Iron Man Pro Foam Review

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wngrog

wngrog

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Iron Man Pro versus Old Man Emu Sport

Length is the same.

The front Pro's weigh 11# versus 4# for the OME Sport

The OME gas stay in the extended position due to the gas charge like all other shocks I've dealt with.


The foams are super easy to compress but very hard to extend.

I have Slee everything and 866 rears. My Sports suck. Super rough. Totally overloaded in the rear. When I hit a seam in the road, it feels like the ass end of my truck is in my spine.
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I have been thrashing my truck today on any rough surface I can find. There is no replacement for displacement.

Metaltech is the dealer.......

I got mine through 49 Tire who is a Metal Tech dealer. $177 each. $50 more than the regular foam cell.

I have never compared the regular foam cell to the regular OME sports, but this is like night and day.
 
I'm surprised that there is not more interest in this. I think these are a fairly new option here in the US. The price point is right and the performance so far is amazing.

I'm headed to Big Bend in 10 days and all the back roads there are washboard mess.

I'll fill y'all in after.
 
Do Foam Cells last as long as other types? Or do they need to be replaced more often? Or does anyone know? I've heard nothing but good from the guys who have put the Iron Man system with regular foam cells on their 100s...and, being more expensive, I'd expect them to perform better. Just wondering if the lack(?) of popularity is due to under-education or something else...like longevity.
 
Good questions all. I know nothing except my OME sports sucked.

I can't tell you though if the normal sized Foam Cell's are a huge improvement or not.

These are $50 more per shock than the normal ones.
 
Once you overheat a foam cell shock, it's cooked. A "regular" shock just needs to cool down.

Which ome shocks did you have? They make more than one model for use on land cruisers with different dampening.
 
good video description



essentially since the whole outer sleeve of a foam cell shock is filled with fluid instead of just part of it like a gas filled shock it supposedly will dissipate heat better and probably should not cook as easily.

I have the regular foam cell shocks and it rides great with mild lift, bumper and sliders.
 
wngrog said:
Hence the beauty of the volume of the Pro's.
Click to expand...

Actually, foam cell shocks need to be bigger than an equivalent gas shock. In a gas shock, as the shock heats up, the gas expands, raising the boiling point of the oil. That can't happen in a foam cell shock, so they make them bigger to account for that.

I'm not trying to knock the ironman shocks. I haven't tried them myself and they may be awesome. I just hesitate a little bit because a) you really don't see many manufacturers doing foam cell shocks and b) Ironman is generally considered a bit of a discount brand compared to OME in Australia.
 
Glad to hear the feedback. Would love it if someone can comment on the ride vs the OG Ironman Foam Cells; which I've been pleased with thus far. I've done hours non-stop on washboarded roads in my 7400lb example of a 100 and the OG Foam Cells handled it fine.

In my opinion there are way more significantly hindering handling characteristics of the 100 that will prevent you from reaching the heat limits of the shocks before the shocks themselves cook. We aren't talking long travel trucks at Baja speeds trying to soak up whoops. Hell you can't drive the thing at speed for more than a few hours before it needs fuel anyways LOL.

Good article/review on them HERE.
 
I've only put a few hundred miles of pavement and a few hours (more yesterday) on the trail with the IronMan Foam Cell shocks (not the Pro) and love them. The ride - with the IronMan TBs and 2.5" rears, is close to stock. I've had a few guys say it rides great, but the best review was probably from my (non-car-chick) wife, after driving it... "Oh, I didn't notice a difference" (from stock).
 
tabraha said:
Glad to hear the feedback. Would love it if someone can comment on the ride vs the OG Ironman Foam Cells; which I've been pleased with thus far. I've done hours non-stop on washboarded roads in my 7400lb example of a 100 and the OG Foam Cells handled it fine.

In my opinion there are way more significantly hindering handling characteristics of the 100 that will prevent you from reaching the heat limits of the shocks before the shocks themselves cook. We aren't talking long travel trucks at Baja speeds trying to soak up whoops. Hell you can't drive the thing at speed for more than a few hours before it needs fuel anyways LOL.

Good article/review on them HERE.
Click to expand...


That is a great article.

It's not going to make your truck a Trophy Truck but it won't break your ass like mine did with the OME Sports.

My first 100 had OME shocks before they were branded "sport" and it rode great.

My second one, I put Bilstiens in it due to all the terrible reviews of the ome sports. They rode great.

This is a superb mod just for seat-of-your-pants ride.

Before this install my FJ-60 with old school OME lift and shocks ride smoother than my 100. That's saying something.
 
Would these work well with a 2.5" lift? I noticed you were running 1.5.

I've been looking into the radflo's but they are expensive.
 
Yes 2.5 lift. My truck had 34's but I run it low. 866 rears.

I have stock control arms.

These are not tunable like the more expensive Radflo or the ones Slee sells. They are also 1/3 the cost.

Although they are rebuildable....
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Do you have the part numbers? I can't find any mention of foam Pro shocks for the 100 series anywhere on either AU or USA Ironman4x4 websites.
 
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