Tall and Hard Ride

[Bud Kerr]

A few months back I purchased a 2019 Big Horn 2500. I was inatially looking to purchase a 1500 but got a really good deal on thiis. It turns out my really good deal has a couple of drawbacks. It has a really hard ride. I had a 2006, 3500 that didn't ride this hard. The second issue, is it sits so high. My wife and I are both 77 years old. At 6'3" the height is not so bad for me, but the better half, at 5'4 has difficulties getting in and out. We have running boards

1. I've thought maybe replacing the 18" wheels might help with height. Don't know if that is possible, and if so how to calibrate speedometer.
2. Are there any suggestion on lowering and/or stiff ride?

 

[Neil E]

Congrats on the purchase, we too have just upgraded to a 2500 4x4. But we upgraded from a 1500.
The ride - when we picked up ours 2 weeks ago, the tires were at 85 psi. I lowered to the correct amount (60 and 65), and the ride improved. It's not much worse than my 1500 was. I've heard others lower them more than that to improve the ride.
We had factory steps put on, as I'm 6'4" and my wife is 5'4". The steps help, but it's still difficult to get in.

Good luck and welcome to the forum!

 

[Trey Higgins]

Going down on wheel size should help with ride quality some. I don't have nay experience with lowering a truck, so I can't help there. And I think you can either have the dealership recalibrate the speedo or get a tuner.

 

[ScLeCo]

Amp power steps. More tire, less wheel, lower air pressure. Problem solved.

 

[LeesEvoX]

as @ScLeCo said above. more tire and less wheel will help the ride a LOT. any additional sidewall you can get will make the ride smoother.

Other than that, lower your tire pressure if you dont tow. you will either have to deal with the TPMS light being on all the time, or you can program the BCM a couple of different ways so it doesnt show up.

 

[mikeru]

A few months back I purchased a 2019 Big Horn 2500. I was inatially looking to purchase a 1500 but got a really good deal on thiis. It turns out my really good deal has a couple of drawbacks. It has a really hard ride. I had a 2006, 3500 that didn't ride this hard. The second issue, is it sits so high. My wife and I are both 77 years old. At 6'3" the height is not so bad for me, but the better half, at 5'4 has difficulties getting in and out. We have running boards

1. I've thought maybe replacing the 18" wheels might help with height. Don't know if that is possible, and if so how to calibrate speedometer.
2. Are there any suggestion on lowering and/or stiff ride?

Has the harshness of the ride changed since you bought it? It's something you should have noticed on the test drive if it rides as harsh as you say. Regardless, don't change the wheel size to address the height. You'd have to go with comically small tires in order to make enough of a difference.

Going to smaller wheels will help with the ride as long as you keep the same outer tire circumference. That would give you more tire sidewall to help smooth out the ride, and you won't need to re-calibrate the speedo.

You can try lowering the truck. There are kits available to do this, or you can find a shop you trust to do the work. Personally I'd just add powered running boards like ScLeCo suggested above. We have them on our Limited, and they are fantastic. My wife and other shorter family members have no problems getting into it, even with the air suspension at the highest setting.

 

[Bud Kerr]

A couple of months ago I purchased a 2019 Ram Big Horn 2500. I was looking for a 1500 but got what I feel is a good deal on this. It is a great truck with a couple of exceptions (for us). It has a really stiff ride and it sits really high. I had a 2006 Ram 3500 that was a softer ride than this. It is really high. I thought putting running boards on the truck would help. My wife & I are both 77 years old. At 6'3" the height is okay for me but my 5'4" wife struggles.
Are there any suggestions on mitigating these two issues? It has 18" wheels.

 

[ScLeCo]

Refer to the answers in your first post.
https://www.ramforum.com/threads/tall-and-hard-ride.170976/#post-2409222
No need to go making multiple posts of the same question.

 

[Bud Kerr]

Thanks for the quick comebacks. Food for thought.

 

[Farmer Fran]

Not sure about the 2500 but the 1500 auto steps are very low or you can lower the truck

 

[avantiguy]

A couple of months ago I purchased a 2019 Ram Big Horn 2500. I was looking for a 1500 but got what I feel is a good deal on this. It is a great truck with a couple of exceptions (for us). It has a really stiff ride and it sits really high. I had a 2006 Ram 3500 that was a softer ride than this. It is really high. I thought putting running boards on the truck would help. My wife & I are both 77 years old. At 6'3" the height is okay for me but my 5'4" wife struggles.
Are there any suggestions on mitigating these two issues? It has 18" wheels.

Same age and heights here. 6'3" and 5'4". The 2500 is taller than my 1500 but the factory boards work well for us. Try to find a height that your wife is comfortably capable of using to get into the vehicle and plan your boards from there. You can use a stool, boards, phone books etc to get the height.

What tire pressures are you running? You could try reducing them as that seems to be the most common way to adjust ride.

 

[SniperDroid]

Same truck, same short wife. I was 6 foot tall in High School, but that was 45 years ago. Now I'm only 5'9".... The wife has no problem with the Factory Running Boards on my truck. She likes the High Up seating, as do I. The ride on my Bighorn is better than the Ford F-250 Diesel I had before this, and better than the F-150 we had before that. I wish I had gone RAM years ago.....

 

[MSgtZ]

My wife is 5'6" and finds the factory running boards work good. We both like the ride of this Ram over the F250 Super Duty we had before this truck.