Up, down, down, up - whatever. I think you guys are right. Anyway, what I was referring to was the amount of travel the van frame could go down before there was contact with the bump stops. (This is the amount the axle goes up, hence I'm wrong) Wow, that's a first
Before I went to Deaver I had 1-1/2" of travel. Now I have 2", but the Bilsteins they installed on the front only have the same 2" and on the drive home up Hwy. 99 I must have bottomed out on the shock as the upper mounting bolt is now bent and the little rubber O-ring, that's on the shaft that will indicate how much the shock has traveled, was mushed up against the shock body. I didn't feel any of this contact, but there is no doubt that the shock bottomed out, and hard enough to bend the mounting bolt. Not good. I will be calling them on Monday to see what can be done. I'm very happy with the ride, a great improvement over the stock SMB springs.
Phil, when you go in, you might mention you talked to me and be sure they correct several things.
1) They need to shim out their track bar where it fastens to the new right spring U-bolt/shock plate. Mine wasn't out enough and it was rubbing on my cross member. I mentioned it and they sent a guy under there with a grinder and took out part of my cross member. WAY too much. 1/8" would have done it and he cut out a 1/2" section. I might have to weld a plate in there to strengthen it now.
2) Get shorter Bilsteins in front. My number is:
AK7110SB06
360/80
12190886
(I'll be calling Bilstein before I call Jeff to see what's available.)
3) There is now no bump stop on the rear. They removed the Ford spings and U-bolt plate and that had the stock bump stop mounted on it. Jeff sez he'll be sending me a fix, but you might get one while you're there.
Jeff was super to deal with and very helpful. Gave me a ride back to the motel and called with updates on the work while I was at Dizzyland.
I'll give a full report after I get things corrected and hit the Baja dirt in a few weeks.