Ironman Foam Cell Pro 4” + accessories install plus review (1 Viewer)

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Joined
Sep 16, 2018
Threads
5
Messages
48
Location
Kansas City, Missouri
Finally got around to installing some Ironman 4x4 America goodies on my daily driven 80 series. I work at a shop called Adventure Motors out of Kansas City MO, and we recently became a dealer for Ironman. After installing around 10-15 kits in customers cars, and hearing them rave about the ride quality/ cost of the kits I ordered their Foam Cell Pro 4” kit for the cruiser.

I received the kit along with all of the inventory that we ordered, and the first thing I noticed was the lime green springs. I did expect it, but can’t say it didn’t hurt my eyes. I personally hate lime green anything so that was the first thing to go. Personally I dislike their logo, colors, and look of most of their products.
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Their foam cell pro lines look better than the more entry level kits, but still not “pretty”.

Other than the dislike of colors/ logos, I noticed just how large the shocks are. They are massive. The pan hard bar and track bars are very beefy. The threaded portion feels great, no sticky spots in the threads, and the powder coating looks pretty darn good as well.
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The kit sat on the shelf for a while as we were moving to a bigger location, hiring a few people, and also swamped even through the covid issues surrounding most places.

But that gave me time to get the springs powder coated to a different color.
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That’s much better in my opinion.

Now here’s some pictures of the install. I took of a OME 2.5 850-860 lift set up.

before picture of the OME 2.5 with 315/75/16 Falkens.
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Front
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More in the next comment. New to posting on ih8mud.
 
After the install is all said and done I didn’t think it really got much taller. I backed it off the lift, and stood back to look at it and then it really showed it’s height increase.
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And one picture of a bone stock 97 collectors edition sitting on 285s my co worker just picked up.
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Also wanted to try out some other Ironman products, and we had a 12k winch, and some of their 7” LED pods.

The winch I was already hesitant to install. I installed one on a customers GX and they look cheap, the control box is MASSIVE and pretty cheap feeling, and on the Ironman 4x4 bumpers, they want the control box screwed right up on the bumper.

So with no provisions to mount it to the winch itself, I looked for places to mount the control box but it doesn’t really fit anywhere in the ARB bumper. So the we built a mounting plate that bolted to the bumper / winch. Which I can attach pictures of later. Needless to say I’m excited to test the winch, but I’m not expecting to be wow’ed. The winch also didn’t exactly fit in the ARB bumper. I had to use a good 1” 1/4 spacers to get it to clear, and right now they just have washers as a spacer until I can fabricate a better spacer.



As for the 7” pods, I’m actually pretty impressed with the quality. Metal housing, with a good dark metallic grey powder coating, and a good weight to them. Their wiring harness is pretty trash honestly, and I didn’t even want to install it so I found another harness and used that instead. Other than the harness I actually really like the lights.

Here’s a picture of the finished product:
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I installed all of this a week ago today, and finally have had some time to get some daily driving miles on it. It rides way better than the OME. The height is pretty stinkin tall, but it feels very stable, and doesn’t feel like it rolls too hard in the corners. The braking also feels very good. The nose barely dips under heavy braking, it’s an almost weird feeling. Slam on the brakes and you still stop hard, but your rig stays almost completely level.

The smaller bumps, like potholes, still give a little bit of a shock, but still a little softer than OME. When you hit big bumps, or bouncy roads it really rides much better. I found a small “jump” near our shop, and really wanted to see how it handled it. First time over the “jump”and we were blown away. The landing felt awesome. Now I’m only talking like 5-6” of air, but still, it’s a 5000lb suv. It was a very soft, almost cushy landing, and I couldn’t help but go back and take it a little faster. I couldn’t be happier with the quality of the ride this kit offers. I haven’t got it out to the Ozarks yet, but will be there next month, and I will be Really getting to test how it handles that. But I wanted to write this because I only found a couple pictures, or reviews, or opinions on this kit, and if you are interested, or have questions I’d be glad to give you an honest take.
 
Other than the control box, any other opinion on the winch? Would you choose it over a warn?

So far you'd choose Iron Man over Old Man?
 
Other than the control box, any other opinion on the winch? Would you choose it over a warn?

So far you'd choose Iron Man over Old Man?
I want to get out and actually test the winch before I really say if I dislike it or not. But as for suspension I love the Ironman so far.
 
Make sure you check your caster. My experience with this kit on my 80 is the caster plates that come with It don’t get you back to stock or even close. I also got 5” of lift out of the 4” springs. I ended up getting 6” radius arms from @Delta VS it made all the difference in the handling. YMMV. Your rig looks great!
 
Have you re-geared? How do you like the falkens?
No re-gear yet. In the future I plan to regear. Being in the Midwest with no altitude it’s not too bad. But I love the falkens. Got a great deal on them, and having a 55k mike warranty also helps. But on the road they are almost silent.
 
Make sure you check your caster. My experience with this kit on my 80 is the caster plates that come with It don’t get you back to stock or even close. I also got 5” of lift out of the 4” springs. I ended up getting 6” radius arms from @Delta VS it made all the difference in the handling. YMMV. Your rig looks great!

yeah this ended upat more than 4”. I am getting the caster plates installed soon, and then alignment.
 
Kenny, can you give an update on how the Ironman lift is working out? I have an older 2" Ironman lift and looking very seriously at the 4". Did you do any modifations to the suspension other than the parts that came with the kit? I have the caster correcting bushings installed for the 2" and would like to know if you installed the caster plates and how the ride is. I am running 295 tires. Are they going to look too small for a 4" lift? Any issues with drive shaft angels or rubbing while wheeling?
 
Kenny, can you give an update on how the Ironman lift is working out? I have an older 2" Ironman lift and looking very seriously at the 4". Did you do any modifations to the suspension other than the parts that came with the kit? I have the caster correcting bushings installed for the 2" and would like to know if you installed the caster plates and how the ride is. I am running 295 tires. Are they going to look too small for a 4" lift? Any issues with drive shaft angels or rubbing while wheeling?
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So far I’m loving the kit. I have the constant load springs in the rear, and have no added weight so it’s a little bouncy. But other than that, I love it. Corners nice, and the braking is awesome. I’m going to test how it does in a week and half through the Ozarks. Also, I’m still running the OME cater correction bushings, but just got OE bushings from Toyota in today, and will install those and the caster plates this week. As for the tires, I would say they would probably look a little small, but not the worst. My 315/75/16s look almost perfect, although part of me wants to see 37s on it. But 35s will work for me for the foreseeable future. I’ll post some more pictures soon.
 
Kenny, Thanks for the info. LX in the third picture looks like mine. Do you know how much lift the LX in your picture has? My avatar picture is out of date. I have added sliders and rear swing out. Looking at the Dobinson 3.5" lift also.
 
Kenny, Thanks for the info. LX in the third picture looks like mine. Do you know how much lift the LX in your picture has? My avatar picture is out of date. I have added sliders and rear swing out. Looking at the Dobinson 3.5" lift also.
That one has the Dobinson 2.5” with OME heavys in the rear. It’s the smoothest riding cruiser I’ve ever driven.
 
Installed the Ironman 4x4 5 degree caster plates, with new OE Toyota control arm bushings, new stainless brake lines, and 555 tie rod ends with a new tie rod. Took about 3.5 hours, everything went really smoothly. Hopefully aligning it tomorrow. Now my list of things to get done is. Diff breathers, oil change, and my DC front driveshaft should be on the way. Is anyone else going to Rendezvous in the Ozarks?
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Nice looking setup for sure. We will be at the Rendezvous but taking our 4runner instead of the 80.
 
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Got the DC driveshaft installed tonight. Still have the noise that to me sounds like driveline. Swapped rear driveshafts with a co workers, and same noise on both mine and his. He’s on the Dobinsons 2.5” so not making a lot of sense to me why we have the same exact noise. I joints are good, I just rebuilt his T case, but again same noise. Any ideas?
But now my list is down to diff breathers, bleeding the brakes again, and picking up a sleeping platform for me and my wife to use while camping this fall/winter.
 

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