The danger of strut spacers

[TheoF]

Ek het op hierdie topic afgekom by newhilux.net 'n Australiese Hilux Forum en dit laat mens wonder oor die veiligheid van spacers. Sal goed wees as 'n paar van ons manne dit ook kan lees en vertel wat julle daarvan dink. Jy moet registreer om toegang tot die forum te kry.

[Modder]

Post vir ons die link dan...

[TheoF]

http://www.newhilux.net/phpbb/viewtopic ... 47f7a04339" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Modder]

[Modder]

Hier is die topic (Ge-copy net vir julle):

Report this postReply with quoteDangers of Strut spacers
by VMN on Sat, 22 May 2010 12:36 +0000

Hi guys, I've been doing a bit of research on Strut spacers. Ken at Ultimate Suspension suggested that it would be a very worthy topic to discuss as he reckoned they were dangerous but he and Brendan went off overseas yesterday so they could not send me any pics. Anyway, Jerry Zaiden at Cambug in the US came to the rescue and sent me a couple of photos showing the damage that spring spacers can cause.

You see because the spring and strut are dropped lower, on full suspension droop, the strut does not limit suspension travel as normal (because the suspension has is already partly extended) . As a result, the ball joint can bind when normal operating limits are over extended.:



This can then damage the ball joint



Now just go back and look at the first picture again and visualise what might happen when you are sailing down the highway and if the ball joint was to fail....

Now think about what could happen if this happens:



Yes, I know the spacer in this case is pretty extreme, but this one is not all that big and you can see the same bit of strut is missing:


And damage to the ball joint also ocurred:



I know Macca has had a strut fail while strut spacers were fitted (he has since removed them!) and he has posted a pic on the forum of the failed shock in the past.

So If you have got some Strut spacers fitted, I would suggest that you closely inspect your ball joints, check to see if they bind on full droop and give serious consideration to removing the spacers immediately as they could be putting your life at risk!

Maybe this is worthy of being a sticky thread.Last edited by VMN on Sat, 22 May 2010 11:58 +0000, edited 2 times in total.
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TopReport this postReply with quoteRe: Dangers of Spring spacers
by mmaaxx on Sat, 22 May 2010 1:16 +0000

Well done Rod, Ive been saying the very same thing for ages.....especially after seeing a few pics of struts with busted lower shafts....


There was one person, cant remember who it was off the forum ages ago that PM'd me for help/advice because his lower shaft had brocken whilst "mildly" wheeling his hilux....because of the moment on the axle when it broke, it pulled the driveshaft out of the differential with some internals with it aswell...

an extreme example of this I know and rare but not impossible....imagine you hit a pot hole or something similar doing 80kph and it was the straw that broke the horses back, lower shaft of shock breaks, that side of the suspension collapses, tyre jammed inside the guard, driveshaft ripped out and flapping about under speed shredding bits and pieces....if you still have the vehicle upright, you can call yourself fortunate and hope you slow down enough with all the skidding going on and not hit anything/anyone.

The reason Ive always said in past threads related to this when fitting it, if you must and really want to, EXTEND YOUR BUMP STOPS BY THE EQUIVALENT AMOUNT!

atleast you bumpstops will be stopping the strut from bottoming out...yes, youll have less uptravel considerably less than stock but whats your live worth? or your family? bugger the bloody hilux!

for anything other than driving on the street for looks (and even then not reccomended) save up and do it properly!Disclaimer: Any tips provided by me are only my opinion. Please check your local traffic authority for regulations about what you legally can or cant do.

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Report this postReply with quoteRe: Dangers of Spring spacers
by olcoolone on Sat, 22 May 2010 1:24 +0000

Rod, had thought about them but decided against it...more them likely look at the Ultimate setup.

And a body lift!
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Report this postReply with quoteRe: Dangers of Spring spacers
by VMN on Sat, 22 May 2010 1:27 +0000

Yes Max, I nver understood how bad these things are until I saw Jerry's photos!

And closer to home here is what happened to Macca


And he was a long way from home see:
viewtopic.php?f=28&t=2350&p=28659

[Modder]

Ek sien die pics copy nie...

[Modder]

Hier is die pics...

[Mud Dog]

With those type of spacers, one could well expect that to happen especially if they are thick .... and those spacers in the pics are not small either. The spacer type that goes into the strut between the spring and the cup on top only serves to put more pressure on the spring to raise the ride height while the travel length is unaltered. They're safe to use, but admittedly they restrict upward travel a little, depending on where the bump-stop is and how thick the spacer.

[TheoF]

Dankie vir die moeite Alec

[Thabogrobler]

That spacer in the first pic should at least be 80-100mm long??? That is standing on your knees begging for lots of poefies!

[OOOOMS]

Something that is being overlooked here is the fact that our D4D's here in ZA are commonly running nose down. Either standard or with a bumper and/or winch attached. To 'level' out the vehicle a spacer of 15/16mm or 30mm is fitted which raises ... no levels out the vehicle. Back to its original ride height.

What is being discussed above is a serious body lift as Thabo rightly mentioned 80 - 100mm, which with out a doubt will cause some kind of failure.

I have had spacers in both my D4D's 16mm done approx. 70 000km and in both and no problems to date Interesting that Toyota actually fitted them no problem :wink2:

The point here is not to over do it :!:

[Modder]

It might be an extreme example in some of the pics, but in the thread there is also one's that is not so high.

I think it does show that these might create problems and as Ooooms said, dont overdo it!

I also have 30mm spacers fitted in mine and Jgduvenage also has some 25mm fitted and we have not encountered any problems yet...

[mmaaxx]

You guys are missing the main point in the danger of fitting these spacers.

Yes you guys say you have had no problems but where people are having problems even with smaller spacers is the following -

Spacers fitted to factory front struts to level the front of the hilux with the rear......by fitting these you are changing the bottoming out point of the strut.

The factory strut and lower control arm bump stops are matched. The bump stop will limit uptravel so the factory strut doesnt compress too far.

By fitting a spacer, you have lowered this bump stop position. The factory strut will now bottom out to a point where the strut itself cannot compress any further and the lower control arm isn't being stopped moving up by the factory bump stop.

The result is that the weakest point being the lower shaft of the strut breaks. Something has to give.

Using a strut spacer overloads the factory suspension aswell. You will see the difference in thickness of the lower shaft of a factory toyota hilux suspension with a thicker one that is aftermarket.

Anybody fitting these strut spacers should seriously fit a lower bump stop spacer the same thickness.

Example - if you fit a 20mm strut spacer to give you a 40mm height increase, you should lower you bump stop by the same amount - 20mm to ensure the lower control arm bottoms out before your strut does.

The damage sustained could be very expensive, to the point that it would have been cheaper fitting a proper strut in the first place.

I have seen one example where a factory strut with spacer collapsed offroad, and due to the momentum and terrain at the time, the driveshaft was ripped out of the factory front diff causing major problems. Not too mention the steering knuckle was bent in all this aswell as the driveshaft being damaged and the strut...major expensive, but a worst case scenario.

sorry for the long post....Ive been trying to convince people for years not to fit these without modifying the bump stops aswell....its always fallen on deaf ears.

Thanks,

Max.

[jacques kotze]

Hi Max,
Thanks for the info on the strut spacer. I've also done the strut spacer 3 years ago, with no problems. But I have to say that I don't do really hard off-road for fun, sometimes I have to when I'm working(manufacturing and installation of masts on high sites) Now that you mentioned it, I will definitely have a look at my struts and do the necessary changes to it.

[rood]

sorry for asking, what is a bump stop? i have 50mm strud spacers in front giving me 100mm lift and lifted the back with 40mm, now its level and high in front.

[Hoppy]

We fit strut spacers, but 20mm is max, that gives 40mm lift.
We raplace the std top bolts with longer HT bolts.
If you lift more than 40mm, you can break all of the above and your CV joints.