Ironman 4x4 Foam Cell Pro

I installed mine over the summer and this is how the rear shocks look in mid November with the cover making contact with the body. The mounting is a bit strange in regards to how they’re angled and tried orienting them different ways too. I have a second gen and this is driver side looking from back to front.

 

I come from a land cruiser background, and have way more experience with suspension kits made for them. My close friends have a land cruiser shop in GA, and they have put countless Ironman lifts on.
They are quality and I have put them to the test in all 3 of my LCs. I attend annual LC meetups and whee my rigs. My 80 series crushed it in every way.

They might not have the best marketing and their logo looks like a pissed off jolly green giant, but trust me when I say they are tested and many ride with this setup in AU.

Over there they aren’t allowed to jack their trucks way up in the air, and ARB has been doing this for decades. IronMan is a spin-off from ARB, where former employees wanted to add to the mix offering a different version of what ARB does.
I can recommend them for someone who wants a solid lift, at very good price, that isn’t jumping their truck off a dune at 70.
Don’t drink all the coolaide folks, there are options

I also read on here there shipping and quantities are backed up. I have seen this before, maybe there are issues as of now…haven’t bought a lift from them as of recent. I feel like this has become the way of some aftermarket parts across the board. Taking your order only to find out the stuff is out of stock. That blows

 

Yesterday I picked up a Stage 2 Foam Cell kit direct from their new warehouse in Oregon.

I ended up getting a tour of their facility while I was there. Looks to me like they are pretty much fully stocked right now.

I had them pre-build my struts which they said would take about three business days to do. From the time I placed the order until I picked them up was less than 24 hours.

I was impressed.

 

It wasn’t long ago that they brought that shop over to the US. I believe this has helped the supply chain, as they have a new point person in place over here.

A few years ago, you were literally dealing with one person to get those over here.

My buddy put him on his taco and went on a 3/4 month excursion. He had no issues over the trip, and said they did a good job on the kit for the Tacoma.

 

Are y'all counting from top or bottom?

 

From the top down.

 

For those that removed two leafs from the constant load leaf pack did you stick with the factory U bolts or use the the longer U bolts that came with the kit? The extended U bolts that come with the kit stick down pretty far past the bottom bracket and I'm concerned they'll get destroyed on rocks, etc.

 

I was planning to install mine tomorrow and started going through pieces to make sure it was all good, but came across this issue. These are the shafts on the top of my two rear shocks they sent me. It's as if they didn't finish machining one of them. The rock/chip guard, bushings, and washers will not slide over the larger diameter. The model stamped on the tubes of both are the same.

Since I have free helpers lined up for tomorrow, do you more knowledgeable folks think I would be alright to install the leaf springs with factory shocks until this is rectified by them? It won't be too difficult for me to replace just the rear shocks on my own. I have the Constant load front shocks and constant load leafs.

I already called and emailed them, but I know due to the holidays and the weekend I am probably a few days out from their response.

 

Now that’s a new one… maybe try their Instagram too? I think they’re usually active on there.

With it being constant in the back, I wouldn’t recommend it. Mainly because I don’t think the stock shock will have enough up and down movement for the leafs.

 

Took me a minute to see it. That effing sucks.

 

That's a bummer, my front bumper, rock sliders, and skid plates were supposed to arrive Thursday so I wanted my suspension taken care of before then. I currently ride around with a bed cover and a bed rack so it sits a hair below level as it is. If I installed just the front suspension I'd be riding around with a Carolina squat. I considered giving it a shot with some leafs pulled so it would act more like the performance load.

I sent them a message on Instagram like you suggested, but I dont expect anything back until Monday. I'm not faulting them for enjoying the holidays/weekend. I'm also not considering it anything more than a product that slipped through the cracks for the time being.

 

I rode around with just the front for about a week or two. UPS lost one of the leaf packs and I went ahead and did the front anyway. I didn’t have any issues and it wasn’t too bad. Depending on what it’s set at, it might look more level than squatted, or barely.

 

One more question, did you happen to replace your brake lines with this lift kit or were the factory length ones alright?

 

No issue on mine!

 

Left the original brake lines on there. I’ve had a few instances of a well being completely off the ground and they didn’t break. Of course since you’ll have everything already, you could Jack it up by the frame to see how it’ll look.

 

So I just wanted to give a status update now that the holidays are over. I reached out to Ironman multiple ways, but found the best to be the chat on their website that pops up after you've been there a few minutes. After asking me to verify a few things, they agreed to ship out another rear shock to me 2nd day air. They also let me know I don't need to send the wrong one back so I can use all the other pieces as spare parts.

I went ahead and installed everything else this past weekend since I had my help and my alignement scheduled. The lift definitely came out higher than 2.5" especially in the rear since I have some weight there with the bed cover and bed rack and the old springs were sagging. It shouldn't take me very long to install the rear shocks at this point.

Complications I personally came across - removing the UCA bolts of course. Had to bend the pinch welds a little on both sides, passenger side more. On the passenger side I had to remove a bracket for one of the AC lines and I wouldn't have been able to get it without a 2nd set of hands.
Torquing the UCA bolt on the drivers side. The brake line is really in the way to get my torque wrench in place. I needed to pick up a crows foot to torque it properly. With two combo wrenches I still didn't get it quite to spec. Probably could have if I had long wrenches and they definitely would have made breaking it free easier.

 

FYI, using a crows foot will increase the torque value. Be sure to keep that in mind.

 

Good to hear they are taking care of you. Let us know your thoughts on the ride once you get the rears done. Did you do the leaf packs too? If so, the shocks will take like 30 min.

for some piece of mind, I used torque stripe (green) on all bolts or nuts that were removed, after retorques were done.

 

If you put it straight on the end it will, if you leave it at 90 degrees the moment arm stays the same length so torque will remain the same, but good looking out.

I put the leafs on because I had faith Ironman would take care of it quickly. Those things are pretty dang heavy to manipulate alone as well. I've got a background in powerlifting and I still appreciated the extra hands I had helping me out. Will post an update once everything is done. My front bumper/skidplates/rock sliders are all supposed to be delivered between 5th and 11th now as well, so I'm hoping to get that done before I go back to work Friday.

 

What's this little guy for? One each in the hardware bag for the rear shocks. Didn't see them mentioned in the install video and definitely ain't room for them on the shaft anyhow.