Horrible Handling on Washboard

Thanks, but I have no plans to lift my truck, and no desire to run any larger tires. It's certainly not a $4200 problem to me.

I'll either upgrade the rear shocks, or just live with it and chalk it up as another thing Toyota missed the mark on with the Gen 3.

 

Yep as long as we are talking less than a one ton, 6112's, 5150's. Boom. Great price, great product.

 

They’ve done me right for 70k miles.

 

AFAIK, Bilstein has not released the 6112/5160 combo for Gen 3's yet. If that were an option, I would also suggest them. I have lots of miles with that combo and find it to be the best bang for the buck - but if they aren't available, he needs an alternative. Hence the suggestions for a 2.5 rear shock or at least a remote reservoir. But 5100's are just fine for some folks. Maybe he'll run them, love the improvement, smoke them after a few months, and be able to justify a better setup.

I have some high dollar suspension parts that haven't performed up to expectations. I understand the disappointment associated with spending a pile of money to be disappointed. I eagerly awaited the release of the 6112/5160's for our gen 2's as they appeared to meet my needs much better than a high dollar suspension or 5100's. They did not disappoint. But I had to wait over a year to finally get them, between teasing release dates and backorders. Worth it, but if I had the money at the time, I would have thrown on 5100's in the interim.

Totally understandable - if you feel remote reservoirs are a waste of money based on past experience, I can see why you'd be hesitant to upgrade. Luckily, shock technology has come a long way in the last two decades. I think you will find current offerings much more rewarding at all levels - reservoir or not. The 5160's mentioned are a definite upgrade, IME, and budget friendly. But unavailable for your truck.

I don't think trying the 5100's is a bad choice. Minimal investment but should notice a difference. Definitely better options, but the improvement/dollar ratio decreases quickly. I honestly have been running 5100's in the back of my truck for the last few months waiting for some 2.5's to show up on my doorstep. Anxiously waiting for the upgrades, but still much better IMO than stock shocks.

The other nice thing about 5100's in the back is you could upgrade the fronts as well for relatively low cost. Install is probably more than the shocks themselves unless you are handy and can swap the fronts yourself. The rears are easy enough I could prolly hand the neighbor kid a couple of wrenches in place of his game controller and have him swap them out without issue.

 

You don't need to lift the truck to run a different shock setup. I would recommend the 5100s from Bilstein, but they'll shock fade in 7 miles offroad easily (well, at least I'd get them to). I think without spending any money you might just be stuck with what you have. The rear is half the battle, if you're going to do the rear, may as well do the front.

Note that without addressing any of the suspension stuff, you'll fatigue out the plastics sooner than normal. Rattles, creaks, etc.

 

Thanks. I guess I haven't been clear. The roads I'm talking about are county maintained dirt roads. They get quite a bit of traffic, both passenger and commercial. In the 7 mile stretch to the nearest pavement, there are a handful of nasty washboard sections, mostly at sharp corners. I'm not traveling over 7 miles of washboard.

Upgraded rear shocks are really as much as I want to throw at this minor problem right now. As I mentioned, I love the way the truck handles on pavement, so I'm not going to do anything that adversely affects that. In my experience, there's usually trade offs when you go down the lifts and suspension mods road.

 

Yeah not sure, my truck handles night and day better on and offroad. But that’s maybe due to $7K in the right stuff.

 

I'm not doubting you. For $7K I sure hope it handles better. My 2008 and 2015 Tundras could have used some suspension mods, too The body lean in those trucks was pretty bad. My Gen 3 is much better in that respect.

I have 2 young buddies who have spent thousands of $$ on lifts, big tires, and other suspension mods. They swear up and down their trucks handle better too. I've driven both trucks, and I'm not convinced. Of course, one is a Ford and the other is a Dodge, so maybe they were really bad before all the mods.

 

If your rear end is sliding, having power going to the front would help with keeping it straight. Maybe this sounds silly, but just sharing my personal experience.

Especially after curves where washboarding is the worst, that’s where I can tell 4hi makes the biggest difference. In 2wd, I get some violent wheel hop sometimes.

I’m running 275/65R20 standard load tires with stock trd off road suspension and I actually think this truck is the most compliant vehicle I’ve ever had on washboards at slower speeds. I used to always run E loads on every truck I’ve ever had, but decided against it this time since I’m running 20 inch wheels. I’m so glad I didn’t go e load, I’ve been on many off road trips and haven’t had any problems yet.

If you say that there are passenger cars driving the same roads you are, it might mean you don’t need E Loads either.

 

Praytell… been wondering what’s taking them so long!

I 100% agree with how good for the money that combo is, if they offer it…

 

Having the rear ended slide out is much different that having it kick out. I believe the OP is describing having the back end buck and kick sideways, which needs a completely different remedy (suspension, of which tires are a part) than having the rear slide (traction and balance/weight). I agree that running in 4wd helps with the rear end sliding out, but find it does virtually nothing for the rear end kicking out.

 

I'm guessing if you try 4wd it might be more helpful with the body control when the rear end wants to break loose. It might be enough to get you out of whatever resonance or inadequacy you found in your specific scenario. The other day I was on some snow covered slushy roads with a 30+mph crosswind and while 2WD was adequate for traction, 4WD felt way more planted. The programming of electronic controls and limited slip could also be a factor and electronic interventions today are pretty complicated, there was a time when one could cut the wheel, stomp the gas, and you would actually end up in the ditch.

My experience so far through 3k miles is I'm still not confident in cornering the Tundra as I was in the GM that I drove the last 10 years. There's a lot less feedback, more understeer, the frame seems more rigid overall, and whatever business goes on in the rear does seem more likely to vibrate its way to the front. It feels like I'm just piloting/pointing the Tundra around vs a more responsive almost car like driving feel from the GM. I have yet to push the Tundra because I do feel like the rear could come loose at times and it might be because I don't trust the stability and traction control fully yet or and that it reacts very differently to the GM.

Anyways, I enjoyed the 5100 I put on my GM. Wild difference from the insufferable stock Ranchos. Multiple bumps or broken pavement wouldn't rattle your teeth with the Bilsteins. Apparently the 4600 are similar. I don't have any experience with them but I'd probably try them next if I was staying at stock ride heights.

 

4 hi
Sport mode

Enjoy!

 

This^^^. My problem is rear axle hop causing the bed to kick out, its not sliding out.

For the record, I tried 4Hi yesterday and didn't notice any improvement on the washboard.

On the bright side, the county crews were out adding additional road base to one of the worst washboard sections, yesterday, which will help. Apparently enough people griped about the problem to get them working on it.

 

How do you like the Dobinsons setup? That’s my plan since the TRD kit debacle.

apologies if this was asked and already answered.

 

Shop Put some extra air in my tires. Washboard was horrible. Dropped rear 5psi and made a massive difference on washboard. Tire Pressure is the easy free first thing to check.

 

IMS has been good for me and what I do. Definitely an upgrade from the stock TRD suspension when I went to bigger tires. MRR or some other fully adjustable shock I could get it really dialed for my conditions, but this is what I could afford at the moment and maybe I’ll go MRR down the road.

285/75R17 with +35 offset wheels. 70% paved, 30% Forrest service roads. Lots of twisty 2 lane roads into the cascades with snow and ice and poor/ torn up asphalt. I leave 4 bags of tube sand in the back for traction in the winter with 2”/1” lift.

Less body roll on twisty roads than stock which was a VERY welcome improvement. Better but not amazing small bump compression/ rebound on torn up asphalt and expansion joints. I would like to try adjustable MRR (or other brand) and see how much improvement I could get with compression/ rebound tuning on my own for this, but I’m still happy with the IMS improvement

Slowly making changes so I get a better idea of actual performance increase or not. I ran stock everything for a few thousand miles before i changes tires/ wheels. I ran the new tires and wheels on stock TRD suspension for 5k miles before I went to IMS. Later I may try a front sway bar drop (as per exit offroads Dobinsons shock guide) and see if that helps with small bump comfort. It’s a relatively cheap and easy mod.

I would point you in the direction of exit offroad if you want to go Dobinsons, they have a good breakdown of what other items you need to add depending on lift height and answered questions promptly.

Lots of other good resources out there, Accutune for one. Also check out the suspension megathread, which used to be pinned to 3rd gens but I dont see it there anymore. https://www.tundras.com/threads/3rd-gen-suspension-lift-mega-thread.108483/

Probably too much info, and I’m sure someone will disagree with something there, but that has been my experience.

 

Thank you for the information. I was up between IMS and Fox 2.5 performance elites. I will be installing the sway bar drop too. I ordered the IMS in 3/2 with lighter springs.

it’s was a hard decision since there isn’t much information on the setup here, so felt like I was taking a gamble. I appreciate your feedback. I too have spent a lot of time in the cascades, pretty place and lots of backwoods. I’ll be doing mostly driving on street and the setup is mostly for aesthetics with occasional beach trips or light desert.