Kytann

King shocks? Don't they make Coilovers? I'll take a look into them, thanks for the suggestion.

In all the suspension experience I've gotten over the years (off-road trucks, Sportbikes, Harleys, and Sports Cars), shocks always make the absolute biggest difference. Especially in soaking up small sharp impacts like what happens on a concrete road.

Bushings in the suspension system can also make a huge impact on that, but if I've still got all the stock suspension components I'm guessing no one makes softer alternatives.

roadking54

I would replace both the springs and shocks if it were me.....otherwise you're troubleshooting one component at a time to determine which is contributing significantly to the ride.

When I was shopping for a lift / shocks, Northridge suggested the OME shocks to provide the softest ride, and said the Blistens were much stiffer on the JK. I can't compare, as I've only run stock and now the OME's, but it is a nice ride....however I do have an unlimited, so the feel may be a bit different on the 2-door, as been mentioned above.

Kytann

Honestly I've got OME soft shocks in the front of the Tacoma, and the aforementioned Bilstein 5150, also in the softest valving, in the rear of the truck. The front suspension on the truck rides much much harsher than the rear.
Front truck springs are stock, rear truck springs are super soft long travel Chevy leafs (2 leafs and 1 overload per pack)

So I've always viewed OME as having much harsher high speed compression damping characteristics.
Of course they're valving and construction may be alot different for the Tacoma application versus the Wrangler application.
After all alot of the Tacoma guys liked hard shocks so they could go running through the desert at high speeds. Not for me thanks.

Anyone else here recognize the difference between high speed and low speed damping?
High speed is impact harshness. What you feel over concrete edges. Ideally you want really soft high speed damping so the shock doesn't effectively go rigid on a large hit like that.
Low speed damping is the big wallowing motions. Without enough low speed damping you feel uncontrolled, like an old cadillac. Ideally you want low speed pretty stiff.

Then of course you can separate them out into compression and rebound, as there's a separate spring shim stack for each. At least on the higher quality shocks that use a shim stack.

The shim stack makes all the difference, 'cause it basically moves out of the way on a high speed impact allowing alot more oil flow through the valving, whereas on a low speed impact it stays in place restricting oil flow.

Looks like those Kings have shim stacks. Are they end user rebuild-able? That'd make dialing them in much nicer.

Of course, from what little research I just did they are really f-in' expensive.

JKlad

Hey Kytann, I notice that you're running 70 series tyres. Do you think the lower aspect ratio of these tires (compared to the stock Rubi 255/75R17s) might be making the ride harsher, particularly if you're running higher psi?

I certainly know that on road cars dropping even 5 points of aspect ratio (especially higher up on scale, say from 70 to 65; not as noticable lower down as from say 50 to 45) makes quite a noticable difference to ride firmness (and obviously also increases high speed cornering performance).

Kytann

Since they're 285 width they're taller than the stockers. 32.8 versus 32.1
Remember the aspect ratio is a percentage applied to the width. So:
255 * 0.75 = 191.25 mm = 7.530 inches sidewall height
Versus
285 * 0.70 = 199.50 mm = 7.854 inches sidewall height

Add the rim diameter to double that (upper and lower sidewalls) and you get overall diameters of:
255/75R17 = (7.530 * 2) + 17 = 32.060 inches
285/70R17 = (7.854 * 2) + 17 = 32.708 inches

Manufacturer claimed diameter for each tire is 32.1 inches versus 32.8 inches, so pretty close to the mathematical estimation.

But in summary, I have a taller sidewall, so it should soak up bumps better.

Kytann

I should make a note in here, OME's are valved and designed to work with their springs. In my application above I'm using them with the stock springs, so they may not feel as harsh if used in a package with their springs, of which I don't have experience.

Kytann

Hello fellow Jeepers
I just got back from a road trip out to Colorado in my Jeep. I figured I could update this thread with some of my thoughts.

Pretty much as soon as we were out of the midwest the ride quality of the jeep magically got better. SO much better to the point that it wouldn't bother me at all. Those roads are why alot of you were saying you didn't mind the ride of your jeep, you've just got way better roads than we do in Minneapolis.

So the weather was beautiful in Colorado. In fact it was so nice that I took an impromptu side-trip out to Moab. Now that was fun to go 4x4ing in the winter. No snow in Moab at all!

One of the 4x4 trails I was zipping along at somewhere between 20 and 30 mph and came to the realization that if only our roads in Minneapolis at 55 mph felt as nice as these off-roads trails do at 20mph then everything would be fine.

SO the point is, the Jeep really isn't that rough, just Minnesota roads (and Iowa, since I drove through there) are just too frost-heaved.

So the fix is to move to Colorado

LidLess07X

The easiest way to narrow down the problem is to swap some factory rims and tires off of something other than a Rubi for a day. The load range E tires that come on the Rubi are the same weight rating as a one ton truck. Should make a huge difference.

EzK

Some people say OME shocks are borderline too soft for them. They aren't cheap but might help smooth things out more than springs will.

Or borrow someones YJ and drive that for a week and you'll be glad to have your JK back.

Ryan_d99

Now thats a good idea! Instead of "Can you give me a ride?" you: "no", "why", you:"well, umm... fine" you can say "I don't have any seats."