GX460 Lift Comparison/Review (2 Viewers)

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High end race derived suspension does tend to perform really well but requires a lot of maintenance. The heim joint can be noisy and usually not acceptable for daily driver. It's definitely over kill for most use except the hard core off road use. Basic Dobinsons kit have been getting good review with their comfort shock valving and lower spring rate.

I actually just install a Tough Dog adjustable on my 470. BP51 was my first choice but back off due to the cold noise issue. I really like the adjustable valving. It just allow me to fine tune the suspension more to my load, terrain and Tire sidewall stiffness.
 
Sorry if my post was a little confusing, I meant since I drive so much (~30k a year) I'd end up rebuilding about every year and a half and that really isn't what I need. I personally went with the Dobinsons comfort shock and lower spring rate. They also include a slightly taller spring for the passenger side to address the KDSS lean (If you don't have the lean, then they will provide same springs for each side). My kit is arriving today, so I'll post a build thread in the next week or so...lots of work travel, so I'll try and get it done asap
 
Yeah, my account is @thatappleby. You can check it out. I have some pictures from the build of what exactly I did and what parts I used. I’ll give you a quick breakdown though at the bottom here. But I do run 35s. I honestly couldn’t be happier. Ride quality is great. Obviously MTs are louder but I have been very impressed with how quiet and smooth the Mickey Thompson New P3s have been compared to previous MT I have ran on other vehicles. They don’t have he cold roar or vibration either. As far as the Icon kit goes I did have the KDSS lean. I did not add shins or do different coil heights. I did the actual valave adjustment to reset the hydraulics. So truck is not leaning now. Also Icon recomnds 40k Mike’s on a rebuild give or take and that was specific for my vehicle and driving style. My driving will be 75% on road and 25% off-road. Also you can get 3 inches out of the kit if you wanted to but the way they come factory spec will work with the tire size your wanting to run. This was my mod list for suspension. Again I pieced all this from separate stores to get good discounts and also did the install myself so saved a good bit there.

FRONT:
Icon 2.5 Ext Travel Coilovers
Icon Tubalar UCAs
Timbren Bump Stops
Wheelers Off-road Ext Brake Lines
Total Chaos Dif Drop
BMC and Pinch Weld Chop
1.25 Spidertraxx Spacers

Rear
ICON 2.0 Long Travel Shocks
Metal Tech Long Travel Heavy Coils
Metal Tech Bump Stop Extensions
Wheelers Off Road Ext Brake Lines
Cali-Fab Panhard, Upper, and Lower Links
1.25 Spidertraxx Spacers.





uncbsba said:
Wow, so you have to rebuild the Icon's every 15k miles? I will probably only do 8-10k a year, but that still sounds like a lot. So you didnt do the MRR it sounds like. Did you do the standard Dobinsons for the same reason?
Click to expand...
 
I went with Metal Tech, but my rig is still at YotaMasters getting everything bolted on. I can let you know when I get it back.
But the guys at Metal Tech have a built 2013 GX 460 in their stable with the exact lift I'm getting and they swear by it.
I hope they know what they're talking about, I sunk a nice chunk of change on that suspension kit.
 
I have ICON Stage 4 on my Tacoma. One shock was leaking straight from the factory. Two more blew in the next ~10 months of 99% city and 1% forest service road driving. Customer support was atrocious each time. Ride is stiff and uncomfortable, too. I would never buy ICONs again, nor recommend them to anyone. BP51s are the way to go.
 
Have three buddies that went the ICON route (two with 3rd Gen 4Rs, one with an '04 Taco). All have had various issues. The 4R friends have sworn-off ICON, the Taco friend is still sorting out what to do - been only a shade over a year on his suspension...he spent a bunch, and is very disappointed. I gather that they work well until they don't...can be a rather high-maintenance shock.

Might take a look at the Tough Dog adjustable setup (9-stage adjustable at each corner)...I just put some on my 2011 4R and am lovin' life. Have some on my 1997 Cruiser for about 9 months now. Get a lot of bang/buck, and the ability to easily tweak the shocks it pretty dang nice. I shared a quick blurb on this lift here: Installed Tough Dog Lift for 5th Gen 4R w/Adjustable Shocks

If curious, pester Jason at Trail Tailor (@reevesci) for more info...great dude to work with.
 
eatSleepWoof said:
I have ICON Stage 4 on my Tacoma. One shock was leaking straight from the factory. Two more blew in the next ~10 months of 99% city and 1% forest service road driving. Customer support was atrocious each time. Ride is stiff and uncomfortable, too. I would never buy ICONs again, nor recommend them to anyone. BP51s are the way to go.
Click to expand...

NorCal97 said:
Have three buddies that went the ICON route (two with 3rd Gen 4Rs, one with an '04 Taco). All have had various issues. The 4R friends have sworn-off ICON, the Taco friend is still sorting out what to do - been only a shade over a year on his suspension...he spent a bunch, and is very disappointed. I gather that they work well until they don't...can be a rather high-maintenance shock.

Might take a look at the Tough Dog adjustable setup (9-stage adjustable at each corner)...I just put some on my 2011 4R and am lovin' life. Have some on my 1997 Cruiser for about 9 months now. Get a lot of bang/buck, and the ability to easily tweak the shocks it pretty dang nice. I shared a quick blurb on this lift here: Installed Tough Dog Lift for 5th Gen 4R w/Adjustable Shocks

If curious, pester Jason at Trail Tailor (@reevesci) for more info...great dude to work with.
Click to expand...

Well damn.... hope I don’t run into these same issues. Would be very disappointing for sure. I guess time will tell.
 
NorCal97 said:
Have three buddies that went the ICON route (two with 3rd Gen 4Rs, one with an '04 Taco). All have had various issues. The 4R friends have sworn-off ICON, the Taco friend is still sorting out what to do - been only a shade over a year on his suspension...he spent a bunch, and is very disappointed. I gather that they work well until they don't...can be a rather high-maintenance shock.

Might take a look at the Tough Dog adjustable setup (9-stage adjustable at each corner)...I just put some on my 2011 4R and am lovin' life. Have some on my 1997 Cruiser for about 9 months now. Get a lot of bang/buck, and the ability to easily tweak the shocks it pretty dang nice. I shared a quick blurb on this lift here: Installed Tough Dog Lift for 5th Gen 4R w/Adjustable Shocks

If curious, pester Jason at Trail Tailor (@reevesci) for more info...great dude to work with.
Click to expand...


Thanks M! Just for everyone's reference on price point.

Front assembled 9 stage adjustable 40mm bore struts
Rear coils
Rear 40mm bore 9 stage adjustable shocks

1395.00

Jason
 
eatSleepWoof said:
I have ICON Stage 4 on my Tacoma. One shock was leaking straight from the factory. Two more blew in the next ~10 months of 99% city and 1% forest service road driving. Customer support was atrocious each time. Ride is stiff and uncomfortable, too. I would never buy ICONs again, nor recommend them to anyone. BP51s are the way to go.
Click to expand...

NorCal97 said:
Have three buddies that went the ICON route (two with 3rd Gen 4Rs, one with an '04 Taco). All have had various issues. The 4R friends have sworn-off ICON, the Taco friend is still sorting out what to do - been only a shade over a year on his suspension...he spent a bunch, and is very disappointed. I gather that they work well until they don't...can be a rather high-maintenance shock.
Click to expand...

Man, I've run Icon on my last two rigs and they were great. After reading this though.. I might have to look elsewhere. I know they as a company have gotten bigger and their quality might have changed. I was thinking of the BP-51s, but the clunking noise and the fact that you have to pull the shock and use a spring compressor to change ride height have me second guessing those as well. Maybe it's time to look at King shocks.
 
So I'm 99% sold on going with the Dobinsons MRR. Not exactly the topic I started with, but what wheel tire combo can I stuff under the 460 with a Dob 3" lift? Looking at SCS F5 17x8.5 or 17x9. Most likely going with KO2s again. How big can you go with minimal rub/mods?
 
HitchCrack said:
I did the Dobs MRR kit and I have 285/75/17 but did have to do a BMC.

GX460 TRD Wheels Nitto Ridge Grapplers

GX460 TRD Wheels Nitto Ridge Grapplers

Click to expand...

Great build Hitchcrack and a perfect comparison for what I'm wanting to do. Dobinsons MRR with an aggressive tire size (as close to 34s as possible). I already assumed I was going to have to do the BMC and ordered the Metaltech kit. Are you getting any other rub or contact in daily driving or mild offroading?
 
Carnevino said:
I went with Dobinsons without the remote res and I get Icons at cost(I’m an actual distributor). The icon will set you back around 3500$ if you do it right. The reason I went the other route is due to I drive quite a bit during the week, around 30k a year and I didn’t want to rebuild my suspension twice a year. You absolutely cannot go wrong with Icons, they ride and perform great, but there will be downtime.
Click to expand...
​
I've got over 30k on my Icon and I've run it real hard in the desert in 100+ degree temps, bottomed out multiple times, hard enough to crack the fender and my Icons are holding up great so far...I'm not looking forward to rebuilding, but if you are going to abuse a Dobinson like an Icon, it would need to be rebuilt at some point as well so its a bit unfair to tell someone the Dobinson is better because it won't need to be rebuilt when that's not the truth.
 
Nickk6 said:
​
I've got over 30k on my Icon and I've run it real hard in the desert in 100+ degree temps, bottomed out multiple times, hard enough to crack the fender and my Icons are holding up great so far...I'm not looking forward to rebuilding, but if you are going to abuse a Dobinson like an Icon, it would need to be rebuilt at some point as well so its a bit unfair to tell someone the Dobinson is better because it won't need to be rebuilt when that's not the truth.
Click to expand...

Wasn’t implying that at all. I don’t go extreme off-roading but rather drive close to 40k miles a year and I didn’t want to rebuild a shock. I don’t have remote Rez Dobinsons, just plug and play. I was only trying to inform that there will be downtime with the Icons. I have another car that has Penske coil overs...extremely expensive and they require maintenance. It’s a pain.
 
Our MRR resi shocks are rebuildable and we carry the parts in stock for that. We have a different point of view than most when it comes to servicing rebuildable shocks. Can it be done ? Sure it can but we offer a 2 year no mileage warranty on all of our shocks. NO BS warranty better said, many companies offer lifetime but will turn down all claims if not most. We hear that clients biggest problem with rebuildable shocks is the downtime they have with out a vehicle to use during the time the shocks are being rebuilt. That is why even with our MRR shocks, we will treat them as the sealed twin tubes, if something was to fail we swap them out with a new one. If you want them rebuilt we will have the parts at hand and dealers that will offer that service.
 
uncbsba said:
Great build Hitchcrack and a perfect comparison for what I'm wanting to do. Dobinsons MRR with an aggressive tire size (as close to 34s as possible). I already assumed I was going to have to do the BMC and ordered the Metaltech kit. Are you getting any other rub or contact in daily driving or mild offroading?
Click to expand...

I spent some time on the trail in Oklahoma and Arkansas this past weekend and had no rubbing that I could tell. I did pull the fender liners once I installed my snorkel so that eliminated the rubbing I was getting from those. I used the MT BMC kit as well and it was pretty straight forward.

-HitchCrack
 
Finally pulled the trigger on the Dobinsons MRR and waiting to install. Also have tires, went with 285/75R17 KO2s. One problem, no wheels. Was planning on dong the Matte Bronze SCS F5s in 17x8.5 but of course I went to order and they are now out of stock. Any feedback on running the 17x9 versus the 17x8.5. Also, I have seen a ton of these on the 4Runner and FJ, but none on a 460. Anyone aware of any issues in fit?
 
uncbsba said:
Finally pulled the trigger on the Dobinsons MRR and waiting to install. Also have tires, went with 285/75R17 KO2s. One problem, no wheels. Was planning on dong the Matte Bronze SCS F5s in 17x8.5 but of course I went to order and they are now out of stock. Any feedback on running the 17x9 versus the 17x8.5. Also, I have seen a ton of these on the 4Runner and FJ, but none on a 460. Anyone aware of any issues in fit?
Click to expand...
If you like the SCS wheels email Vuth using the contact form on the website. He can get you a set pre-ordered so that you don't have to try to order via the website. It is worth the wait. What shows up on his website is what is left over after pre-orders have been fulfilled, and the leftovers go fast.

As for width, 8.5" is plenty for a 285 tire. If you go wider you run a greater risk of interference with your suspension components. Generally speaking, what will work on a 5th gen 4Runner will work on the 460, as they share suspension components and have very similar wheel well dimensions.
 
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