New suspension for 1st gen Tacoma

Truck has 160,000 miles
new suspension question
It’s the original so thought I trade it out for fox 2.0 kit.? I don’t go four wheeling, just highway, snow, and off-road when doing work, so would like keep a smoother highway ride, and not lose payload when needed, any suggestions. Don’t plan on putting bigger tires then factory 265/70/r16 (think that’s right), so love look of lifted trucks just don’t have funds do that. Just want the truck to feel more... new, that new firm, responsive and smooth

 

I would definitely recommend going fox for your particular needs. Relatively cheap and the difference will be day and night from stock. You’ll be happy with the ride quality.

 

What all should be replaced? Thought new rear springs besides the just shocks maybe

 

Just want the truck to feel more... new, that new firm, responsive and smooth

Me too... I took a path that required a learning curve for me and a do-over, but ended up
with "firm, responsive, smooth and new" ... I also ended up with no money ...

I got a bunch of OEM moving parts up front, steering rack, tie rods, Lower ball joints,
new control arms (new bushings would have done it). And I found a great deal on
a set of 3rd gen wheels/tires with 20 miles on them (guy got bigger wheels right away).
And I got some King shocks and Total Chaos upper control arms for the front. All easy, just costly.

The giant learning curve came from reading ads at Wheelers and all the places you
read about on here and getting some progressive J59 Deaver leafs and a set of
King rear shocks... you can't just buy King rear shocks off the shelf if your leaf springs
give you any lift, that's where the do-over came in, I had to get custom length
Kings to fit.

Anywho... my truck's not going to win any mud-bog contests with street oriented
OEM SR5 tires on it, but the way it is set up now it silently, smoothly and responsively
cruises around on my bumpy South Carolina back roads like a champion... there's
a bunch of suspension options that are probably good and certainly less expensive,
but you need all those steering-releated moving parts and bushings to be in good
shape to get what you want, and OEM is the way to go if you replace any of them...

"Timmy the Toolman" videos on youtube will teach you a million things about
your truck... one that sticks in my mind is how to change out the lower control
arm bushings... no need to "burn them out", which you'll probably hear about...

-Mike

 

Appreciate The help. Yea I just want make sure I do it right and truck last another 15-20 years

 

Rear springs and shocks for sure. With bushings (which they come with)

Front is a different story however. Look at UCA and LCA bushings. LBJ's, UBJ's, TRE's ITR's. Steering rack bushings need checked. So much more for the front end, but it will all help to tighten it up. That about covers it all. They are all pretty easy fixes overall. Just time consuming. Don't forget the alignment after...