2nd gen king coilover 5.5” lift terrible drivability

Hey, I have a 2014 Tacoma with a 5.5” lift (I bought it like this so I’m pretty sure that’s what it is)
I have king coilovers and I have terrible drivability every bump I hit it acts like it has bad bump steer. I have the preload set to fix the (taco lean) but I hate driving it on the highway. How do I fix this? Also does anyone know of an affordable uca that moves the tire forward in the wheel well to accommodate larger tires. I have camburg uca now but doesn’t allow any adjustment because the lower control arms have to be all the way adjusted in to get the alignment close. I know the spc uca are the best answer but can’t do $700 right now. Any help is appreciated thanks

 

Is this the kings for the 6 inch drop bracket lifts? Do you have a drop bracket lift on your truck?

 

Do you have any pictures of the lift . Also is it 2wd or 4wd

 

I’ll try and post pictures after work. It is 4x4 trd off-road

 

Yes I have the drop bracket. From what I can tell it’s a 3.5” lift king coils with a 2” lift spacer on top

 

I would take the kings off with the spacers buy the right size struts or coilovers for that lift . stacking spacers on top of adjustable coilovers is not a good idea . Rough country makes a drop in loaded strut for a 6-in drop bracket lift.

 

would replacing the kings fix the drivability issue? A local off road shop said it wouldn’t help at all.

 

I know from my experience with running a drop bracket lift when I still had my Tacoma. I had that drop bracket lift on there for 8 years before I sold the truck and running adjustable coilovers with a spacer on top was an issue so I ended up taking that out buying the right strut/coilover that was designed for the drop bracket lift and that fixed a lot of it. Also, you need to make sure that your suspension itself is tight. You don't have any wore out. Bushings in the upper or lower control arms along with the ball joints or uniballs along with tie rod ends inner and outer. Make sure everything is tight and there is no play in it.


Where are you from/at location?

 

I have checked everything and it’s all tight I had a bearing with a tiny bit of play so I replaced it but didn’t change anything. I’m from vernal Utah

 

Ok . Was hoping you where local to me so I could look at it for you . I'm in South Carolina lol . But yeah get some pictures of the lift. I want to see how your control arms are your upper control arms. I want to see how their positioned on level ground along with the rest of the suspension because like I was saying when I had my drop bracket lift on my Tacoma it wasn't a pavement. Princess I wheeled mine hard I was doing stuff with it that people said I couldn't do and I never had an issue with it. As far as what you're describing other than when I first installed it I did adjustable coilovers with spacers but like I was saying I was having issues with how it handled and drove with that set up on there. So I took those off, sold them, bought a set loaded struts. If I remember they were from rough country and that solved the issue kept everything nice and tight. There wasn't any excessive movement in the suspension

 

First Welcome to TW.

I’m not familiar with DB lift and it’s complexity’s.

Take out that spacer and start from there, usually the problem child of all headaches.
Since you are a king and have a kings taste, you may want to consider removing that DB lift. That could be another issue.

From there you will ride on a truck fit for a king. Especially off-road.

With a spacer lift, DB lift, and King Coilovers (assuming long travel) at 5.5in. I’m curious to see what angles everything is at.

What do you do with your truck?
Mall Crawl?
Off-road?

Edit: After educating myself with the local google library one can’t revert a DB lift to stock w/o spending time, money, and tears.

 

This was my '07 with a 6-in front drop bracket lift and those pictures I was running 35s


https://youtu.be/x3EqFk4UKV0?si=WBJj149a8a-c_qiI

 

it’s not long travel I think the kings are a 3.5” lift then the 1” spacer on top adds another 2”. My main problem is the driver side seems to be softer in the bumps causing the bump steer feel. But both springs are the same. I’ll get pictures tonight

 

Common misconception with adjustable UCA is that they move the tire forward. Pushing the tire forward to gain firewall clearance is handled by the LCA, then an adjustable is used to pull the upper ball joint back to correct the Caster. One way to picture it is by looking at the relationship of the Hub compared to the control arms. Being that it is closer to the LCA then the UCA you get more leverage/movement from the bottom. The Adjustable UCA like SPC has +2 degrees built in on the neutral setting, and can be rotated to get a few more degrees positive or negative. Also has some Camber adjustment. I always tell the alignment shop to start by rotating the lower cams so the rear pushes out and the front pushes in to get the Hub/tire all the way forward. Then go to the upper and adjust for Caster to ~3 degrees. Then fine tune the lower cams and the upper Camber adjustment. And finally set the toe. That is essentially how it is worded in the SPC instructions to gain tire clearance.
Makes sense?

 

Im pretty sure your problem is your running just the regular ext travel king coilovers, probably adjusted with so much preload. On top of that you have spacers. You need the specific king coilovers for the 6inch drop bracket lifts.

 

I agree completely the problem I run into when I do that is the camber way too far negative as if my upper control arms are too short