Tried searching for this topic with now luck. One of the few complaints I have with my LR4 is that if I dumb thumb jogging upward on the Z-axis it will crash up and through the Z endstops. Nothing breaks thankfully but the endstops get rotated and moved and then I have to re-check and re-level the gantry.
Is this normal behavior and/or is there a way to set it up so that the gantry will stop moving upward when it hits the endstops? Would I just need to activate them as hardstops maybe?
That is normal. Endstops only work for homing. You could try setting up soft limits on the Z axis. I’m not sure if that’s an issue for the Z axis since it homes to 0 then moves negative. With soft limits, you must home first. If a jog takes it outside the limit, it is just skipped. If it goes outside that limit during a job, it will raise an error.
Can you explain this in more detail? I’ve never had these issues when accidently going beyond the end stops on the z axis. I just re-home and everything is fine again.
I’ve had trouble with soft limits in general but especially on the Z-axis since often an “out of range” move is called during a probe
I’m just surprised there isn’t a way to monitor the endstops during jogging and/or running a program
When the Z endstops get crash into they rotate and move and when I rotate them back into position they don’t always go back to the exact same spot and therefore I need to re-check that the gantry is level to the spoil board
You can turn on soft limits in your config.yaml, but as others have noted this turns out to be really inconvenient when you have a good working understanding of your machine and your workflows.
The LowRider pretty much can’t break itself by hitting range-of-travel limits. It misses steps and sounds horrible but doesn’t break.
Whether you hit the machine extent or stop due to soft limits, the job is likely ruined either way.
The way the setup is now- using endstops for homing only has proven to be the least hassle, most effective way for the vast majority of V1 machine users.
If you do turn soft limits on, you’ll start to find those cases where it’s an operational pain.
Yep, I went down the soft limits rabbit hole a year or two ago and learned the hard way that they are more trouble than they’re worth for sure.
I’ve gotten comfortable crashing the X and Y on occasion and agree there is no harm done to the machine other than lost steps
The Z axis is a bit different as I lose calibration and there is also potential to drive the Z axis completely up off the rails
I mostly just get annoyed with having to redo my leveling
I have my endstops all the way to the top. Even if they rotate, it isn’t a big deal. I just rotate them back. I’ve not seen an issue with it knocking it out of level. And yes, I have tested it a few times in the beginning.
Have you also knocked those little 3D printed nubs that were originally to hold the carriage on the rails? Mine held on for awhile and have now been gone for over a year 
I have had those enabled since day one because of a different control board and it’s saved my ass a few times.
I now also added that the axis’ slow down 100mm before the end so I can’t even force it to hit the end stops.
In the end it all comes down to personal preference. 
Do you have them enabled on the Z-axis as well?
Yes. 
I got another CNC now, but I also did so when I had the LowRider.
Yes, those are pretty pointless since they break after the first time. Maybe good while building it, but nothing else.