Limited springs and OR shocks/struts to help the ride?

I worked on a heavy truck suspension with tire engineers about 50 years ago - so this is old info. A really competent fellow made a comment I won't forget - that over 50% of the suspension of a vehicle turns out to be the tires. On mining trucks it was even more than that. My '14 Limited came with 18 inch wheels - maybe OK for an on-the road tow package but not tuned for personal transportation (which I use the truck for almost exclusively). The OEM tire size was 30.5" OD and the sidewall height is dead wrong for my application. The biggest ride change (for my use) - came about when I bought a set of 32" OD tires which just barely cleared on a DD with no lift. Sidewall height changed +3/4" and you could feel it on the way out of the parking lot. Some 17" wheels and 32's would be better still but I'm not up for the expense.

 

I'm sure you are right about the wheel and tire size affecting ride quality. It's no accident that the Pro has 16" wheels and the Limited has 18's. The Pro customer wants it for off road use and the Limited customer wants it for on road use. Where Toyota messed up (in my opinion) is by not realizing how harsh the Limited ride is, or not caring enough to do something to fix it for all these years. Probably intentional to drive people to the OR or Pro models.

I want to replace my 18" wheels with the TRD Pro 4Runner AGP 17's, and running a 265/70/17 or 275/70/17 tire, but the problem is I replaced the 265/60/18 tires when I got the truck used in 2020. I'm waiting for these tires to wear out before I make the switch.

 

Drop your tire pressure by 5psi and see if it helps, especially in the rear.

Tire pressure makes a BIG difference in ride quality, so does the tire itself for that matter.

FWIW I found the OR suspension to be pretty poor as well. Maybe not as harsh as the SR5 based suspension but it was not the best over sharp bumps, but on top of that it was very floaty and left you disconnected. The 6112s up front are everything I ever wanted.

 

It's a truck. body on frame. It's always gonna ride a little rough.
Get a unibody truck if you want a 'smooth' ride.

 

I'm already running the tires at 29 PSI, (which is what Toyota recommends for this truck/size) that would take it down to 24. As a test sure, but I wouldn't want to leave it like that.

 

Yeah, that is pretty low. I think I'm just under 40 front, just over 30 rear.

What in particular do you notice as a "bad" ride? Folks have very different opinions as to what is or is not a good ride and I'm interested to hear what it is for you.

 

This is not accurate. I've had lots of trucks before this one, big and small, NONE of them rode this harshly. Responses like this are exactly what moon22 was talking about a few posts ago.

 

And this is EXACTLY why I tell people not to trust what others say on an internet forum when it comes to "comfort" in any aspect of the truck. Tires, subjective. Lift, subjective. Seats, subjective. I commend OP for trying to put in the research and ask questions about specifics, but it ultimately boils down to needing seat time in multiple different setups. He's also gotta understand that when he finds the setup he likes, its likely gonna be a full suspension replacement, and he didn't want to do that. But sadly, throwing money towards different sets of shocks/springs a couple times will end up costing way more than the free seat time in friends/local TW members' trucks to figure out what he wants. The only thing that could make this any harder for OP is if he decides he wants to do some mods later. Whole different story.

 

I stand behind my comment, Body on frame trucks are always gonna ride a little rough.
FYI, I've had several trucks too.

 

I'm calling the ride harsh because even small bumps in the road feel very jarring. Much more so than anything else I've driven, and I'm in my 50's. This was especially true with the factory struts/shocks, but it's still true with Bilstein 5100's installed. The main difference I notice between the factory and Bilstein dampeners is what the truck does after hitting a bump. Factory stuff wouldn't dampen the suspensions response to the impact, and the Bilstein 5100's do, but harshness of the impact is still there.

I have a stretch of road near my house that has this series of rolling bumps. In my truck you feel like your head banging going over them because as each bump hits, it throws you forward and down if you get what I'm saying. Not long ago I was going down that road with a Jeep Wrangler right behind me. I was watching the driver's head in my rear view, and he didn't move at all. Those things have a short wheel base and "should" be more harsh than something like the Tacomas longer wheel base. Clearly it wasn't, based on how much energy is being transferred to the driver. That really pissed me off because I am not a Jeep/Dodge fan, and I think very highly of Toyotas. My wife and I have owned many Toyota/Lexus vehicles over the years, none of them rode like this Tacoma. This is what made me finally pull the trigger on the Bilstein 5100's, trying to address the problem.

With the 5100s installed and going down that same stretch of road, the head banging is lessoned somewhat, but it's still there. What I'm calling plush is a suspension that doesn't transfer bumps into the vehicle/driver, the suspension absorbs them while allowing the vehicle to remain relatively stable.

Hope that makes sense.

 

Yes it makes sense, but my point was the Limited has Hitachi shocks just like the SR/SR5 models. There are a few complaints on TW about the suspension, but for the most part it just rides like a body on frame truck. Literally hundreds of thousands of owners have the same shock/spring setup as a stock Limited.

 

Both of you guys are right on this one. Its a truck, not a cadillac. But it can also be improved, and OP knows this, just doesn't know the best route to achieve it. Its not unreasonable to aim for better comfort, especially considering he's only going for street comfort, as opposed to most who come on here wanting the best off road rock crawler thats also comfortable (thats a little more unreasonable than OP's approach).

I think the biggest hangup here is that IT WILL cost more money than OP had hoped to spend. To OP's point, he knows tire choice and shocks/springs can help. To your point, you know a budget shock isn't going to improve enough to make a noticeable difference (to OP's liking, not generally speaking). This is where more money and expensive coilovers/tuned valving/aftermarket bump stops/UCA's/etc come into play. Its a hard pill to swallow honestly, and most of us learn to just live with the (sometimes minor/sometimes major) discomforts.

 

This is just from my experience. Same issues drove me to 5100, but I went with a OME coils on 0 settings.
I can take those wide speed bumps at 35 + mph without any issues.

To get a more plush suspension, you need to go to a different price zone.

These guys had a road test review on popular suspension on the market
https://youtu.be/sJEkSmewcQE

 

You do realize that the SR/SR5 Hitachi shocks are frequently and regularly criticized on TW for their unusually bad ride right? Not bad in "its a truck" bad, bad in "dang, other trucks (even Tacomas) ride way better than this" bad.

Yes, obviously it isn't a lexus, but it can be a bad ride FOR A TRUCK too and in-fact is very frequently criticized for being just that.

 

The major thing to understand is high speed dampening and low speed dampening, and to the same point linear valving, progressive valving, and digressive valving.

Low speed is heaves in the road, cornering (initial body roll), braking or acceleration, etc. This is where you feel the "motion" of the truck. Sports cars often times have a lot of low speed dampening, old wobbly caddys had minimal low speed dampening. This is often times discussed as "soft" or "firm".
High speed dampening is things like off-road washboard, expansion joints, potholes, etc. This is where the wheel moves SUDDENLY and quickly. Better here it is discussed as "smooth" or "harsh".

Generally speaking harshness goes down with higher quality (almost directly related to $$$ here). Unfortunately, IMO, many vehicles try and go cheap but have "firm" rides, this just ramps up the harshness as well. Its not impossible to have a firm ride with minimal harshness but it is more difficult to have a firm ride that is not also harsh (IMO 6112s do this very well).

Aside from that you also need balanced dampening. The front and rear should have generally the same quality of ride and also be valved appropriately for the SPRINGS.

As for your head head shipping ride, understand that every vehicle has a natural frequency as well and you may just be hitting the bump with the back wheels at the EXACT time the front is recovering from that same bump. Often times going faster or slower can prevent that. I have one ugly little dip by my house and if I hit it at JUST the right speed the back is going up just as the front is coming back down and its jarring, but hit it faster or slower and that doesn't happen. My other vehicles have their own issues over that bump, but only at certain speeds, at other speeds its just a bump. What you are experiencing may not be the nature of the suspension but more the speed and length of your vehicle and the spacing of the bumps on the road.

 

I had an SR5 with hitachis. It rode pretty similar to my OR. Definitely not a night and day difference.
And yes, I agree some users do complain. But frequently is subjective.
People also complain about the engine, transmission, stock tires, entune, and on and on and on. And they complain to varying degrees.
But I think most members are like me, they knew what to expect and they are happy with their truck.
FYI, I entered your quote - "dang, other trucks (even Tacomas) ride way better than this" in the search, only one hit - your comment

 

You were throwing me off each time you said "OP", but I finally saw that shown under MY profile name. Not sure where that came from, but at least I know who you're talking about ...now.

I'm fine with spending more money to achieve better ride quality. But seriously, should you have to replace the whole suspension to do that? That seems totally ridiculous to me. I've worked on and driven a lot of cars and trucks over the years, none of them ride as harshly as this Tacoma Limited. I've had some real POS vehicles over the years, so that's saying something. I'm not trying to offend anyone by saying that, I'm just stating my opinion based on my own experiences.

I 100% agree with Firn here, the Hitachi shocks are HORRIBLE! I don't see how this is subjective. When I first bought my truck, I got it out of state and drove it about 10 hours that first day. I'm not joking when I say it killed my back and I had a hard time walking when I got home. Part of that is due to the seat position, but the rest was from the suspension. I seriously thought I made a major mistake buying it.

This is the best description I've seen on the subject. Thanks for explaining in detail!

I agree, Toyota took the cheap route on the Taco with all trim levels, except maybe the Pro. When manufacturers release a vehicle, it's not uncommon to need to replace parts to make things better than they could have because they were trying to hit a certain price point, or due to other factors. I get that. Toyota can clearly make nice riding vehicles because they make plenty of them. Maybe I need to stop looking at Tacoma replacement shocks, which seem to be designed similarly to the factory stuff. What I mean here is that based on Firn's description of high and low speed dampening, the Hitachi and Bilstein shocks are similar. Bilstein's are clearly better, but still harsh in the same ways.

Does anyone know of a Lexus model that uses a suspension similar to the Tacoma? Maybe that's the direction I need to go.

 

OP is "original poster", aka the person who started the thread; just internet/forum slang instead of saying a person's username each time. As for needing to spend money to fix a brand new (or used) vehicle's ride quality, no it shouldn't be needed - often times, a test drive will alleviate the need for this. I understand excitement can mask some of these minor things, and over time minor things become major annoyances, but its worth noting for any future readers; test drive things before you buy them - make a physical check list if needed to intently focus on specific areas during the drive if needed. That doesn't fix your issues now though.

As for the subjective topic, I don't think many are debating the comfort of the Hitachi shocks. We just mean ride comfort as a subject in general, regardless of shock brand, is absolutely subjective. I say take a full day, travel to a few dealerships, and take note of which you like best between different trim offerings. Although that may also prove lackluster, my best recommendation is to plug into your regional forum thread here on TW and get to know some friends in your area with modified tacomas. I've ridden in a handful of modifieds, and the most expensive coilover/leaf spring setup isn't always the most comfortable. You just gotta find what your butt likes, preferably in a way that doesn't cost you a fortune along the way.

 

Lexus has coilovers at the back. So the ride quality is not gonna transfer to Tacoma just by switching coilovers.

 

https://www.shockwarehouse.com/pages/shock-myths