Spacer level lifts

I can't fairly comment on how the ride is affected. My 07 came with spacers. I swapped in TRD pull off coil overs and retained the spacers until I bought my OME coilovers and I might add the ride on those were nice. I haven't installed my new coilovers on my 14 yet but the current street ride is not as stiff as the 07 spacer setup. Not a fair comparison since my 07 also had Nitto Trail Grappler M/T's load range E and my 14 currently has P rated H/T tires on it. I'd much rather get 3" of lift with a straight up coilover swap than using a spacer. Just a matter of choice and use

 

Based off the YouTube video, these all provide the same amount of lift. Notice the top mounted spacer overall shock length? How would you find it riding around fully dropped? Then on the compression side, to make up for the spacer you have to shim the bump down equal (proportional) meaning you are taking away up travel.

 

Really?

 

If this next picture doesn't help, I don't know how else to explain this.

If I had a 1" spacer between my bump stop and frame. Your telling me there will be NO change to my bump travel?

 

So, to start with, you lose down travel with any lift retaining the factory upper a-arms. They have a limit to their movement based on the ball joint angle that you can't get around. Up travel ends up being limited by the shock instead of the bump stop which is where the issue with broken shocks comes into play. On a adjustable shock lift (5100s, coilovers etc) the shock has either been designed to maintain travel to the bump stop location or comes with a spacer for the bump stop to adjust where in the suspension movement it will start to take effect. I can tell you from experience that a spacer lift rides rough. My biggest issue was in loss of down travel which caused my truck to buck over bumps. I'm about to install a set of 5100s on mine but I wont go beyond the 2" ride height change as I have not replaced my upper a-arms. Think of it this way... if you removed the shock from the suspension, the travel is limited completely by the arms and pivot point range of motion, all a spacer lift does is change where in that range of motion you ride at normally. With the spacer you tend to be near full droop at all times and hence ride quality suffers. Really the only solution is to have upper a-arms that will allow for more droop in your suspension no matter what lift you run or to run a smaller lift like what you can get with a spring preload or replacement shock. Spacers don't come smaller than a 3" because of how they mount. A 1.5-2" spacer lift wouldn't ride as rough just because of the increased down travel but unfortunately cannot be made because of the mounting limitations.

 

I run a 1 inch spacer !!
Super smooth ride

 

I agree with you @MacCTD . A lot of people spread rumors about spacers that are not true. ( I agree new shocks are a better option etc... but the stories about spacers don't make sense)
If you use the OEM coils and OEM shocks then there is no difference in ride quality. The geometry change is miniscule and you should not be able to feel any difference in ride quality, and the same geometry change happens with aftermarket coil overs, so that's a mute point.

What happens is; people add a spacer lift and at the same time install bigger tires. They go from a car tire to a bigger 10-ply truck tire, and then blame the harsher ride on the spacers. There is no reason at all that a spacer can change the ride quality.

 

It's not so much the spacer as the reduction in down travel before bind that causes the poor ride quality. That it what causes the harshness over bumps and potholes. I've been there and yes it does get worse but it has much to do with the fact that your suspension cannot drop all the way down into the hole and so you feel every time the ball joint binds and causes a jerking sensation. You end up going from 4-5" of down travel to 2" or less.

 

Really, I am just trying to understand, I cannot see how the amount of travel changes with a spacer ontop of the stock coilover and a spacer added to the stock bump stop or a replacement bump stop, the bump stop increase is just to prevent the coil over from bottoming out.
The 5100s on my truck are longer than the oem coil overs but use the stock springs, the distance between the bottom eye on the 5100s and the bottom of the spring is longer than the distance on the oem coil overs measured the same way, I cannot see how 5100s can ride any better than a spacer lift if they are at the same lift amount, if fact I would say the 5100s ride harsher as the 5100 is much harder to compress than the oem coil over with the spring removed.

 

Think of it this way, if your truck has less travel, then it has less effective distance (and therefore time) for the shock to perform its duty of reducing the impact of lets say a bump. When you add a spacer lift, the shock dampening window is now effectively shorter because there is a new spacer of xx length contained within the length of space as was previously there. As noted by @LlamaResistance , stock UCA's have a limit of range they can operate in, so you will not gain any advantage in travel in that regard.

 

This.

Also, I understand the fact you lose that little bit of down travel, which will create some harsher ride issues... but now that we're finally getting into the longevity of certain components (IE: factory UCA ball joints) that's what I was looking for. Thank you all for the proper explanations!

From my recent experience, bought the truck stock, ride was great for the 1000 or so miles I put on it, stock tires helped. Added 3" in-coil spacer from Toytec with 1" shackle in back. Still stock tires. Difference in ride quality hardly noticeable but it is more "truck" like, which I'm fine with. I am about to add some 295/60-20 Ridge Grapplers. I am completely expecting a much harsher ride as they are E rated but it looks cooler, right??

If I had the $$$, of course I would spring for full coilovers, but this isn't my wheeling rig (have an FJ for that). This is my DD, camping, hauling, mall crawler rig. I don't haul ass over speed bumps or flog down washboard fire roads with it, therefore, spacers were the best solution in my budget.

Thanks again for the people who actually provide useful information

 

I get the idea that, by ‘the people who actually provide useful information’ you mean, those whose *opinions* match your previous understanding.

 

Not quite, the explanations actually helped me understand things I didn't think about, but make total sense after discussion. I was looking for more than a "yes or no" answer, people provided that