"Hell", or just, it's at that age where several things are starting to wear out? I am wondering if this is the first time you've owned an SUV this old. I went through the same before, different SUVs.
I've put a HUGE amount of repair time and nickel/dime expenses into my '98 for what few miles I put on it these days. Okay, not really huge, I'm being a drama queen, the fact is that it was less money/year than my newer vehicles suffered in depreciation alone, then I also don't have full comp insurance on it any longer so a little more saved there, offset by the bad fuel economy, lol.
Granted, I use it when I want to haul some load, or when it's nasty salty winter roads, or off-road, so it bears the brunt of wear, saving other vehicles from that.
Regardless, brakes are going to need done on any vehicle from mileage, or salty roads, or time taking its toll.
Ride quality? Yeah, these always rode horrible. I've had mine since new and it was a busy ride then until there was a load in it, then as it aged, ride increased a lot, except it lost handling with wearing shocks/springs/bushings/etc. Restore all that to new parts and it rides busy again like new, rough ride but handles a lot better, which matters more to me because where I am, most roads are hills, curves, and potholes. Granted softer shocks are better for potholes.
Noise, either it's a bearing or something else, seems like you just have a lot going on. If you can't DIY these repairs, frankly it is not cost effective to keep a 2nd gen explorer at this point.
My '98 only has 105K miles, maybe closer to 110K by now. I've had to re-do front suspension, one wheel bearing and another is due for it, this is typical for any SUV this age and these in particular, much past 100K mi. SUVs are harder on suspension parts than cars.
If your shocks are original, yes definitely they probably should have been replaced twice by now.
Tires? I don't understand this. Tires are kind of universal, I mean the age of the tires and the brand/rubber-compound/environment determines how well they hold up, not really related to being an Explorer.
At the same time you wrote that you don't have funds and all else equal, it is more expensive to keep any SUV on the road, from purchase new, till the grave, and especially so with ours once they get past 100K mi. and several things are due for replacement.
Tricks, depends on what is rough about the ride. 23 year old shocks, many would consider far past due for replacement. You have to locate the noise for better advice about that. You may have done more work than you mentioned as you kind of tacked on the end of your post, "hub nut" and UC bolts" without us seeing any prior mention of related work.
If you decide to keep it and invest money, I'd start with the tires. A great suspension doesn't help much if you have a tire failure or loss of traction from old/hard tires and wreck. Brakes would be second priority, you need to be able to stop. Ball joints would be 3rd priority, you need the hub (and bolted on wheel) to not come off during driving. Bad ride... that's just discomfort but a lot of details about what you consider bad, on what types of roads, could be needed to tune in a subjective improvement in that.
It's also possible that based on your vehicle ride preferences, that there's nothing that can be done to bring it up to your standards. It's a semi-short frame, torsion bar and leaf spring, solid rear axle vehicle. It is impossible for it to ride as well as a modern SUV, or even (most) cars of the same era as it.
With all the above written, I don't know your needs. Do you need an SUV enough to pay extra for it and extra for repairs when they get older? I noticed you joined the forum about a year ago. If you bought the '99 not too long ago and it was inexpensive, that's because there are several things that are likely to need done to one at this age, depreciating their value and making them very much a DIY project or else repair costs over a few years, exceed the vehicle value.
Ultimately, my overall impression from your post is that you should figure out what the noise is and get that fixed, as well as any other glaring issues with it, so it is more marketable, sell it and get a car instead, will be easier on the budget, except for wacky covid used vehicle pricing right now. This is just considering all your options since you are not happy with the situation as it is.
If you instead just want to focus on one problem with the vehicle at a time, then it is better to be more specific about that one problem alone, and others will chime in about what they did to theirs. It is also likely that there are existing topics in this forum, for most of the issues you face.
Good luck!
