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Drilling front bumpers to smooth-out ride


misterp

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I don't know about that P. I've read some things about those DJM control arms from people that have them and they say they are junk. I was just reading something about that yesterday. I don't know, he had a 4/6 with those arms and he hates driving his truck now. Maybe it is the fact that it's soo low now.  :dunno: I'm sure you've done your research though, good luck.  :thumbs:

 

I'll see if I can dig up where I read that.

Yeah please do that.

 

Mr. P.

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keep me updated, the ride for me is ok, but Im a big lover of a better ride. I was gonna do your recommendation when I add my Nitro shocks probably on sunday. So do you think I should just leave it at stock (dont cut of a nub) and drill the holes. Thats what I was thinking about doing.

Like I said before tell me how the control arm handle, and how much did you get them for?

PM if youd like

thanks again P as a fellow left hander my left hand can only dream of your left's legacy  :D

I'm not truly left-handed, I write with my right hand; my mother and sister are though. If I had to do this over again, yes I would not cut one nub off the damper but instead weaken it, maybe even progressively by drilling 6 3/16" holes in the top nub and 4 more 1/4" holes in the 2nd nub, so that as the truck compresses the bumper it gets progressively stiffer.

 

Mr. P.

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keep me updated, the ride for me is ok, but Im a big lover of a better ride. I was gonna do your recommendation when I add my Nitro shocks probably on sunday. So do you think I should just leave it at stock (dont cut of a nub) and drill the holes. Thats what I was thinking about doing.

Like I said before tell me how the control arm handle, and how much did you get them for?

PM if youd like

thanks again P as a fellow left hander my left hand can only dream of your left's legacy  :D

I'm not truly left-handed, I write with my right hand; my mother and sister are though. If I had to do this over again, yes I would not cut one nub off the damper but instead weaken it, maybe even progressively by drilling 6 3/16" holes in the top nub and 4 more 1/4" holes in the 2nd nub, so that as the truck compresses the bumper it gets progressively stiffer.

 

Mr. P.

 

P, thanks for the inspiration sir :thumbs: i just installed my belltech leafs, spindles, and keys. as i told you before, i cut my stops to the last nub, and rode soley on the torsion bars. it rode fantastic until it traveled more than 3 inches lol. so tonight i put new bumps in, drilled the first nub 8 times with a small bit(dont remember size). now it rides amazing, but gets progressively stiff real fast. its perfect. and its definatly a 3" drop, im barely one finger in the front. with the keys its very tight, handling is great. thanks again!

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i bet that would work great. i have those mushy belltech bumps in the rear, that chase has. the back rides horrible. i just finished two full days of work and didnt have time to look under the car to see if i was riding on the bumps. but i can tell u that it feels like a have a steel bar welded to my axle. have you heard of anyone using the belltech leafs?

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  • 2 years later...
hey i know this is a old thread but i just did this mod tonight! and it works flawless. truck rides beautiful. thanks for the write up

Awesome, thanks for the feedback. The best part IMO is that you keep the progressive suspension loading.

 

...have you heard of anyone using the belltech leafs?

Yes, Blaker888 had a pair on his VHO and hated them; their load carrying capacity is crap, and on the EC trucks the rear will bottom-out on you easily on really rough road.

 

Mr. P.

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  • 4 months later...
  • 8 months later...

Would you suggest doing this on the rear also?

At the rear of the truck, the only reason the bumpstops exists is to prevent metal-to-metal contact when you completely overload the bed with weight! So just remove the metal 'stand' and directly bolt the bumpstop to the framerail, and cut another 2 bumpstops off (leaving you 1-nub to contact the axle tube).

 

Mr. P. :)

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  • 1 month later...

I'm 4/6 with all McGaughy's on my 07 crew cab. McGaughy's spindles & keys up front.

 

I screwed up & cut my factory bumpers too short so I switched to the bell tech bumpers about 2 years ago. They are apparently not as stiff as the factory ones as they are now compressed so they don't even touch the lower control arm at ride height. Last week, I tried to get SS bumpers, but apparently GM has superceded them to the regular z71 bumpers. So now I have a fresh, unmolested set of z71 bumpers.

 

I want to make sure that I'm doing this right & don't mess up this set. From what I gather, I *should not* cut off the first small nub, but rather drill it with 4 1/8" holes & drill the second nub with 4 3/16" holes.

 

Am I on the right track?

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Well, I took out the bell tech bumpers today. They were compressed to half the height of the stock ones. My truck is so low that I couldn't get an uncut factory bumper in there. I had to cut the first nub off in order to wedge it into the cup. I drilled the second nub with 6 1/4" holes. Man, it's like I have a new truck. No more bottoming out or feeling like you have no air pressure in your tire when you hit a bump. To me, it rides just as good now with the 4/6 as it did at stock height which, on my truck, was as high as a Z71.

 

I'm gonna order an extra set in case these eventually compress and lose their springiness, so to speak.

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:thumbs: Right-on! Sorry I could not reply sooner (to your original post) but yeah with a 4" drop there's no way you're gonna avoid cutting that first nub off. That's the price of living the lowered life!

 

I would scout the boneyards for the front bumpstops from lifted Z71s, they probably will not have had much use on them in their original life and you can probably get away with them for almost free (compared to what the dealer charges!).

 

Mr. P.

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  • 2 weeks later...

damn even though i dont have an SS, i have a sub, i cut my cups completely off!! i was damn near riding on the cut and when i hot a large bump my arm actually hit the cup. i had no idea that this might work, i just turned the keys down but now i am getting spindles and am wondering what i should do? any ideas?

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  • 5 months later...

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