King coilovers or Icons?
- Thread starter gago1101
- Start date
jrandom
New member
Would it be possible to mount the reservoirs in the engine compartment? I noticed they sell extended hoses. If anything it seems it would help keep road grime off of them too.
Gabex35
New member
I'm sure it's possible. It would be a pain to get to the compression adjusters (assuming you went that route).
Rubberdown
New member
Down south is a great company and will take super great care of you! They are the only folks I would use for anything king related!
jrandom
New member
Just curious.
"Pain" is all relative, particularly when one lives in a place that nothing nasty hits the road surface 6 months out of the year. At nearly $1000 a piece I am simply interested how well the casings/adjusters/hoses/shafts hold up when exposed to elements other than San Diego sunshine. The reason is certainly for performance, although they sure look nice but for how long
EDIT: Does anyone have any experience with that Fox dual compression adjustment system? Seems like more things to go wrong but hey... just curious
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bimrunner
New member
Except if you want long travel. Correct me if in wrong but extension on the performance kings is not as long as long travel icons.
marshal
New member
All you have to do is order them from king with the internal bumpstop milled an additional inch.
bimrunner
New member
That is good to know! Would have seriously thought about that route had I known!
mfregeau20
New member
Wouldn't one inch be extended travel not long travel?
Gabex35
New member
If you're shortening the internal spacer on an already long travel C/O...
King can make whatever you and your wallet want.
marshal
New member
Well icon doesn't really make long travel anything. They don't do race equipment, they just do coilover replacement and specialize in bling bling.
King on the other hand, is race dedicated and will build pretty much whatever you want however you want it
Icons extended travel are milled an additional inch. Remember that the shocks are on a fulcrum and 1" at the shock means more at the spindle.
F1scher
New member
Just curious.
"Pain" is all relative, particularly when one lives in a place that nothing nasty hits the road surface 6 months out of the year. At nearly $1000 a piece I am simply interested how well the casings/adjusters/hoses/shafts hold up when exposed to elements other than San Diego sunshine. The reason is certainly for performance, although they sure look nice but for how long
EDIT: Does anyone have any experience with that Fox dual compression adjustment system? Seems like more things to go wrong but hey... just curious
Can anyone comment on this? I guess this is a question that is question applicable for any coilover. How do these systems stand up to road conditions specifically in areas w/ snow/salted roads? I had a set of coilsovers on a Suburu in the past, and they were essentially destroyed within a winter. The salt in Buffalo NY is out of this world. Im shying away from an expensive coil system b/c I dont want to have my investment ruining in short order, and going with a less expensive strut/spring instead.
Any insights on that?
joneseyyy
New member
I've been running Icon stuff for the past 70,000 miles in the DC area, where we get salt on the roads in winter. I've had the front coilovers rebuilt once in the timeframe. No, the coilovers don't look shiny new anymore, but I haven;t experienced any type of exposure-related performance failures. I do reasonably maintain mine by washing salt etc. off about once every 1-2 weeks in the winter and spraying a little lube on the spherical bushings.
If you are really concerned just go with OME or something that you can run for 50K miles and then just straight up replace.
I don't have a 5th gen but have run Camburg, Sway Away, and Icon on various years tacomas and 4runners over the years as well as many other lift components.
Camburg and Sway Away were both cheap to rebuild compared to the Icon rebuild kits. Couple that with Icon's fill adapter that requires a special $35 adapter and a competent shop with the equipment that is willing to fill with Icon's adapter and the "convenience" of having a rebuildable shock quickly go away.
That being said, the Donahoe/Icon shocks I have now are in MUCH better shape than any of the Camburg/Sway away shocks I've seen and are MUCH older. Icon figured out a way to keep them from rusting and I give them kudos for that!
In my opinion the Icons (and others) don't ride significantly better than a conventional HIGH QUALITY strut/spring set-up. On my 3rd gen 4runner I think I actually prefer the street/DD qualities of the Tundra Bilstein and TRD tundra springs over my Icons. That also isn't what they were designed for though, they were designed for performance in high speed applications over large rough terrain, the bigger shock is for cooling. If your use doesn't fit their use case I don't think you'll really notice a huge difference over a standard set-up. Other than your wallet being a lot lighter! I think a lot of people expect magic
Parts do wear out, I've replaced all of the spherical bearings, and am about to do a rebuild now on my Icons. To replace all 4 spherical bearings, buy the rebuild kits, buy the fill adapter (which is reusable), shock oil, and pay someone to charge them I'll be in the rebuild for about $200 doing the labor myself.
So, for about the same amount of money and work I could replace my shocks with a conventional shock at the same frequency. I can't speak for frequency of rebuilds yet as I bought these shocks used and have no clue how many miles they had since their last rebuild. You hear people talk about anywhere from 30k miles on up, I can tell you I won't rebuild unless they are leaking and if these things leak after 30k miles on a new rebuild they will be SOLD!
I haven't tried Fox or King yet, but at this point I haven't been satisfied enough with the other ones to buy them again. I'd look at some of Fox's new offerings as they seem to be improving their line of factory replacement shocks and King would be my choice at this point. It is the only brand (other than Icon) that seems to hold up and not rust to crap outside of the desert (for comparison's sake, I live in Georgia so it isn't like we get salted roads or anything, just humidity).
Camburg and Sway Away were both cheap to rebuild compared to the Icon rebuild kits. Couple that with Icon's fill adapter that requires a special $35 adapter and a competent shop with the equipment that is willing to fill with Icon's adapter and the "convenience" of having a rebuildable shock quickly go away.
That being said, the Donahoe/Icon shocks I have now are in MUCH better shape than any of the Camburg/Sway away shocks I've seen and are MUCH older. Icon figured out a way to keep them from rusting and I give them kudos for that!
In my opinion the Icons (and others) don't ride significantly better than a conventional HIGH QUALITY strut/spring set-up. On my 3rd gen 4runner I think I actually prefer the street/DD qualities of the Tundra Bilstein and TRD tundra springs over my Icons. That also isn't what they were designed for though, they were designed for performance in high speed applications over large rough terrain, the bigger shock is for cooling. If your use doesn't fit their use case I don't think you'll really notice a huge difference over a standard set-up. Other than your wallet being a lot lighter! I think a lot of people expect magic
Parts do wear out, I've replaced all of the spherical bearings, and am about to do a rebuild now on my Icons. To replace all 4 spherical bearings, buy the rebuild kits, buy the fill adapter (which is reusable), shock oil, and pay someone to charge them I'll be in the rebuild for about $200 doing the labor myself.
So, for about the same amount of money and work I could replace my shocks with a conventional shock at the same frequency. I can't speak for frequency of rebuilds yet as I bought these shocks used and have no clue how many miles they had since their last rebuild. You hear people talk about anywhere from 30k miles on up, I can tell you I won't rebuild unless they are leaking and if these things leak after 30k miles on a new rebuild they will be SOLD!
I haven't tried Fox or King yet, but at this point I haven't been satisfied enough with the other ones to buy them again. I'd look at some of Fox's new offerings as they seem to be improving their line of factory replacement shocks and King would be my choice at this point. It is the only brand (other than Icon) that seems to hold up and not rust to crap outside of the desert (for comparison's sake, I live in Georgia so it isn't like we get salted roads or anything, just humidity).
Gabex35
New member
ICON offers a coating that is supposed to help with locations like yours but don't have any more info than that.
jrandom
New member
sandcrawler
Senior Member
yup. they only do the IVD coating for the front coilovers, though. don't ask me why.
