[BusNit]

I called Dean last night to ask his opinion since his coach is only 4 away from mine. He had made a very solid point which lined up with my thinking. Of all the terrible roads we drove on the east coast, if the suspension flexed enough to the point of bottoming out, I would have cut up the tires and left grooves on the sides from the flares. With 8 bags just at the rear alone, we don't think the suspension moves up and down as much as the front does on 4 bags.

We don't have bad roads to test the bottoming out here unless I go through parking lots and "hop" some curbs at a decent clip. Worst case, I bottom out so bad that it drives the steel bar into the diff's axle housing and busts it. We believe Newell had installed the solid steel bar since there is an additional 3/16" plate steel on top of the diff housing that welded on which the mounting U-bolt for the axle sits on as well.

Time will tell. Worst case I will be under there cursing up a storm trying to cut the three passes of weld bead I put on two sides of the bar.

So in short theory, if the suspension bottomed out in the past, I would have signs of missing rubber on the sidewalls. My precaution will be to add another 5psi of tag bag air for giggles.