Radflo 2.5 resi Sonoran Steel kit

[Mgyver1]

Well I ordered the Sonoran Steel "Pure offroad prowess" 1.2 Radflo 2-1/2" remote reservoir kit back when they were having their Black Friday sale. I received the Sonoran stuff a little while ago but the Radflos finally came in. Wasn't able to mount them today, but I did at least unbox and fondle them. I must say they are a thing of beauty.

I got great customer service from Sonoran Steel [MENTION=1795]sschaefer3[/MENTION]. Steve answered all my different questions and always kept me in the loop about what was going on with my order by emailing and calling me.

Hopefully I'll remember to take pics of the install, but in the meantime here's a teaser showing the rear shock. It's ridiculous how beefy these are!

 

[Mgyver1]

Brief update, got it all installed. I'll update a better review of later but so far I'm digging them.

 

[sn0wrunner]

Those suckers are beefy! Do you know what the extended and collapsed lengths of the shock are?

 

[sschaefer3]

Don't over tighten the top stud mount, leave it loose to get the most movement out of that stud.

 

[A.Wilson013]

Very cool, I cannot wait for some feedback.

Something to consider may be relocating your rear shock mounts to outside the frame... After getting my Icon setup and doing that a few months later it made a huge difference in body roll on the freeway and an overall better feel when going fast over bumpy stuff.

 

[thor999]

Very cool, I cannot wait for some feedback.

Something to consider may be relocating your rear shock mounts to outside the frame... After getting my Icon setup and doing that a few months later it made a huge difference in body roll on the freeway and an overall better feel when going fast over bumpy stuff.

Can you post some pics of your install? Seriously considering these shocks.

 

[MojaveMadMan]

This thread isn't too far in the grave. How you liking these 3 months in?

 

[Mgyver1]

Well, i had to change the resi mounts 4 times and they're now above the coil buckets. They're good shocks but I don't think Radflo did any R&R on mounting them to a 4Runner. The rear piggyback resis had to be taken off the shock body because they hit the sway bar. Then the hose is so short they're kinda rigged under the truck. The fronts have a way too long of a hose making the mounting options difficult. The front top hats were for a Tacoma and the reservoir fittings hit the side if the coil bucket. Steve immediately contacted Radflo and was able to show them what needed to be corrected and radflo sent out new top hats to correct the problem. Oh yeah, issue #3 with the resis is you can't adjust the ride height with the spanner wrench due to the resi hose and fittings. I ended up using a large flat blade screw driver with a makeshift pad to SLOWLY spin the collar an 1/8 of a turn at a time.

If they had a more thought through design for the resis it would be a dang near perfect kit. All of the Sonoran stuff though was a perfect fit. Even the way to mod the factory skid plate was easy to follow and fit up just fine. All the extra little tidbits in the kit made everything much easier to get a complete install correct the first time (besides the resi mounts).

 

[sschaefer3]

When he references the reservoir hitting the sway bar it is because the stud mount allows the shock to rotate and at times the cans will rotate into the bar.

This issues is also experienced by my buddies with Icon rear 2.5's with the reservoir hard mounted like a Bilstein 5150, they had them shear off. The Bilstein 5160's on my 2001 rotate as well.

In the future the rear shock will be ordered with longer hoses and customers will be instructed to mount the cans under the frame behind the shocks with the universal mounts. Rotating will be impossible then.

For the fronts the cans need to go above the coil bucket like I had the 7100's mounted in my Red Truck. 4WD Toyota Owner Magazine January/February 2013. That is what the customer above ended up doing on my recommendation.

 

[absalom]

Is it possible to buy just the 2.5" fronts by themselves? Which springs does Radflo/SS recommend? Possible to use with YY/YB's? Price on just the fronts?

 

[sschaefer3]

Radflo does not sell the front coil overs incomplete. They are only sold as a complete unit.

 

[Mgyver1]

Is it possible to buy just the 2.5" fronts by themselves? Which springs does Radflo/SS recommend? Possible to use with YY/YB's? Price on just the fronts?

The front springs are plenty stiff. I don't have any armor yet but even when loaded down with tons of camping gear the suspension keeps up fine. And I barely have any turns on the coils so they can go plenty stiffer.