Hydraulic bumpstops have become popular on every type of off-road vehicle. It doesn't matter what type of ride you have-if you don't have hydraulic bumpstops, then you want them. The problem is that at around $220 each, a hydraulic bumpstop, or "airbump," is out of a lot of people's price range. So what's a guy to do if he can't afford the hydraulic bumpstops? More importantly, what about guys who don't quite need airbumps, but are overusing their conventional urethane bumpstops while in the dirt?
This is why Daystar created its Stinger bumpstops. And we're guessing that these new 'stops may change the bumpstop game. Coming in at a price point of only $220 per pair, these new Stinger 'stops offer an adjustable four inches of bump travel while giving you the ability to afford two for the price of a single hydraulic bumpstop.
After using these ourselves, would we recommend these bumpstops on a race truck? Probably not. But for lighter-duty prerunners (read: street-legal) or any trail vehicle, the Stinger stops will be a good choice.
We were lucky enough to try out the very first set of Stingers from Daystar (and bring you the story) before anyone else has had a chance. We were asked to put some miles on them, and get back to the Daystar bigwigs with our thoughts before they released them to the public. We were so pleased with the results that we asked Daystar if we could run the story before the Stingers were even to market.
Our test truck of choice: a 2002 Chevy 2500 4x4 with a Cage solid axle swap and coil front suspension. It's a daily-driven truck that gets romped hard on the weekends, and we knew it would be a good test platform for the market that Daystar is gunning for.
 Our test truck of choice was...  Our test truck of choice was a 2002 Chevy 2500 4x4 with a CAGE Offroad solid axle swap kit and a Dana 60 axle. Off Road Evolution modified the shock hoops to accept the 2.0 Fox shocks and added bumpstop cans that previously held hydraulic bumpstops before we swapped them out for Daystar Stinger bumpstops. |  The Daystar Stingers fit in...  The Daystar Stingers fit in a conventional 2-inch weld-on bumpstop can. They have four inches of travel and use three EVS foam cushions to slow down (and eventually stop) the compression of the bumpstop shaft. Each Stinger bumpstop comes with three blue EVS foam cushions and three black ones. The blue ones are softer and the black ones are harder. You can mix and match to get your desired bump effect. The Stingers have an optional weld-on cap that allows you to place the bumpstop anywhere you can weld the cap to. Daystar also offers a short version of the Stinger for tight spaces. The short versions offer 1.5 inches of travel and can also utilize the weld-on top cap for mounting. |  The Stingers are completely...  The Stingers are completely (and easily) rebuildable and come apart in just a few minutes, Each Stinger comes with an internal spacer that you can put on the shaft to lower the travel to around 2.5 inches. Upon using the internal spacer, only two EVS foam cushions will be used on top of the shaft. |
 Since we were installing these...  Since we were installing these Stingers at OC Tranny while the truck was on a rack getting a new transmission, David Dibbs took the time to use his new mill to make us some plates..... |  .....The plates were used...  .....The plates were used to bolt the rear Stingers up into the factory bumpstop location on the frame..... |  .....Once Dibbs had the plates...  .....Once Dibbs had the plates cut, he welded the Stingers' weld-on caps onto the plates. This way, there was absolutely no frame modification. |
 How Did They Work?
On our...  How Did They Work?
On our test truck, it was fairly simple to get front and rear Stingers on to test. We had ideal mounting locations and enough room to fit them. We tried with and without the spacers, and tried the different hardness EVS foam cushions internally. They worked great at stopping the uptravel of the axle. They are not intended to be ridden on at all times..... |  ......In other words, you...  ......In other words, you need to make sure the Stingers are not actually engaged at ride height. You need to have a little room between the shaft's urethane tip and the point that it bumps out on. In the rear, we had less than half an inch of uptravel before engaging the Stingers, so we added a spacer in the rear to give the rear suspension more uptravel before utilizing the bumpstop..... |  .....Will they take the place...  .....Will they take the place of hydraulic bumpstops in full race vehicles? No, they are not meant for the rigors of off-road racing. The Stingers do give many of the benefits of a full hydraulic bumpstop at half the cost, and are a great choice for daily-driven prerunners or trail vehicles that might need more than a conventional urethane bumpstop. You can bet that you'll see us trying these Stingers on more applications in the near future. |