I am currently running a set of 295/75/r17 Nitto Terra's on my 05 Super Crew. The truck seems to me to ride a little hard. And what I mean is, when I have to drive through the city, any rough patch in the road and my truck feels like im driving through with a 2" round for springs.

When i Bought the truck, it appears to have a set of spacers installed between the coil springs and the tower. Not sure if these are "loading" up the coil spring and not providing the right spring rate for the load or what. Do these provide a stiffer ride??

I have been looking at the bilsteins 5100 series with the adjustable ride height. I have read tons and tons of reviews on them, some are good and some are bad. Slightly hesistant on spending the money to go this route without seeing a noticeable difference.. Does anyone else have a recommendations??

 

How long have you owned the truck? How many miles are currently on the truck? I asked the first question to see if the ride quality has changed for the worse since you've owned it. With a 17" wheel, I wouldn't suspect ride harshness from the tires. It also sounds like you have a front leveling kit already on the truck. Most people say they don't impact ride all that much, but I had a leveling kit and thought they stiffened up the ride a little. I also made the move from stock 18's to 20's shortly thereafter, which didn't help. I just made the switch from stock suspension with leveling kit on top to the bilstein adjustable 5100's. I'm loving them so far. Only time I really feel any "stiffness" is when going over a speed bump. But like I said in my review, I think they're smooth as silk. I don't feel a harsh or rough ride at all. The feel is great.

 

Leveling kit on top of the strut doesn't effect the spring rate, it limits the travel though, so over bigger bumps when the suspension bottoms out, you'll feel it.

Now if you mean its a preload kit, then yes that would effect the preload and give a harsher ride.

http://www.bilsteinus.com/fileadmin/...WebArticle.pdf

That may help explain it some more.

But like russ said, has it always felt like this since you got it or is this something recent?

Because some other causes for this could be the load range of the tire.

The only size I see on Nitto's site close to the one you listed is a 295/70r17 and it's a load range D, so if your not used to a tire like that, it would definitely feel harsher on poor roads.

Another thing to check would be the air pressure in the tires and make sure it's not too high.

 

So I am the second owner. I purchased 5 years ago with 65,000 miles. I know have 93000. It's hard to say, but I have always felt like it rode a little stiff. I am thinking that the previous owner installed a preload kit to put the bigger wheels on. It looks very similar to the setup described in your post. It's definitely not a leveling kit. And the reason I think its a preload kit, is I can see the top of the spring, and it appears that on top of that is a spacer, and then the truck mount. I am going to snap a picture and see what you think, because I think in the rear it has blocks that are similar to the ones in the above link.

Tire pressure I am running around 40 pounds? I have always ran my tire pressure around there and not had any problems. Thanks for all the input!

 

I was gonna suggest checking your air pressure as this can have a huge effect on ride quality. I know most shops in my area will just inflate every tire to the max psi listed on it's sidewall. But 40 psi is a good starting point for a light truck tire. I wouldn't go much lower on a pickup.

 

Heres a photo of what my setup currently is. You can see where the coil stops. Is this a leveling kit or a coil spring spacer??

http://postimg.org/image/nzgkbjh0p/

 

Looks like a preload spacer to me.

 

I was thinking the same thing, which would account for the rough ride I am experiencing. Im going to pull them out and replace them with a leveling kit I think. I was playing around last night, and too me, the front end of my truck seems so stiff that this has to be the problem.

 

So I getting around to replacing these shocks. Can anyone else confirm from the picture I posted if I have preload spacers or a leveling kit??

 

Looks like what I had until i installed bilsteins. It was a 1 inch spacer on top of the coil. Made it a real bearcat to compress the spring that much farther to get them out.