[Racer20]

There's no way to get the stock shock apart in such a way that it can be put back together.

The travel limitation is the length of the body, not the internal rod, so you'd have to shorten the body, but then you'd have to lengthen the rod, otherwise you'd lose rebound travel, which isn't any better.

Most of the loss on ride quality is due to stiffer springs. Some is due to more abrupt (or too early) bumpstop contact, and this can be mitigated by a different bumpstop tuned for the ride height.

The shortened lifespan is primarily due to the additional side load imparted on the strut by non-stock springs.