Smoothing out the ride

I've got a '04 DC 4x4 with a 2" lift. This was supposed to be my fishing and hunting rig but realistically it's going to be a pavement princess with some VERY limited trail stuff - really just using 4WD to get out of trouble instead of getting into it. My son has a very capable 4WD Tacoma that has been elevated to hunting rig and so we'll beat the crap out of that.

The Turd has very stiff suspension and is just not all that pleasant to drive on the commute. I'm looking for suggestions on what I can do to give it more of a glide ride. Any input is appreciated.

 

What is the rating on the tires currently on it?
I swapped D rated for SL rated and it helped the ride quite a bit...

 

What kind of lift is it?

 

Too little information to offer any advice.

Size of wheels/tires?
What type of lift?
How old is the suspension?
Budget?
Etc.

If I had to take a wild guess, you are running a 2" spacer lift which in turn sacrifices ride quality.

 

Thats what I was thinking.

 

The truck has 16" wheels on it. Bridgestone Dueler tires LT265/75/16. Suspension is only a couple years old, previous owner had it installed by a shop and I don't know what kind of equipment it is (I haven't crawled under and looked at it in awhile). It is a suspension lift - no spacers.

I don't really know what my budget is... I'm not looking to break the bank. It's a very nice truck with only 140k miles on it and has all the major maintenance done to it recently (TB, WP, brakes, etc.) so I could probably flip it for a nice hunk of change and then get something else. But I'm drawn to this truck.

 

First question in my mind, is what tire pressure are you running? Don’t make the common mistake of inflating to the tire’s max pressure indicated on the sidewall. I’d be running somewhere between 30 to 35 psi with your tire size on that truck.

 

I'm looking to fine tune the ride also. Looks like you're not running an aggressive tire. I've got 10 ply E rated tires which can be very jarring.

Is your suspension just stiff or is it jarring over cracks and bumps in the road?

 

Take some pictures of the front coil spring lift and rear leaf springs and we might be able to identify what brand they are.

Any kind of suspension lift is going to come with a stiffer ride unless you spend big bucks. These trucks don’t ride like Cadillacs anyways.