Thicker Bumpstops When Mild Lift?

[mwebster22]

2006 4R Sport 4WD

I put Bilstein adjustable 5100s set with the max/2.5" lift on the front, and 5100s on the rear with a 3/4" BurtmanIndustries UMHW spacer in the rear. Perfect looks with 265/70-17 tires on stock rims.

I was reading on the 5th gen forum where a guy broke a shock, possibly due to bottoming the shock out but unsure.

I'm wondering if with my mild lift, I should increase the bumpstops on the front and/or rear (the rectangular bumpstops that would contact the rear axle, not the ones inside the rear coils) to ensure the bumpstops take a bottoming-out load, not the shock itself. Do you guys think this is an issue? I don't want to spend money unnecessarily...

 

[Tooltime19]

From what I understand, when using the Bilstein combo without spacers there is no risk of bottoming out the shock itself. If you use a spacer system, you run the risk of breaking a shock under full compression due to the geometry change. Ive been running the 5100's front and rear with heavier rate coils front and rear. I use my truck hard at times and have never broke a shock or anything in the suspension.

 

[mwebster22]

Yeah, thinking a little more about it, on both the front and rear all it's doing is preloading/spacing the spring more. It's not changing the shock/bumpstop ratio. So as long as the compressed length of the stock shock (XReas) and Bilstein 5100 is the same (I assume it is) there shouldn't be a problem with the shock. I guess there could be a problem with over compressing/crashing the spring before it hits the bumpstop, but not with the shock...

 

[kevinpt]

if you use top hat spacers you can have issues

 

[mwebster22]

Not sure if I have "top hat" spacers. I only have spacers on the rear, from BurtmanIndustries. They are 3/4" thick white plastic above the rear springs. What are the problems with top hat spacers?