Coilovers: King, Fox, or Icon? & Why?

Valving can be vehicle and driver specific. Vehicle specs, especially weight play a part, as well as how the driver feels. Icon and King (not sure about Fox) will bring a company trailer to events and help you valve them on the spot I believe.

 

to those with ICONS, or a similar suspension... Do you guys service them yourselves? do you send them back to ICON for service which makes your daily driver parked for X amount of says weeks? how do you go about this? keep your stock suspension on the bench until the starters need a quick breather? Also, Im about to buy a used ICON set up, extended travel 2.5 adjustable coil overs with resi's on all 4 corners, and TC UCAs. they have 17k miles on them... should I send them back to ICON for an early full service? how much does that cost?

Dont mean to hijack the OP, but I feel this info is beneficial for this post, and prevents me from starting yet another thread...

 

Are your Kings 2"? Why were they only $940?

 

Once you get yours on we can do some comparisons, I got Icons on my access cab.

 

Mine leaked kinda quick, so i had them sent back and serviced. been 40k miles on them since with no issues

 

Jeff we do not, but there are many TW vendors that do. Not sure where you are from but Downsouth Motorsports in CA / SDHQ in AZ. There is also TPM in TX

 

Whats the turn around time usually on servicing 4x 2.5 extended w/ resi?
is there a set fee for a service? or is it case by case...

 

Sonny and the crew will do you right!!!

 

Kings cause their KING

 

I have Icon coilovers with King bypass up front on TC LT and Radflo bypass on the rear. I would have had all Icon's but they didn't make shocks for my application at the time of the build. I also run Fox on the Dmax. I'm not an engineer, I've never driven a train. That said, the kings puked oil in about 15,000 miles. Maybe 10K of that was in the dirt. The King "prerunner series" shocks suck balls. Same with the fox "performance series". They don't have high temp seals in them and the wiper doesn't last long if you get them hot. I realize this isn't an issue for most of you, but even washboard gravel roads generate a lot of shock heat. Fox and King both make great race series shocks, but that isn't what anyone here is purchasing. Both Radflo and Icon's held up just fine. I took them all apart at about 50K miles to change wear bands and seals. The Radflo's still had clean oil, and zero noticable wear. I attribute this more to the oil volume than anything (3.0" x 18" triple bypass), but there it is. Didn't even replace any seals. The Icon's were in similar condition internally, but externally showed signs of the coating wearing thin, and fading anodizing. I ended up painting the bodies to prevent corrosion, but these are old shocks, and I'm sure they have upgraded the coatings since then. To summarize-

Icon=good to go
Radflo=good to go
King prerunner series=sucks goat balls, but their anodizing is pretty.
Fox performance series= sucks hairy goat balls

I have at least three times as much maintenance time on the kings and fox than the others over the same miles.

 

I hate that Chevy suspension design lol.

Good to hear from someone with a valued opinion and experience with some different shocks. Thank you "username"

 

You and me both. I wish Icon would come out with a coilover conversion for the '08 2500HD.

 

I have to go with icons since they seem to be one of the best values out of the box and I couldn't turn down rear reservoir shocks for only $476!!!!

 

I bought some used fox 2.0 COs and had them rebuilt by DSM. Turn around time was pretty quick. About a week iirc. I think with shipping I ended up paying a few hundred... but that was to ship to/from AK as well. I want to say it was $80/shock for the rebuild.

I have fox all around and had them valved by DSM for my application. I think they ride great on and off road.

 

I installed brand new Fox's 2.5" on my truck and they've functioned flawlessly (been about 4 years now). Only snag was when I opened the box to install them there were 2 left side applications. Thanks for paying attention Fox. Had to send one back to offroad warehouse to have the reservoir hose fitting swapped. That sucked..what should've been under 2 hr install turned into 4 day downtime.

I installed brand new Icon 2.5" on a buddie's Tundra about a year ago. When he brought me his parts I heard a rattling inside the box. Top hat bolt busted on a brand new shock in factory sealed packaging?!

I did another brand new Icon Tundra install, 2.5" again, but these had the external reservoir. Upon inspection after 15k or so miles the passenger side hose fitting to shock body swivels with ease. I can't see signs of leakage but that ain't right. Other side is tight as are the fittings on my Fox's.

Maybe I'll find someone to bring me some Kings next time. I'll just keep trying every brand til someone gets it right. lol