DON'T USE OPEN TOP LEVEL SPACERS

hodge-xj said:

It very well could be, it's hard to test which sucks. Mine was hiding a large amount of damage, which after swapping out cured all my mystery noises. When does it pop on your truck? Turning? Bumps?

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Yea, then. Not very often though. But I don't drive the truck daily either.

I just bought rough country spacers and they came with a plate that bolts on to the top of the strut. I'm assuming that the plate is to prevent this exact situation/problem from occurring. Someone could have been lazy with your install or it was a cheap fleabay one that just plain didn't come with one.

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T_Unit114 said:

I just bought rough country spacers and they came with a plate that bolts on to the top of the strut. I'm assuming that the plate is to prevent this exact situation/problem from occurring. Someone could have been lazy with your install or it was a cheap fleabay one that just plain didn't come with one.

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When you are cruising with ur window down... and start hearing a faint creeking... and you spray the top of the strut with lithium grease and it goes away... remember this moment..

Just saying.

Ratket said:

When you are cruising with ur window down... and start hearing a faint creeking... and you spray the top of the strut with lithium grease and it goes away... remember this moment..

Just saying.

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Maybe. I'm just gonna run them for a year and when it's time for new shocks I'll do the bilstein 5100 thing. I have a set of them on the wife's jeep and they're awesome.

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T_Unit114 said:

Maybe. I'm just gonna run them for a year and when it's time for new shocks I'll do the bilstein 5100 thing. I have a set of them on the wife's jeep and they're awesome.

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They have their place and if the plate holds up you may not have this issue. I assume mine were cheap Chinese spacers. Idk as they were already installed. Either way, brand or size doesn't matter, if the top is supported similar to stock you're ok, if they have a big opening, it's a matter if time until the issues arise. Run what's in your budget, just be mindful as spacers are similarly priced, so spend the money on the better of the options. Not everyone cares or can afford new shocks, I'm not one to begrudge them, just want guys to make an informed decision on the products they want.

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hodge-xj said:

They have their place and if the plate holds up you may not have this issue. I assume mine were cheap Chinese spacers. Idk as they were already installed. Either way, brand or size doesn't matter, if the top is supported similar to stock you're ok, if they have a big opening, it's a matter if time until the issues arise. Run what's in your budget, just be mindful as spacers are similarly priced, so spend the money on the better of the options. Not everyone cares or can afford new shocks, I'm not one to begrudge them, just want guys to make an informed decision on the products they want.

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I'm not ********. If I do get this problem I'm damn happy that someone else has been through it and too the time to track it down and make an effort to let people know. Not common these days in society. 5100s are not in the budget right now as I just got the truck 2 weeks ago. But I can table that upgrade a year or so down the road. The spacers aren't even on the truck yet. I'm planning on some other stuff too and would like to get it all done at once.

Had a tree come down in the back yard in the last storm and I've got camper stuff to handle as well for the start of the season so the spacer install is gonna be on hold for a bit. Also will need an alignment after so I have to make time for that to be scheduled as well. And I currently have locking lugs with no key so I need to get that sorted out before I can even attempt to worry about anything else. I do go off road here and there. Light trail stuff and some sand dunes too, and I need my other wheels and tires before I can do any of that. And they need adapters to make the six lug GM pattern work on the ram. Good adapters don't run cheap. I'm still not even 100% on whether or not I like the idea of it.

So many things to do. Not enough hours in a day. Along with home projects, a day job, fire Dept stuff, a family....... one thing at a time.

/Thread Jack.





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T_Unit114 said:

I'm not ********. If I do get this problem I'm damn happy that someone else has been through it and too the time to track it down and make an effort to let people know. Not common these days in society. 5100s are not in the budget right now as I just got the truck 2 weeks ago. But I can table that upgrade a year or so down the road. The spacers aren't even on the truck yet. I'm planning on some other stuff too and would like to get it all done at once.

Had a tree come down in the back yard in the last storm and I've got camper stuff to handle as well for the start of the season so the spacer install is gonna be on hold for a bit. Also will need an alignment after so I have to make time for that to be scheduled as well. And I currently have locking lugs with no key so I need to get that sorted out before I can even attempt to worry about anything else. I do go off road here and there. Light trail stuff and some sand dunes too, and I need my other wheels and tires before I can do any of that. And they need adapters to make the six lug GM pattern work on the ram. Good adapters don't run cheap. I'm still not even 100% on whether or not I like the idea of it.

So many things to do. Not enough hours in a day. Along with home projects, a day job, fire Dept stuff, a family....... one thing at a time.

/Thread Jack.





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That's why I started this thread. To make sure people knew to watch out for certain products and their short comings. Not saying you're ******** no worries. Run what you can afford and upgrade as you go. Enjoy the mods as you make the truck yours. I've run it all, I'm fortunate enough I can afford nicer stuff now, but I've also run cheaper options with little issue with proper research.

If you use your truck offroad I'd save and cross the bridge when you are ready, there's an entire better world and lots of threads with choices over the 5100s.

Sounds like you have your hands full!!!

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hodge-xj said:

That's why I started this thread. To make sure people knew to watch out for certain products and their short comings. Not saying you're ******** no worries. Run what you can afford and upgrade as you go. Enjoy the mods as you make the truck yours. I've run it all, I'm fortunate enough I can afford nicer stuff now, but I've also run cheaper options with little issue with proper research.

If you use your truck offroad I'd save and cross the bridge when you are ready, there's an entire better world and lots of threads with choices over the 5100s.

Sounds like you have your hands full!!!

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I never ran spacers on a 1500 but have on my 2500s

hodge-xj said:

That's why I started this thread. To make sure people knew to watch out for certain products and their short comings. Not saying you're ******** no worries. Run what you can afford and upgrade as you go. Enjoy the mods as you make the truck yours. I've run it all, I'm fortunate enough I can afford nicer stuff now, but I've also run cheaper options with little issue with proper research.

If you use your truck offroad I'd save and cross the bridge when you are ready, there's an entire better world and lots of threads with choices over the 5100s.

Sounds like you have your hands full!!!

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I try to stay busy. Keeps me out of trouble most of the time.

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Turned out the strut mount bolts were hand tightened and loose, but I removed these spacers and went with a 4” ready lift kit instead

BJSwizzle said:

Turned out the strut mount bolts were hand tightened and loose, but I removed these spacers and went with a 4” ready lift kit instead

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Well that's not good, but at least it wasn't worse. Did you have them installed by a shop?

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hodge-xj said:

Well that's not good, but at least it wasn't worse. Did you have them installed by a shop?

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Yup, a shop did it for me, gotta get a wheel alignment tomorrow

Any idea the brand of those spacers?

A friend of mine just sent me this. It was a moto fab 3 inches. strut top bushing failed and let the movement keep pushing.

Itsalifestylee said:

Any idea the brand of those spacers?

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Mine? I'm not sure. There's no markings on them. They looked like generic off brand spacers.

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FF1899 said:

A friend of mine just sent me this. It was a moto fab 3 inches. strut top bushing failed and let the movement keep pushing.View attachment 171610

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Was his squeaking and making a bunch of terrible noises

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hodge-xj said:

Was his squeaking and making a bunch of terrible noises

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Yup squeaky over bumps

This thread is very interesting and really highlights a major design flaw in the open top spacers. After seeing this I did some research into the oem strut design. The strut mount top is stationary and does not slid up and down in stock form. But, the strut mount is not designed to take the full load of the strut. The top of the strut is held in place in the mount by a thin collar, and then the top of the strut rests against the underside of the strut top bucket on the frame. This lets the force of the strut compression transfer to the frame. But, with an open top spacer, all of the force is placed on the strut top mount which wasn’t designed for it. When first installed everything likely seems fine, but with time the strut top fails, at which point there is no longer anything keeping it from sliding up and down within the open top spacer. The rate of failure obviously varies depending on how the truck is driven so it may take years for this to happen. But, I think it can only be a matter of time before all open top spacers will suffer the same strut failure, regardless of the brand name since they’re all basically the same design. The steel spacers like rough country shouldn’t ever have this issue since they are a closed top design and hold the strut top in place so the force of the strut is taken up by the metal spacer instead of being concentrated in the strut mount.

The picture I posted was my friends 2017 sport

FF1899 said:

The picture I posted was my friends 2017 sport

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Exactly, and it shows the exact same failure and wear pattern as the OP. So that’s at least two documented instances. And there’s probably a lot more leveled trucks running around with squeaky front struts that haven’t been disassembled yet for diagnoses but would likely find the same thing.