icon level 1 kit vs fox level 2 kit

is one better than the other?? (talking more about the front coilovers) i am ready to buy one of these kits but i do not have the back round to know if one is better or not... any info,,,thoughts,,,bad design flaws on eather one??? i do not off road my truck to hard more of a mild off roader.. if that makes any difference. i will be only leveling the front at this point so i should not need upper control arms right?

 

Are you talking about Level 2 Fox kit from Headstrong? If you mean the extended coilovers no reservoirs than I call tell you that the coilover set is a quality kit. VERY nice ride. You can go a maximum of 23" hub to fender which is a 2" lift on third gen but a 3" on 2nd gens. My truck is the black one pictured on their site.

 

^+1
Running fox stage 2 extended and Love it

 

Close to what? Performance, durability, customer support, price, etc..?
Their marketing must have worked well on you.

OP: get what's fits your budget. Any name brand will serve you well

 

Whats the benefit of the fox stage 2 kit vs Bilstien's? Just ride height or the res on the back? Bilstien's at least on the headstrong website seem to have decent bang for the buck factor. I think there was a user here who had the bilstien's and was pretty satisfied. Think it might have been smitty?

 

I weighed between the two and Icon suited my needs better. I do slower, technical trails and had no need for RRs. Digressive shocks are better for the street and for slow trails too. Kings/Fox is what you want if you're going fast out in the desert. I have zero complaints. You can get a little higher lift too with Icon. I'm at 23" hub to fender right now with 1.75" thread showing...maximum is 2.14" before you bind the coils.

 

There's no reservoirs on the level 2 fox kit.

 

The Icons bring a smile to my face every time I drive her!

 

Bilstein 6112 would probably be a better option.

 

Why is that?

 

Price and ride quality, and from the people that have them on the forum I do not remember reading any complaints. @smitty99 could probably elaborate on any negatives that he may have found.

 

Negatives:
1) max of 2" lift
2) need to remove and take apart to adjust height
3) not really rebuildable

The only benefit you get with these over the icon stage 1 is the price and rear reservoir.

 

Bilsteins may actually last longer than Icon. I guess if only 2" of lift is a negative then we'd need to understand why someone feels like they needed more lift? Because it looks cool? Ok. Keeping it 2" or less actually presents quite a few positives as far as keeping driveline, steering, etc. components' geometry closer to stock angles. More than 2" of lift typically means you're getting into needed Upper Control Arms to maintain caster etc so that definitely starts adding up (another $500 plus)

If your heart is set on a Fox or Icon lift fine, otherwise the Bilstein 6112/5160 combo is a great improvement in on-road and offroad ride from my experience and many others running it here. A 2" lift as I mentioned above could keep a lot of other demons at bay. Definitely an option worth looking into if your heart is not set on the brand names of Icon or Fox. A very detailed write up and my review can be found in my sig. Happy shopping!

 

Bilsteins may actually last longer but from what I understand are either throw-away or wait 3 months to get them rebuilt. My Icons should go about 50k miles before needing a rebuild which will take about a week. Also I can get free custom valving which you can't get from Bilstein.

I'm not going to argue about the lift height but the majority of people here would like to go over 2" and getting UCAs and even replacing the needle bearing is a not a big issue. I adjusted mine to a little over 2" the other day and have no issues with my caster or vibes and if I do, it's not big deal to fix.

So I don't see how the 6112/5160 offers any benefits over what OP was looking for aside from price.

I actually was set on getting the 6112/5160 combo initially but did more research when the 5160s were sold out and changed my mind and opted to spend a little more money to get the Icon stage 1s. I don't think it is a "better" option to what OP asked for though.

 

I have seen some people here complain about Icons saying that they don't care for the stiffened ride also the Icon Customer service gets railed-on routinely. Bilstein customer service has been awesome, I emailed them a few tech questions about the set up and both times one of their tech leads replied to me within hours of the original request. However I'm sure there are plenty of folks who have had a good experience with Icon customer service. I can say on the 6112s there's very little discernible difference between the TRD OR OEM suspension on-road feel and the Bilstein 6112s. So if the goal is to keep a somewhat factory-quality ride "on road", I can certainly endorse the 6112s as doing pretty damn well at that. Anyway I don't want to turn this into a Bilstein vs. Icon or whatever I think there's definitely a different target market for Bilstein vs. the other two in discussion.

As far as Needle Bearing goes, ANY amount of lift can cause it to fail. So regardless of adding 1" or 4" I think it's something worth having done while you have the truck torn apart. You'll save time and/or money on that ECGS bushing investment down the road as far as labor goes. My needle bearing went out IMMEDIATELY after I lifted 1.5". Some guys don't have a problem with 3" lifts. Some have failed on STOCK trucks (of course not as common) but lift height doesn't seem to be a huge discriminator based on my own experience.

 

I here people talking about icon/fox/king coilovers needing rebuilt. Are they really going to wear out on me if I'm just a mild off roader slow trail stuff. Also why I'm prob. Looking at icon don't need the extra reservoir. I was wandering also how do the threads on the shock body hold up do they get messed up by road/trail crap and don't work well???

 

They are pretty comparable kits. The fox comes with remote resi's out back where as the Icon doesn't and the fox is some $70 cheaper. Even without the price difference I'd without a doubt go with the Fox's personally.

The real debate here should be digressive vs progressive damping profiles. It's the biggest and only significant difference between the two setups. I take the fox's because they are progressive and I'm not a big fan of Icon as a company. I've ridden on icons and they are nice but it's not for me, feels like a confused ride..stiff on road and then it softens up when you abuse em offroad..for some that's exactly what they want. Also, I've seen a number of quality issues pop-up on the forums over the years..busted top plates, leaking, bad customer service, etc

Take a look at what King offers

 

Quite a few complaints lately on Icons leaking, I have noticed. Also their tech team gave some shady advice on how/where to reattach brake cables to the rear leafs after doing an AAL (see post #80 here)

 

Agreed completely here. I have a buddy who has Icon suspension...on the slow stuff it is stiff, but on the fast it feels smooth. It works for him because he drives fast off road to begin with. If you like to cruise off road and stay within a reasonable rolling speed (10-15 mph) I would recommend a progressive coil. I rock kings personally, but fast is my game and these eat it like no tomorrow. Without having this thread derail into something else, FOX ALL THE WAY.

 

Just to be clear on lift height...
When we say the fox kit gives you 2" of lift...remember that it equals 3" on our third gens. We got that nice 1" from the factory.
Stock is 21" hub to fender. Im at 23" right now. After looking at my CV angles and boots. I am right where i want to be. This advice is also given by Toytec in their sticky write up. also, on rebuilds...Fox states if its mostly street driven with some off road a rebuild isnt needed till 50k. Read that on one of their downloaded pdf's somewhere.