New suspension - replace ICON Stage 1 with ?? (1 Viewer)

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Dunbar

SILVER Star
Joined
Jan 29, 2004
Threads
29
Messages
754
Location
Tomball Texas
Help me spec out a new suspension for my 2020 Base 200. Truck has 52,000 miles with about 46,000 on PO installed Icon stage 1 suspension.
Reason to replace ICONS - They already need to be rebuilt, bouncing all over the place. Spring rates are unknown. I don't mind rebuilding shocks myself but an unable to tolerate down time involved with sending them back to mfg for rebuild.

Vehicle weight adds:
12.5 LRA
ARB Safari Bar (yet to purchase winch)
ARB twin compressor on Slee mount
Slee Formed Sliders
3rd row retained
45qt fridge and Bluetti eb70s usually on board
Frequently travels with 1 or 2 Yakima 21cuft Skyboxes fully loaded
Tires LT258 65 R18 on stock wheels

Vehicle use:
Wife's daily driver
Often tows 700lb or 2000lb utility trailers around town and across nation
Multiple long trips fully loaded with 3 to 5 passengers
Occasionally tows 8,000 lb boat triple axle trailer combo
Might tow 8,000 lb Airstream or equivalent RV
No rock crawling but needs to be capable of Alpine Rocky Mountain trails
Shares trip and tow duty with built 7.3 Powerstroke Excursion

Yet to be installed components:
@eimkeith Panhard lift bracket
Firestone airbags

I have had good luck conventional gas shocks on other vehicles, Dobinsons on FJ62 and Bilstein 4600's on Excursion. I am open to other options including rebuild-able offerings from King and Dobinsons. I have watched several Filthy Motorsports videos and agree I don't need a full race suspension. I would like to email or discuss my needs with their shop but think my fellow MUD 200 series folk can give valuable input. I see Exit Offroad offers Dobinsons kits but have not called them to consult but would like MUD help first.

What works for you? What options should I be looking at?
 
I have a 2021 with Icon - Front - UCA sand Coilovers, Rear - Trailing Arms and Coils.

Had to replace the rear coils after adding ARB rear Bumper, AR Drawers, Full Size Spare and 5 gallon can. I went with Dobinsons C59-545

This is working perfectly for me now, nobody is high beaming me.

I got the dobinsons Coils from dobinsonsdirect website for $275 pair.
 
Your running a digressive set up at the moment. No matter what decision you make the overall feel of the truck will be different if you step away from Icon.

I have broken a fair share of icon components in the past and stay away from their suspension stuff. Some guys love the digressive feel.

Dobinsons MRR and IMS are a great piece of kit for the price. People LOVE them. They are comfortable and incredibly reliable.

Fully rebuildable options for me would be Radflo, ADS or Kings from Ben at filthy.

When you get into a high end progressive set up, the valving is what sets things apart and I love the value and precision a good builder relationship provides. All of the options above provide that. Don’t buy off the shelf high end suspension (icon, king etc )

It sounds like the dobinsons may suit you perfectly. The MRRs are a fully adjustable option and have high and low speed compression adjustment. Nothing else mentioned above provides that unless you get something custom. You can really dial in MRR and would be the best off the shelf option.

I ran Custom kings on my 200, I now have an LX and if I went to a conventional set up on the lx, ADS or dobinsons would have my money.
 
After just finishing building a similarly set up 200 for a lot of the same duties you have mentioned, the Kings have my vote. Our 200 is the family adventure and light/medium duty tow vehicle, but also my wife's DD so I was worried about a potential harsh ride on road that is typical of many aftermarket suspensions. After talking to a few other people in the 200 section, I was hopeful the Kings would be different and worth the cost, so I decided to give them a try.

I am beyond happy with how the 200 feels both on and off road. My wife is kind of particular to how a vehicle drives and even she commented on how much better the handling was on road. Still waiting for the snow to melt to do a proper off road test but so far I'm impressed with how it handled a few rutted out high speed dirt roads.

One initial hesitation was the myth that these would have to be rebuilt every 10-15k mi or so. After talking to Ben at Filthy, he said I might see that interval if I was regularly racing in Baja, but a normal 200 driven even 80/20 street/dirt would go well past 50k, and he has customers rebuilding at 75k+ too, just depending on use. I'd much rather rebuild high end shocks even at 50k vs throw a way a slightly less expensive set. I think you would come out money ahead after just 1 rebuild. Rebuild looks easy enough and can be done at home so minimum down time there.

The only downside was the wait...it took 8 months, but hopefully lead times are down now. I installed some Nitro UCAs too, along with the rear panhard bracket. The latter is a must. I have yet to do an alignment (waiting a month for everything to settle) and it still drives great. Rear airbags completed the set up and now I can tow 8000+ lbs without a sag in the rear or light steering up front.
 
FYI at least when I ordered mine the story was custom shock lead time can depend on time of year it is ordered.

Apparently lots of desert racing guys do their builds in the fall and winter so demand can be very high at that time.

Not sure I’d wait six months for this purpose if the decision is made to invest.. but it can impact build plans.
 
Used to run Icons. Ran OMEs. Now run Kings. I'll never run anything besides Kings from here on out. Get a hold of Ben at Filthy.
 
Kings... but mostly because Ben at Filthy has so much experience with 200s and he sells Kings. With this level of shock the tuning is as important as anything else and experience is a big help with tuning.
 
Thanks for all the replies fellas. I emailed Filthy Motorsports today and included much of the text of my OP. I hope we can survive the wait time while bouncing on the current setup.
 
Wow, I did not expect a reply that fast! I emailed at 3:26pm Central and just got this reply:

Hi David,
Thanks for the email, I’m happy to help!
I’ve run out of time to get to this today but I will call you tomorrow and we will go over your options in detail.
Also, your timing is great as we just received a stocking order and have them in stock.
Have a great evening.
Cheers,
Ben Brazda
Filthy Motorsports
720-545-2279
 
Wow, I did not expect a reply that fast! I emailed at 3:26pm Central and just got this reply:

Hi David,
Thanks for the email, I’m happy to help!
I’ve run out of time to get to this today but I will call you tomorrow and we will go over your options in detail.
Also, your timing is great as we just received a stocking order and have them in stock.
Have a great evening.
Cheers,
Ben Brazda
Filthy Motorsports
720-545-2279

In stock!? I'd get him a CC# ASAP and sort out the details later.
 
After just finishing building a similarly set up 200 for a lot of the same duties you have mentioned, the Kings have my vote. Our 200 is the family adventure and light/medium duty tow vehicle, but also my wife's DD so I was worried about a potential harsh ride on road that is typical of many aftermarket suspensions. After talking to a few other people in the 200 section, I was hopeful the Kings would be different and worth the cost, so I decided to give them a try.

I am beyond happy with how the 200 feels both on and off road. My wife is kind of particular to how a vehicle drives and even she commented on how much better the handling was on road. Still waiting for the snow to melt to do a proper off road test but so far I'm impressed with how it handled a few rutted out high speed dirt roads.

One initial hesitation was the myth that these would have to be rebuilt every 10-15k mi or so. After talking to Ben at Filthy, he said I might see that interval if I was regularly racing in Baja, but a normal 200 driven even 80/20 street/dirt would go well past 50k, and he has customers rebuilding at 75k+ too, just depending on use. I'd much rather rebuild high end shocks even at 50k vs throw a way a slightly less expensive set. I think you would come out money ahead after just 1 rebuild. Rebuild looks easy enough and can be done at home so minimum down time there.

The only downside was the wait...it took 8 months, but hopefully lead times are down now. I installed some Nitro UCAs too, along with the rear panhard bracket. The latter is a must. I have yet to do an alignment (waiting a month for everything to settle) and it still drives great. Rear airbags completed the set up and now I can tow 8000+ lbs without a sag in the rear or light steering up front.

I have run custom Kings in the past, a few buddies have them now, most are daily drivers that see off-road use to varying degrees. All of them have required rebuilds in under 50K miles/24 months. I am not dogging them, they are some of the best for a reason but they aren't the magic elixir some think they are either.

Dobinsons MRR is the best off the shelf high end option, I am intrigued with the ADS and look forward to hearing more about them as they get use in the real world.
 
I was leaning to the Dobinsons MMR's but after corresponding and talking with Ben at Filthy MS I am going to with Kings. If he was selling MMR's I would be going with those. The level of customization and support from FMS is absolutely solid. I'll be gearing up for future rebuilding of shocks as needed because he is specking out Kings for my 7.3 Excursion as well. My FJ62 will be next in line after the Ex.
I'll be keeping the rear ICON springs as they are the correct height. I'll sell the ICON front coilovers and rear shocks if I can find anyone who wants them.

Here is the setup for the 200:
25001-266A King front 2.5 coilovers with remote reservoirs and compression adjusters and 650lb springs
SPC UCA's
25001-267A rear King 2.5 shocks with remote reservoir and adjusters Keeping the ICON rear springs. Don't know the rate but they are the correct height.
Firestone airbags
@eimkeith Panhard lift bracket

For now I'm on stock wheels with LT285 /65 R18 Cooper Discoverer AT3 XLT E codes. I'm open for suggestions for 33 to 34" tires.

Thanks for the help.
 
One initial hesitation was the myth that these would have to be rebuilt every 10-15k mi or so. After talking to Ben at Filthy, he said I might see that interval if I was regularly racing in Baja, but a normal 200 driven even 80/20 street/dirt would go well past 50k, and he has customers rebuilding at 75k+ too, just depending on use. I'd much rather rebuild high end shocks even at 50k vs throw a way a slightly less expensive set. I think you would come out money ahead after just 1 rebuild. Rebuild looks easy enough and can be done at home so minimum down time there.

To be fair, this is not a myth. I'll agree that it depends on use, but if someone gets to 75k+ miles on a set, it really begs the question if they needed this type of suspension to begin with.

I'm not sure if you'll ever get ahead with a rebuild. It costs in the range of $700/set on the low end. Once you factor in labor, shipping, down time, etc... that's potentially into new suspension money.

It's not a knock on Kings though, just comes with the territory with this type of performance suspension. Pay to play.
 
To be fair, this is not a myth. I'll agree that it depends on use, but if someone gets to 75k+ miles on a set, it really begs the question if they needed this type of suspension to begin with.

I'm not sure if you'll ever get ahead with a rebuild. It costs in the range of $700/set on the low end. Once you factor in labor, shipping, down time, etc... that's potentially into new suspension money.

It's not a knock on Kings though, just comes with the territory with this type of performance suspension. Pay to play.

75k does sound extreme, but so does 15k on the other end. I'd guess most are somewhere in the middle.

I was under the assumption too that a rebuild could be done at home, with seal kits well under $100. I'm thinking you could even get away with charging with Argon, eliminating the need to buy a separate nitrogen bottle.

Like you mentioned, there is a price to pay for performance. It will cost you time or money either way.
 
75k does sound extreme, but so does 15k on the other end. I'd guess most are somewhere in the middle.

I was under the assumption too that a rebuild could be done at home, with seal kits well under $100. I'm thinking you could even get away with charging with Argon, eliminating the need to buy a separate nitrogen bottle.

Like you mentioned, there is a price to pay for performance. It will cost you time or money either way.
Assuming you don't need any other parts that is more along the lines of the rebuild cost. Depending on local salt use the front spherical joints may need replacement, or not. I might need at least one rear shaft when I rebuild, depending on whether the now-smoothed nick ends up taking out a seal.. but this has more to do with my shock shaft protection not being set up correctly than it does an inherent maintenance cost.

All the while with damping performance much better than any standard OME/TJM/etc shock setup.

I went ahead and bought a nitrogen cylinder, regulator, hose, and adapter as I planned to tweak things as well as be set up for rebuilds. Technically we should include those costs.. but they get defrayed the longer the shocks are in service. Plus I've used it on two friend's mountain bikes already so.. win win?
 
To be fair, this is not a myth. I'll agree that it depends on use, but if someone gets to 75k+ miles on a set, it really begs the question if they needed this type of suspension to begin with.

I'm not sure if you'll ever get ahead with a rebuild. It costs in the range of $700/set on the low end. Once you factor in labor, shipping, down time, etc... that's potentially into new suspension money.

It's not a knock on Kings though, just comes with the territory with this type of performance suspension. Pay to play.
I plan to rebuild in my home shop, so that changes the math.
 
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