smooth city street ride?

[JJCorrell]

I have a 93 Eddie Explorer with monroe shocks and Michelln tires @ 27lbs. But I still get a rough ride. The seems in the concret of a city streets causes the whole vehical to shutter(a nice big thump). And when I drive through a dip in the street the back end thumps loudly and there is no smooth floating feeling in the ride. Is there anything that can be done to get ridd of the rough truck like ride in my explorer and have it ride more like a true sedan like cadillac, buick, or lincon. I'd like to hear from ya if you have any ideas to improve the ride. Thanks.

 

[PLRBEAR]

JJ,

I wish you didn't ask for the Explorer to ride like a true sedan (caddy,Lincoln or Buick), because it isn't one. Being a truck based SUV, you cannot escape from it having a rough ride. This is my first truck based vehicle, and coming from a long history of economy cars, i can safely say that it took me a while to get used to the refinement (leather,power seats etc)...or lack thereof. Running the tires at 27lbs is not helping things, since the recommended tire pressure is 30psi. Moreover, you'd be in for a hell of a time if the tire ever blows because of added heat.
My 95 EB, which has already been softened considerably compared to the 91-94s, also shudders and rattles whenever i hit the rough stuff. Most of the noise is coming from my center console. The only way to get a car like ride from an SUV, is to buy a car-based SUV (MDX,ML,X5). The only other alternative would be, to simply, buy a car. I apologize for not offering any help here, but if you're looking for a floaty ride from your 93, then it's simply impossible.

 

[JJCorrell]

Thanks PLRBEAR. I didn't think it would be possible to get such a comfortable ride out of the vehical since it is built on a ranger pickup frame. But I thought there might be things on the stock vehical that could be changed for better ride so that the cement seems were not noticable, but still had good offroad handling.

I noticed that a lot of people talk of this and that about springs, shackels, shocks, and etc. But what I wonder is how do these mods effect the ride and handling. Do they make the ride smoother when off the road? Everyone seems to just say great ride. But dont describe it much.

 

[PLRBEAR]

i'd say, chances are, when they say it's a great ride, it means that the mods have not made the ride any harsher than from factory.

 

[major]

smoother ride

if you really want a ride that is smother and are willing to pay for it have a air bag suspension put on. i was intrested in them because they are adjustable so you can limitedly choose your ride height and have the car aligned for that and then thats it. if you want to know some more about this e-mail me because im thinking about doing this on my 98 xlt. my e-mail is MLM2501@aol.com