Hey everyone, I'm new here. Actually I bought my truck about a year ago and have been lurking around picking up whatever info you leave lying around. Now it's time to make some changes and I need some direct advice. Long story up here, meat down below. My truck is an 07 ST with the 3.7L and 6 spd manual. It's mostly a commuter truck but I do carry stuff, tow stuff and while I don't run trails with it, I do live in a rural area and the occasional light 4 wheeling/mudding is called for. My number one complaint is that it rides like a brick. It rides down the road fine but every pothole and seam in the road makes you think the world is coming to an end. It's time to replace the tires so I'm thinking I'll do whatever I can for the ride quality while I'm at it. Currently it has 18" mag wheels with 265/60r18 H/T tires. No lift/level kit. A few months after I bought it one of the swaybar ends broke so I took the whole swaybar off the front. Can't say if that made a difference one way or the other.

What I'm thinking about doing to improve ride quality.
-Replace 18 wheels and H/T tires with 16" wheels and A/T tires.
-1.5" or 2" leveling kit up front (mostly asthetic but I do want to stick with 265s and I don't think they'll fit without the spacers up front. I imagine A/T tires will be slightly larger than the H/Ts on there and they only clear the fenders by an RCH)
-Replace the front struts. I think replacing the tires will do alot to remove some of the harsh response to bumps but the truck has 160k miles and I would guess it's been bouncing around like this for some time now. My understanding of my options are KYB - OEM replacement, softest, Monroe - firmer, and Rancho - firmest. I'm leaning toward the complete Monroe Quick-Strut assy.
-Leave the sway bar off

Any advice from the group? Any other parts I should replace while I'm dealing with the struts and leveling kit? Thanks for your time.

 

Oh yeah, donor wheels can come off 04-09 dak's, 94-09 Ram 1500's and are 5 on 5.5. Is that correct?And also, pictures...

 

The Monroes are probably a good choice for you, and 265/70/16 will fit with stock suspension, no need for a leveling kit to fit the 265s. (Do not go over 2" on the leveling kit if you install one, otherwise it will raise hell on the front end. But I guess you already know that from your post above.) Of course wheel offset will affect tire fitment, but stock wheels are 16 x 8, offset of 25.44 mm.

 

Thanks dakotaff. I love the look of your truck BTW. I have some black headlight bezels on their way and a couple cans of flexidip waiting for warm weather to get on the grill.

I've been craigslisting for used wheels for about 2 months and finally found a deal I couldn't pass up. Unfortunately the tires are a little bigger than I was planning on. Definitely going to have to go with a leveling kit now. I really don't want to cut in the fenders at all but I do like the looks of these tires. I don't mind cutting out the inside of the wheel well but I don't want to have to get in to anything that is painted. They are 265/75R16 Hankook ATm. I only paid $300 for the wheels and tires so I could dismount the tires and sell them to buy 265/70R16s if I have to. Does anyone think a 2" leveling kit will clear them? Picture is with the front end jacked up 2"