Questions on Icon Coilovers

Been looking into getting a 3" lift for a while now. Well my tax returns should be coming in soon, and I will be selling my former vehicle here soon as well. So I figured I would put that money towards obtaining the lift.

I decided after all the looking to go with the Icon coilovers as that seems to be a well respected brand unless King is now the more popular choice of coilover? However I got what might be considered newbish questions but this is my first truck and my first time looking at putting aftermarket on a vehicle.

Looking at the Icon Kits I had some questions.

1. Are the resevoirs worth the extra money, what are they for? (I do understand some of it but not all of it concerning the resevoirs)

2. If I purchase the stage 1 or stage 2 kit could I go back later and add the resevoirs onto the coilovers I purchase or would I have to purchase a whole new set of coilovers?

3. Are the Icon UCA's worth their price? I mean the total chaos are almost half that, and seems to be a popular aftermarket UCA within the toyota nation.

4. when I looked at just purchasing the coilovers they had ones listed as just with remote resevoir and another listed as extended travel. What's the difference? I mean everything looks the same, and price is the same.

5. Last question at the moment. How do the coilovers with resevoirs vs the ones without resevoirs ride in comparrison?

Sorry for all the questions. But I want to do things right the first time. Dad always taught me worth to spend a little more money now and do it right then to have to go back later and and pay more to get it right. I appreciate all the help you guys give, I realize you guys answer these questions probably all the time. Thanks again.

 

My tacoma is a 2011 it's my first new vehicle and first truck. Its my daily drive vehicle and I am somewhat protective as it is my first new vehicle. For that reason I mainly drive it on the roads and will put it to work use. However in next year or two I will probably do a little more off road driving once I break it in and so to speak lessen the newness on it.

I will call ICON when I have a chance just thought someone might have run into this before.

Unless I decide to purchase the coilovers and rear shocks seperately I end up having to get the Icon UCAs unless someone knows where I can the whole icon package except for the ICon UCAs.

Also even if for my driving that I am doing doesn't require coilovers if the ride is that much better then it still may be worth it. And that's pretty sweet to hear how well it drives.

 

Here is a bunch of random thoughts... Im getting King over Icon. I want a smoother on road ride, thats King and progressive dampening. The only REAL advantage to the Icon upper control arms is weight. If you want a billet/boxed look (squared off) look at Downsouth Motorsports upper control arm made from welded chroomemoly. Its even less than Total Chaos with same features and comes with stainless uniball. King offers click adjustable compression dampening on remote resivoir shocks and will be soon releasing internal bypass shocks for OEM applications. This is far and away better than Icons offerings IMO. The extended shocks are for aftermarket upper control arms and allow 1.75" more travel to the shock to take advantage of the increased travel of the upper control arm. While the primary feature of remote resivoirs is heat dissipation and more oil capacity, certain features, like click adjustment compression or the IBP setup will only come with the remote resivoir version as its integral to the design of those features. You should buy from DSM. They have the best prices and customer support.

If you are concerned with smooth on road ride you want King, not Icon.
When King releases the IBP shock it will make everything else obsolete... if you can afford them. They were announced at SEMA but not in production yet... go reaserch them.
If you can tell me why you'd pick TC or Icon UCA over DSM's upper arm Id love to hear an explanation.

 

I got six posts. This is my first truck. I haven't done a lift before. So I am still trying to learn everything. Everyone seems to talk a lot about King and Icon, Both are very good. I just haven't seen something that specifically details out which is better on road off road because there are so many topics full of different things to look through. If the kings are the best on the road how do they compare off road. Looking for the best of both worlds. I do more driving on the road right now, but down the road in a year or two i will be doing off road driving. I do live in the western part of VA so there is a lot of places that sometimes you have to go offroad to get to. I am just trying to get more information so I can make the right decision the first time instead of spending 1500 or more now and having to go back and spend more to get something else when I could spend a little bit more now and have it right. But if the Kings are the better overall Coilovers I am all ears and want to know that. Like I said this is all new fore me so I am still learning even after being on this forum and looking at different modifications for the last month or two.

 

Progressive dampening is softer at low shaft speeds. Means softer on street and rock crawling. When speeds increase, like a huge hit at high speeds or a massive pothole at freeway speeds, they stiffen up a lot. This makes them harder on big fast offroad stuff.

Digressive dampening is tiff and harder all the time... untill youn hit a big pothole or jump, then they open up and become softer. Better at making high speed hits softer, eliminating nose dive and rise, body roll etc for on road use at the expense of comfort on road.

Bypass shocks use valves and tubes to allow oil to bypass the piston at certain shaft positions to help them be softer in certain areas. One past those areas they firm up for dampening control. So lets say at the end of shock travel on compression... to get there you just jumped and landed hard. You want more stiffness so you wont bottom out. Once stopped, you want more dampening so the compressed spring does not toss you ride back up in the air and cause you to bounce. The bypass allows this then cuts off control and softens as the shock extends. This is often the secondary shock you see on race trucks. King has now invented an internal mechansim to accomplish this so you can run a b ypass shock as part of your coilover. Its revelutionary and won them awards and accolades at SEMA.

Please do yourself a favor and READ before you spend your money. A high end suspension system is not cheap. Im just now, after a year of research, understanding what I want, how the suspension works, etc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPa1KrbiEZM

The IBP shocks will be released later this year. That right there is revelutionary... also the fact you can have fully adjuatable compression dampeningn at the twist of a knob vs being stuck with whatever was installed when you put the shocks on unless you pay for a revalve is usefull for tunignnto your needs... though you are still stuck with whatever the valving is for rebound.

 

If you want click adjustments for compressiuon or internal bypass they are required as the reservoir is integral to the operation of those items on King shocks.

Any shock can be tuned for compression and dampening by removing it, taking it apart, and replacing the shims. Only King and Fox 2.0" shocks are offering compression dampening while on the vehicle with tooless adjustment. Of course Icon offers tooless adjustment on their extrenal bypass shocks vs the tooled adjustment of King but the OP is not going to be running external bypass shocks.

The desire for Icon is a desire for digressive valving... read up on it and see if that is what you want.

 

I appreciate all the information. I apologize for leaving, but I had a class to get off to. I will definately check some of this information out, if I have any more questions on it I will post here.

If anyone has any other information they would like to add I would like to hear what they have to say. I am an open book looking for all the information I can learn from. Its all new to me so you have to take it slow on me and put it in terms I understand but usually it doesn't take me too long if it's explained pretty well. Again thanks guys I appreciate all the help.

 

No offense but bypass dampening is not new to the market...only to trucks. Koni has been using it in their FSD shocks for several years now in motorsports....and it has been getting great reviews...I'm sure it will be great for the rear leaf spring setup in our trucks considering the variable spring rate of the arcs.

 

From my understanding the Koni system is not position sensitive, but speed sensitive regardless of the shok's position. Is that not the case? Also Fox has internal bypass shocks but they are 2" shocks in a 3" case... making for a less effective, harder to fit, and more expensive system than the King IBP shock will be. This will be the first time you get a built in hydraulic bump effect, with dampening control, at the limit of the shock. ANd it will not have the contact slap of a hydraulic bump or the clicking of bypass shocks. Icon has the resivoir off the side vs the tip on their rear shocks that gets bypassed adding 20% more compression and rebound the last 2" of travel but the IBP should be capable of MUCH more than 20%.

 

My Icons come in on Monday, Thanks to DSM and now I will have a true suspension lift... finally