Newb question on ride comfort

[Danno1985]

I

I broke my neck on a deployment and have 3 prosthetic discs. Gets painful but I can survive. Definitely not the Grand Marquis type

I don't know man, I still miss my Crown Vic LX sometimes. Total grandma car but had the HPP package with dual exhaust and 3.27 gears which I promptly upgraded to 3.73 with a locker, added the Marauder swaybars and cop-spec springs and shocks. Certainly wasn't "fast" by even modern-day Camry standards but it would happily melt tires and actually handled pretty tight for what it was, provided you didn't slide across the slippery-ass leather Barca lounger front bench around a corner.

That said, I find a fresh set of Motorcraft shocks and the tire pressure set to whatever's on the placard is the best answer to your question. My last Ranger was a 2010 regular cab, current one is a 2011 super cab. The specs are pretty much identical otherwise, but the super cab rides way better. That extra bit of wheelbase makes a big difference in the frame's ability to absorb bumps without bouncing around. There's only so much you can really do with a short wheelbase, light truck. It's going to be more sensitive to every imperfection in the road surface. Yeah, you can load it down with weight in the back but who really wants to do that with an anemic 4 banger or 3.0, assuming you have one of those?

 

[stmitch]

For best ride, you need sidewall, suspension travel, and proper shock damping.
Spring rate matters, but ties into a bunch of other stuff (geometry, sway bar rates, etc).
Reducing unsprung weight can go a long way as well, so lighter wheels, tires and brakes can only help your springs and shocks to control the motion and prevent it from transferring into the rest of the truck.
Isolating the rest of the body from the suspension helps too. Rubber suspension and body bushings are better for this than poly, delrin, or solid metal bushings. But like tire sidewalls, that compliance has performance drawbacks.