'05 OFF ROAD BLEW OUT BILSTEIN STRUT!!!!

Ok,
Rumbling around on the beach at the end of the road in Kauai, my front driver strut broke in half and is being held in by the spring (barely) which is still compressed but sprung outward towards the inside of the rim barely not touching when wheel is straight.

It was a heavy ride out of Polihale, took over a hour to get out of the roads at walking speed not being able to turn more than 2-4 degrees.

I lifted with new AC springs and shackles so I know getting it fixed on warrenty is out.

***Ordered strut... now questions:

Anyone have this problem w/ or w/out AC springs?

Do you think the shock maxed out and then hit hard enough to blow?

Time to keep modding and put new UCA's to fit longer struts?
Are they out there yet?

Longer struts are not out yet. You're only option is the PRG Coil-over setup for the Gen2.

hey drop us aline sometime.. I'm thinking of going to Kauai, to do some wheelin once the ferry starts up.. Drop us a line in the XTC-HI forum...

Got any pics?

I have not heard of anyone having this problem. I have been lifted with the AC springs in the front since Feb (probably about 10-15k miles) and have no problems (and I wheel it pretty hard...though no dune jumping).

BTW, Total Chaos has new UCA's but no one has longer shocks yet.

Someone has purchased rancho 9000s for the front.

I believe the Rancho part number is RS99787. Please verify before ordering.

Yeah, pretty crazy, everyone over here were scratching their heads...

The shock shaft sheared right at the threads and must have slammed into the top bucket and sheared it again right in the center of the shaft! BILSTEINS!

Anyway, I lucked out and the top of the shock with all of the bushings and hardware popped off and sat on top of the UCA, coulda dropped off anytime between recovering and towing... woulda been SOL.

Anyway, all back together, good to go, now I want to beef up the system...

I like the new UCA's, anyone using them yet?

I think it could be a sweet & fairly less expensive lift if we went with:
New UCA's, 2" spacers and 2" AC coils...
Then shackles/AAL in the back.

4 inch PML for 2Gen?

any input?

I'm currently running TC's UCA's and AC's springs up front on my OR. Greg cut me a 1" spacer. I highly recommend that you don't use a spacer larger than this. A 2" spacer (with the above mention parts) will make alignment nearly impossible.

You'll get ABOUT 2.5" of lift with the AC springs
TC's UCA's will give you a bit of lift (.5" maybe) due to the ball
1" spacer is...1" of lift

I can't zero out my camber with my setup but it's pretty close.