Perry Parts offers high-performance, cutting-edge, 3D-printed bumpstops for many 4x4s. Wait, 3D-printed bumpstops? Yep, and they’re the brainchild of Perry Parts owner Patrick Perry.
So, who is Patrick Perry and what’s the secret to Perry Parts bumpstops? Well, in this piece we’ll answer those questions by digging into why Perry created Perry Parts and why he chose to utilize 3D printing to manufacture its bumpstops. Furthermore, we’ll look at the design and material that goes into each bumpstop. Additionally, we’ll have the results of a five-question Q&A with Perry that offers a direct-from-the-inventor deep dive into his company’s bumpstops and why they’re a product you should consider for your 4×4.
This cutaway, provided by Perry Parts, offers an overview of a bumpstop’s construction.
The Perry Parts Story
The Perry Parts story begins in California. Perry was working at Apple Inc. on the Advanced Manufacturing Team and the Mac Manufacturing Design team. In his spare time, he often drove his modified Lexus GX470 to explore the California backcountry. The catalyst for the 3D-printed bumpstops was necessity. Perry says, “I had broken a competitor’s product prior to an upcoming overlanding trip, and I was unwilling to revert back to the harsh OEM bumpstops, as they really make for a poor ride feel. Given the short time to the upcoming trip, I decided to try and make my own product. I had already been experimenting with a new material called TPU (thermoplastic polyurethane), on my personal 3D printer, and the first prototypes performed incredibly well. After dozens of iterations, I finally had a product that I felt was ready for mass market.”
Perry initially made the bumpstops available to other GX owners, but then expanded applications. Soon after, the next chapter in the Perry Parts story began to unfold. Perry relocated to New Hampshire to set up a manufacturing facility and grow his business.
Today, Perry Parts has created over 30 product designs. Along the way, the company has created a new manufacturing process that is a first in the bumpstop world. Additionally, they have established a new standard for testing these types of products. Perry Parts says it has tuned its bumpstops dozens of times using its in-house suspension dyno. The result is improved ride feel, progression, size, shape, and durability.
It doesn’t matter if you’re crawling rocks or blasting down a trail, bumpstops play an important role in your suspension. Thus, it’s important to have quality bumpstops.
Bumpstop 101
The bumpstops under your 4×4 are a small, but super important part of your rig’s suspension. In independent front suspension trucks and SUVs, which comprise many 4x4s today, most bumpstops usually mount to the frame, just above the lower control arms. Oftentimes, they’re located somewhere between the frame and the axletube at the rear. Manufacturers can make bumpstops from materials like rubber or polyurethane, and some even resemble small shock absorbers. Price points for these products are all over the place, with the latter often having the loftiest price point.
How does a bumpstop work? Well, prior to your rig reaching its maximum suspension uptravel, the bumpstop provides extra resistance and cushion. It softens the blow of bottoming out and it keeps metal suspension parts from rubbing or crashing into each other. Bumpstops work in conjunction with a vehicle’s suspension system and can add to the total effective spring rate. Some suspension setups use the bumpstops more than others. For example, on the Hummer H3 and some GM 1500 and 2500 trucks, the lower front suspension A-arms contact the bumpstops at rest. This means all uptravel is damped by the bumpstops.
Because bumpstops are such an important part of your rig’s suspension, aftermarket suspension lift manufacturers often include a means to relocate the bumpstops or include new, longer units.
Perry Parts’ 3D-printed bumpstops utilize adaptive compression damping. Each has compression damping ports that are designed for both low- and high-speed use.
Five Questions For Patrick Perry
Perry Parts 3D-printed bumpstops are fascinating and innovative. The company says that they’re “designed for a bottomless, progressive ride feel, with unmatched compression damping and control for a smoother ride.” To accomplish these goals, the company utilizes cutting-edge technology and design. To get the full scope of the company’s processes we pitched five questions to Perry Parts owner Patrick Perry.
Q: What are the benefits of using 3D printing to manufacture Perry Parts bumpstops?
A: The huge benefit is the ability to add and tune features which are otherwise reserved for expensive hydraulic/air bumps. By 3D printing internal air passages, we’re able to control the compression and rebound damping of the product, and we can also adjust the density of our parts to fine-tune the overall bumpstop’s stiffness. This allows us to tailor each product specifically for each vehicle we support.
Q: Does Perry Parts use conventional 3D printing techniques?
A: We do not. Our second-generation product is 3D printed using a process we call “Fused Granulate Fabrication,” sometimes referred to as “screw extrusion.” We build our own print heads right in house on our CNC machine. This unique process allows us to directly 3D print the exact same polymers that would normally be used for injection molding. So, we can build from industrial-grade materials that otherwise are not 3D printable.
Q: What is adaptive compression damping in a Perry Parts bumpstop and how is it different from a rubber or foam bumpstop?
A: Adaptive compression damping refers to the adaptive way that our product responds to varying loads while in use. For instance, on a hard, high-speed impact, our product builds up more internal pressure, and pushes back harder, helping prevent unwanted suspension bottom-outs. On the flip side, on a slow-speed impact, they will vent more air out of the ports, enabling more suspension articulation, ensuring our customers don’t miss out on any of the hard-earned suspension travel they want.
It’s also important to consider that on many 4×4’s, your bumpstops are an integral part of your suspension’s performance. Most Toyota platforms engage their bump stops for over 60 percent of their total suspension uptravel, and failing to upgrade bumpstops can leave an enormous amount of performance potential on the table. On top of that, traditional rubber bumpstops act more like a simple spring, rather than a shock with a spring. For example, imagine driving your car with blown shocks in 60 percent of your travel — that’s what traditional bumpstops are like.
Q: How is a Perry Parts bumpstop tuned for specific applications?
A: There are four main areas:
Size & Shape
Other companies that use molds are incentivized to fit their parts onto as many vehicles as possible, so they don’t need to pay for new (very expensive) molds. We don’t use molds, and therefore we can adapt our part’s shape in order to perfectly fit every application. Say goodbye to one-size-fits-all.
Stiffness
Every vehicle platform weighs differently, and much like running different spring rates, you want to ensure your bumpstop also aligns with the overall vehicle weight. By adjusting the density of the bumpstop, we can adjust the overall stiffness of our product without changing polymers. This enables near-infinite adjustability in overall stiffness.
Progressiveness
If we want to generate a more progressive spring rate, we can create a gradient of different densities, to enable a greater or lesser degree of progression. This allows us to enable a super supple initial travel, while also generating a high degree of force on hard impacts.
Damping
Rebound and compression damping are intrinsically linked in our design. By adjusting the diameter of the ports on our product, we can adjust the damping, or energy dissipation that the bumpstop achieves. This is key to fine-tuning the product, as you want to have a “dead blow” effect on hard impacts, to shed the forces at play and reduce the amount of damping required of your suspension parts.
Q: What challenges did you encounter while creating your 3D-printed bumpstops, and what was your solution?
A: One of the biggest challenges was getting our material right. We quickly learned that you can not scale a product based on traditional 3D printing materials like filament. We used to constantly deal with material quality issues from batch to batch, because it’s rare to require 3D printing materials to be put up to the amount of abuse our parts see, so finding reliable material suppliers was near impossible.
This was solved this by building our own machines in-house to 3D print directly from injection molding granules. This lets us directly print from industrial grade materials, with dramatically higher strength, and much better batch to batch variability. On top of that, by going back to the drawing board, we were able to fine tune the response of our product, made from our new polymer, to have a more dynamic and active response.
The way Perry Parts’ bumpstops are designed, they have soft initial travel and offer a progression to more bottom-out protection. In this graph you can see the comparison to a rubber bumpstop.
Applications, Pricing, And More Info
Perry Parts offers its bumpstops for a wide range of Lexus SUVs, several Toyota SUVs and trucks, and the Nissan Frontier (Xterra coming soon). Furthermore, there are applications for Jeep Wrangler and Gladiator vehicles, as well as Chevy Colorado and GMC Canyon trucks. Additionally, the company is working on applications for the Ford Bronco, and these will be coming soon. Finally, Perry Parts offers special orders for vehicles with custom suspensions. For example, the company has made custom bumpstops for an off-road Dodge Viper and Mazda Miata, as well as a custom vintage Ford Bronco.
And it’s important to note that these bumpstops are affordable. Pricing ranges from $90 to $160 per pair at the time of print, depending on application. To us, this translates to an exceptional return on investment given the bumpstops performance. Additionally, Perry Parts bumpstops offer a two-year, no questions asked warranty. The company says that if you’re able to break your Perry Parts bumpstops, you can simply return them, and the company will ship you new ones.
More information on the Perry Parts bumpstops can be found at perryparts.com.
Testing the Perry Parts bumpstops at speed.
