[theastronaut]

Coilovers are just a spring mounted over a shock. No real difference in performance than a separate spring and shock. It's just easier to swap to a different rate spring, and height adjustment is easy as long as you don't run out of travel.

What tires are you running? A stiff sidewall will kill ride quality- my daily driver/autocross car rides pretty good on all season tires, but when I swap on my track tires with taller but stiffer sidewalls I feel EVERY little road imperfection. Tire pressure matters too.

Gas shocks don't necessarily mean a bad ride- the gas is there to keep the oil from foaming. The oil weight and valving is what controls ride quality.

Check your bump stop clearance. One trick I learned here is to dab a bit of grease on the tip of the bump stop, if you get grease transfer then it's bottoming out.

Anything loose and rattling in the cab will make it seem like it's riding rougher than it actually is.

Shock length matters- too short and the shocks won't let the suspension droop down into a dip, and too short won't let the suspension compress enough over a bump. Remember that one inch of travel at the shock is roughly two inches at the wheel.

Verify that the ball joints move freely.


On my old '66, I had passenger rated 225/75-15 front tires (soft sidewall), 1.5 coils cut off the stock springs, 2.5" spindles, relocated KYB Gas-A-Just shocks, and the bumpstop brackets were completely removed to regain full travel. It rode better than my dad's completely stock '66.