80 series Slinky/ICON Long Travel Suspension officially coming to the U.S.A. (1 Viewer)

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I finally spoke with Justin today at redline. Said there shipping every 2 weeks air pallets. Slinkys come regular an HD for front an rear is regular then HD 400 900 1100 plus for rear depending on set up an load. Darren said 700mm rear shock an 750mm front shocks . I believe that is rod length Justin said he would double check an clarify. HD is recmond for bumper etc. Specs 2 bats which an bumper to Darren who replied HD for front. Will keep updated. I'm going with kings most likely so when built I will list build part number an info still working on it. I explained to Justin about replying, calling an messaging an stuff being out of stock said he's booked an working on it.
 
I checked the 3 link looks good off the chain. More for the crawler an $$ plus fab. I'm going with slinks. An kings trying keep cost down an running 35s I can't go with out myflares an mud flaps. Plus I'm doing a 50mm lift trying to enhance, keep my center low I do touring expedition.
 
The stage 4 slinky kit is considerably more than the top of the line 4WU kit. Also, the base line stage one kit has options that would need to be purchased, i.e. Caster correction, panhard, which makes the pricing on the two methods of long travel comparable.

Yes the 4WU requires welding, it also allows significantly more movement of the front axel.

Last time I checked the 4wu kit was by no means comprehensive or complete. A lot of things need to be added to make it whole. On top of that you need to get everything aligned near perfect and welded in. Its considerably more work and at least as much if not quite a bit more money than any kit you can purchase. If the Slinky coils are more than you want to spend ( and there's nothing wrong with that ) there are a lot of other options either recently on the market, or coming this year.

When viewed from a dollars spent per the actual increase in front axle articulation perspective, a three link, even the 4WU kit, can't be touched by the products that are the focus of this thread. Spend $100 to go 1/4 of the way or spend $150 to go all the way is how I see this.

I have the Stage 2 4WU 3link kit. If you don't have the tools, knowledge and time to do this yourself, that can easily add thousands to the project. I did it myself, but it also took me several months of work. Don't underestimate the amount of work this involves, especially when the truck is on jackstands instead of a hydraulic lift. It's A LOT of work. And assuming you go with the Stage 1 kit at about $3100, you still need about another $1500+ in parts depending on what route you take:

- Coilover towers, ($100) require custom fab work to fit frame and clear steering shaft
- Lower coilover mounts ($50)
- Custom brake lines ($100)
- Steering, you either go with Hellfire knuckles ($975) or Slee high steer ($640 for arms & RHD steering arm)
- Steering links - heims, tierods, tubing, etc ($200)
- Part-time 4x4 or DC shaft ($300-600)

With that said, I love the result and would never go back to a radius arm FJ80. Offroad in the rocks the truck feels a lot more stable and predictable than before. No more lifting tires on steep climbs, no more body pull when a tire drops, but best of all, cool poser shots :cheers:

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I have the Stage 2 4WU 3link kit. If you don't have the tools, knowledge and time to do this yourself, that can easily add thousands to the project. I did it myself, but it also took me several months of work. Don't underestimate the amount of work this involves, especially when the truck is on jackstands instead of a hydraulic lift. It's A LOT of work. And assuming you go with the Stage 1 kit at about $3100, you still need about another $1500+ in parts depending on what route you take:

- Coilover towers, ($100) require custom fab work to fit frame and clear steering shaft
- Lower coilover mounts ($50)
- Custom brake lines ($100)
- Steering, you either go with Hellfire knuckles ($975) or Slee high steer ($640 for arms & RHD steering arm)
- Steering links - heims, tierods, tubing, etc ($200)
- Part-time 4x4 or DC shaft ($300-600)

With that said, I love the result and would never go back to a radius arm FJ80. Offroad in the rocks the truck feels a lot more stable and predictable than before. No more lifting tires on steep climbs, no more body pull when a tire drops, but best of all, cool poser shots :cheers:

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Totally agree with this. If you're looking for pure rockcrawling performance with the max amount of travel, the 3-link is great if executed well. But it is naïve to think it's only an incremental cost increase over a kit like the Slinky kits. Cost could be kept in check if you're able to do all the custom work on your own, which @jcardona1 points out is no small task. Not too many here have the equipment and/or skill to set up a custom 3-link on their own so if you're paying a shop to do the work, you should expect a heavy price tag for the labor since there's a lot of time involved. Still a very effective solution for big travel if you spend your time in the rocks. And who can deny that @jcardona1 has one sweet truck?

But for a bolt-on kit that the average 80 owner can install himself in his garage on a Saturday, I have not found any that work as well with the travel, load capacity and ride quality of the Slinky kit. Yes, it's more expensive that a lot of the other options but IMO that cost has been reflective of the increase in performance.

The more time I have with the Slinky kit the more evident it becomes that the area it is far superior is in fast, overland type travel. I had heard Darren and some others who had either ridden in Darren's truck or had Slinky kits in OZ that it was like driving a rally car. Kinda made me chuckle since it's such a stretch to imagine a heavy pig like an 80 handling like a rally car. But now that I've had it, it's not far off. I can scare myself with the speeds I can manage in the dirt and still feel in total control with the Slinkys. Easily 50% or better speeds than I'd ever have been comfortable with using any other bolt-on suspension option out there. I know on a recent trip with 8 trucks (half with Slinky, half without) the trucks without the slinky kits had no hope of keeping the pace being set by the Slinky equipped trucks.

So it boils down to what kind of performance you want. There will always be trade-offs. For me, I spend some time in the rocks and the Slinky kit performs as well or better than any other bolt-on option in the rocks. But I spend more time exploring and covering a lot of ground, pretty fast and that's where the Slinky kits shine, and you don't feel worn out at the end of the day, or that you had to flog the truck.
 
Anyone know when these springs will be back in stock?
 
I emailed Redline over a week ago asking about the springs and have yet to hear back from them. I'm wanting to buy the springs now and the shocks later.
 
I emailed Redline over a week ago asking about the springs and have yet to hear back from them. I'm wanting to buy the springs now and the shocks later.

Ha, yes, exactly same thing here. Emailed over a week ago I believe but no reply.
 
I'll try to find out any more info if I can. Keep in mind Justin just got out of the hospital and is having cancer treatment which I'm sure is contributing to the slow response time.

IIRC, when I spoke to Darren a week or so back, he said there was a shipment ready to leave Australia. Sounds like sea freight is about 4 weeks so I'd imagine stuff should be showing up in the next couple weeks. I can't make any promises since I'm just relaying what I heard. But I'll see if it can find out more while Justin is semi-AWOL.
 
Ugh, what a drag ... hope he's feeling better soon. That's horrible!

Thanks for the info. Sorry I know I probably missed it, but is there spring rate numbers? Are there 4" (~100mm) lift slinky's?
 
I was told by Justin that they won't sell springs only.. you have to buy the kit !!

Kinda sucks if your just wanting to upgrade your springs only ....
 
I was told by Justin that they won't sell springs only.. you have to buy the kit !!

Kinda sucks if your just wanting to upgrade your springs only ....
Well that sucks. Half the kit I have already.
 
Well that sucks. Half the kit I have already.
What parts do you still need? PM me what you are still missing and I'll see if I can help.

I talked with Justin today. The reason he isn't selling springs only is because Icon had a major delay in getting shocks so Justin has been trying to put full kits together but has been waiting on shocks. I can understand not wanting to be in the same spot with a bunch of shocks and no springs when most people are wanting complete kits.

We talked a bit about this today and there *may* be opportunities to buy just coils in the future.
 
When I contacted autocraft, they referred me to redline. It's been 6 weeks since redline promised a reply on my inquiry and I still haven't got a price quote on the kit I was wanting. Not happy with before the sale service, makes me worry about after the sale service.
 
When I contacted autocraft, they referred me to redline. It's been 6 weeks since redline promised a reply on my inquiry and I still haven't got a price quote on the kit I was wanting. Not happy with before the sale service, makes me worry about after the sale service.

take a look at what box rocket said above! Ive never had issue with contacting redline before and they were always pretty prompt with their responses, but that was last year.
 
Did Redline go out of business? I still haven't gotten a reply to an email I sent over 3 weeks ago & now their website is no longer.
 
Did Redline go out of business? I still haven't gotten a reply to an email I sent over 3 weeks ago & now their website is no longer.
That would be news to me. The shop guys there don't typically respond to emails, Justin tries to handle that and as you know he's been dealing with cancer treatment. I understand the frustration but can also understand if cruiser stuff is not his priority at the moment.
I still try to make contact with him regularly so I'll try to communicate any info that I can gather.
If you'd like, drop me a PM with the questions you have for him and I'll do my best to get you some info.

As for the website, I've heard there may be some updates they wanted to make so it may just be down for that.
 

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