Dick's Dank Yank Wank Tank

Name one person in that thread that has owned or tuned both an Icon shock and a King/Fox/ADS/SAW. Yes, plenty of people are happy with their Icon on road ride. But what are they comparing it to? Stock.

I never referred to horror stories with racetrucks or wannabes, rubicon, or pismo. I made my points earlier which you can take or leave. It's your truck. The comment about disowning you is just normal TW bullshit we all do. The simple fact is Icons use a 2 piece piston that is dished. When tightening the shaft nut, the valve shims are preloaded (bent) at it's resting position. This translates to a digressive dampening profile.

There's gobs and gobs of shit on digressive vs progressive on here. But for me...it's simple. With a progressive or linear dampening profile, slow speed shaft movements result in a soft dampening and gets progressively stiffer as the shaft speed increases. This translates to a cushy Cadillac soft ride when crawling, pulling into driveways, driving over speed bumps, or pretty much any in town activity. And when you turn the corner to the unpaved wash, the faster the shaft speed, the more dampening the shock provides. This allows for the shock to soak up the bigger bumps as you go faster...and does so predictably.

With preloaded shims, the slow speed shaft movements are drastically different. Hitting the same speed bumps and driveway dips are much stiffer because the shaft speed isn't fast enough to compensate/overcome the preloaded shims. As the shaft speed increases, the dampening profile tapers off. My personal preference...the bigger the bump, the more counter-force I want the shock to produce...not the other way around.

Digressive/progressive aside, my other points were focused on nuances. Depending on what Icon shock you get, some require a proprietary hypodermic needle to recharge the shock rather than a standard schrader valve. One more $30 tool to buy and pack up. As for customer service, I've worked with pretty much them all...except Fox. They never seem to pick up or call back. Icon and King hands down have the best customer service and stand behind their product. I have several examples if you want to hear about them, but it's just one guy's stories. However, King (and Fox) has a public exploded diagram of their shocks. Maybe not of interest to you, but as a guy who typically rebuilds/revalves his shit after working hours, this helps. Tables get bumped, parts drop, order gets mixed up. Its nice to have something to reference without having to call up the vendor.

Take it as a grain of salt. I honestly don't care what anyone does to their truck. I don't have to deal with it, so I don't give a shit. I broke my Icon nitrogen charge needle last time I used it, so I won't work on Icons anymore either.

Come on. That was Kreag from DR. That's like saying I'm guilty for buying a house that the previous owner used to cook meth in.

 

Tacomas do not have a strut. They have a double a-arm with a coilover...stock. A macpherson strut suspension does not have an upper control arm. And all the performance coilovers discussed (Icon, King, ADS, Fox, etc) all come with their own version of a top plate that bolts into the factory coil bucket. Typically a machined piece of aluminum.

What did you learn? I thought you already knew I'm an opinionated asshole?

 

The replacement coilovers are all bolt up. There's no bushings with the coilover brands we are discussing. Both top and bottom pivots are a spherical bearing. The rear shocks still use a top stem mount with bushings (for OE replacements), but the bushings are included with the shock.