front bumpstop bracket

[MASS-HOE'Z71]

any reason not to cut the front bumpstop bracket off and relocate the stops to the frame to gain clearance/travel? ive heard stuff about it assisting the torsion bars but seems like alot of the nbs silverados have clearance between the axel plate and stopper which makes alot more sense than having it constantly sitting on the plate. couple people on here have said its like night and day as far as ride quality improving but still like to kno if theres anything im completely missing as far as them being there, other than its going to be a pain in the ass to do.

 

[NathanJax]

I had to cut almost all the rubber/foam from my front bumpstop to get low... I was resting on them. I don't really see the point of cutting and relocating unless ur bagging.

 

[dropmech]

I'm resting on mine with stock suspension. I'm curious about your question as well.

 

[Grocery Getter]

I cut mine, made a HUGE difference. I ordered some energy suspension low profile button bump stops and mounted them to the frame in place of the factory bracket. Definitely worth the $15 and hour out of my day.

 

[Tahoewhat]

anyone have pics of said bumpstop? Does this pertain to even lowering w/ keys? Never heard of the front bumpstop only rear. (excuse the dumbness, learning about suspension everyday)

 

[Grocery Getter]

anyone have pics of said bumpstop? Does this pertain to even lowering w/ keys? Never heard of the front bumpstop only rear. (excuse the dumbness, learning about suspension everyday)

Just look at your front wheel, find the lower contol arm, look between it and the frame and you will see a round steel bracket with a big foam/rubber bump stop sticking out. If you are lowered you may be resting on it in which case you will see the bracket with a smushed bump stop.

 

[MASS-HOE'Z71]

Might as well try it, shouldnt hurt anything, main thing that had me slightly concerned was actually how much pressure is resting on the axel plate and how much of that was assisting the torsion bars. Ive cut my actual rubber stops down pretty low and their still smashed in. Can you just buy bumpstops at auto supply stores, cant say ive ever seen them but ive never looked either.
Planning on tuesday after im done swapping my exhaust again but i gotta find the new bumpers first

 

[chistoso]

I cut mine to the point I could see about 1/4" gap between the LCA and the frame and I wasn't pleased with the ride. I could feel the truck body roll around corners and felt like the wheels traveled more on bumps and causing steering wheel vibration at any speed when I hit a bump, ride was too bouncy.. I ended up putting on another set or stock bumpstops and my firm,steady, smooth ride is back.. I guess it's a matter of personal preference..

 

[SS HOE]

Someone told me up here to get the z71 Tahoe bumpstops. He said that he rides on his all the time and the z71 stops are more firm. Maybe after this post he will give you his explanantion, kind of sounds like same concept of previous reply.

 

[MASS-HOE'Z71]

Someone told me up here to get the z71 Tahoe bumpstops. He said that he rides on his all the time and the z71 stops are more firm. Maybe after this post he will give you his explanantion, kind of sounds like same concept of previous reply.

Id have to say that i should have the z71 bumpers on mine unless its a year thing. The ride from the front isnt bad but i can notice a difference when im driving something else and when i drive over the same bump in the road that would cause me to cringe in my truck, is barely noticeable. Just figured if there was a travel/ clearance issue and having a weight pressured pivot point on my lower control arm could be a factor. And i obviously dont wanna judt jump and do something that might hurt ride quality.Always the chance my belltech sp shocks arent to my liking, some new bilsteins could be in my future

 

[thehoe92]

I've seen a lot of guys that have Bilsteins and say that the next shock they are going to run is Belltech SP
I was going to run them but ended up with Belltech Drop II in the front and DJM out back
they are supposed to be the bees knees.. so if you end up with a different shock PM me and I'll buy them off you

as for the bump stop.. I did a little research myself when I wanted to do the same thing and came to the conclusion that without them the geometry on your control arms gets pinched together causing more negative camber
now that could have been because of my bad wheel hub but I noticed going from the ones that I cut to stock ones again it brought the wheels back out a little more and was a little more cushion

I guess you could always take them out completely and drive around the block and see how if feels instead of cutting the bracket off.. then if you don't like it just throw them back in

 

[Grocery Getter]

as for the bump stop.. I did a little research myself when I wanted to do the same thing and came to the conclusion that without them the geometry on your control arms gets pinched together causing more negative camber

That is because when you are totally resting on the bump stops you can have your keys decranked and not be sitting where the torsion bars actually are due to the bumpstops getting in the way. You can only compress your front suspension to the bumpstops, ya dig? So, if you are decranked and sitting on them then you cut them or remove them your front suspension now has the room to compress to where the keys are actually set. My front end dropped like 1/1.5'' when I installed the low pros, I had to crank the keys back up just so I could drive but now it rides so much better and the front doesn't "clunk" when I hit bumps it has room to absorb the bumps w/o bottoming out and I am sitting just under 32''...... Now, the downside is that when I hit a REALLY bug dip and my suspension does compress almost all the way my tires nail the top of the fender well pretty good but that doesn't happen too often and I think with some new shocks it will be a rare occurance.

 

[thehoe92]

okay well I took my own advice and took out my front bump stops from the cup and I have about a half inch to an inch between the cup and lower control arm which freaked me out a little but test drove it and OMG!! what a difference!!!!

now the suspension isn't totally relying on the bump stop to take the brunt of the impact your shocks are and that is a much better feeling

the front end now just glides over bumps like it used to

I don't have any more negative camber than before so my research failed me and it was actually just my hub assembly causing the problems

I am still on the edge about cutting the bracket off because I haven't driven it enough to know the significant damage it could cause if it does bottom out hard but my guess is it will bottom out before the tire gets any where near the top of the fender

with the bracket cut you will see close to 2-3 inches more of front travel which leads me to conclude that you may need to aftermarket bump stops in order to stop all that travel from hitting your fenders

my question is could anyone with this mod done please post some pictures of where you located your bump stops and how you went about doing it?

are you running the longer 1.5" ones that are meant for the front or are you using the shorter 3/4" ones that are meant for the rear

I'm almost curious enough to throw my HD camera under there while I'm rolling to get some footage of whats actually happening and how much clearance is needed for a smooth ride

 

[Grocery Getter]

Word up. Now you know what I mean. If you are worried about the fender hitting because of the travel use the longer ES stops, I used the shorties and if I do rub the fender but very rarely, not so much on bumps but if I hit a really big dip the tires will kiss the top of the inside of the fender well. I used these:

http://www.energysuspensionparts.com/proddetail.asp?prod=9.9102

but also have a set of these:

http://www.energysuspensionparts.com/proddetail.asp?prod=9.9103

I didn't use the bullet style because it is about as long as the bracket itself and I wouldn't have gained that much travel. I am so low that I was pretty much sitting on the bracket when I took the rubber stops out. I did crank up my front end a little more(1/2'') and it drives and turns much much better. I don't think you can really drive at 31'' or less in the front on these trucks w/o bags to be honest. I had it set at 31'' and it was ok but I couldn't turn for shit and as soon as I put my wife in the truck I was rubbing the top of the fender on every bump and forget about passenger's in the back. After I bag the front I'll go back down an inch when it is just me in the truck but until then I think 32'' is about as low as I can go and still keep all the functionality.

 

[thehoe92]

I think right after I did my body drop and having my keys only at about half a turn I was around 30.5" and it did not last long.. granted it look sick as **** rollin down the street I cut my tires up pretty good.. still have the battle wounds from it

but I'm going to see if I can find some bump stops in a store instead of buying them online

 

[ESCA-L8R]

Bottom line, if you're sitting on the bumpstops in the front or rear you really ought to cut them back. No way the truck will ever ride decently on something like 1/2" of highly progressive rubber, and by asking it to you may as well throw your shocks away; they're effectively doing nothing. Same for your fancy-pants rear springs; toss em out and just rest it on the stops...

As a side note, this is much less of an issue in front spindle drops where the LCA moves no closer to the bumpstop, the wheel just moves higher on the spindle... On my McG 3/5 drop I had to hack out the rear stops and brackets, while I'm sitting pretty in the front..

 

[MASS-HOE'Z71]

Didnt mean to ruin your whole day like that, and i didnt know i had fancy pants coils or a fairly mainstream set of shocks i got on sale months ago. Also, where tahoes and yukons come out of the factory SITTING on the bumpstops, it seemed like a legitimate question to ask if there was anyone who had modified that portion of their suspension and what the outcome was or if there were any ill-effects of it.
As a side note i do have the drop spindles as well as keys up front

And now isnt useless to have 2 people post in the same thread and contribute nothing

 

[Tahoewhat]

Well i didnt read all of this, but im interested in this, im reading what their experiences are, since i am fixing to drop the front of mine, w/ keys only at the time, but soon lower a-arms. But not sure who's day you ruined, but im cool w/ all the reading. I like reading others experience before i experiement on my daily...
But i still love your drop dan... looks really good. (nevermind, i read it,)

 

[thehoe92]

bottom line... do it if you are resting on them
I was thinking about it today and came up with the same conclusion your suspension is all reliant on the bump stops if you don't do something about them
your shocks will rarely compress like they are supposed to which won't ride good at all

the very least take the bump stops out and leave the bracket until you know its something you want to do
I'll probably be cutting mine off tomorrow because they are basically pointless now

I will never run bump stops smashed on the control arm again

it is a night and day difference and you will see what I'm talking about as soon as you do it

take 5 minutes tops.. jack the truck up by the frame hold onto the bump stop and pull haha

I just did a little extra and took the fender liner out so I could have a little better turning radius

 

[chistoso]

Different strokes for different folks. Mine rode like crap without the rubber, maybe it was because of the autoride shocks but with the rubber on, lowering spindles and an extra inch with lowering keys mine rides like a dream.. Mine did come with the Z71 bumpstops from GM if that means anything..