your lift is a spacer lift, that could be the culprit.

 

I'm pretty sure it's spacers. I'll double check and post some pics though. If it is spacers what would be a fix besides removing the lift??

 

Ok. These are pics of the front struts / springs, and what I believe are spacers. In the back of the truck are an extra heavy duty leaf, and monroe sensa-shocks. What would be a good front replacement, or is there a different spacer that I could istall that would fix it? From what I see it looks like the spacer has compressed the spring to leave less travel/bounce in the spring.

 

Ok, So I've decided to get a pair of adjustable bilstein 5100s for the front struts and remove the spacer. My question is, if I install the adjustable 5100's on the 2.5" setting (the highest), will the back of my truck settle in with the height, or will my truck be slanted towards the front. In the back there is a set of monroe shocks along 4 leafs (pics below).

 

I would replace the coils as well with that spacer lift compressing your springs they might sag a lot. Your rear leaf looks like it might be just about done that's how mine looked before I put on my AAL and now there all sagged just about flat with the AAL and its only been 4 months.

 

Oh my, I've been reading fir hours about lifts and am more confused because I cant seem to figure out how the rear of my truck is lifted to match the front lift. I was thinking of taking the front spacers off until I can afford good up front struts and coils, but I want to make sure the truck doesn't lean forward, so I'd also like to remove or change whatever is making the rear be lifted... I

 

Well your truck might not be lifted in the back. It looks like they just changed the shocks you have a stock leaf pack there is no add a leaf in there. So I'm thinking they just leveled it with the spacers.

 

I found it, they used shackles. Any recommendations for an upgrade?

 

For the rear I would replace the whole leaf pack and the shocks I don't know how your shackles are but there not much more to replace. Up front switch out the shocks and coils for 5100s and new coils. Now I don't know how much lift you want but I think you can go with OMEs to go from 0" up to 2 1/2" depending on what model you buy. I have 5100s set at 0 with Eibach and I have 3 1/2" over my stock shocks but I'm sure they sagged some.

 

Solved the problem! Replaced front struts, removed lift spacers. Rides so much better! Next I am going to replace the springs in the back.

 

Glad to see you figured it out