I think it is because the aftermarket springs are all intended to carry a load better than the originals. To get that soft OEM ride you might have to go back to the 99 Tall OEM springs with a spacer to lift the rear. That should be the softest ride available, but not great for weight.

Since there has been 3 or 4 threads about this, I have lost track. Did you change shocks? What are you running? Maybe they are part of the problem.

Yup. OEM is softest. Everything else is more harsh since that's what it's designed for, offroad performance.

After a long drive on pothole and frost heave riddled Vermont back roads yesterday, the verdict is in for me - 220 pounds of weight - the equivalent of one heavy person in the backseat - behind the rear seat with a half of a tank a gas is ideal! I will take one of the 40 pound bag of wood pellets out and run the truck between a full and a half tank of gas. When it gets warmer and I will likely build a sleeping platform to hide the weight.

Will be putting my OME 906s for sale. What do you think is a fair price including shipping for springs that are less than a month old?

I have 906's and carry approx 150 lbs of emergency tools at all times. It seems pretty smooth.

I have hauled a few loads of 1000 lbs of wood pellets and let me tell you it rode like a caddy!

i have been wondering the same. thanks for the info!

Stock here (I don't believe it) and my experience is the same, add 800+ of corn sacks and it rides oh so smooth and only drops 1/2" (still level)!

Hard to say. A lot of people won't believe they are only one month old unless you can produce the receipts. But there's always people looking to pay less than brand new prices so eventually you'll get someone to bite. Try posting up in the classifieds with photos with about 10-20% off the price and see what happens.

I put my OME 906 springs up for sale in the Classifieds if you are interested. Have the Amazon receipt from January.

I tossed a couple of cement bags in the back, wrapped in plastic bags, and could not believe the difference in daily ride satisfaction. HUGE difference with a bit of load.

Added OME lift kit also. In general, I love it, but the ride is harsh with just one person in the vehicle.

As it is a daily driver, I put a couple bags of cement in the back wrapped in plastic bags, (96 kg, 211 lbs). This made a huge difference in daily ride satisfaction, but is occasionally inconvenient when I need to put larger items in the back.

If ya'll are concerned about the ride of your 4runner, why do you own one? It's supposed to ride like $hit. It's a truck. Go buy a Lexus if you want your @ss cushioned.
Adding weight to the underpowered thing is silly and just so you don't actually have to "drive" the thing is asinine.
What a bunch of sissy's. haha!

Weirdest take I've heard in a long time. If they wanted it to ride rough, Toyota wouldn't have implemented double wishbone and 4-link, and would've made the vehicle 2-link on both axles with HD leafs with no steering stabilizer. To that effect the people here aren't talking about factory suspension, they're talking about Old Man Emu.
Hell by that metric there should be no bushings anywhere on the car and we should all weld in pieces of bar stock for static mounts because "hurr durr its supposed to ride as rough as possible."

Yes!, Wife rides in the back seat.

OME lift kit shocks/struts are known for their harsh ride perform well offroad.

This thread about added weight caught my attention not because of ride quality, but because of two episodes of FISHTAILING I had this past winter when roads were wet from rain. I've got a '99 Highlander, typically no load in back, no lift, 150K miles, original owner. Never had fishtailing until moved to Sacramento area two years ago, so figured maybe roads here are different/smoother surface than were lived before. Have no idea, but fishtailing freaked me out -- especially second time, when swerved into other lane, but luckily light traffic and didn't hit anything.

Thought about it, and decided that back of 4Runner was too light to hold traction. Again, just a guess. Solution I came up with was to order a "Fortem SUV Trunk Organizer" from Amazon for about $45, filled it with about 180 pounds of local river rock, and then locked it down with tie-down straps. Left installed until a week ago when looked like rainy season over in our area, removed trunk organizer and rocks, and stashed in garage until rain starts again in late fall. When had rocks in back, ride felt a little more "solid" and didn't have any more fishtailing, so I will call that a win.

Here's the trunk organizer I ordered:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07R81J2Y9/

Here's a photo I took of it installed just so I could remember next time how I tied it all down: