Rusting King/Icon/Fox etc Shocks in Northern States

Fluid Film,

spray a coat every winter.

 

Your first concern should be the piston rod, because dented and rusty piston rods are the leading cause of shock failure. You're on the right track with adding a boot to protect the rods, although it is critical that boots are well ventilated.

Fox piston rods are made from 17-4 H900 stainless steel with a hard chrome coating. This is the strongest, most dent resistant and most corrosion resistant combination you can get.

King, Bilstein and newer Icon shocks use industry standard 1045 base material with hard chrome coating. These are good and less expensive, which is why it's the industry standard.

Sway-A-Way and Radflo use Nitro Steel piston rods which is a 1045 base with nitride coating. They are stronger and more dent resistant than regular 1045, but substantially more brittle and not very corrosion resistant.

There is some more detail here, including hardness test numbers.
http://accutuneoffroad.com/articles/fox-vs-king-2-0-coilover-shock-comparison/

For the body King uses Cad plating which is a bit more corrosion resistant than zinc used by everyone else.

 

I run icons and I have the neoprene spring/rod covers on the front and I put their rubber boots on the rear. They have been through two winters now and are holding up well.

Good luck on your quest.

 

The problem with Fox is they use steel for their 2.5 shock body so they rust faster than any other shock on the market. Their 2.0 are made out of aluminum. I guess they did steel for added strength but not ideal for us 4 seasons people.

 

One of the reasons I went 2.0, didn't really have a need for the 2.5's anyway.

The hardware Fox supplied rusted & corroded in about 3 months, I need to change out all the nuts already.

 

Yeah, the steel bodies aren't that corrosion resistant, at Progressive Suspension I switched everything to aluminum.

King uses CAD plating which is slightly better than zinc, but not by much. Fox/Icon/SAW all use zinc.

 

Anyone have any real world experience with the Icon neoprene wrappers?
Do they work well? Thinking about making my own from an old wetsuit that I already cut the arms off anyway because I can't justify forking over 65 bones just to have the Icon logo on there.
Having said that, I would imagine they could retain a good bit of moisture and dirt and this defeat their purpose completely? I'm not in the north east but do a good bit of beach driving in Baja and going in the mountains/snow in the winter and they do use road salt even in Big Bear now...

 

Obligatory pic to lure people here...

 

I have the long ones (I have 16” springs). Yes, they do work well, definitely worth for 65 bucks or what ever they cost.

I have FOX coilovers and they looked like new under the cover despite of the hose fittings were rusty after one winter.