Ironman 4x4 Foam Cell Pro

I’d not used those set screws as a locking device, only the side ones.

Me too. Though that might even be too high with the Foam Cell Pros being valved stiffer. I will eventually go to a few other shops for a purpose built spring seat and not the make shift one I (poorly) cut with a hacksaw from wheel spacers.
Hoping the pb blaster worked its magic overnight and I can adjust the passenger side upper lock nut. Once I get the height where I want it, alignment and ride feeling, I’ll post my review of the change.

 

I own the Ironman adjuster tool. It has got to be the beefiest adjuster tool that I have ever used. I have been able to make adjustments while on the vehicle with it.

if you are having trouble breaking the set collar lose, you could try taking a punch and a hammer and tapping it loose.

 

I might have to try the punch and hammer. I have the Ironman tool and the gedore one usted on the products below. I was using the gedore one with a breaker bar and had no luck yesterday. I can’t seem to get the IM one to fit well with it on the truck and no good way to hold the strut while it’s off. I had the strut off the truck and was working at it and the lower one broke loose.
I’m going to work at cleaning the threads more but really hoping the penetrating oil worked its magic.

 

It took a bit of straining but I eventually broke that but loose and everything set and back together.
Just need a test drive and go over speed bump and it’ll be ready for an alignment if the height is good.

the three bottom pictures are the spring sitting directly on the lock nut. I would not recommend doing that.

 

Me again, I got a few miles on the springs and while I’m still waiting on the alignment, I’ll share my initial thoughts.

I think the 650# springs are a huge improvement over the 720# springs. The truck feels smoother going over bumps and pot holes. It seems to even out quicker without the bounce back that it did have. If that makes sense. It’s slightly stiff but has a plush feel to it as well when going over speed humps. There is still no front end dip when braking or noticeable body rolls.
I don’t have it set too high but with my current at home alignment, I couldn’t get the 255/75s to rub.

 

I got the foam cell pro stage 2. Anyone had these type of squeaks before?

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/hpWnUNROJtU

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/94lmPupTbmw

had these on my truck for a little over a year now

 

I had to swap back to the 720 springs… after a longer drive with the 650s the fronts were riding on the bump stops. I’m not sure what I did or miss but the height I had It set too was more than enough for it not to sit on the bump stops. When I realized it, I didn’t have a tape measure and forgot to take a pic.

I had a similar squeak to the second video but with SPC uppers. I had to disconnect the ball joint from the spindle and clean it. Once I putt that back together my squeaks were gone.

That top on I’m not sure, unless it sounds the same but it didn’t to me.

 

What was your exact lift applications? 3" medium coils up front or 2.5" medium coils.?

 

Im so lost with my kit. I am stuck between keeping the 3" pre set coils in medium or the 2.5 pre set coils in medium I want the slight rake but i am not certain what i should expect between the two. Seems the quality of these lifts are inconsistent. Everyone is getting different numbers even with stock trucks and just a lift. Does anyone have the 3" comfort coils?

 

Welcome to lifting a Tacoma! I think @the.shelbysaurus has the 3” lift and not adjusted herself after it was installed.
All trucks are different too. My off-road was about 1” shorter than other off roads when o measured. I have the A springs but have adjusted several times because I can’t help it. I also don’t have it sitting at 3” lift in the front since I didn’t want the cv axle fins rubbing.
Here is another thread with reviews on the first page- https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/ironman-4x4-suspension-mega-thread.739269/

 

Mine was exactly 2.5 with the medium 2.5 lift on a truck that has no extra weight in the front

 

They only had one option back when I purchased and I want to say it was the 2.5” medium coils.

 

I was thinking more about this and maybe @AccuTune Offroad can help answer the question I think will help you.
With struts being valved the same, would the ride feel different with 827# springs set at 2.5” lift vs 720# springs also set to 2.5” lift when they were designed for a 3.0” lift.
I’m not sure if you can give a partial answer with the information.
The springs in question are the same material diameter but the 827# springs have 1 or 2 less coils, making them shorter by maybe .5”

(From personal experience, 650# springs don’t work well, or didn’t for me, when paired with the foam cell pro struts)

 

I recently had a chat with one of the upper level folks at the US Ironman operation and he mentioned that they had had some bad UCAs that were causing squeaking. You might want to reach out to them and see if your UCAs might be part of that batch. I'm pretty sure they will take care of you if that's the case.

 

I own the Ironman 4x4 front shock adjustment tool and it works ok for making adjustments on the shocks while installed on the truck.

But, I recently picked up this Eibach adjustment tool for their stage 2 shocks and tried it on the ironman foam cells. It works much better. It fits perfectly on the shock collars and you can take a long 1/2" ratchet extension and plug it in to the end of the tool. It was a night and day difference for adjusting it while mounted on the truck. a little wd40 on the threads, make sure all of the set screws are out and crank away.

 

Hey guys, been a while since I made this post...life intercedes, you know...anyway... We have a couple few thousand miles on the suspension now, just did an oil change so I think around 6K. The ride has remained consistent and I haven't really noticed any "settling". I ended up keeping it with the two leaves out of the rear, so the rear is at about the 1.5" higher point and I'm just going to live with it.
I guess my beef with this whole thing is that it shouldn't matter that much if the springs add capacity to the overall GVWR...the lift is supposed to be 2.5", and out of the box the rear was 3.5" higher than the front with the 2.5"...that's 6" of lift and is ridiculous. I get what steelhd is saying, and yes, there should be some preload on them so when I throw weight in the back that the thing doesn't bottom out...that's what the stock springs did with not even 500lbs...but more than 3" of preload is pretty extreme.

Here it was with the out-of-the-box kit...I'm surprised the slip yokes on the driveshaft didn't fall out driving to the alignment shop!


I'm no spring engineer, but I understand that it's a complex balance with the number of leaves, progressive spring rates, increased arc for the lift, and then managing the ride quality between the laden and unladen weight of the vehicle, so perhaps it is what it is...whatever, we've taken a couple trips with four of us in the cab and about 500lbs of gear in the back and that rear height doesn't budge, but the on road ride quality is great! Even empty, the on road ride is as expected...a little stiff, but not rattling your fillings...and a thousand times better than the lame stock springs!!

Not the best photo, but here it is with the leaves removed from the rear spring pack...this blue one happened to have parked in front of me, so I took this photo real quick, but you can kind of see that mine is now sitting fairly level...


So overall, I feel the quality of the kit is good and I'm satisfied, but I do feel there could be some improvements. One thing for sure are the bolts on the spring straps...fortunately, I caught that bolt facing the wrong way and ready to gouge the gas tank when I did the install, but that seems to be a well-known and quite old problem that I feel they should have long since corrected in production by now.

Now I'm itching to take this thing off road, despite the street tires, and see how it does!! I live in southern CA, and have spent a lot of years tooling around the west side of the Panamints in Death Valley...before they made it an NP and locked it down. I notice on current topos they've changed much of the BLM land to "wilderness", so I'm using my old topos from the 90's showing all the roads that Remi Nadeau built back in the late 1800's...but I digress...

Thanks guys for the input, and hoping my experience here may help someone else in the future... -Rob

 

Great write up Rob! The truck looks good your adjustments. Before…. Well that’s crazy lol.

 

Hey guys. I've had my IM FCP stage 2 kit on my 2019 Tacoma for a bit over a year now and really like it. The other day I noticed that my power steering fluid was low. I had my mechanic check it out and he said I need to replace my power steering rack on both sides. Based on the fluid leak, he thought that this has been an ongoing issue. He said that lifts can put additional stress on the rack, but should this happen only after a year of having the kit on? I know a few other people with lifts and no one seemed to have this problem. The mechanic said that rack might have been damaged during the install. This seems more likely. I doubt the dealer that installed it will take responsibility. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

 

I can’t say I’ve heard of that. If you have the extended warranty I’d try that route and make them prove the lift caused the issue.
Usually it’s the cv boots that fail and not the steering rack. You might be able to check out some other lift threads to see if anyone else had issues. I can’t see why one would be an issue over another lift.
I’m not sure how a lift would put more stress on the rack, it just angles it down move. Not like it spins or anything.

 

Totally agree. Just spoke to IM and they said there is no way the steering rack would be affected, and have never encountered this issue. Thanks