bump stops?

[livelarg]

I was looking under my truck and saw the very tall bump stops. I know with my 88' 4runner I can make it articulate more and not effect the ride by lowering the bumpstops.
can I do the same with my 80? I was wondering if there is a kit to shorten the bumpstops and have a liitle more articulation for the off-road. And will it effect the ride or the way it handles when cornering.thanks

 

[stuck in GA]

No it won't efect any of that but your tires will probably rub some if you lower them.

 

[Tools R Us]

Bump stops are to protect the shocks, suspension arms, etc., from over compression damage. The best way to check is to cycle the suspension and see where the shocks bottom, tires rub, etc., and set the stops accordingly. I do it by supporting the truck by the frame on stands, removing the spring and stop in that corner and cycling the suspension with a jack, or use a ramp or forklift. Probably not much to be gained if stock.

 

[Fochdog]

Suspensions are designed to compress to a "metal-to-metal" condition i.e. with the the bump stop fully compressed & the suspension metal bits touching each other.

During big bumps with a vehicle at GVWR the bump stops will compress to about 10% of their normal size.

So ... you won't hurt anything if you remove some of the bump stop volume, but you might notice a ride difference over big bumps or at high speed.

Also, I think you won't notice much articulation improvement with this change. These are heavy trucks and when you stuff a tire it will compress the bump stop a lot even in stock form.