any downside to bump-stops?

[K15 Blazer]

so I turned up the keys a little bit on my truck... kinda half-assed lifted it...
I don't want to drop the front diff. and I don't want to fit huge tires and I don't want to re-gear for it all.

but!- I don't want the front suspension to bottom out, and turning up the Keys without dropping the diff can make this more easily achievable...

question is; what would be the downside, if any, to installing some taller, beefy, polyurethane bump stops to pick up where the factory ones left off?

because they're certainly not doing any good....

any risk of damaging something big?...

 

[dowsewashere]

Less up travel.

But seriously alot of jeep lift kits actually provide a longer set of bump stops so i dont see why sourcing a retrofitting another set of bump stops would effect anything.

 

[great white]

No brother, you're all over the map.

What you have to worry about when lifting via the torsion bars is your upper A arm's hitting the upper stops. Looks like this:

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The upper stops prevent your suspension from excessive downward travel. By adjusting the torsion bars for more lift, you have moved further away from the lower bump stops and closer to the uppers.

Lowering the front differential won't do anything for that. But it will improve the operating angles on your CV joints. Lower bumps stops will do nothing for your CV joints since when your suspension travels, it will travel up and the angles will be less extreme (good thing).

The upper bump stops prevent your CV joints from binding when the suspension is on the way down. They are designed to stop the suspension before you get past the CV joints operating parameters. As long as you haven't altered them, you do not need to worry about "going too far" for your suspension.

But if you ever hit them during suspension cycling, you WILL ship your pants. It will sound like a giant has hammered your frame with a 20 lb ball peen.

You never want to ride on the bump stops. Be they rubber or poly. Or even Timbrens, which are supposedly designed for load carrying (it's the frame that's the problem, not the timbrens). It induces forces in to the frame and suspension components they were not designed to sustain.

There's all kinds of other issues when lifting via the torsion bars, but that's the "bump stop" part.

 

[SkyHighColorado]

^^^^+1

 

[K15 Blazer]

great white,

totally agree

in the photo YOU posted though, those CV axles are super angled... im pretty sure the shocks would also stop them from ever dropping that low on my truck... i think theyre designed to do that...

i only turned the bars to firm up the suspension. im still riding the stock 265/75R16 tires.
the problem i experience though was when the suspension compressed (not dropped) the bars and shocks didn't catch it quick enough and the suspension compressed to the point where the tires chunked, and the front plastic pieces got ripped off (though it looks better without a front license plate)

also a sheeeet in your pants moment

so i figure bump stops would help that not happen again...god-forbid my nice bumper dives into the dirt unexpectedly

 

[tylers88]

unless your launching it off stuff the stock bumps will be fine, you could replace them with poly ones just to have a better part on it but you are still within the factory travel so you don't need longer. Jeep lifts that come with bump stop extensions come with them so that the longer shocks don't break the shock mounts off when they bottom out and to keep tires out of the body, a 400 will fit 33s fine height wise so I wouldn't worry.

 

[K15 Blazer]

unless your launching it off stuff the stock bumps will be fine, you could replace them with poly ones just to have a better part on it but you are still within the factory travel so you don't need longer. Jeep lifts that come with bump stop extensions come with them so that the longer shocks don't break the shock mounts off when they bottom out and to keep tires out of the body, a 400 will fit 33s fine height wise so I wouldn't worry.

indeed so, thank you.

the truck will "fit" 33"s but they will not stay out of the body & bumper edges from a solid drop :/

an extra inch or 2 of rubber stop would probably help this though... cant wait to get out and off-road again

 

[great white]

great white,

totally agree

in the photo YOU posted though, those CV axles are super angled... im pretty sure the shocks would also stop them from ever dropping that low on my truck... i think theyre designed to do that...

i only turned the bars to firm up the suspension. im still riding the stock 265/75R16 tires.
the problem i experience though was when the suspension compressed (not dropped) the bars and shocks didn't catch it quick enough and the suspension compressed to the point where the tires chunked, and the front plastic pieces got ripped off (though it looks better without a front license plate)

also a sheeeet in your pants moment

so i figure bump stops would help that not happen again...god-forbid my nice bumper dives into the dirt unexpectedly

You'll hit the upper and or lower stops before even stock style shocks bottom out.

It's designed that way on purpose. Bottoming shocks will damage them, they are not designed to bottom or top. That's why there are upper and lower bump stops.

The picture I posted was only to show the upper stops and what it looks like if they are bottomed out.

245's are stock for 4x4's. Although 265's aren't very much bigger, nearly negligible actually..

If you are bottoming stock sized tires on bodywork/plastic and ripping things off, you're got a suspension problem somewhere....

 

[tylers88]

My rubbing issues were all when turning not the many times I aired my 88 out when it was on 33s

 

[K15 Blazer]

yeah the torsion bars on these trucks DID/DO tend to wear out.... so when I jump the truck they don't catch it as well as they should when they were new.

I actually hit a pretty good driveway last weekend and hucked the whole truck up in the air (it was awesome) and upon landing the body came down to grab the top of the tires and pull the lip out- gacking the rubber tread (not awesome)

so yeah... thinking just some cheap bump-stops will keep the body from diving down far enough to grab at my tires like that....