I raised my torsion bars to level my pickup and clear my 285's about a month ago. I had planned on getting longer shocks but the bilsteins are on backorder so I thought I would just wait til I could get them. I took a little closer look at them last night and both shocks are blown. It's probly not good to run it like it is, but I don't want to buy new shocks and have them blow out in month again. I was thinking of buying new shocks and putting the biggest spacer I could get in there. Anyone have any suggestions?

IIRC, about the most you can get with a stack of washers on top is a half inch maybe a little more, then you have to start adding spacers under the two bottom shock mount bolts(probably need longer bolts) don't know what limitations are on that end. But you should pay careful attention to suspension travel verses shock travel when doing this to avoid topping or bottoming out the shock.

What kind of spacers do they make for the bottom shock mounts? Know of anyone that makes them or sells them?

What kind of spacers do they make for the bottom shock mounts? Know of anyone that makes them or sells them?

They?, They? who'da heli is they? Dude you make this stuff your self. I would think fabing some up out of 1/8" plate and stacking them to get the right space would work.

Sorry, Making them myself is not a problem, but I wasn't sure if there a company out there that already made a set.

No problem. I just want to remind you that even though you might have rised your front 2"(just guessing), you wont need to come up with 2" of spacers to recliam the shock travel. The shock travels inboard of the wheel and moves on a shorter arc.

just get some 1/2 inch plate and cut it to fit and call it a day easy as that

1/2 inch plate and cut it to fit
:eek:
35 hacksaw blades later, my arm would look like Popeye's! :D

How much cranking did you do and what kind of driving did you do to blow out both front shocks in a month?

I have had mine raised 1.75" for 3 yrs now with mostly highway and country back road miles but during hunting season (Oct-Feb) it goes off road quite a bit. Not a lick of problems running the stock shocks. Just curious why you had such a bad problem.

The majority of my driving is actually highway miles in the city. I work in the city during the week and work on my farm on the weekends, but I haven't used it too hard on the farm yet. I used it one time out in the pasture chasing cows, which can get pretty rough, but I wouldn't think one time would blow both, but it's possible. Probly just make some new brackets this weekend and be done with it. Thanks for all the info!!

Stock shocks are JUNK!!! Removed mine yesterday to put the Bilsteins on, & 3 were so loose they slide in & out like they have been oiled for a year. All highway, pulling new RV trailers, none over 30ft, so are light. 24,000 on the truck & about 3/4 of miles were loaded. JUNK

mine were blown too after a few thousand miles. the type of driving you do has very little to do with it

Where did you get your BDS shocks from? Are you happy with those?

i bought them from Bigblue02HD on this forum. and yes they are really nice. in my opinion they are better than the extended bilsteins

Topout failure. The oem length is your issue. Longer shock or spacers. Even oem length bilsteins will fail, and bilstein deals with those returns regularly with off roaders who crank the bars.

Thanks for the input. I want the extended Bilstein's, but seems everyone else does and they are on back order so I may try to get a set of the BDS, or build some spacer's. Do you know of any other quality brands that carry extended shocks?

Try Rancho 9000's their ajustable ( 9 settings) and life time coverage. Smoothed out my ride .....I have some stock shocks for sell, only 6000 miles on um ):h