Hey Folks, Solid Advise Needed... 17 Tacoma DCSB

Sooo after a year with my Yota I'm super happy with it regarding appearance. This thing turns heads wherever it goes and I love it. However, over the past year I've went on about 3 road trips about 16hrs round trip and do not like the ride on the HWY one bit. Currently I have;

- Boss 2.0 Toytec lift
- SPC UCA's
- Dick Cepek Fun Country 285 70 17 Load range E tires

On long straight roads I find that my truck follows the crown of the road and is nervous. I had an alignment about 8 months ago and it's good on straight flat roads but if crowned out it's It's annoying and exhausting after a while. I'm wondering if a front Fox or King coil over set up along with a tire change to a better quality ( Cooper/Nitto/BF Goody) would transform my nice ride into more of a hwy cruiser??? Could it be that my front coil overs are cranked to high? This is my first experience with a lifted Tacoma. I bought the truck the way it is and would spend the $ to get it right but wouldn't mind hearing what you guys have to say... Thanks in advance for any advise. Very much appreciated

 

What were the specs on the alignment? Unless your shocks are f-ed I doubt new suspension will help the “nervousness” of the front end. It’s usually alignment, tires or something is worn out (like bushings). Lifted trucks will usually put excess stress on some components, so don’t rule that out. Adding caster will help a lot on a lifted truck, wider tires usually mean pushing caster beyond factory spec.

 

This.

If it's wandering all over the road you need to increase caster.

 

Not 100% on spec's. I have them but they're in the truck and I'm nowhere near it for 2.5 weeks. Okay, so when I had it aligned it was much better than it was when I initially bought it on the hwy and currently... It's almost like it's out of alignment again? Do these trucks fall out of alignment after a while? I don't drive it hard or offload with it a lot. Dirt roads, pot holes then normal stuff.... Although, I did speak with the shop about when I hit a large pot hole my front end makes a loud "thunk" sometimes. The shop said that the front coil over is bottoming out on the down travel... Could this have knocked my alignment out by chance?

 

what tire pressure are you running?

 

32lbs

 

Technically, an alignment can be knocked out of spec immediately after the fact simply by driving over a curb, hitting a pothole or a large rock, etc... An alignment could last several months or 5 minutes; depends on circumstance mostly. Only way to know for sure is to get another alignment.

 

Get rid of tires. Get normal non E tires. Set caster as high as possible. There's a big difference between building for looks and building for drivability.

 

Best answer yet.

 

All great points. Thank you gents.

 

My sotck taco falls into the road crown pretty hard too. Since day one. Had them align it, all "in the green" but still falls into the crown. I don't think they dialed enough caster into the factory specs

 

Swap your tires for C load or SL. Get alignment.

 

Well, glad I never sold the Yoda... E load rated tires are for 3/4 - 1 ton trucks. I threw on a new set of Nitto G2's 285 70 R17's P rated rubber and couldn't be more happy. It's like I'm driving a different vehicle. Very impressed! Handling, alignment, ride quality, road manners, power, MT shift smoothness, gas milage are 100% better than with the fun country. Highly recommend Nitto G2's for tire upgrade if looking for city/hwy comfort and performance. Cheers folks, I have a new truck all over again

 

I'm glad you were able to get your driveability back. Cheers!

 

Great choice with the G2s!!

 

I have had 3 different sets of these, and have switched to other, more aggressive tires over the years, and always went back to the G2's. They are the best road worthy AT tires on the market IMO...Glad you got it worked out, good choice.

 

Just to confirm since I'm trying to look up this tire online and getting different search results - when everyone is referring to the "Nitto G2", you're referring to this tire, right?

https://www.nittotire.com/light-truck-tires/terra-grappler-g2-all-terrain-light-truck-tire/

 

Yip that's them!!