The bump stop shouldn't be in contact with anything with the truck at static ride height though....... It comes into play as the suspension compresses, at that point, everything you say is spot on.

 

That variable spring rate is why I modded the back ones to be closer to the axle, it significantly flattens out the truck in corners.

On the rear of the Dak, not sure that could be done easily as the gap to the bump stop is significant.

 

The factory intent on the variable rate has to do with loading, not handling. Put a bunch in the back, the torsion bars and rear leaves will compress. Get enough weight on there and the bump stops will start coming into play. Without the bump stop, the torsion bars and leaf springs would need to be stiff enough that the ride would suck horribly. On the leaf springs, the bump stop comes into play at extreme loading, after the normal soft leaves then the overload leaf.

 

I'm thinkin' that if your truck is sitting on the bump stops, you have too much weight in it.

 

I will add this... with 2000# of rock in the bed, the Ram & sumo springs didnt miss a beat. Load was very stable compared to loads I had in the past w/o the sumo's...

 

I went to the gravel pit one day to get some dirt to fill in a major crater in my yard. I had the guy running the loader drop two scoops into the bed of my truck, thinkin' "it's dirt, shouldn't weigh that much"..... WRONG. On the weigh-out, there was 5300 lbs of dirt in the bed...... The truck was sitting not quite on the bump stops. (3/4 ton truck) but oh man, was it interesting to drive. There was very little weight on the front end, so steering was extremely light, and not real responsive. 25 miles an hour the whole way home, and sometimes, even that was too fast. Rode like a cadillac though.

 

Lol I used to work for a construction company, and they would make me drive their 1/2-ton chevy. They would overload the bed with bricks and grave. That thing was scary driving. I used to drive it from out on Long Island into the NYC, I am amazed I never wreaked that truck or killed someone. I would drive down the Long Island Expressway. I swear at times it felt like the front wheels were off the ground. That was my first job, I was young and stupid,
HeyYou I'm going to try to get the suspension travel measurement on Thursday, the weather up here has not been cooperating. I don't have a garage and laying on the wet cold ground sucks. Thursday it's supposed to get up to 35 degrees.

 

Ok got the measurement first measurement with the truck sitting on the ground 11 1/2, then jacked up till the tire just barely started to leave the ground.
Here are pictures. Is this the right place to measure?
Thank You HeyYou!!!

 

So, about 3 inches of travel. I wouldn't crank it up more than 2 inches though...... you want some down travel available.....

 

So, you would go with the aftermarket torsion keys. I wasn't sure I would really gain anything over the factory torsion keys since the factory keys are already cranked all the way.