Hey guys... I've noticed that I am "bottoming" out a lot when I have any type of cargo or passengers in the X. The shocks are not absorbing very well and the cab is hitting the axle stoppers (sorry for incorrect verbage) really hard.

This normal? I would think with the Bilstein Shocks that this would not be a problem... especially since the front set seem to hold up great!

Doesn't sound normal at all. How much weight are you carrying around in it?? I'd take it back to have them look at it.

Check a few other posts on this. Bottoming out isn't a function of the shocks (they keep the tire on the ground), rather it's the springs that will prevent bottoming out.

A few people have noted that the 05 X appears to have softer rear springs that it should, resulting in some bottoming out.

Yes very much so. One of the few Issues I have with the new 05's.

Some also state that it's not so much the stiffness of the springs, but the fact that the bump stop just doesn't give much room.

On the uptravel of the axle to the bumpstop there is only 2"... not good! All the different models of Xs suffer from this so it is not a Bilstein related issue.

Just out of curiosity, what was the axle travel on the previous generation Xterra? My buddy had a 2000 Xterra XE, and he never had this sort of problem, even before we put the Calmini add-a-leaf syste in.

Heh. It's a lot more than "some". I'm somewhere between shocked and disgusted at how poorly my '05 X wheels with any kind of load in the back compared with my previous '92 Trooper. I hope somebody comes up with a less drastic solution than the 5" Calmini lift which was the response I got to my bitching about this same problem...

Trimming the bumpstops about 1" seems like a decent temporary solution; at least it would give you 50% more rear upward travel than we already have.

Do the shocks have enough upward travel in them to do this? I know someone was going to check, but I have not seen a response to this.

Also there are a few companies coming out with 2.5 and 3" lifts.

And to be honest, I bottom out more driving down the road hitting pot holes than I do off-road.