What did you do to your Cruiser today?

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A day of wheeling...

Took a day off from working around the place in CB and went touring. Up Spring Creek north of Almont in to Rosebud Gulch to visit our honeymoon site (cabin is long gone). Then up to Spring Creek Reservoir and over the top (in pouring rain) on forest roads to Cement Creek and back to CB. Finished off with Mexican food at Donita's and watching "The Lone Ranger" at the local theater.
Pretty good day...
 
Today I broke another Icon shock on Imogene Pass. No rough stuff or anything abusive, just snapped the top mount. But Icon bent over backwards to get me a temp replacement and have ordered a new shock to be delivered home NLT Wednesday.
 
Here's Jeremy and another guy from Icon installing the temporary shock. The first time I broke an Icon shock it was a real PR snafu, so they are busting their butts to overcome the poor impression they left with me and others who heard the story.

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I went huge and had some 215/70-16's mounted on two stock rims so my 80 will fit the straps on the UHaul trailer. It's going to look hilarious with those on the front and 33's on the rear. A big thanks to Big O in Glenwood for hooking me up free of charge!
 
Ace - Your broken shock stories have me really reconsidering Icon. I get out into some pretty remote places, often solo, and I don't want to worry about breaking shocks. I'm not exactly kind to my FJ. I think I remember you telling me you had an OME lift prior to the Icon, is that correct? Would you say the difference in performance/ride quality justifies your hassles?
 
Both breakages were from a quality control issue according to icon. Both were essentially the same problem. Jeremy from icon was falling all over himself trying to make me a happy customer. They gave me a new 2.0 as a temp fix and told me to keep as a spare. Shipped me a new 2.5 overnight, now in my garage. Despite all of the good will shown I'm still a bit leery of Icon. Biggest thing I consider wrong is the uniball on the lower end, poor in salt and other stuff they use on roads here. I'd look for a shock with regular rubber bushing like Fox, Toytech, King and a few others (uni may be option on some)

Ride quality is better than OME. Used to have poor dive control, ie rear coming up like a grass hopper.

If you have the $$ I'd suggest King.
 
Alan "Ace" Brown said:
Both breakages were from a quality control issue according to icon. Both were essentially the same problem. Jeremy from icon was falling all over himself trying to make me a happy customer. They gave me a new 2.0 as a temp fix and told me to keep as a spare. Shipped me a new 2.5 overnight, now in my garage. Despite all of the good will shown I'm still a bit leery of Icon. Biggest thing I consider wrong is the uniball on the lower end, poor in salt and other stuff they use on roads here. I'd look for a shock with regular rubber bushing like Fox, Toytech, King and a few others (uni may be option on some)

Ride quality is better than OME. Used to have poor dive control, ie rear coming up like a grass hopper.

If you have the $$ I'd suggest King.
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Great points, I hadn't even thought about the Uniball. Do you have to crawl under the truck to spray them down with a teflon lube? Are they noisy? I'm already concerned about the maintenance on the JohnnyJoint on my LCA's, I don't want to wind up in the position of having to spend an hour under the truck cleaning and lubing stuff every time I hit a dirt road.
 
This past winter was my first in cold and all the chems on the road so yes, I did hit them with WD-40 several times. Also have little rubber flaps to deflect a lot of crap off the shafts and uni balls. Go with King.

Ace
 
At this point I think I am starting to lean back towards the opposite end of the spectrum and looking at OME or piecing together my own kit with Bilstein 5100/5160's. Work has been overwhelming and it seems like I am constantly working on my toys instead of out enjoying them. My project for next weekend is to take my forks and shock off my CRF to send them off for revavling/rebuild and then the following weekends project will be new piston and valves... I'd rather be looking forward to a couple weekends of riding.

I know I would be pleased with the performance of the Kings but I am questioning whether it's worth the trade off of potentially missing trips over the years while I send parts off for rebuilds and weekends working on the truck. The OME and Bilsteins I have used on past vehicles and I know they'll give me 100k+ miles without issue, albeit at the cost of reduced performance vs. a rebuild-able dampener.
 
Hugh will tell you Old Man Emu is the best for a daily driven FJ and probably recommend the OME Sport if your rig is heavy or you push it hard. I wanted adjustable coils in front so did not want OME again when it was replacement time two years ago. Also I had blown two OME shocks during the three years I ran them. But I still have them sitting in my garage for when I need to rebuild the Icons. Always choices.
 
Alan "Ace" Brown said:
Hugh will tell you Old Man Emu is the best for a daily driven FJ and probably recommend the OME Sport if your rig is heavy or you push it hard. I wanted adjustable coils in front so did not want OME again when it was replacement time two years ago. Also I had blown two OME shocks during the three years I ran them. But I still have them sitting in my garage for when I need to rebuild the Icons. Always choices.
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I was leaning towards the Bilstein 5100's as the monotube, nitrogen charged floating piston design seemed far more appropriate for the high speed driving I enjoy vs. the low pressure gas/oil emulsion twin tube design of the OME classic shocks. The OME Sports look like an interesting hybrid, I will have to read up on them more.
 
When I had my All Pro front bumper installed I discovered a few minor problems. The biggest issue was that the Emron enamel (apparently used to paint airplanes) does not bond to hardened steel very well at all and has been flaking and chipping. Chipped paint and rust on a brand new bumper sucks! The bumper also rubs on the headlight support bracket over corrugations and squeaks like crazy. The other issue is purely cosmetic and that is the bumper wings do not completely conceal the metal work on the sides and some of the (white) painted metal shows through. Since I have to take the bumper off the repaint anyways I'm going to black out the front so it blends with the bumper better.



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Front black out finished. Everything below the grill except for the radiator cross member was previously bright white. Before painting I also ground off about 1/2" of the headlight support bracket to give the bumper plenty of clearance.



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After hours of sanding and cleaning I got a couple coats sprayed on the bumper. I am using Rust Oleum spray on truck bed liner. It seems like it will be a very durable finish and the texture matches the stock plastic bits much better than the Emron. I'm hoping the rubberized finished will help rocks bounce off without damaging the finish. At least now I can bust out the rattle can and touch up any damage myself.

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I don't think I have installed anything on my FJ that did not involve extra, unplanned work. Well maybe except for the stickers. ;-)

Ace
 
Recent body damage. Bill Burke likes to stress the damage a Hi-Lift jack can do if it gets away from you:

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Got a couple more coats on the bumper last night. I'm going to give it a couple more after work today and then let it cure for the recommended 72 hours before I reinstall everything. Took a trip to Lowes with the bumper off and still had quite a bit of squeak in the front. Finally determined it was my hood latch! I used the little rubber feet on the hood (Up until last night I didn't even realize these were adjustable) to adjust the play out of the latch and gave the whole mechanism a good coat of grease and the FJ is as quiet as the day I picked her up. Between that squeaking and the horrible rattle in the rear (Turned out to by my bottle jack loose in its compartment) it sounded like the whole truck was about to fall apart. I'm glad it was all easily remedied superficial stuff.
 
RyanR said:
Got a good story to go with the carnage?
Click to expand...

It happened while removing the broken shock during the FJ Summit. When I went to lower it a climbing pin stuck and the handle got away from me slamming the mast into the door. Luckily it missed me!

Lesson: keep those climbing pins lubed.
 
Oh Jeez, running heavy. Heading out at 6am. Thanks BCC for the adventures!

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