Tacoma Suspension and ride help

Whats up guys, long time lurker, finally decided to make an account after I figured I needed some guidance. Currently own a completely stock 2018 Trd sport 4x4 and have loved the truck and its first 5,000 miles. Although the truck is great, the ride is rather stiff and I've been wanting to do some upgrades to it anyway to make it slightly more off-road capable.

I think I have read every thread in this dang place about suspension lifts, spacer lifts, tires, wheels you name it and am hitting some informational overload as I literally am no better off than when I started researching 6 ish months ago.

I am currently at a crossroad of what to do, and hoping some of you fine people could give me a little bit of insight.

I was thinking about originally keeping the truck at stock suspension and adding Pro wheels and falken wildpeak atw3s at 265/70/17 at a C load as this would give the truck a decently aggressive stance and the off-roading I would do probably would not need anything more than that. However as this is the case, I feel like adding those tires on stock suspension wouldn't really solve the stiffness aspect of sport albeit making it more off-road viable due to the tires.

Now I am thinking of holding off on the pro wheels and using that money to replace the shocks with a billstein 5100 lift set up with dakars. Only thing that worries me about doing all that kind of a lift is the issues I've read about the needle nose bushings going out and having to replace them with ECGS bushings or the vibration issues many have had with having a lift on the truck or just random issues lifts are known to have, including voiding the 60,000 mile warranty. Also I would want to stay below 3" so I would not need to buy aftermarket UCA's.

Realistically I'd love to find Trd Pro takeoff fox shocks for a reasonable price, but that's starting to look extremely nonviable as I have had completely 0 luck with that.

Should I just forget all this and start by buying aftermarket billstein 4600's for like 400$? Realistically with anything I will have to factor in shop installation prices too so that's also a factor.

If you all are wondering why I bought a sport to complain about the stiffness of it is because I got a really good deal on it from my dealership vs what they would let an offroad go for and because this is the first truck I have ever outright owned.

Anyway sorry for the Long wall of text, I know its probably annoying.

 

Welcome to TWorld! I think it depends entirely on your budget. I'm running a bare stock Off Road, so I won't be much help on suspension setups; however, I can tell you the OR does not seem stiff at all!

 

What ^^ said. I used to own a 2nd gen sport and now a 3rd gen OR. The OR does rode softer than the sport.

 

You can pickup OR suspension for next to nothing used. It’s a lot softer than the sport, so it might be worth picking up a used set of OR suspension and trying that.

 

Welcome to The Forum!

You will get lots of suspension help/advice here. Good luck!

not sure where you are located...

oem-front-and-back-3rd-gen-suspension.610833

 

Also have a Sport, and just recently upgraded with the Fox TRD Pro suspension. MUCH nicer ride in every way. The stock sport suspension would try to throw me out of the driver's seat if I hit a bump wrong. Anyway, expect to spend around 1200-1500 on a used set around here. I also have the Falken Wildpeaks on the Pro 17s. Love em.

 

I replaced my Sport shocks with the aftermarket 4600's. Much nicer ride!

 

Welcome!

If you want to go fancy, you can get custom valved shocks to get the right ride. There's a few suspension vendors out there that'll help you.