Icon Suspension Comments (1 Viewer)

[juane]

I thought I was making a long-term investment toward a compliant, flexy responsive and comfortable suspension system by throwing a lot of cash at my extra heavy 100 in the form of aftermarket control arms, front and rear, heavy springs and large diameter shocks.

Since nearly day one I experienced an annoying clunk in the rear that I finally traced to a poor fit between the stock bolts and the mounting bushings on the rear of the lower rear end Icon control arms. The bushing ID is too large allowing for excessive slope and the clunk. I believe the fix will be to source appropriate-sized bolts to replace the factory bolts even if that means redrilling the axle housing mounts.

Less easy to fix are the loose heim joint mounts on the front Icon shocks. The ball's are loose in their fixture. See attached photo. This resulted in a progressively worsening rattle from the front end.

The shocks have about 40k miles.
I'm waiting to hear what Icon has to say.

If I had to do it over again I'd take 2manycruiser's conservative philosophy and leave things well enough alone.
Well, except maybe the front upper arms, I like the extra droop....

 

[alia176]

I'm sorry John, you learned a hard lesson of buying these Gucci shocks. While they're awesome for race trucks where they get rebuilt after every race, for the rest of us mere mortals, they just get noisier due to the road grime ingress from daily use. I believe you can buy the correct OD/ID heim eye from online sources that fits your bolt OD perfectly. But, they really hate moisture.

 

[NMBruce]

That sucks, I hope this works out in your favor.
I did use Icons on my GX470 build because of what the said their rebuild schedule was.

My Tacoma shocks will be Ironman or OME or something similar, I just no longer see spending the big bucks on that stuff, since I don’t race or run super hard.

 

[alia176]

I'm a big fan of the ironman4x4 foam cell shocks!!

 

[NyNomad]

although some people have had success, over the past 10years the most complaints I've heard from people over any other suspension company is Icon. I will never touch them or recommend them. Not even TAV will touch them. Thats all I have to say.

 

[krazykat69]

I second alia176 on IronMan foam cell shocks. I have them on my 2010 GX460. On a 3 inch IronMan lift. It's a heavy rig and these shocks have worked very well. No noise, No sway, handles bumps well, no harsh bottoming out, and rides smooth on the pavement.

 

[FJCTom]

I bought Kings and love them. Going on 6 years old and probably need a rebuild but the seals are still holding. Yeah, they are noisier than Day 1 but I can hit 85mph on dirt roads and still be in control, no fading.

Last I checked, Icons are digressively valved, stiffening up at the beginning of the stroke. Kings and Foxes are progressively valved, they are cushy until you get into the bottom of the stroke. I think you can get the Icons progressively valved but you have to ask for it.

A friend had a 2nd Gen Tacoma with Icons all the way around including the billet UCAs. He hated it. Kidney buster he called it. That was just driving around town. He loved riding in my FJ and wished he had gone Kings. He eventually did.

Look at that pretty blue peeking out:

 

[alia176]

Great info Tom, thanks!

 

[FJCTom]

The other part I forgot to mention is the rebuild. I never found anyone in NM to rebuild them for me. I used to wheel with a guy that could but he moved to DFW. Takes a nitrogen tank setup. Everything else is fairly common tooling, wrenches, a spanner, snap-ring pliers, vise and a propane torch. The oil and seals can usually be bought thru the manufacturer and a friendly call to the manufacturer will get you the appropriate setup (oil amount and depth of stroke to fill it). They do need to be rebuilt every so often which is nice as you aren't throwing away perfectly good shock bodies because $50 worth of oil and seals have soured. I had planned on rebuilding mine once a year but, like I said, on year 6 and the seals are still holding.

I had considered getting a setup put together as I saw others in ABQ in the same boat but the move to Denver has provided other options. I just need to make time to have it sit on jack stands for a week.

PS: I would not touch Icons either. Mostly due to the valving choice. I think the digressive valving stems from their roots in baja trucks and Donahoe Racing.

 

[juane]

Thanks for the replies - good info that I wish I had had 40,000 miles ago.
Although I will say that I have had no complaints on the Icon ride quality.
I did hear from Icon -a terse message providing part numbers for the lower mounting components. I'm surprised that a Heim joint wears out.
And I'm not sure how to evaluate the condition of the internals that I did expect to need service...
In the meantime I've got some nice cheap, trouble free OME's installed.

 

[NyNomad]

I bought Kings and love them. Going on 6 years old and probably need a rebuild but the seals are still holding. Yeah, they are noisier than Day 1 but I can hit 85mph on dirt roads and still be in control, no fading.

Last I checked, Icons are digressively valved, stiffening up at the beginning of the stroke. Kings and Foxes are progressively valved, they are cushy until you get into the bottom of the stroke. I think you can get the Icons progressively valved but you have to ask for it.

A friend had a 2nd Gen Tacoma with Icons all the way around including the billet UCAs. He hated it. Kidney buster he called it. That was just driving around town. He loved riding in my FJ and wished he had gone Kings. He eventually did.

Look at that pretty blue peeking out:
View attachment 2595802

The other part I forgot to mention is the rebuild. I never found anyone in NM to rebuild them for me. I used to wheel with a guy that could but he moved to DFW. Takes a nitrogen tank setup. Everything else is fairly common tooling, wrenches, a spanner, snap-ring pliers, vise and a propane torch. The oil and seals can usually be bought thru the manufacturer and a friendly call to the manufacturer will get you the appropriate setup (oil amount and depth of stroke to fill it). They do need to be rebuilt every so often which is nice as you aren't throwing away perfectly good shock bodies because $50 worth of oil and seals have soured. I had planned on rebuilding mine once a year but, like I said, on year 6 and the seals are still holding.

I had considered getting a setup put together as I saw others in ABQ in the same boat but the move to Denver has provided other options. I just need to make time to have it sit on jack stands for a week.

PS: I would not touch Icons either. Mostly due to the valving choice. I think the digressive valving stems from their roots in baja trucks and Donahoe Racing.

Kings, Fox, Bilstein...All Forged on the race track and Trophy truck winners.. I don't think Icon has the Build quality, Engineering, Longevity and race proven technology based off decades of experience to stand on

 

[Quantumkiwi]

I bought Kings and love them. Going on 6 years old and probably need a rebuild but the seals are still holding. Yeah, they are noisier than Day 1 but I can hit 85mph on dirt roads and still be in control, no fading.

Last I checked, Icons are digressively valved, stiffening up at the beginning of the stroke. Kings and Foxes are progressively valved, they are cushy until you get into the bottom of the stroke. I think you can get the Icons progressively valved but you have to ask for it.

A friend had a 2nd Gen Tacoma with Icons all the way around including the billet UCAs. He hated it. Kidney buster he called it. That was just driving around town. He loved riding in my FJ and wished he had gone Kings. He eventually did.

Definitely gonna go Kings when my Radflos get tired and I get the cash for a long-travel setup.
Haven't heard a single bad thing about them.

 

[alia176]

How have the Radflos been for you?

 

[NMBruce]

The RadFlo 2.5 long travel on my GX470 where great on and off road. I thought about going with them again, but want a lower cost option.

 

[alia176]

I really should gather up all of my shock rebuilding shims/pistons/seals/proprietary oil and put them up for sale. I'll keep the bottle of Nitrogen and the adapter to pump up any shocks for future whatever. Now, where did I put them Bilstein 7100s.......

 

[FJCTom]

I really should gather up all of my shock rebuilding shims/pistons/seals/proprietary oil and put them up for sale. I'll keep the bottle of Nitrogen and the adapter to pump up any shocks for future whatever. Now, where did I put them Bilstein 7100s.......

Or open a side business and rake in some extra cash. I knew of quite a few folks in ABQ looking.

 

[Quantumkiwi]

How have the Radflos been for you?

They've been fine. Just kinda wish they were a bit more tunable. Would love to go with some dual rate coilovers though.
For a daily without going to the cost of Kings, I'd say they've been perfect.

 

[NMBruce]

Ironman 4x4 is having a sale this weekend, I believe I will order the foam cell kit