ICON suspension - Good or Crap? Same question for Toytec. Poll Added

Icons on this site seem to get a bad rap. I was briefly considering getting a 4Runner and was doing research on the 4Runner forum...there was a typical Fox Vs. King vs. Icon thread in which the poster mentioned he had read Tacomaworld and was worried about the reliability of Icons due to what he had read. The resulting conversation was around all the 4Runner people wondering what the hell the tacoma people were doing to keep breaking their icon suspension set-ups with no 4Runner people reporting the same issues.

All of them are good companies. Most people on this site probably haven't driven multiple different set-ups for extended periods (meaning more than a 10 minute drive borrowing their friends truck) just due to the cost of swapping different suspension set-ups. I really think your best bet is to talk to one of the reputable dealers (Accutune, Headstrong, Filthy Motorsports, etc.) that sell multiple brands and go from there.

That being said, I've had King's for 1 year with a few off-roading trips (including yesterday) and 10,000 miles on-road and am happy with them. My brother-in-law has had a full fox set-up for 2 years and is happy with his set-up.

Edit - my opinion is the intersting one is the Bilstein 8112's...I would love to test them out. I was interested in them when doing shopping but no one seemed to have much experience with them and they were perennially back-ordered. I haven't really seen a bad review of them yet.

 

By far the most informative, articulate, and relevant response in the entire thread. Well done sir!

 

I haven’t read the whole thread, so my response may be similar to others, but here’s my experience with Icons FWIW.
I installed a stage 2 icon kit on my old ‘01 Taco back in 2014. At first I liked them, much “better” than the “squishy” stock suspension. But the longer I had them the more weary I grew of the stiffness. I also ran LT285 tires so that added to the rough ride. By the time I got rid of the truck last year(2019), I was absolutely sick of the rough ride quality. Cornering handling was always excellent (I live near and frequently drive a pretty curvy mountain road and the truck handled GREAT). But the stiffness really bothered me. Another notable comment- I never had an issue with leaks from any of the 4 shocks and never had them rebuilt. I ran them for about 60-70k miles with no mechanical issues.

 

My icons have been fine.
Just saying

 

7 ipa's deep stage....

 

Out of all of those choices I would buy Fox because I like their quality and they're valved the way I want. However I'm pretty broke so I bought OME lol.

 

Icons are truly garbage in my humble opinion. I have stage 4 icons on my tacoma and they suck. I have had the rear-driver shock rebuilt twice already. The first time they started leaking out of nowhere. The second time they broke literally after driving on an offroad trail. They leaked, and were completely empty by the next day. I had issues with Icon not wanting to service them the second time, and ended up having to pay Toy Tech to rebuild them (it was around $200.). The front end has been adjusted to provide maximum lift; and the truck is sitting extremely low (no offload bumper or extra weight on it). I am stuck with a crappy product, and I wasted $3500 on it! For about $500.00 more I could have gotten King shocks, and they would probably have been better. I'm stuck with icon!

 

I’m in the same boat and have come to the conclusion that ppl don’t know squat. They just parrot what they hear. I’m going to bet that those who actually have ICONS are not among those who talk trash about them. Every single person I’ve talked to who has them raves about them. And it makes sense. They’re stiff as hell on the road so you get rid of that boaty mess and off road you can send them and they take the beating. And the rear shocks that come on the 2.5 actually provide 11ish inch of travel. That’s quite a feat for a normal shock. Quicksandtaco has them as well and on his insta he has a pic that showcases the droop you can get out of that kit on the rear. I’m seriously considering them.

 

Quicksandtaco and many others I’ve talked to have zero issues.

 

Love how yall missed the last post. Revived a necro-thread to show your ignorance

 

And I love that you missed the posts where owners of the Icon suspension stated the have had it for years and had no issue. But of course the one negative review we’re gonna focus on and shit talk an entire brand without actual verifiable evidence. I just finished watching a video about Kings. They leaked after one use. I guess they’re shit now?

Talk to the guys from Shocksurplus. They’ve had them on their own cars many times and sell thousands of them every day. If they were soooooo bad they wouldn’t sell them anymore and/or not drive them themselves.

 

Not missed at all, again im not the one that boosted a necro thread saying people just parrot others ignoring direct feedback from owners.

You can keep trying to defend your ignorance though

I've been on this forum for almost a decade, the bulk of negative suspension feedback (from owners) is Icon. Period. There is always someone's brother's, sister's, mom's neighbor's, friend's dog who had a shock leak, Icon just has most of the issues.

Shocksurplus doesnt care what they sell..thats why they everything from monroe to Kings.