Anyone feel like their Tacoma rides squirrely on highy?

I was waiting for someone to ask if it was lifted? No, not yet? Will that help any? If so, I may do just that. I was thinking about a Ready Lift and Nitto Terra Grapplers.

 

when I first got mine when I drove at around 75+ it would get squirrely and seemed to be tossed around by wind. a year later after coilovers, new leafs and tires it really doesn't feel so bad. a bad alignment can make it feel like that, it took 4 times for the shop to get mine right. bad wheel balance can make it drive like a turd too and don't over torque your lugs, like just about every shop will do. gl

 

call bullshit all you want........my opinion....tacomas are bricks on wheels. would i trade it for anything else....never.

 

My 2009 DC short bed was the same when I picked it up. I replaced the stock wheels with the FJ BBS RD-Truck 17" model (4.5" backspacing) with 265/70 17 Hankook MTs and it became much more stable at highway speed. I guess the wider footprint helped. It's even better since I've added SAW (Sway-A-Way) 2.0 adjustable coilover shocks and Total Chaos upper contol arms. I feel like the wheels made the biggest differance with this particular issue. You'll get use to it after a while. It might not be a bad idea to have the dealer check the alignment just in case.

 

My truck is solid like a rock!

Take it back to the dealer and have them raise your Caster. That and a good set of tires should make it into a sports car!

 

Haven't noticed anything like that at all. Granted, it doesn't feel bolted to the road like my wife's Passat, but that's a great highway car and my Taco is a 4WD truck. As far as trucks go, I'd say the handling is quite sporty and responsive. No issues at all based on my experiences.

 

No issues here with slightly larger than stock tires.

 

Ahh, thanks, missed that.

Agreed. I would think the H3 would be worse also.

 

My truck is awesome on the highway. No complaints here. I have a double cab and it handles the highway wonderful. I'd get your truck looked at

 

I noticed the same thing. While I'm sure aerodynamics plays a part in it, I'm even more sure that the tires that came on it SUCK. I attribute a lot of the general instability to them.

 

could be the crappy highway. If im on a bad road my truck knows it and tells me, it will wander really bad, especially with my big tires

 

Yes, My 09 Prerunner DC feels the same way. I am coming from an 02 Dakota DC AWD, which was solid as a rock on the road. My description is that it's "jittery" on the highway.

As others have suggested, I believe that it's a combination of high profile tire (well 75 anyway) along with a skinnier tread (245) then this high profile truck should have. Note that I haven't bit the bullet to buy new tires (too cheap right now) to confirm any of this on mine.

Rod.

 

Lightweight truck...it is not a great highway vehicle IMO. I noticed it right away. It is better with a load in it, but still not great.

 

cheap lift usually makes it worse. a really nice lift+wider tires is proven to stabilize anything.

and... you want to drive a brick, drive a wrangler. my nearly vertical window doesnt even curve. and my body sides are 90 degrees from the ground.

hell, even my grill is perfectly upright!

 

My truck is great on the highway with revos. I think your problem is tires (dunlops?) youu are probably used to driving a vehicle with a shorter than normal wheelbase. But maybe your also not used to no weight in the rear end ie.. a pickup. Try adding some weight to the rear however it will effect your mileage etc...

 

Plus one on the tires....the Dunlops on my new 09 AC have small bulges and one of them has 2 weights on it to balance. Never seen this before. Will take the vehicle to a Dunlop shop to see if they consider it normal - tires under warranty.

Coming from a Dakota, found the Tacoma ride a bit stiff and swayey, but got used to it. Handles well on corners, no front end sag, and the better gearing ratios (manual) make up for the stiffer ride.

 

the tires are Bridgestone Dueler HTs P265/65/R17

 

Check for play in your tie rod ends by turning the wheel while at a stop. If it feels like it's loose or has some play, chances are thats it. Otherwise your caster is probably off. That feeling is typical of us lifted boys, we have to live with it unless we choose to dump 500+ on new UCA's. You shouldn't have to deal with that though. My truck drives like a champ up to about 90.

 

Raise your Caster to 2.4* or a bit higher and your truck will ignore the bad roads.

 

Yep I do just sold my 08 4runner limited because of this to find out this truck does 2010 DB Cab does the same thing not as bad but it does it weird. It must be something with the new Toyota's being so light I had a 1996 tacoma and an 04 4runner and never an issue really annoying only with the new stuff.