King 3.0 review and the journey from 5100 to icon to now

Just wanted to share my experience with these three suspension setups. The King 3.0 will be going on on the 18th, so I will post feed back on them at that point. Mostly going to focus on the King 3.0s.

Bilstein 5100
This was the first suspension I bought for my 2016 AC Tacoma. I chose this setup mostly because of the price and wanting to clear tires. The suspension was great for the cost. I had 2 inches of lift and the truck ran great. On the roads it felt very planted, it absorbed bumps decently. Off road, it was one spot that I wanted a little more though. I live in Hawaii so most of the off roading that we do is low speed stuff and with Bilsteins digressive valving, it was pretty stiff. Eventually I traded in my access cab for a double cab and I went for an Icon Stage 4.

Pros: Price, good on road handling.
Cons: Stiff at low speeds, no compression adjustment, aesthetically not too awesome.
Overall: I would definitely recommend this shock as an entry level shock. The price is great but just make sure you know what your getting yourself into with digressive valving.

Icon Stage 4
The reason i chose the Icon was because I liked how reservoirs looked. After looking on forums (rather than reading), I really liked the Icons and I ordered them. I actually almost cancelled my order for Fox shocks because I started to read more but the restock fee kept me from doing it so on the Icons went. The Icons felt great on smooth roads. With the Icons I feel like I can take turns pretty aggressively without much body roll on the streets. When I did some quicker off roading the suspension shined as well again. I was pretty with my Icon setup for a while, however I recently moved to another island and now the roads terrible, and there is no where to do quicker off roading. There is also a speed bump in my apartment parking lot that just sends a jolt through the entire truck and it was just too much.




Pros: Reasonably priced mid level suspension, great on road handling(handling not comfort), great higher speed off road.
Cons: Not too good on slow stuff, nonadjustable, not good for Oahu, Hawaii's roads(comfort).
Overall: Again, this is a great shock. I think if I was somewhere on the mainland US bombing desert roads I would have stayed with Icon. They were really good on the higher speed stuff. I think they make a good quality product. However, for my own needs I needed different valving.



King 3.0
I called a lot of shops and was looking at either an Icon Stage 10 or King 3.0s. I thought I would give Icon another shot but with compression adjustment. It was really difficult to get feedback on the King 3.0s because there are very very few people actually running the shocks. There was a lot of good feedback about the Icons, I followed a lot of the Icon build threads closely. Finally I found someone on TW that was running the Kind 3.0 rear bypasses. After getting his feedback I went ahead and pulled the trigger. Initially Ill be keeping Icons AAL in the rear (Im waiting on Icon RXTs to come in) so the only difference will be shocks. Shocks are scheduled to go on 8/18 so I will write more about them as soon as they get here.

I ordered the set through Rogue Off Road. The front shocks were here within three days, the rear bypasses and Icon Billet delta joint will be here tomorrow. When I first opened the box of the front coilovers, the first thing that is really exciting is that King blue. The finish of the shocks is something really nice to look at. The next thing I noticed as I opened the box further is just how beefy the shocks were. These things were huge. As I looked at the shocks, I think you can see what makes King's, King's. The clicker on the front feels like a really quality piece, its made out of metal and there is a nice click each time you turn it. The reservoir mount in comparison with my Icon, I have to say goes to King. The King mount looks much more beefy. Staying on the resi mounts, the Icons use essentially pipe clamps to attach the resi to the mount. The kings have their own pieces made that are also finished in King blue. So far in the packaging and attention to detail part, I have to give it to King.


Here is a quick vid showing the front shock
https://youtu.be/3QMrUkcOSrw






Ill write more once the rears come in. Then I will try to do a driving comparison of the Icons and Kings.

 

SAVED

 

Nice write up

 

I have 5100s on Emu 886. They were awesome at first but with the weight of a plate bumper I feel they are starting to sag. The ride quality is outstanding but, when I have a full cab with my buddies (double cab) I feel as if they can’t handle the weight. Myself plus 3 dudes averaging 6 foot 180-230 lbs they sag with the added weight. I’ve noticed whenever we all go fishing etc.. I start to rub on turns compared to when it’s just me driving. I will be upgrading in the near future so this was a thorough review!


Edit: as for the stiffness at low speeds. When you had 5100s were you running the sway bar? Because I’m not and even at low speeds it's like butter. I’m very pleased with ride quality. The last thing I’d want is to upgrade and have it be super stiff.

 

I was running a sway bar. What setting did you have your 5100s at?

 

I had them at bottom perch. I didn’t think you could run the higher with those coils lol

 

I wanted to wait a while until i got a pretty good amount of miles on the truck with the new King 3.0s. I did add an Icon RXT to the rear as well, so I want to make the disclaimer that the rear leaves in the RXT are softer than the factory springs.

My initial impression after the first thousand miles, its been a huge upgrade. The difference has been night and day. The speed bump entering my apartment parking lot is all but gone now. Some shops told me it was the tires, however I went over the bump with the same BGF KM2s and the bump felt like it wasnt there. I swapped over to Nitto Ridge Grapplers and it didnt really change much. Comfort wise the Kings really deliver. Driving around I have the clicker on the softest setting, I havent adjusted the rear bypasses yet. I havent got a chance to do any real wheeling yet but I anticipate good results given the speed bump test. The downsides, I do feel the truck leans a bit into corners, I will also say that I did lose some lift in the front. Ill go over in a little more detail about the King 3.0s with pictures to follow.

 

These are the front Shocks. You can see at the bottom with all other King 3.0 series shocks, the adjustment collar is at the bottom. This made for very easy adjustment. I was able to max out the preload with the shocks on the truck without much difficulty. King says you can get 1.5-2.5 inches of lift on a 2016+ tacoma. I have 1" of threads showing right now. You can also see with the 3.0s vs the 2.5s, the mounting hardware is much nicer. Instead of the pipe fasteners, you get mounting hardware specific to the resi coated in king blue. The 3.0s also have finned resis opposed to the 2.5s that dont have them. The factory springs are 550s from the factory. This is something Im thinking of changing down the line when its time to rebuild.

 

These are the rear bypasses. King sends you some extra brackets that lower the mounting point of the shocks. It appears to be very similar to Icon's RXT shocks but rather than having the L in the eyelet they just changed the mounting point with hardware. The rears feature adjustable compression and rebound and again finned resis. A nice touch was the new stickers (not really stickers), they were made of a single peice of metal with raised lettering. Similar to the fronts you got very nice mounting hardware as well.

 

Here is a side shot. Right now I am at 1.25" of rake. Ground to Fender; F-Driver: 37.5, F-Pass: 37.75, R-Driver: 38.75, R-Pass: 38.6

 

I'm ready to make the King switch after running Ome with 886 for 2 years now. Thanks for the report.

 

I cant comment on the King 2.5s but the 3.0s are pretty awesome!

 

I have the 2.5s and I can see KING paid more attention to detail on the 3.0s. Looks nice

 

What spring rate & length is King putting on the 3.0?

 

550 and 15” I’m actually looking at changing out the springs to remedy the rake and allow for a front bumper. I’m pretty concerned at this point that if I add a bumper, the truck is going to have a ridiculous amount of rake. I’m looking at eibach 16X650s

 

How's the 3.0's doing, any updates?

 

Why aren’t a lot of people running the 3.0s? Are they still pretty new? Or would it be overkill? Thanks!

 

I'd imagine that for a little more you can go long travel up front and shock relocation in the rear. With the 3.0s you're still dealing with stock travel

 

Makes sense. Front and rear 3.0 go for almost $5500