"Handle like a turtle on a skateboard." Might you be referring to the 1st gen S-10's? I ask because most of the misery I see posted about the genre typically refers to the 88-98 years. My personal ride is an 03 w/V-6 and 4 spd AT and I have no major complaints about it, mechanically. Body-wise, the eyebrows on the wheel houses on the box seem to like to develop cancer but living in the land of the semi-frozen chosen has a lot ot do with that. I did add the rear sway bar assembly to it that I scored from a same gen wreck being dismantled prior to getting squashed and it does help to keep the vehicle flatter in the corners. Of course it rides like a buck board, but I have 200 pounds of sand in bags in tote boxes in the p/u box to create a little preload on the leafs. it also had no problems in delivering me to ST.Paul for the Viking several years ago, even though I blew the guts out of the exhaust during the run up the Central Extension. Loud Pipes?? Sorry cant' hear you over the music!
My only complaint is the factory only installed a four leaf stack for springs in the rear end. May get creative and build a set of custom springs based on a five stack configuration. I changed my non G-Body G-Body to a five leaf stack and it didn't change the ride all that much but did help with the load ability.
Nick