2024+ Front Shock Top Hat Failure TALLY...

I mean their "solution" is a pretty decent gauge piece of rolled steel vs the pot metal aluminum top hat we see in the new trucks. Aluminum is fine for a light duty offroad shock tube, but I wouldn't trust it for load-bearing suspension components. Just shoddy engineering on Toyota's part, but hey, its 2024.

 

I have no idea if the original Toyota design is good or bad. Same goes for what Icon came up with.
But I do know that they (Icon) broke a truck and then posted a video about it along with a ready-for-market solution: Designed, tested(?), produced and packaged.

 

Pure coincidence

 

I mean... I'm not sure how you thoroughly test a piece of cold rolled steal outside of just fit testing it and then proceeding to know its going to have a lot more tensile strength than some recycled beer cans. ICONs solution doesn't strike me as something that took much more than a napkin mockup, but hey, thats a lot more than what Toyota did on this new truck's front suspension design so I guess you're right.

 

Would be interested in Sheldon's explanation. Toyota has steel top hats in the supply chain for other vehicles. Is designing, producing, managing supply chain for a one off cheaper than just sticking an existing one on?

 

I hate that they moved away from external bumpstop. External is clearly stronger, and doesn't force the coilover/strut to take all that pressure. Bad design for a truck IMO.

 

Could it be they were trying for increased articulation that is demanded constantly? A frame mounted bump stop would be so much cheaper.

 

I doubt it. An internal bumpstop would limit shock travel, which no one wants. I'm sure aftermarket companies will be making some good fixes for this in the near future. What about all the people that will want to throw on some bilstein or king or fox. They are going to need external bumpstops.

 

King and Icon’s are available.. They have internal bump stops as well.

 

Can't speak for icon, but we went out to test the truck in order to see what we could improve on. That's how business works, and all of us here on this forum benefit from that. There are companies out there that will put their trucks and MONEY on the line in order to come up with stuff like this. YES, it may not be for charity, or exclusively for the benefit of the community... BUT, that means that we all now are informed of a potential weakness and have a possible solution. YOU have the option to buy.
I do understand how someone FAR more cynical would see it like "pumped up hysteria" but as someone whose taco's shock took a shit in the middle of the desert, you better believe im going to make a big deal about it, especially if this happened doing what I believe to be pretty light offroading.

We found the flaw early on, but as I wrote on this thread, we're not claiming that this will happen to every truck, but I bet that over time, repeated streess on those shock pieces will start to fatigue the material. Right now, when these are all still fairly new trucks, only a few with manufacturing defects like internal stresses on the caps or slightly more "off-road" use than normal will break. I believe we will see more in the future and I believe toyota WILL do something about it. For now, this poll will be a good metric for risk.

 

Part numbers?

 

Yep and still just one. I still believe this was one or maybe a few defective parts. With the millions of miles Toyota did before releasing the truck and the millions customers have already done on probably some pretty shitty pothole filled roads we would be seeing a lot more. Especially how social media is these days.

 

I'm still under the impression the top hats have only failed on the Off Road model, and that could be incorrect. I thought there was an earlier video discussing the failure and an image of a Tera Pro could have been a stock image.

If the top hat failure hasn't occurred on any hybrid yet. Is there any suspension differences between the gas and hybrid trucks? They are slightly heavier and get different brakes. My understanding is the the suspension is the same, and determined by trim whether it's hybrid or gas. What ever is causing the top hat failure won't the additional weight have an impact?

 

I would almost certainly think so. Just wait for some guy to load his hybrid up with overlanding gear. I'm almost certain there will be more of these incidents.

 

Maybe Bilstien used this weak aluminum on purpose to sell more shocks...

 

this is actually the standard for most trucks on the market outside of toyota and nissan. even hd trucks

 

https://www.iconvehicledynamics.com/
https://kingshocks.com/

 

Here’s my solution:

 

Really

 

What models? I work on trucks every week. Ford, Dodge, Chevy all have external bumpstops. Meaning the bumpstop is not part of the shock.

A ton of cars have bumpstops in the shock. Not usual on trucks.