Stock '05 GMC 2500 4x4 Dmax, Rides like a tank

[foley]

Actually, I've ridden in a tank, my wife's truck rides worse!

It's bone stock with the exception of tires, last year she put a set of 285/70/16 BFG's on it. It's got 60K on the ticker and is about due for some maintenance. I am looking to upgrade shocks on it to improve the ride. I'm not afraid to throw some money at it, but I'm not terribly interested in lifting it, and I'm DEFINITELY not cranking the bars on it, the thing is stiff enough.

Are there any shocks out there that have made a dramatic difference? I'd like to spend somewhere in the $500 range on it, will spend more if I have to, and of course it wouldn't break my heart to spend less. Thanks for any input..

Foley

[VerticalTRX]

Get over it, if you wanted a nice ride you should have bought a car instead of a 3/4 ton truck.

[nosliw]

Originally Posted by VerticalTRX

Get over it, if you wanted a nice ride you should have bought a car instead of a 3/4 ton truck.

that's kinda what i was thinking. i've never been in a 3/4 ton or larger truck that rode good.

[crashnzuk]

If you think that truck rides rough, you've obviously never ridden in a truck like mine. Your wifes truck is the cadillac of the truck world.
Travis..

[foley]

Originally Posted by nosliw

that's kinda what i was thinking. i've never been in a 3/4 ton or larger truck that rode good.

I've never been in a 3/4 truck that rides good either, and I'm not looking for good, I'm looking for reasonable. If it was as comfortable on the road as my 3/4 ton dodge it would be acceptable, although considering that it has IFS and all the claptrap that goes with it I'd really expect it to be better.

It's like the thing has no damping whatsoever on extension, you hit a bump and it goes airborne, then your butt comes off the seat, then it comes back down to a medium-hard landing. If the damping were more balanced between rebound and compression it'd be better.

I'm not looking to turn the truck into a bentley, I just want to be able to ride around in it without continuously thinking, "I hit that bump in my truck last week and it didn't hurt that bad"

[foley]

Originally Posted by VerticalTRX

Get over it, if you wanted a nice ride you should have bought a car instead of a 3/4 ton truck.

She shopped around for a few, but couldn't find any that would pull a goosneck well enough. BTW, I married into owning the POS, if I had any input on the matter it would have been a Ford or Dodge that ended up in the driveway.

[jwag]

Put a cognito leveling kit on it with either bilsteins or run dual fox's in front. The Cognito arms will let the suspension drop and improve the ride a ton.

[ScoutIITD]

Originally Posted by crashnzuk

If you think that truck rides rough, you've obviously never ridden in a truck like mine. Your wifes truck is the cadillac of the truck world.
Travis..

My thoughts too.

My 97 GMC k3500 rides like a caddy compared to my Scout.

[andyr354]

I don't think shocks will make much difference. Could probably remove them and not tell.

My 93 dodge needs 1k lbs in the bed before it is decent. Bridge embuckments can give you bruises. I have had quite a bit of weight on the rear bumper and the rear doesn't squat at all, just lifts the front!

[foley]

Originally Posted by jwag

Put a cognito leveling kit on it with either bilsteins or run dual fox's in front. The Cognito arms will let the suspension drop and improve the ride a ton.

THANKS!!!!!!! I guess the title of my post should have been, "Who's the KORE suspension of the GMC world?" They look like they've got some hardware that will address the specific issues I'm looking it.

Originally Posted by andyr354

I don't think shocks will make much difference. Could probably remove them and not tell.

My 93 dodge needs 1k lbs in the bed before it is decent. Bridge embuckments can give you bruises. I have had quite a bit of weight on the rear bumper and the rear doesn't squat at all, just lifts the front!

I know, the back rode really cushy a few weeks ago when I put 1 1/2 pallets of ceramic tile in the bed, but the front end still felt like a pogo stick. Oh well, I'm open to all ideas, I may end up with some other hardware besides just shocks.

[pilothillcrawler]

Sounds like there is something goofy with it. I drive a 2500HD and a 3500 with dmaxes and the 2500 is actually really nice to ride in. It should ride smoother than your dodge. A new set of shocks might help it out. My 2500 front end just floats over most things.

[CJ5inFourWheelDrive]

My 07' Silverado Classic 2500HD 4x4 Ext. Cab. SB 6.0/NV4500 rides very very nice for a 3/4 ton truck. It doesn't really ride like a large truck unless you get into the suspension like on large expansion joints, uneven pavement or pot-holes which usually just ends up with the rear end skipping a bit. Supposidbly the stock shocks only last about 20-30k miles and stock they're a bit short to provide adequate downward travel. Supposidbly they ride MUCH better with a set of Blistens which are a little longer and as aformentioned the Cognito bits really help things out (leveling kit). Theres a bunch of info on www.fullsizechevy.com/forums that deal with improving ride quality, etc. I'll most likely be doing a good set of Blistens when my stockers wear out, but for now it's still a very nice ride, and feels very solid almost like a tuned suspension on a performance car, probably just because it is a 3/4 ton truck.

[Travis Waldher]

I drove an 05 chevy 8.0L 2500 4x4 for a few days as a rental while on business in Mesa.

It had 15-20,000 miles on it? It drove as nice if not nicer than my 1/2 ton truck that's a 96.

Could be your shocks just wore out. IMO factory shocks are crap.

[DNCJeeper]

Ditto on the Bilsteins. At 60K your stock shocks are gone.

[foley]

Well, after doing some research on the web, it looks like I need to get the guys at cognito on the horn. I can't find anyone badmouthing them, anyone had or have second hand any bad experiences? Any resellers I should go to or avoid? I see that PolyPerformance sells their kits, I could always go to them.

My Wife's been complaining that the brakes feel spongy, and I'm blackmailing her that I won't look at the brakes until I can upgrade the suspension

[Red Chevy]

Did your wife buy the truck new, if not it is possible that the t-bars are already cranked up causing u to loose your down travel and feel like it is bottoming out. Just a thought. Also, a couple lift companys are converting the half ton trucks and suvs to coilover in the front and doing away with the t-bars. I thing www.rockkrawlerracing.com is one. Maybe give them a call and see if they offer a coilover for the HD. They just bolt them in to the lower control arm in place of the shock, no fab work involved.

[Po' riggity]

Yeah I would definetly look at it if its riding as bad as you say. My dodge rides rough, but not that rough, and like others have said, she's got the cadi of the 3/4 ton truck world. I would seriously look into the cognito kit with some fox shocks or bilsteins.
Scott

[AERONUTT]

At the risk of sounding like yet another "Me Too!" reply about just how good you've actually got it.... ME TOO!

I have an 06 D-max 2500 and it's the smoothest riding, best handling heavy duty truck of them all. I drove them all before buying both loaded and empty and the Ford was by far the worst riding "dump-truck" feel of them all. The Dodge was marginally better. The Chevy was the hands down winner. That IFS system works great if everything is set up correctly. You obviously have some bad shocks as a minimum. It's possible that bushings could be starting to go bad too. Unless you just like spending money on aftermarket stuff, try the Bilsteins first. Many of these trucks get treated to a new set of Bilsteins before they reach 5K because the factory shocks just plain suck. You are WAY overdue!

[89breaker]

Uh mmmm yeah, it is a TRUCK.

[foley]

Originally Posted by Red Chevy

Did your wife buy the truck new, if not it is possible that the t-bars are already cranked up causing u to loose your down travel and feel like it is bottoming out. Just a thought. Also, a couple lift companys are converting the half ton trucks and suvs to coilover in the front and doing away with the t-bars. I thing www.rockkrawlerracing.com is one. Maybe give them a call and see if they offer a coilover for the HD. They just bolt them in to the lower control arm in place of the shock, no fab work involved.

She bought it new, but it was at a farm truck shop getting "outfitted" with toolbox, turnover ball, some SWEETtrailer wiring <sarcasm off> and a ranch hand grill guard before she ever saw it. The guy at the shop warned her repeatedly not to get a full replacement front bumper cause "they'll overload your front suspension and make it bottom out." Thank God for small blessings, if he'd told her to buy the bumper she would have done it and the thing would be uglier. So there's some possibility the guy cranked the bars before she got it, but I doubt it.

We were dating when she got the BFG's put on it, and I know for a fact that the installer did not crank the bars at that time, I specifically told him to send her home with it rubbing and I'd trim the fenderwells for her. It took some reasonable trimming for them to not rub (about 1/2" off front and rear), so it all adds up to not sounding like the bars are cranked.

I am not in love with throwing money around, but I also don't want to go buy a set of stock style shocks and pissed off cause I'm buying something else in 5000 miles. If it will really see some improvement long term improvement from replacing the stock setup I'll do it, but if it really needs something different to work right, I'd rather buy the right stuff now. Maybe I'll call 4 wheel parts

[Red Chevy]

one more thought is how much PSI is in the tires?

[MattS]

IMHO with all that crap (weight) on there I'd look under the truck. It may ride better if you DO crank the T-bars. Because if it's sagging to the point of riding on the bump stops it's not gonna be a nice ride!

My 2500 CTD with a 900# plow had sagged the front springs to the point that it would compress and slam into the bump stops. It was like riding the 25 cent pony at the mall. It took me a while to figure out what exactly was going on. I just dabbed some grease on the bump stop and what do ya know, it was gone before I could hit the next street over.

Might be worth a shot.

[Red Chevy]

Originally Posted by foley

It's like the thing has no damping whatsoever on extension, you hit a bump and it goes airborne, then your butt comes off the seat, then it comes back down to a medium-hard landing. If the damping were more balanced between rebound and compression it'd be better.

After rereading, sounds like shocks probably would be your best bet.

[axle59]

Yep time for some new shocks. I've found pretty good prices on the bilsteins here.


www.eshocks.com


Axle

[AERONUTT]

The new Chevy IFS system actually sits on the bump stops just sitting there. The bump stop is an integral part of the compression damping. Since the bump stop is already touching, the upward resistance is quickly increased the higher it goes. Unfortunately, this "fine tuned" load balance means that 900 pound snowplows just ain't gonna work! I love my Chevy for towing and smooth riding, but my miserably rough riding 89 F-350 is FAR superior for snowplowing!

Now back to the subject of this thread: GO BUY SOME SHOCKS!