Thinking of going back to stock suspension need advice!

So, there is a lot that led me to this point, but basically my wife and I were wanting to trade in my Tacoma for a Tundra. Mainly for cab space since we have a baby on the way and two dogs. I thought a lot about it, and got some opinions and advice from the nice people on the Tundra forum and I ultimately decided I didn't want to spend any money and I wanted to keep the Tacoma and make it work. One of the two reasons my wife doesn't like the Tacoma is the way it rides.

The reason she hates riding in the vehicle is because I installed the Ironman4x4 Foam Cell Pro stage 2 off-road suspension. It now rides like a stiff off-roading suspension, and that's how it should. The problem 100% of the time she rides in it we aren't off-roading and the other problem is that I honestly don't ever go off-roading. Hindsight is always 2020 and I now realize that I just am not that into off-roading and for the little bit of "off-roading" I do, my truck would've been plenty capable with stock suspension and AT tires. So at this point my suspension is more for looks than anything.

So, my question is should I go back to stock suspension? OR since I'm already going to be swapping out the suspension again should I buy something that's more geared towards a smoother ride? I'm sure I could sell the Ironman4x4 suspension kit for more than enough to cover the change. Truck and stock suspension only has 55k miles on it so it's not old by any means. I will miss the lifted look a little, but I would rather have my wife enjoy taking the truck camping.

Thoughts?

Thanks,

(One of the few times I actually went "off-roading")

 

Stock would be the cheapest route
And more
Comfortable

 

I am not familiar with the Ironman4x4 suspension kit. I dont think you need to sacrifice height with ride quality. 5100 shocks with OEM springs should provide similar OEM ride quality. Nice ride!

 

Probably a lot of practically new stock take-offs available on here since the gen 2/3 have interchangeable parts. Cheap and easy change.
A different lift is pretty pointless if you don't use it.
Also, the taco works great for 1 kid and two dogs. My kid rides on the passenger side and I built a platform to take up the leg space in the center and drivers side. More usable real estate and they can't slip down into the footwell.

 

For sure, and I do still have my stock suspension and should go back on painlessly and last plenty of miles. May be nice to sell the Ironman suspension and get some cash back.

I agree I feel like it was pretty pointless and I probably shouldn't have changed the suspension out. I think I was imagining I would really get into off-roading more and just haven't. Love the look, don't necessarily care for the on-road ride.

Good to know, I think we were just overthinking it and coming up with excuses to get a tundra with more room. We also figured we would buy a camper in the future and would need a bigger more powerful truck to pull it, but realistically we won't be buying one for a few years and therefore don't NEED a Tundra now. A platform for the dogs is a great idea, although I was planning on having the baby in the middle seat.

Thanks

 

Even easier if you still have your old parts. Can always upgrade the stock height shocks later on if you want to change the ride character.
Middle seat is probably a good call for first couple years - didn't have the option in my old small 4-door hatch.
Had those same camper struggles. The Tacoma was good with the 25' Micro Minnie trailer we had, but that was touching the manufacturer's load limits. Wouldn't have known from the drive, though - towed it like nothing other than on extended grades.

 

> Ironman4x4 Foam Cell Pro stage 2 off-road suspension. It now
> rides like a stiff off-roading suspension, and that's how it should …

Typically, off-road suspensions are more compliant/softer, not stiffer/harder.

 

It's a great suspension kit and off-road handles very well, but I think it's just par for the course as far as suffering on-road quality when lifting and installing off-road components.

 

I don't agree I think off-road suspension's when not being used off-road are definitely stiffer and hurt the on-road ride quality. The suspension off-road when being challenged by terrain is soft and allows for the tires to stay on the ground, but on-road it's not going to be comfortable. Going from stock suspension to the Ironman4x4 suspension I have is night and day. Off-road the ironman4x4 suspension kills it, on road it's completely different and rides stiff. If I took the stock suspension on some serious off-road terrain it would allow too much travel and the truck to bottom out.

I think we're saying the same thing, but our definitions of stiff and soft are different.

 

check your tires first, if they arent p-rated start by swapping them out before doing any suspension work.

 

265/75/16 K02's E1 10 ply

 

yea you gotta ditch those and go with a p-rated tire if you want to prioritize comfort, superior asphalt performance as well due to the lighter weight. A michelin defender ltx m/s in that size is 41 lbs, your k02's are 54 lbs

the cooper disc at3 4s is another good one, i run them in 285/70/17 and prior to that i ran 265/75/16 on different wheels. in 16" its 41 lbs

 

I'm running an aftermarket suspension that is designed for off road performance and it is by no means stiff on or off road. Maybe the Ironman uses a digressive shock which is what you're feeling or maybe the spring rate is not correct for the weight of your vehicle, but it's not a characteristic of off road suspension in general.

What air pressure are you running in those bricks?

 

Hey, I remember you, gratz on the baby on the way.
I can recommend 2 things, if you can, lower air pressure to 31 or so. 2nd, if you can as well, lowering the front about 1/2 might help a lot too. That is, if you’re gonna keep it.
2 adults, 2 dogs and a baby are gonna take up a lot of room in that cab.
Why kind of dogs?

 

Man I have to vote against the Cooper Discoverer AT3s if we are trying to help OP get a softer ride.

I had a set (p-metric 265/70/16 at 29f/32r psi) and AT FIRST they rode great, but man they did not age well and I keep my truck garaged 90% of the time so it wasn't UV or anything. It's like the compound on them is designed to turn into road asphalt instead of being soft and bouncy. After around 25k on them they got super noisy on the highway (wom wom wom wom) and rode over bumps and potholes like they were made of steel.

 

Winner winner chicken dinner!

Gotta go Joe!

Your '14 is one of the nicest units around. Get the right baby seat (congrats on that) and enjoy what you have!

The dogs can adjust. Like they are going to have to do anyway..........

 

Hey! How have you been?

My tire pressure might be a little high and maybe that will make all the difference in the world. Thanks for the suggestion. Yeah I probably should lower the front a little although it might be extremely hard to do.

Yeah it will be a full truck, but still enough room for the 5 of us!

 

Thanks!

 

Those 2 things did help me. Lowering the lift wasn’t too bad, I did it while they were on the truck. All you need Is a tool that will work and probably a bar it’ll attach too. The nuts were tough to move with the load still on the springs.

 

I’ve got E-load bricks too and tire pressure makes a difference lol