Lots of posts already on this subject. Many former Lexus owners are upset or unhappy w/ GX550 non- Lexus ride. The overall GX suspension is designed for off road articulation & is true to the vehicle. A Tahoe, Sub, Escalade, Denali is a ‘on road designed SUV’ & bad comparisons. The prior GX460 ride was atrocious in how soft it was w/ Lexus trying to beat the Prada out of it. It over leaned in turns, over pitched in braking, & loaded poorly towing. GX550 fixes all of that w/ true off road capability as #1 priority. Certainly the new GX is a run for Lexus in styling @ younger buyers using the LC 250 platform. We also have people posting that have different priorities. At purchase some people love the stock look, some want larger AT tires, or a level as their #1 priority over the ride, while others build their’s for true off road. Once you start changing things you become a test pilot if the ride isn’t what you want.
Focus on:
- Variable rate weight Factory Lexus springs have significant suspension articulation are a compromise to the ride quality, as Lexus even puts different springs for different trim to assist. Unladen some feel the GX wallows a bit, but a bit of weight firms them up. Lots of Peak & Westcott levels have been put on out there as they put that spring under pre-tension (changing spring variable rate) & some have found their wobbly concerns go away. Pretension does firm up the street ride & clearly not perfect answer for hard core off road. If you do a level or lift & get that side-to-side sway that’s more then likely your Panhard rod geometry, & adding the BOTCK kit made a big difference on my rig.
- Good news, Shock dampening can be controlled by the driver. Shocks are what deals with the suspension rebound to the vehicle’s weight in movement. May be as simple as just playing w/ selection that gives the ride you like. That’s what it’s there for..
- Rim & tire sizes impact ride. Smaller, O-ring looking sidewalls don’t absorb road conditions the way smaller rims w/ wider sidewalls & transmit a rough ride. Shocks aren’t going to fix that. Tire type & air pressure might help w/ 22”. Add moving to AT tires that if selected wrong can be much heavier & stiffer. Lots of tire choices, get a pro to help find D load & lighter weight. Tires to fix a ride concern creates compromises.
- Air pressure can be tactically used for ride tuning, but be careful as you have load requirements that need certain pressure levels for tire life & safety.
I have read all this and the best feedback I can give you is that there is so much more than just that. The lexus ride quality is something very real.
In my family we have had the Light duty platform since 2005 with the J120 Prado x 2 and then we had the J152 Lexus Gx460 in 2010..
Yes it was very soft, too soft that even with kdss there was too much motion sickness.
No one was able to tolerate it so it was sold in just 1 year.
We didn't have any more BOF vehicles until 2022.
We had Pilots, mdx's, we had Range rover sport Velar, range rover sport and a discovery 5 + BMW x6 ....
So we had pure monocoque vehicles for more than 12 years...
Once we had to sell the Discovery we bought a J150 Land Cruiser Prado kdss non adaptive dampers and coil spring all around.
This boy is not plush but extremely well controlled that While my comment can be non sense for many It's a joy to drive carve corners.
I enjoyed it much more than my Lexus Nx300 turbo.
The thing is, that we bought the Gx550 overtrail in Panama. Driving this dude against my J150 Prado...
They do not compare... The Gx is at low speed parking lot very soft kinda floaty over the speed bumps.. once it grabs speed it starts jiggling....
The Prado does not jiggle...
And the prado does not have adaptive dampers just KDSS....
I also have all terrain tires in the prado
265/65R17 116T xl falken wildpeak at3w....32psi cold
Vs
265/70R18 115S toyo open country at3.... 33psi cold
The Gx can be driven in all the modes like you said and non eliminate the vibrations from this frame and i do drive them back to back on the sme streets.
So the jiggle + the extremely not uniform pavement the gx is weird....
So I like many things from this Gx550 but they can say its more focuse off road?
I did a test on a washboard?
Prado could reach speed up to 50mph stock suspension...
The Gx could only manage 30 mph...
Its tooooo softly sprung and it crsshed in the front and fhe back and them rebounds and compresses all the way ..
This suspension is more towards overlanding ... Slow speeds off roading...
And even in those conditions its no settled like the previous J150.
The good thing is that i love the daily of the prado it is truthfull to what it is... He doesnt wanna hide anything...
Gx is trying too hard to do everything.... And it doesnt look to well doing all.
I love it... But if i had to i wouldnt stay with the stock shocks... It really need better shocks.
My father bought the Lx600 and we actually did a test drive back to back against out gx550 on the same roads and off roading. Yes off roading in a test drive...
Bro the hydraulic suspension of the Lx is almost imposible to describe how it isolates the road...
My god... Its coming on september i will do my best for a comparison of the gx vs the lx.
