Still Riding Rough After Upgrading Suspension, What Now?

Hi All,

So I just got my new to me 2002 Prerunner double cab with 115k a few months ago. After driving the truck for a few weeks, I noticed that the ride was really rough. It did fine on smooth roads and the highway, but any potholes or rough patch of road, and man, it felt like the dashboard was absorbing the hits rather than the shocks or the rest of the suspension.

So I did some inspecting of my suspension components, and it looked like there were a few things that needed replacing. I'm not planning on getting rid of the truck, so I decided to invest in getting it to ride better. I replaced the upper and lower ball joints on both sides, the inner and outer tie rods, put new Bilstein 4600s all around, and replaced the two springs in the front. I specifically got the 4600s because I had them on a Jeep I owned a few year back and I loved the way they rode.

It took a couple days to get the work done, and I was anticipating the first drive after the upgrade, cause I was excited to see what the difference would be. Well now I'm here writing this, and the difference is, very little. The truck feels more solid than it did, but it still rides very rough. I feel every single bump, and pot holes shake the entire cab. I can also hear my suspension, on every bump it's really loud, like a clanging noise, almost like you can hear all the component moving around. It seems like the roughness of the ride is definitely coming from the front, and my leaf springs look ok, not super great, but they arent completely flat.

I've gone underneath, checked my sway bar links, checked all the components, banged around, but nothing seems to be loose. Now I'm looking at the only thing I didnt change, and I'd love to know if this could be the source of the issue: the tires/wheels. Currently the truck is on 17" steel wheels, running Falken Rubitrek All Terrains 265/70R/17 115T. Does it seem plausible that if I change the tires to passenger tires and get a set of 16" rims that the ride will be improved by at least a decent amount? Is there any other thing that could be causing this?

I know that many people in these threads say "well it's going to ride like a truck" and I understand that, but I've owned two Ford Rangers, and have drive numerous other trucks, with more miles on the chassis, this is by far the roughest ride and I am honestly shocked that the upgrades I put in really dont seem to make the difference I had hoped for.

One other interesting thing to note is that it seems like I could really use a new transmission mount, which I'm not sure if that would contribute to the shake when hitting pothole and rough patches of road.

Thank you for reading this, any help is greatly appreciated.

 

How much air pressure is in the tires? How do the leaf springs look?

 

psi? i like at least 75 aspect ratio for good ride quality on 15 or 16in rims.

 

I dont currently know what PSI I'm running, I just got my tires rotated and balanced and had them all inflated by a tire service place. Leaf springs look ok.

 

Ive heard of some tire shops inflating to the max pressure on the tire sidewall, id check that first.

 

My truck rode rough after replacing the springs and shocks, and I think in my case it was because of a seized LCA bushing. I wasn't aware of the seized bushing when I did the suspension work, but my alignment shop let me know when I took it in.

I got the frame replaced by Toyota last fall and they replaced the LCA bushings during the frame swap. Truck rides much smoother now over bumps and potholes. May be something to look into if the tire pressure doesn't help.

 

Air pressure and load rating Def makes a difference.

 

The LCA bushing really could be it, but for me I have always found that i cant stand cars with big rims, even if they have a decent sidewall.