Wheeler's SuperBumps Questions

I installed Wheeler's Superbumps a while back and now I'm wondering if they are too close to the lower control arm to be working correctly. Do the pictures look ok for the superbumps?

I'm currently running Bilstein 5100s set at 1.75" of lift with the factory TRD Sport springs.

 

They are fine. The are soft and progressive. My guess is that they are so smooth they you had no idea your control arms were even starting to touch them when you were driving, right?

Look at the position they are on the contol arms, not even half way out from the control arm bushings to the ball joint? So 1" compression of the bump stop is more than 2" at the wheel.

Again they are fine. Depending on your tire size you might even need to space them down to keep the tire out of the fender at full stuff.

 

Looks a little close, mine were about 1" away when I had stock LCAs. They really squish down a lot though. They look/feel firm but are pretty soft.

 

Mine ride on the LCA's and have been fine so far. Although I had started a thread asking a similar question(except mine touch the LCA at ride height).

 

Yeah I don't notice them hitting while driving around town because they don't make a solid thud like the factory ones. I was just wondering if they could be affecting my ride on gravel roads (potholes) because they would be limiting the travel of my shocks prematurely. I don't have a midtravel or LT setup, so every little bit of travel counts when hitting the larger potholes.

 

They will not limit your travel. they squish to less then the factory bumps

 

So you think it would be better to let the suspension compress quickly 5", then bottom out hard? Or possible better to have a smooth progressive controlled compression of maybe 4" and never feel a hard bottom out? Quality of travel over quantity, unless you're just doing slow rock crawling.

As stated, they will still compress to the size of the factory bump stops anyway, especially running them fast on rough roads. The only time they might limit travel would be slow crawling.

Just get out and drive them on the gravel roads if you're worried about it. See how they feel. But there is absolutely nothing wrong with how they're set up. If they were shorter, they would need to be made of a harder rubber/foam. And then they wouldn't be as soft and smooth. Just like the factory bump stops!

 

Not my videos but this shows you how they will still compress.

http://youtu.be/YRmK_NkU8Rs


A much better video with icons, showing how much better icons control the suspension anyway. The worst part of your ride is going to be the bilsteins easily and harshly topping out, not the compression.

http://youtu.be/zd6lH5_ordU

 

Thank you for the information and the videos. That was really helpful.

Sounds like you might know a thing or two about suspension. What do you think of the rough ride I'm experiencing with the Bilsteins? I think that it is a result of the digressive/firm valving of the shocks. I emailed Downsouth Motorsports last night to get some feedback from them on what might be the best setup for my type of driving. I'm pretty much 95% on the street, so I don't think I'm topping out the shocks (though I could be) but my truck hits the larger bumps in the road and feels almost like a pogo stick bouncing... almost like the rebound is too much and the truck really springs back up more than it needs and then settles back down to static height. The offroading that I do is all slowly driving up logging/forest service roads so I don't need a firm high-speed desert setup... I'm thinking that I may need some coilovers with the valving tuned for a softer ride. Even when I'm offroad, I'm usually never doing more than about 25mph and I usually slow down if I see a section of potholes coming.

 

That right there is topping out. Except you have too little rebound and . . . it tops out.

 

Would a progressively valved shock be better for my style of driving? Maybe something like the Fox coilovers?

 

That is the characteristic of the compression, it is the rebound that is giving you issues. My OMEs were the same way (topping out), and seems to be a common issue with non rebuildable ones like OME and Billstein. Any of the rebuildable coilovers will offer better rebound characteristics (and compression), and are rebuildable as well so you can fine tune the ride

 

I have load range E tires, which I know contributes to the firm ride, but unfortunately I haven't found any 285/65r18 that aren't load E.

Tire pressure is set at 38 front and rear.

 

Tire size and pressure can help, but the bilsteins and OME shocks in IFS applications seem to have real terrible rebound valving. I've run bilsteins on several ifs trucks and they all did this unfortunately. The rebound valving just does not catch the suspension on the way back down. I don't think the digressive valving is the issue because icons are digressive.

I almost bought bilsteins for the tacoma as a temporary setup, but I'm so glad I went with icons. I would guess the fox and similar coiovers would work the same way.