I HATE the road ride of my Sport!!

I think he is a cry baby robot. Trolling!! Nuke him!!

 

These trucks suspensions are all tuned for what model you have, my 4X2 Sport drives like a Lexus imo for a truck. That's why they all have different tires . The 4X4 will always ride stiffer because it's designed for the off-road and won't be as smooth on the street.

But what do I know I've only been around for 59 years lol.

 

Sport ride does
Suck I have a double cab long bed and that's the smoothest combo for the sport and it sucked so I swapped out the sport suspension for the off-road and it's damn near perfect and I kept the sport sway bar and I get a little less roll than the off-road would but I like that it's soft and controlled now

 

No problems in the OR go with that suspension set up and you will be happy I'm sure.

 

I've got a long bed sport as well, and I get what op is saying, I'm coming from a "race car" so this to me feels like a limo, it's all about perspective, I'm not complaining

 

Dude, if you want a good riding setup in the taco, choose your favorite between Fox, Icon, or King and then ask them for the big reservoir shocks with compression adjusters and matching coilovers. If its gonna be an ongoing thing for you just spend the money up front on good shit because youll just end up paying for it twice otherwise. I went through a set of 5100 shocks and "coilovers" before I made the same decision for myself and got the Fox shocks and coilovers.

P.S.: The difference between Fox and King shocks is ~nothing~, but the Icons are different in that they have digressive dampening versus the progressive dampening the others have. What this means is that Fox and King shocks get progressively stiffer as speed increases, which is primarily conducive to hitting corners fast on any terrain or going fast on pavement where you need the shocks to be stiffer to combat body roll. Icon shocks' digressive dampening means they get softer as speed increases, which means they are best at absorbing whoops and uneven terrain at high speed, but not so much cornering. All up to where you drive and how you drive most

 

It all depends on what you are comparing it to. My last pickup was a 1985 Toyota 4X4 (loved that truck) my 16 sport rides like a Lexus compared to the 85.

 

Lol it's true, I can only compare to my parents cars i drove in the past and to the likes of those, there is no comparison. That being said, I knew what I was getting into and the rough ride doesn't particularly bother me, I was in for the 6MT on a sensible vehicle with a great reputation for toughness and build quality that's also small enough to be fun to drive but big enough to carry or tow usable amounts of shit. IMHO the taco is one form of the perfect blend of performance, price, and practicality

 

Are you crazy? It almost handles as well as my 350z... i dont think you know what youre talking about here.

 

Definitely agree here, there is nothing wrong with the handling, very little body roll for a truck, and takes corners pretty well outta the box.
That being said, the ride QUALITY could use a little work from the factory, whether or not youre used to a truck. Not that its terrible, or even that it isnt serviceable the way it comes, only that it can be MUCH better and there is plenty of room for us to improve on what is there. Yes, the tacoma does NOT come out of the box with performance suspension, because as things go this is still an entry level vehicle, despite all the safety equipment and other things driving the price to damn near 40K for some models. The suspension and brakes and everything else is made up of strong parts that toyota knows won't break easily, but that dont necessarily perform their intended function the best they could. Thats why aftermarket companies step in and offer crazy suspension mods. They recognize that the tacoma is a GREAT platform with its high-strength steel chassis, rock-solid reputation, and pretty decent reputation for offroad capability, but that even with all that said it still has light-years worth of room for improvement in all of the moving parts like suspension, brakes, drivetrain, etc.

So basically: no point in bashing each other for modding or not modding their trucks. Its a moot point. If I dont notice anything wrong with the suspension out of the box, then let me ride around in my bumpy ass truck, maybe I like having a drivers seat thats at least part trampoline, YOU DONT KNOW!
Or if i want to blow all my money making my truck ride like a cadillac then thats my perogative too.

For OP's sake: If you want to improve the ride of your truck then you have more than enough info to get started down that road. Call up a customer service tech at ORW, or Headstrong Offroad, or Wheelers or whoever and get some advice on ways to improve the ride. Don't run to a forum because every time youre gonna get a 50-50 of either do this extreme or that one, dont touch it or mod it until you cant tell its a yota anymore, and that breaks down to roughly the people who bought their truck as a business decision and those who bought their truck for more emotional reasons like its great offroad and the reputation for offroading and such. It will happen pretty much every time, just like that,

 

I have 2500mi on my Sport and I have no complaints on the ride. We have been on a few hour hwy ride and around town. We have plenty of frost heaves and we think it is comfortable. I have been in/driven many many cars & trucks, not sure what the complaint is. To each his own.

 

Mine is not so much complaint as admittance that, as I expected, the ride of my Tacoma doesn not compare to the cayenne s, merc s500, or jaguar xj8 I drove before it. Not surprising at all seeing as those are all luxury offerings, even the Porsche SUV haha. All were similar in handling characteristics due to weight except for ride COMFORT, in which the Tacoma is not surprisingly thoroughly outclassed in stock form. Hence, fox performance suspension. Problem solved! More cargo area than any other vehicle, better off-roading capability than all but the cayenne but you would never know that And it's cheaper by far than all of the others, even with the suspension upgrades factored in. Idk to me that made all the sense in the world. for some, their cost/benefit equation looks a lot different, all up to what you want out of it

 

I went from an SR-5 to a Sport, and the ride is definitely firmer. I like the bigger sway bars to keep it flatter during cornering, but the shocks definitely could use some help.... I wish the steering was quicker too.

As for the test drive - you can't really tell that much from a short (even an hour is short) drive, since you won't see the majority of situations / conditions you're going to encounter.

 

I'll be switching my Hitachi's to the Bilstein HD when the fronts come out in February or March.

 

Are Hitachi's really that bad? Worse than 2nd gen sport shocks? (Bilsteins) This is for mainly a DD with maybe some forest service roads thrown in the mix in summer to get to camping spots, so no real off roading.

Just got take off Hitachi's with 0 miles to replace my 130k/10 year old Sport Bilsteins for cheap. As a bonus they lift 2nd gens by an 1" up front. So in theory fresh suspension and a small lift, both things I wanted to accomplish, but threads like these make me second guess my decision. Would I have been better off with 5100@0.85 with stock 10 year old coils for 2x the price, or OME883/5100@0 & 1/4" spacer for 3x the price?

 

I personally hate the hitachi's... I have been getting a lot of flack for my opinion on here though. I think the ride is super stiff and rides like crap. I like the sway bar but I would have gone to the stock OR shocks for your rig and you still would have got the benefit of the lift with the softer ride.

 

Also, as a rule of thumb I would never change my opinion of a product one way or another just based off of hearsay from a forum.... Products require more research before rash decisions are made one way or the other IMO

 

Probably aired up to 60 psi too! Mine rides way better than my 08 did. And the rearend does not slide like the 08 did.