Billy 6112/5160 vs which Icon

Good morning TWorld.

I’ve been eyeballing a set of 6112/5160 for my 2018 OffRoad for a while now. This summer might the the time I pull the trigger.

If I wanted to shop them against Icon, what would be the best comparable set? And any pros/cons in the comparison?

I’m 95% daily driving but am looking for 1-1.5” lift and life longevity. Future plans for trailer towing and light off-roading.

Thanks guys.

 

Bilstein 6112/5160 combo is basically what should have come from the factory. Good bang for your buck, non rebuildable. I have them, happy with what they do. Should suit your needs.

Icons are a step up. Double/triple the price but rebuildable. Would also suit your needs but not sure you’d fully get your money out of them versus the Bilsteins or some other solution. No comparable 1:1 equivalent.

Answer depends on what your budget is and your true real world needs. Depending on what you are towing I’d consider doing aribag helpers on the rear or if really heavy maybe an aftermarket HD leaf pack (would be custom for only 1” lift, most are higher).

 

Thanks! My vehicle is probably 75% highway commute and 25% town errands. Whatever off-roading I get into will be quite limited. I’m figuring tongue weight will probably land around 500lbs all said and done. So between that, 200+ lbs of sliders and roof rack, and me, I have about 100lbs of payload left.

Rebuildable would be nice I suppose, but not necessary. Any off-roading I do that I can foresee will be mild and not high speed. It would be cruising and sightseeing. Planning on driving up and doing Imogene pass this spring or summer once the snow melts. That sort of stuff.

I’m really looking for a moderate lift because I don’t want to deal with degraded performance or increased wear on other parts. Is 1.5” of lift going to negatively effect anything on the shock? Are they stressed more when used for higher lift?

 

Those Bilstein have a lifetime warranty to the original owners.

 

How about no Icon…for the $$$ you could get King, Fox, or even ADS

Billy’s are better for what you get in comparison to the most common needs

 

I thought so, probably need to go read that warranty. If they just perform poorly after 75k miles, is that warrantable? Or does there need to be a catastrophic failure?

 

From reading a lot of service intervals for high-end dampers, the average mileage for rebuilds is 50k street miles.

https://www.bilstein.com/us/en/blog/understanding-bilstein-warranty-procedures-policy/

 

To answer your first question, the most comparable Icon kit is probably their cheapest - stage 1 (2.5 non resi front and 2.0 non resi rear). I have both of these components on my truck though the 2.5 is the extended version and the 2.0 is also the longer version. Quick search looks there is about a $500 difference between this icon setup and the 6112/5160. Just these components don't factor in lifting your rear at all, of course. I've had the Icons on for about 30k miles without issue. I know there are plenty of people that have posted here with complications but it's been smooth sailing for me. I've only been stock and on this setup, for what it's worth, but I'm a big fan of how the truck rides. Still feels like a truck but without all of the body roll when turning and braking of stock.

As a side note, and I'm sure some would disagree, but I would recommend either staying stock or going to a ~2.5 lift. I'm skeptical that what you'll gain in terms of offroad performance by going up 1-1.5" is worth adjusting anything.

 

Appreciate the perspective. The reality is that my build is probably more about the build, than it is about off road performance. I do want the increased ride performance I’m likely to get both on and off road though. Been thinking about Imogene pass this summer. That’s about the hardest I *see* in the future.

My goal with 1-1.5” of lift was to keep it relatively close to stock geometry and worry less about wearing things out quicker. The smart man would just keep it stock. But I want a little better look and the ability to handle a little more weight.

 

Id recommend a Icon or Fox setup Go 2.5 fronts and 2.0 rears. This is going to be slightly more $$$ but there are advantages. Consider right now if you had to warranty a 6112 you couldn't cause they don't have any . 5160 don't have the same warranty as the 6112s. And from what we have seen the warranty only covers full failure. So as some one mentioned above if your shock isn't performing as well at 75K you have to replace. Now We could be wrong but currently we have a couple of customers that have told us this. They had bought elsewhere and tried the warranty. We ended up selling the some rebuildable option. We have yet to warranty a degraded shock with bilstein , but we have rebuilt 30 year old shocks and they work like new. Also if you go bilstein or any other option consider availability, as we are about 4-5 months out on Bilstein when we sell out. So many find out when summer rolls around and they have a trip in 3-4 weeks that nothing is available . Let us know if we can help when ready . www.rogue-offroad.com

 

Good advice. I sold my FJ at ~190k miles with the original shocks on it. Zero maintenance. I suspect they didn’t perform nearly as well as when they were new. I don’t necessarily want to run the shocks on the taco that long, but I do like reliability. I’m at about 57.5k miles and was targeting 75k for the upgrade, but I don’t think I’ll hit that by summer time.

I’ve considered buying the parts piecemeal to spread out the pain a little, but I guess that’s more expensive in the long run.

I’ll take a look at the setup you suggested.

 

I'm no expert on the degree of impact a 1-1.5" lift has on geometry. That being said, if you want the look and the increased function, I would continue to highly recommend going the 2.5" route and taking @Despized suggestion of the 2.5 front, 2.0 rear. I did this plus UCAs, diff drop, ecgs bushing, rxt leaf pack, hammer hangers, 285s and have what i think is a really nice drive on the road plus added weight carrying capacity from the new leaf pack with no other issues so far. I think it's going to be hard to dial in added weight carrying with only a 1" lift in the rear.

One alternative that you may have looked at already is going to a 255/85/16 without lifting the vehicle. You could still throw on higher quality shocks but you would immediately gain some ground clearance without changing anything else. However, this doesn't solve your weight carrying dilemma.

 

I looked at 255/85/16, but don’t really want to go E rated. That’s what I see mostly. If I could find a decent non E, I might have gone that route. Instead, I went Toyo AT3 with 265/75/16. I’m only about 5k miles into those and I have a 5 tire rotation.

I’ll keep your comments in mind too. I was really hoping to avoid control arms and ecg etc. but if that’s what it takes to get reliability I’ll have to make some decisions.