If one's dampers are bottoming out, then they are of the wrong stroke length. The bump stops in AVOs are there to protect the dampers in extremis not to form part of the normal suspension operation. It is important that the stroke length of the damper rod is greater than the suspension travel for the suspension to work properly.
This was explained to me by suspension expert Peter Ballard and confirmed by Kevin Vernon. The damper needs to be able to go shorter than the minimum suspension travel and extend longer than the maximum. AVOs are great dampers, and the Morgan versions come in 3 stroke lengths as standard. Kevin and I measured them and realised that the way my car was set up, none were appropriate.
Fortunately Tim Ayres was able to get a set of custom AVOs made for me at no additional cost and I'm very glad I did.
Why did my car not suit the stock stroke lengths? Not sure, but it's more than a bit non-standard. Terry Foxen chassis, Rutter rear hoop, Mulberry anti-tramps, Panhard rod and 4-leaf springs. For a factory standard car I bet one of the stock dampers would be fine.
I appreciate your comments refer to leaf springs Tim but with coil suspension it is the damper's that limit travel, on full stretch at least and maybe full compression to avoid coil bind and/or physical contact with some part of vehicle. Given such the damper stroke does play a very important part of suspension travel.
