Rough suspension

I've been working on my tacoma since I bought it .. when your driving normal speed you feel every little bump hard and rides rough.... then when you get up to 60 like going across a bridge for example, it wants to bounce around and float and still rough as hell... this is all stock with 200,000 miles... any suggestions on what kind of suspension to get

 

Its an 03 … gonna need to replace it all.

coilovers- (yep springs and shocks), rear springs and shocks.

while you have it apart (for the first time ever?!) do the Lower Ball Joints otherwise its gonna break everything one of these days.

loads of suspension threads do a search.
I recently did a 5100 all the way around. Its ok

on another I went with Rancho Rs9000 1.75”and it also has been good.

 

I thought that was a feature

 

My 98 used to ride like that. New leaf springs (dakars) with nitro chargers, Toytec coilovers with Bilsteins in the front. All new whiteline bushings in my control arms with JBA uppers. New Rack and pinion. Got it set pretty good and it rides a lot better but thing is - It's always gonna ride like a lightweight pickup. If I am unloaded and go at speed over harsh bumps she about cat-walks all over. Loaded down it's like a cadillac over that stuff.

 

I put kings up front and OME Rear springs and Polyurethane steering rack bushing and it drives like a completely different truck

 

What coils up front?

 

Kings=2” lift, probably 600lbs

 

Pretty sure they’re 600lb coils

 

That was the big part for me. Like OP and other posts, even with compliant suspension it will ride rough because the bushings are shot.

I one-upped and had OEM rubber put in, that addressed a lot of the rattling like roughness from the originals being almost totally rotted out, but no way around the OEM constraints of tiny/short LCAs that transmit a lot of energy right into the frame and not into the spring/shocks to be mitigated. Another aspect is you or the shop need to only loosely tighten the bolts on the LCAs and only tighten to spec once the truck is settled on the ground so the OEM rubber bushings are not pre-loaded and then get wrecked faster.

I'm a suspension nut and geeked on this a while and have been through a few setups now. My buddies GX on Icons rides like a cloud- the Icons do that for the big stuff (going fast over speed bumps etc) but its the long OEM LCAs and Lexus'ized bushings eating up the little stuff that otherwise makes our rigs feel like a WWII bomber going through a flack field (judging by the movies). We have essentially the same Icons, but ride very differently.

IMO this is why you can go with an uber soft spring shock combo causing you to bottom out on large things yet still feel rough on beat up streets.

I like everything else about our 1st gens, this is my one gripe that as both I and the truck get older, I can see myself upgrading eventually- despite passionately feeling no new truck will be this combination of size, reliability and easy to work on. I love this truck and when younger can just shake off a rough ride, but its getting to me that every other truck I ride in feels like a Lincoln town car in comparison.

In the car scene sometimes the Chinese made rubber "OEM like" replacement bushings are softer than OEM much like a Chinese LED's lumens is usually not as advertised. I'm thinking a softer than OEM LCA replacement and going with a softer leafpack and bushings out back would be the best mitigation short of a LT kit with compliance in mind.

 

so do you think this would be a good up grade.. I won't mind it being lifted a couple inches

 

I wouldn't mind having a little lift.... is this what you recommend