Difference between Icon standard coil overs and extended travel coilovers?

Honestly I am not super clear if I need them or not, but I opted to save the few hundred bucks and go without. I am an occasional off-roader and like to hit the trails and find secluded camping. (Maybe one weekend a month) I rarely (almost never?) do high speed off-road. I suppose they look cool but I just could not justify the extra $$ when I could buy something else shiny.

I went with the Icon Stage 3 that includes the extended 2.5s in front + UCA and AAL with 2.0 and Reservoirs in rear. (ok yea, I guess I went 50/50 but the stage 2 also included the resi so /shrug) improvement over stock and even better because I will be removing spacers and blocks.

Here were a couple videos (among many other things I read but did not include below)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpEqmHknBJM (Reservoirs)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhBYqt0i9lk (choosing shocks)

I could not find any compelling reason do purchase the reservoirs for front and rear and I have several hundered$ more for my front slimline and rear plate bumper with tire swing out.

 

I might be throwing myself under the bus with this question, but would I have any issues if I had upgraded coilovers (icon stage 1) with stock UCAs?

 

Depends if the coilovers are standard or extended travel. Extended travel requires aftermarket UCA's.

 

I guess you can say the Stage 1 Icon kit is standard. It doesn’t have reservoirs, just the coilovers and the rear shocks

 

Standard Travel = Stock UCA
Ext Travel = After Market UCA

Ext travel coilovers with stock UCA's will damage the upper ball joint. There are plenty of people that do it and claim to have never had an issue but usually they either don't beat on their truck or have a mild lift height (<2"). A quick google search will show a lot of over extended a-arms with damaged ball joints.

 

Can extended travel shocks WITHOUT NEW AFTERMARKET UCA'S perform in the same manner as a set of regular travel shocks. IOW will they perform the same but because of no after market uca's the extended version's longer travel cannot "extend"

 

either that or the Stock UCA will hit the coilovers when "extending"