Buying pillow tires would be my suggestion.

 

Or you can do what so many Ford dealers told Explorer owners--lower the tire pressure. Of course, many of them had fatal accidents due to blow-outs in hot weather...

 

take the shocks out... lol. my gf has an 02 exploder with blown shocks. its like driving a 60's cadillac minus the classiness

but in all seriousness, how big are your rims? how big are your tires? if you have 17's with 215/50's get 215/55's, do research on the tires, see how soft they are and whatnot. the tires play a big role in suspension. or get 16's. basically, smaller rims, bigger tires make the comfiest rides. my 86 bmw had a better ride than my pat does because it had 14's with big tires. But the Pats do have naturally stiff suspension to prevent tip-over's... and probably because it is a car's suspension setup, with slightly bigger springs. Dont expect a luxury ride in an affordable car lol

 

Cause and effect

Hi, I would like a softer ride too, but I'm willing to wait for the tire replacement and buy a softer tire when it is due. Smaller rim, wider tire. You could lower the center of gravity. You can do it with a lowering kit or just add weight low as on the floor, but this may affect your gas mpg. Avoid riding top heavy and stay on the road. In short, one change will yield a different, and sometimes unwanted result someplace else. If you change your suspension for a softer ride may loose valuable turning radius. Lowest cost is with researching which tire is softer for your driving, then research softer shocks. Chief

 

My first suggestion is to get larger tires. what size rim do you have? 225/65-17, or 225/70-16 should fit with no issues at all, and give a more compliant ride.

 

I would not recommend lowering your patriot for a softer ride. It gets much harder due to the race suspension. My H&Rs were much stiffer than stock, and my coilovers are by a 10fold.

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I'd avoid lowering kits; they tend to make the ride stiffer, not softer. I will attest that after having driven from Oregon to Texas with three passengers and a full load in the cargo area, the extra weight does seem to make the ride a bit smoother and seems to actually improve the handling; but for a long term comfort solution, I think this is a bad idea that will only waste gas in the long run, and prematurely wear out your springs, as the Patriot springs seem to sag under constant loads.

There aren't a lot of suspension options available for the Patriot unless you go with custom struts that would allow some valve adjustment which would potentially allow you to customize the softness to your liking - you'll want to do a lot of research before jumping in on this.

That said, about the most effective thing you CAN do, as other have stated, it to get different tires. A taller tire will provide more sidewall area, which would allow for more flex before the suspension is affected Keep in mind that a taller tire will also affect your gas mileage and speedometer reading - i run a taller tire, FWIW, when my speedo reads 60, i've clocked myself at about 65mph via GPS. I get about 24mpg average mixed driving, but you may actually benefit if you do a lot of long-distance freeway driving; the trade-off is taking a hit to your MPG when driving in slow, start-stop city traffic, since it take more energy to get the taller tire to rotate from a stop.

As moparnumber1 stated, if you're running a 17" rim, consider downsizing to a 16" with a taller tire. This would put you at about the same overall outside tire diameter, which won't affect your gas mileage nor speedometer reading, but will give you the benefit of a larger sidewall. You may look into 15" rims as well, but be warned that most will not fit the large front brake disc on the Patriot - you'll really have to research wheels if you plan to go w/ 15"s.

That said, if all else fails, maybe get yourself a seat cushion. The Patriot does ride a bit rough, and there's not a ton that can be done to affect that (and very little thats inexpensive), so your expectations might be the thing that requires alteration, unfortunately.

 

Thanks guys, I'll look into the rim/tire fix and see what the cost is.