rear suspension mount ground clearance?!

[atalarico]

Hey all, for whatever reason I just noticed that our rear suspension mount is actually our lowest clearance point. Not exactly a super big fan of this design, but I'm wondering how big of a deal it actually is since it's so close to the tire?

I know they make skid plates for those, but if I'm not rock crawling, is it necessary? I'd have to imagine taking a direct hit to one of those would be a bad day, but does anyone have any direct experience?

 

[Inv4drZm]

I haven't seen that to be a problem on my truck. I think its a washer thats bent back on mine and you can see where rocks slide across the bottom of the eyelet but no damage yet. The shock mount is low but unless you are running short pizza cutter tires and have wheel spacers on aftermarket wheels trying to crawl over rocks, you should be fine. They are tucked in pretty well. I might actually lower mine to fit on a longer shock.

The solid axle 4th gens from what I have seen, in the rear, mount the shock on top of the axle housing so they have to put the top shock mount way up in the wheel well, which works clearance-wise because they usually have wider axles.

 

[atalarico]

I haven't seen that to be a problem on my truck. I think its a washer thats bent back on mine and you can see where rocks slide across the bottom of the eyelet but no damage yet. The shock mount is low but unless you are running short pizza cutter tires and have wheel spacers on aftermarket wheels trying to crawl over rocks, you should be fine. They are tucked in pretty well. I might actually lower mine to fit on a longer shock.

The solid axle 4th gens from what I have seen, in the rear, mount the shock on top of the axle housing so they have to put the top shock mount way up in the wheel well, which works clearance-wise because they usually have wider axles.

Thanks! I'm actually considering 255's, so they're sort of pizza cutters, but then again I'm going up in size so they'll be 32's at the very least. I'll probably budget in some armor for those shock mounts then at some point down the road. Maybe I'll wait until I see some scrapes before I justify it.

Cheers!

 

[LTDSC]

I've done a lot of different stuff offroad and only hit my shock mounts once. I even kept them the same length when i shoehorned in bypass shocks back there because i hadnt hit them.

 

[blackoutt]

I put icon roost guards on my rear shocks to protect the shock shaft on gravel roads and they've been fine, a little bent up from some big rocks in New Hampshire but otherwise effective. If I didn't do so much gravel stuff and did more rock crawling I'd get the FJ toyman rear shock gaurds. They look to be the best design for protection there but don't keep roost off the shock shaft.

 

[atalarico]

Good to know! I just had a glance at another 3rd gen yesterday while driving and I think I was mistaken in thinking that they didn't also have those suspension mounts down there too. I'll take the "scrape and see" approach. Cheers!