3.5" Poly Rear Bumpstops (DIY thread)

So... after much deliberation, I finally came up with a way to bump the rear of my Jeep without air bumps. I just wanted something that would work, since I'd be tearing it all back apart soon anyway to do a shock hoop and rear air bumps. This is what I came up with:

Here is the drawing I came up with, to house the bump stop which is about 4.5" long and 2" wide.


And here are the pieces all cut up and what not. Time to get to work!





Some of the beautiful TIG welds my buddy does


And this is what happens when you bump into the rod while he's welding haha. Stupid me! :doh:


So here are some mock up pictures.



Now... WARNING!! WARNING!!! Notice here the small gap between the corner of the bump and the shock. I looked at this probably 50 times, and thought to myself... damn that's close... but thought it would probably be fine, and the shocks don't travel towards the axle. I was wrong... I took it out for a quick romp after getting them setup, and it hit the shock. You can see the picture of the shock below



So what I ended up doing was shaving the side of both rear bumps off, just the corner that was hitting and that seemed to do the trick.





Now... my thoughts on these bumps. I fabbed and installed these the weekend before New Years... the NIGHT before we left for Ocotillo. I just wanted something that was going to work, because I knew I was going to be airing out my XJ. Well... aside from hitting the shock and gouging a section of it, they worked FLAWLESSLY. These things IMPRESSED THE HELL out of me that weekend, and every trip since. If you'll notice I kept my stock upper bump, and used that to fine tune the bump stop length, I measured it to get it close, then used the upper to fine tune. I cut it to where on a HARD hit I still have about 1/4" of shaft showing. I would recommend this setup for ANYBODY that's on a budget and wants a well performing rear bump setup. I would however recommend changing the design a bit, to keep from hitting the shock. Otherwise, JEEP ON!

i like this set up alot, if i was going jeepspeed thats what id do

Point of drilling holes in the stock upper bump is to allow them to flex more?

I would watch out for starting to compress the frame at the stock bumpstop, but that looks real nice, tight to have somthing "temporary" tig welded for you

bluejeepkid said:

i like this set up alot, if i was going jeepspeed thats what id do

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Thanks! You mean WHEN you go jeepspeed We'll get you over to the dark side soon enough.

XJEEPER said:

Point of drilling holes in the stock upper bump is to allow them to flex more?

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Well lol, yea kinda. That's what I tried at first, then realized it didn't help. That was from a previous bump setup I had off the spring perch, and it just hit way too hard with stock bumps. So I tried to soften them, only to realize there's a metal plate inside them to keep them stiff.

buzzbombxj said:

I would watch out for starting to compress the frame at the stock bumpstop, but that looks real nice, tight to have somthing "temporary" tig welded for you

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You think that'd be a problem? I wouldn't imagine the frame bending or tweaking right there, I figured hell it's one of the only BOXED portions of our "frames" it's gotta be stronger. I'll check it out, but I won't have much more offroading on this bump setup, got something else in the works soon!

And yea, he's an awesome welder and a badass friend. He's slowly but surely teaching me how to weld, I just don't want to weld on my own stuff cause it's gotta look perty

crazyjim said:

Thanks! You mean WHEN you go jeepspeed We'll get you over to the dark side soon enough.

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haha i was actually thinking about it but i like crawling a little more...altho i do go fast once in a while

looks good.
but your bearing cap is loose!

bluejeepkid said:

haha i was actually thinking about it but i like crawling a little more...altho i do go fast once in a while

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Go dual purpose!! A jeepspeed setup rig will crawl a lot better than a crawl rig can jeepspeed (to a point)

xcm said:

looks good.
but your bearing cap is loose!

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Yea, I've since fixed it

im glad someone got these and posted up. i've been eyeing the poly ones bc the solid rubber 4 inchers do NOT flex. i'll be picking up a set of these to replace my uppers since i have the sweetzor DPG plates.

Stupid question here...What is jeep speed?

-PJ-

go to jeepspeed.com and go to you tueb and type in jeep speed , youl see =]

vortex said:

Stupid question here...What is jeep speed?

-PJ-

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Jeepspeed is a race class for offroad racing. Basically cherokees and other jeeps built to go fast!

Looks good thanks for the writeup. How do the polys feel? I just would think they would be hard but lets hear your side of how they are when you bottom. Did you have those on when you hit shell reef?

slcpunk74 said:

Looks good thanks for the writeup. How do the polys feel? I just would think they would be hard but lets hear your side of how they are when you bottom. Did you have those on when you hit shell reef?

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So nice dude... Honestly, like the poor man's air bump. And yea, that's what I had on when I hit the shell reef, and you can see from the video I bottomed out HARD cause I caught the edge of the lip. Didn't bounce me back uncontrollably, or any at all actually, it just soaked it up. These bumps work great!

sweet well I guess I know what Im doin to mine now thanks

Looking good jim!

Nice write up Jim, they look good and apparently they work. Good job.

Nice writeup Jim.
Where did you source the poly bumpstops?

How much do they compress?

What size did you get?

http://www.tellico4x4.com/product_info.php/cPath/91_3052/products_id/29935

http://www.polyperformance.com/shop/Competition-Style-Studded-p-166.html

I would bet something like these