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Do you plan to use the truck mostly on pavement and want a good freeway tire? Tires help a lot. The SR5 suspension is pretty soft so the ride on it should be pretty good with a long bed and topper. Tires make a big difference.

 

A huge one for me was bringing the tire pressure down. Dealer had it at 38PSI in November in MN. Felt like it was going to hop across lanes on the freeway. Brought it down to 32/33 warmed up, rides great!

If that isn't enough, buy a different suspension.

Still not enough? Buy a car.

 

I would think a good all terrain tire might be ideal for that. I got the BFG AT KO2s (bro2s), but have heard that some Cooper ATs are pretty nice as well as the Michelin ATX ones.

 

Heard the icons ride a little stiffer. Also have heard nightmares about their customer support and tech support giving bad info out lately and a lot of "leaking shock" threads. I personally would avoid Icon.

 

You know I personally recommend Fox shocks but icons are technically in that same class of 'no expense spared' level of shock upgrade

 

Icons are digressive though in that they start out stiff and get softer at speed. Kings and fox are progressive and start out soft and slowly get stiffer at speed. This is a big thing to understand if going with Icon. I personally rep Kings all day, but that's me.

 

How about some TRD OR takeoffs? Find them cheap in the classified section.

I feel mine is almost too soft, I'm kinda afraid for the first time I tow with it. Bottom out the leafs and all that.

Good luck OP and Welcome to TW!

 

New joins up asking legit questions and you immediately start screaming "troll"

Not very welcoming. This is why people hate posting in this section.

 

One thing that doesn't get mentioned but I feel is important is the alignment. Factory seems to set them below 2* caster. I don't personally like that and feel that getting above 2* and even closer to 3* as possible will help. My TRDOR likes to bob and weave over certain seams and the like. I will be changing this.

The Bilstien 5100 is a great, cost effective shock that will give you a great ride. Keep them on the lowest height setting for the front. No adjustment for the rears.

If you want to spend some money then the set-up smitty suggested is killer.

The topper will likely cause the ride to be worse. The rear leaf springs suck and even that little weight will cause them to bottom out sooner. A multi-leaf add a leaf will help you greatly there.

If at some point you want to do tires, stick with tires that are P-rated and do not have sizes beginning with "LT". P-rated are softer in the sidewall and also often softer in the tread make-up. Stay with something highway rated or a light all terrain. I hate Goodyear tires but have to say the Adventure that came on my truck is a pretty damned good tire.

Good luck. We're here for you.

 

I would start with stock everything and see how you like it before you start making changes. It seems a lot of folks here make wheel and tire swaps immediately which is smart for those folks that are getting into a lot of dirt, mud, rock, etc.

But for folks on the pavement most of the time, my personal choice is to put some wear on the wheels and tires that came with the vehicle and make a change later. The last set of tires I bought for my Tacoma were http://www.michelinman.com/US/en/tires/products/ltx-m-s-2.html. Got them at CostCo here in my city. They are mentioned here at Tacomaworld from time to time, but mostly from folks that are using their trucks and 4runners for commuting, road trips and light off pavement jaunts.

 

Get some quality shocks. TRD OR take offs or if your intrested in a mild lift, get kings. You won't regret it!

 

Well everyone has an opinion, and every opinion can be an A hole. I'm just stating mine based on my test drives that I pay much attention to, and respect yours.

If he had properly introduced himself I would have welcome him with open arms like I do everyone else I see for the first time, bit I don't think he's here for that. But you're welcome to take pot shots at me also if you'd like or plan to head in that direction.

 

Appreciate your view point man, when I first checked in here I think I got into some threads before I remembered to "intro" myself. I don't think you can harp on the guy for again, not possibly understanding all the facets of an online forum and their expected customs. I think he is doing just fine personally.

 

Pot shots? Hardly. It was a fair warning. As a community we are trying to clean up this section. If you don't want your posts reported, deleted or to be banned then be more welcoming and take a second to think about what you have to say.

You can also look at it this way: Who put you in charge of calling out trolls? This is your opinion and was not backed by one single fact. If you think the OP is trolling then report it and let the mods handle it.

 

If it wasn't mentioned, Get you a big lady friend

 

Fair nuff angrysam.

All right let me start over and hope it helps and makes a difference in the topic smoother ride.

OP welcome to the forum!!
Moreover, I apologize If I misunderstood your question, but now I'd like to get back to or address this very important topic at question.

All the research data in the world about smooth ride and suspensions are worthless If we can’t get past the springs and shocks.
But the simple fact is that the vehicle rides on tires/wheels and they are the first and only thing that hits the pavement and everything else just follows along for the ride.

And If I were to take the tires off and ride on the steel wheels, all the best springs and shocks in the world aren’t going to give me a smooth quiet ride with great road handling.

So, without dumping a gigabyte of data to support this finding I will instead dump a vid that maybe accepted as authoritative to some and hope it helps understand the important role tires have on a smooth quiet ride.

Cheers!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-HNPHurKw4

 

Well done.

 

Mia-culpa!

 

To be fair this was a pretty good response.

 

Great post. Very informative in my opinion.