Can anyone with personal experience tell me about the ride quality difference between an Icon or Rad-Flo dampened suspension vs. OEM shocks?
Shock upgrade question (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Windknotz
- Start date
This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.
I have Icon 2.5 remote Stage 3 w/ SPC UCA. Went from OEM to OME to Fox and now Icons.
Your question being about ride quality would imply pavement usage, but I could be wrong.
For pavement OEM's have a luxury car ride, the other shocks I have used have a firmer ride, you could say sports car like ride were you want to have road feel.
The Icons on the softest setting have a better ride than the OME and Fox but still in the sports car ride category.
Most all the shocks you see discussed here are for offroad and with 100s shock designers don't have much room to maneuver.
Its a heavy vehicle with short suspension travel in the front, so to keep from bottoming out they need to be firm, and very, very firm if you blow across rough terrain fast or drop off big ledges.
The Icon Stage 3 address this by getting a little bit more travel w/UCAs, remotes w/adjustment, and more complex valving to give a bit of street ability,
All of that costs a bunch, and the only way to justify the cost (be happy with the cost) is to be pushing your rig hard offroad, its what they are designed for.
Pavement the OEMs win, grab a Starbucks, put on the tunes, and ease on down the road.
Your question being about ride quality would imply pavement usage, but I could be wrong.
For pavement OEM's have a luxury car ride, the other shocks I have used have a firmer ride, you could say sports car like ride were you want to have road feel.
The Icons on the softest setting have a better ride than the OME and Fox but still in the sports car ride category.
Most all the shocks you see discussed here are for offroad and with 100s shock designers don't have much room to maneuver.
Its a heavy vehicle with short suspension travel in the front, so to keep from bottoming out they need to be firm, and very, very firm if you blow across rough terrain fast or drop off big ledges.
The Icon Stage 3 address this by getting a little bit more travel w/UCAs, remotes w/adjustment, and more complex valving to give a bit of street ability,
All of that costs a bunch, and the only way to justify the cost (be happy with the cost) is to be pushing your rig hard offroad, its what they are designed for.
Pavement the OEMs win, grab a Starbucks, put on the tunes, and ease on down the road.
- Thread starter
- #3
Thank you for the response. My problem, as I see it, is that my suspension has been upgraded to the point where the stock shocks are struggling beyond their desired abilities, especially when it comes to down travel. If I upgrade, I would like to buy once and cry once. Just deciding on which stage to buy.
Do you have or plan on aftermarket UCA and want to take advantage of the extended travel? If so that narrows your choices, Icons, think Radflo and maybe Kings.
I haven't looked in a while so maybe others out there now.
I haven't looked in a while so maybe others out there now.
- Thread starter
- #5
Yes, I have aftermarket UCAs.
Mix and match might be a good solution.
Icon 2,5 VS (not RR) 0-3" shocks in the rear.
Icon 2.5 VS RR CDCV 0-3" in the front.
Front works harder with the short travel. Almost a race situation to need RR, but I wanted the adjusters, then find I am so busy on a trip I don't think about tweaking them for the conditions. Most of the time I have them set softer than they would be without adjusters.
Icon 2,5 VS (not RR) 0-3" shocks in the rear.
Icon 2.5 VS RR CDCV 0-3" in the front.
Front works harder with the short travel. Almost a race situation to need RR, but I wanted the adjusters, then find I am so busy on a trip I don't think about tweaking them for the conditions. Most of the time I have them set softer than they would be without adjusters.
jLB
Another one followed me home. Can we keep it?
Interesting perspective.
I recently went the opposite direction, Dobinsons IMS (IFP) front, Dobinsons MRA (RR with adjusters) rear, based on the logic that the front weight was fairly static, with limited travel, and the rear weight was variable, with a bit more travel...
Can you tell us about your usage and your current setup?
Any of the RR on Icons and Radflos, the faster you go, the smoother imperfections get. However, if you're cruising around town, and even going 40mph down a city road, you're gonna feel all the bumps, and jars. You won't be able to have coffee driving in the city anymore.
The more offroad a shock gets, the more your street/comfort attributes fall. But you gain in stiffness, and high speed compression/ability to handle rough terrains at higher speeds.
Also, speaking from all of my performance shocks/coilovers, including my Radflo 2.5 RRs, you get increased NVH into the cab due to the spherical bushing and top poly bushing. IE, your cab gets louder. They also annoyingly clunk in temperatures under 55F at all times unless you really get some heat into them (which I've never been able to do in cold weather). They also clunk for a couple miles driving them in the summer until they get some movement in them when I first start driving in the morning.
However, the benefit from all of this is that my tires stay on the ground more in higher speed offroad, thus being able to have increased handling at higher speeds off pavement.
Also, don't forget, they need to be rebuilt every 15k miles to 50k miles depending on usage. And the rebuild time means you will have downtime on your rig, unless you've got a second set of shocks, as well as the price which is north of $125 per shock after shipping both ways and such.
The whole adage of buy once cry once doesn't apply to shocks and coilovers. Higher end shocks need higher end maintenance such as rebuilds and tuning, so you end up crying a couple times after buying once.
A happy medium here would be Icon 2.0, Fox 2.0, or IM FCP.
Any of the RR on Icons and Radflos, the faster you go, the smoother imperfections get. However, if you're cruising around town, and even going 40mph down a city road, you're gonna feel all the bumps, and jars. You won't be able to have coffee driving in the city anymore.
The more offroad a shock gets, the more your street/comfort attributes fall. But you gain in stiffness, and high speed compression/ability to handle rough terrains at higher speeds.
Also, speaking from all of my performance shocks/coilovers, including my Radflo 2.5 RRs, you get increased NVH into the cab due to the spherical bushing and top poly bushing. IE, your cab gets louder. They also annoyingly clunk in temperatures under 55F at all times unless you really get some heat into them (which I've never been able to do in cold weather). They also clunk for a couple miles driving them in the summer until they get some movement in them when I first start driving in the morning.
However, the benefit from all of this is that my tires stay on the ground more in higher speed offroad, thus being able to have increased handling at higher speeds off pavement.
Also, don't forget, they need to be rebuilt every 15k miles to 50k miles depending on usage. And the rebuild time means you will have downtime on your rig, unless you've got a second set of shocks, as well as the price which is north of $125 per shock after shipping both ways and such.
The whole adage of buy once cry once doesn't apply to shocks and coilovers. Higher end shocks need higher end maintenance such as rebuilds and tuning, so you end up crying a couple times after buying once.
A happy medium here would be Icon 2.0, Fox 2.0, or IM FCP.
Last edited:
- Thread starter
- #9
Thank you. I never really thought about the downtime aspect of rebuilding them. Any idea about the ride quality difference between the 2.0 and 2.5? It is my daily driver, but does go off-road. I’m not running the Rubicon monthly, but will be doing some multi day trips this summer in some very remote and rugged areas.
