Decent riding and budget friendly rear coils and front coil overs (1 Viewer)

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Dec 22, 2021
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Location
So Cal
*** Edit sorry for posting in the wrong place, noob here on the forums and thought I was in the GX forum. Moving this question over there. I don't see a way to delete this thread entirely, so just adding this. Also don't want to reply so it doesn't bring this thread back to the top. Sorry for the clutter.


Hello, this has probably been asked 100 times but not really getting anywhere searching so thought I'd ask.

I'm a few months into owning an '03 GX470 all stock riding on TRD Wheels with 265 70 17s. So stock with a little lipstick . The plan was to do some light offroading and dragging a trailer out to the desert from time to time. I sort of like having the bags out back for towing, so replaced one of the bags that was leaking and both shocks with Luft Meister OEM style shocks.

That's all cool, but now we're digging the way this thing (even stock) eats up rocky roads that we keep pushing it harder and harder. Today made a couple bad choices and things got way gnarlier than I planned and I blew out one of the rear bags and the whole back end bottomed out. Finally managed to get out of trouble and got home riding bottomed out the whole way, so that was sweet.

That's a long way of saying I think it's time to bite the bullet and start upgrading as it's clear we want to do more with this thing. I don't have a ton of money and while I'm ready to give up adjustable height, I really do still want this thing to ride decent on the road and on washboards which we spend a lot of time on. So really appreciate any advice on budget friendly ways to improve capabilities / reliability while letting this thing eat up washboards.
  • Rear airbag delete / coil spring. These range wildly from around $100 for things on Amazon / ebay to many hundreds more. Are any of the cheap springs good and is a lot of that difference the mounting hardware? Maybe a small lift of 1-2"
  • Front Coilovers - Not even sure where to start here. I've seen tons of stuff and read countless reviews and commentary but most everything seems very pricey and seems like most COs tend to ride pretty stiff. I'm OK with a firm ride, but really want something that will cruise over washboards and small bumps while still being able to navigate some more aggressive trails. Not full on rock crawling but more than just dirt roads. Looking to level the ride out.
For bonus points, after the rear bag blew, the brake, ABS, VSC TRAC and VSC OFF dash lights stayed and are still on. Not sure if that's all related to the blown bag or if I broke something else. And finally of all things my sun roof started rattling after my less than graceful exit from the trouble that blew the airbag. Seems to not be sealing well, like I can push up on it when closed and it moves up a bit. Not sure if I broke something up there but not looking forward to trying to service that. Appreciate any thoughts on those issues as well.

Thanks for any advice or thoughts on this stuff
 
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