hamishpotter
SILVER Star
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- #81
@hamishpotter
I would defer to Slee to answer your question definitively.
thanks. yah sent an email right after I posted that. will put up anything I find..
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@hamishpotter
I would defer to Slee to answer your question definitively.
I really do like the Slee shocks, they are very high quality, and like mentioned earlier it is pretty clear the boys in CO did their homework.
The Slee's are nicely adjustable by using the nitrogen charge. I went with around 150psi which gave me a nice firm ride without being too harsh and the tires stay planted much better than with the OME's. I immediately noticed this when I made the switch and expansion joints on the highway felt much better.
I can not compare them to the King, Icons, or Fox on the 80 though. I have had King and Fox on other trucks in the past and both of them were good, I think the overall quality goes Slee>King>Fox.
Although reducing the nitrogen pressure can make the shock softer it should not be used as a way of “tuning”. If lowering the pressure removes the harshness that is undesirable it should only be done temporarily to identify that the compression valving internally needs to be adjusted.
What you have done buy dropping pressure is allowed the shock to cavitate and pull a vacuum on the rebound side of the piston, this is bad for the oil, causes a momentary loss of rebound just following a fast compression, and over time will suck air in past the shaft seals and emulsify the shock.
I was told the nitrogen charge range was 100-250psi. Do you run the shocks all at max pressure?
The nitrogen was not removed to remove harshness. The harshness was compared to OME shocks.
Without wanting to sound like an infomercial, I have to say we have ended up doing what we are now, because it was the best we were using, in our experience, having built, had built, and used pretty much every well known brand over the years.
Sonny at Down South Motorsports, who was building some stuff for us back then, introduced us to ICON as he could see what we wanted, and what ICON were doing would fit well with what we wanted. Like Slee Offroad, his customer focus put what we were looking for above what he could just keep selling us, and for that I will always be grateful. Slee is another product we use, purely because its the best we can get in that particular market, with great service, no other reason.
I thought it important to put some back story in, as we have always been on a search for the best product we can use, not what we can access, is in stock, or has the best margin or marketing.
I have to say I am a big CDC fan.
Along with the manifold on the shock body, for built in bump zone as well.
Once we started using the ICON shocks, and CDC resi 2.5s, we stopped using any other brand, regardless of how well marketed they were, or sticker value added, because they just werent the same, even the custom ones we were having made from them.
Dylan has also been very good to help us with what we need, and make an ICON shock what it is, as someone who has a fantastic engineering head, but can get information across in a very easy to understand sentence, as his posts above show. All solids, no "fluff" .
[Having been a Bilstein dealer for over 10 years, I have to say the 2.0 Icons are also very good in this market for us on toyota trucks too, as a side note, with the German versions being a 2.0 benchmark here in Aus for heavy trucks when made to Aus spec requirement.]
Having said all that, why arent we having Slee Shocks on the shelf too? If we could of easily got the Slee shocks availability, and lengths we needed for our market, while Slee was selling as many as could be made, its the only other one we would sell for Cruiser fitment, having driven on them as well.
One of the reasons for good custom shocks is when you go to a resi, you can move the piston and gas space into the resi, so you can shorten the body by this distance, to give better travel for shorter compressed length, compared to just talking shock stroke for sizing, which means a compromise in comp with spacers, or not enough travel to get ideal max down travel.
On my USA based SNOWY truck, with our tapered wire progressive rate coils, when I head from Slee Offroad to Cruise Moab, I run CDC setting 8 all round to help with roll steer, and soak up the highway bumps loaded, and when airing down to run trails, I reach in same time and go to 5 front and 4 rear as my off road set up, with our custom ICON slinky long travel set up. Turning them up on road, especially on the fast windy highways, has a similar effect to adding another sway bar, and eliminating roll steer in the rear, because its not leaning.
On setting 8 on the hwy, cracks, joins, cats eyes you can hear but not feel, as you go over them.
Woody has the same set up as Snowy, but with intermediate 200-250kg [ 450lb] instead of HD 400-450kg [900lb] rear coils, with no rear wheel carrier hanging out back. We wanted real time feedback from someone who lives the USA wheeling life, compared to us visiting, and knowing what we need here.
Monotube high pressure gas, and CDC style adjustment [In cab the ideal CDC set up please DylanICON] are shocks evolving, and in the next 5 years twin tube style shocks will be seen as the old oil filled paddle box damper, [10 years will be seen as fibre disc and wing nut friction devices!] because especially on heavy trucks, you will never get a twin tube low pressure shock to do what a high pressure monotube does.
A knock on effect of this is because corner speeds are automatically higher, as it feels safer, and the bumps are smoother, on a big heavy truck, with big wheels, the brakes then start to feel like they arent working as well any more, compared to when dancing around on bumps, double dip steering input for corners because of roll steer etc, had you going slower, instead.
If you want to buy shocks purely on price, and be happy, do yourself a favor and dont ride in a vehicle fitted with Slee or ICON .![]()
or sorry, USA version of driver - passenger
Just sharing my experience as a person with a passion for it, not a business.
How do i get a hold of your slinky coils? I'm about to pull the trigger on springs and need some bad.
Actually, no,
I have fitted coil overs and bypasses to my 80 for a different project, using the same shock and coil over to fit 80/105 and patrol front kits, with the 80/105s to hopefully be installed into Aus spec RHD FJ Utes, if we can get them engineered for registration here.
We have had the front coil over kits engineered for Patrols here already. [Our road rules are VERY tight on mods]
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no welding required for this kit, but yes, a little cutting
Our slinky coils are a dual rate tapered wire coil set up we took alot of time to get right back in the mid 2000's as a direct replacement to use our 12" stroke shocks, and install kit.
![]()
This design gives us 4" extra free height over a normal length coil for the lift, and keeps a softer rate when articulated, for better suspension movement without being at the full coil rate, so the vehicle doesnt pitch around, but sits on its primary rate at ride height.
We have one front set up, and we have 3 rear set ups intermediate, HD and EHD.
![]()
We find this is the maximum height before roll steer and bump steer issues come up, and with 2 degree bushes and washer mod caster can be easily set correctly, and we use offset bearings to dial in some neg camber, and some more caster as well.
![]()
So can we get these springs through Icon here in the states? They are just down the road from Eibach, who could certainly replicate these springs for the US market if not.
So.....how do we order them, I am more interest in the 2-2.5 inch lift version.
Link for Oder or at least product info?
Per part number. $80,000 or so total. I bet a box of beer that eibach makes a spring those dimensions and spring rate already for some application or another. Jeep XJ maybe?You better open your wallet really wide, as I think he said he needs 200 sets ordered. lol.
So can we get these springs through Icon here in the states? They are just down the road from Eibach, who could certainly replicate these springs for the US market if not.