Yes, a suspension lift inquiry..

Hey OP, bilstein and icon are going to be a "stiffer" shock on the road. better cornering and make the truck feel more planted. can be rougher on washboard stuff and small bumps. King and Fox tend to be more soft on small rough stuff, but hae more body roll and sway on road.

 

Are you able to compare it to the stock suspension?

 

Here is my review of the Ironman kit, in case you’ve not seen it. I can see why you’d not like the green with blue. In my case, I think the green with black looks good. My only concern is if I get JBAs I’ll need to paint them, definitely don’t want red over green. Those all look like good choices your looking at though and I’m sure you’ll be happy with any of them.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/ironman-foam-cell-pro-review.687891/

 

Great brands, but I'm just not gonna be spending icon/fox/king prices. I can't justify their prices when great cost friendly brands also exist.

 

fair enough. then blistiens are going to be your icon sub. as for fox and king i dont know who makes a progressive shock like they do.

 

This is good information. I have ICON 2.5 extended travel coilovers with 14in/700lb KING coils (get the standard 13in/650lb coils if you don't have a need for the higher spring rate) up front, and ICON 2.0 and ICON RXT Leaf Pack at option 3 in the rear. I have the remove reservoirs on the front and rear, but you could save some money by not getting the reservoirs. I prefer the back to be higher than the front, so I went up 2.5in up front and 2.0in for the rear instead of the typical 3in up front and 2in for the rear.

I run 33s and the only "trimming" I had to do was a CMC because I rubbed there when I go to reverse at full turn left and right. CMC fixed that issue.

 

Shop around and you'll find some good prices. A lot of sites will have a price that's inclusive of shipping, others will not. So think about that when shopping around.

 

Hey OP. just so you know icon is the only setup that is upgrade-able. the front coilovers when order non res can have the res added and even the ajusters. it just takes sending them back to icon to be updated.

 

you would also be surprised what i can do as far as pricing on these..... custom making a setup can really save money that you can upgrade later and not waste money.

 

bilstien estimates the 6112 fronts shipping late next week and the 5100 rears at the end of this month.

 

I have the reservoirs on my 2.5 coilovers and 2.0 rear struts. I see you mentioned I can upgrade to the CDCV adjusters. Could you inform me how to do this?

 

Contact Icon. for the fronts it involves getting a service ticket and they will walk you through that. so get a rebuild and they can add that (dont 100% know the cost) as for the rears. they do not have an adjustable feature ( i know of ) on the 2.0s. might have to move to the 2.5s but they did just release a awesome 2.5in aluminum adjustable rear that is hella light

 

Yet another opinion for you, but after 13yrs of Taco ownership and 4 suspension iterations along the way, maybe mine is a good one?

So from my experience and what I have seen from helping others throughout the years, your suspension needs typically tend to fall into one of the 4 groups As follows:

1. Spacer lift, only if you want looks and are never going to take it off road. This can cause other components to fail if you drive hard off road with a spacer lift. ~$300-400

2. Bilstein 5100’s, eibach’s, OME and other similar, non-rebuildable shocks. These are all going to perform about the same and I would say are applicable for someone that’s on a budget and just wants to go down some fire roads with maybe some moderate bumps and have it perform a little better than stock. At this level, there is no need for a full leaf pack, just throw an add a leaf or two to achieve your desired ride height and call it good. Also, depending on how high you set the front, uca’s may be needed to get the alignment in spec but not always. ~$1000-1500 pending the need for ucas

3. Time for some real suspension and a true mid travel kit. This is for someone that wants significantly improved handling off road and isn’t afraid to make some on road compromises. For this I suggest Fox, King, or ADS 2.5” extended travel shocks all around with remote reservoirs. Pick your favorite color, brand, or whatever is more readily available out of these guys and go for it, they are all great quality, rebuildable, custom valvable, and can pick any spring rate you need with adjustable preload after that. Pair this with a uca of your choice (I prefer dirt king or total chaos), and call Deaver spring for an appropriate leaf pack for your situation. Throw your sway bar in a dumpster and enjoy a completely transformed truck. Based on options for adding compression adjusters and varying prices for leafs and uca’s this setup will put you in the ~$4000-5000 range or thereabouts.

4. You want to go fast and have the ultimate performance off road. It’s time for long travel. I’ll spare the explanations for this as I really don’t think you fall into this category but plan on spending $15-20k+ as a starter.

Now there are setups in between these 4 categories but they’re typically very user specific in my opinion for someone to fall in between them. Based on not knowing you at all and just reading the few posts in here, my guess is you fall somewhere in between category 2-3. This poses the problem of having bilstein 6112/5160 as an option but I advise against that. These are still non-rebuildable shocks that will wear out and start leaking in a few years and be a wasted investment. That also puts you about halfway price wise to category 3. Either stick with 5100’s to learn what you want out of your truck, or dive in and spend money on real suspension. Downsouth Motorsports has a great build your own mid travel package for piecing together something from category 3.


But again, this is just my opinion from what I’ve learned over my 4 suspension iterations and helping others out with theirs.

 

Awesome advice

 

An Icon stage 1 kit is only a couple hundred more dollars than a Bilstein 6100/5160 kit and it's rebuildable by anyone. So when your Bilsteins are toast, you will have to either toss them or have them sent in to Bilstein and wait for them to rebuild it.

 

No nose dive and less body roll on turns. It’s definitely up too you. Happiness is in the eye of the beholder. This set up works for me. The only thing I’m going to do in future is get UCA. Other than that great kit. Also keep in account ride quality will change with E rated tires which I have. I dont mind , I’m Not a picky dude. I drove bodydropped mini trucks back in the day LOL

 

Also in Portland, also have a 19 Cav Blue OR. Installed full OME kit with 887s and HD Dakars for about 2 inches all around, under $1300 delivered to my door. Feels stiff on the road but more planted, will likely do UCAs at some point for more caster as I get a bit of bump steering.

 

Never heard of bump steering. Care to explain?

 

Mine wonders a bit on freeway not bad. I knew I would end up getting some control arms. Off-roading and around town perfect. Definitely a mod you can down the road. Not sure about bump? Would like to know.

 

I really like my OME Heavy load kit, I don't think it makes the ride very hard, you need adjustable UCAs, and I think you'll find that the 265s look goofy when lifted. I went with the 255/85R16 Cooper ST Maxx on mine (don't forget the spare, better yet to get a 5th wheel from LKQ and do 5 tire rotation)