Guys with icons ?

[Bigg50]

After putting 8,000 miles on the Icons I've noticed the ride has gotten softer as the springs have settled in.

 

[Cleave]

Or you're just getting used to them

 

[tbone]

I'm pretty sure scientifically springs get softer over time and 8k with many off road miles i can garentee it got softer

 

[ntm]

Or you're just getting used to them

This.

The spring doesn't cause the harshness at short, high shaft speeds on the icons. Not directly anyways. The valving does.

You are either getting used to them or you need to check your nitrogen pressures.

 

[wanderfalk]

This.

The spring doesn't cause the harshness at short, high shaft speeds on the icons. Not directly anyways. The valving does.

You are either getting used to them or you need to check your nitrogen pressures.

The offroad condition that is so difficult for me are trails that twist and are narrow not allowing speeds above 25. The worst of it is a combination of course washboard and many small to medium potholes. The ride is a miserable jarring experience. If you could drive 45 it smooths out. With 3.0 shocks i can drive fast enough to smooth it out but only on short straight sections. Here is the rub they are racing shocks and meant to go fast. I looked into drilling out the piston sleeve ports at ride height to customize the ride but I am not knowledgable enough to go down that road. The person that is the most highly regarded tuner did not think this is the way to go so thats the final word for me. This is all relating to the coilover shocks in front.

 

[Cleave]

Icons are not racing shocks

 

[Ni9mm]

Can someone recap for me? 18 1/2 page recap cause im too ******* lazy to read all that shit. Real man shit right there.

 

[ntm]

You should really read the rest, it was one of the few suspension discussions I've seen that went beyond "fox is the bestest/icon is the bestest", or "which bump stops will pull the most chicks ?".

So I spent most of the day running around the backcountry at illegal speeds, when I was supposed to be working

I ran the chopped out washboard roads that started this whole thing, some really high speed rolling sand trails with decent sized whoops and g outs, and a bunch of other sandy clay stuff at speeds between 30 and 100 mph.

Here's my initial impressions with the icons behaviour still fresh in my mind.

Bare in mind that I was displeased enough with the icons low to normal speed behaviour that I shelled out another $2000+ to try something else. So I'm somewhat biased in that regard. I'll try to stick to the facts.

The fox spring rate is more appropriate for my setup with the thin leaf rear springs. Turn in is better than with the icons.
I don't feel like I'm driving a Segway with the rear axle following me around now. The chassis is more balanced in it's response on rebound now.

The RPG tuned fox's move.
This is in contrast to the icons that feel very heavily damped and sprung at normal speeds.
Low speed compliance is worlds better, I don't feel every little 1" bump.
Unfortunately they make a thumping noise at certain speeds when you roll over something and the tire falls out as you roll off of it.
I had to check my bolts a few times and make sure nothing was loose.
I presume this is from very little rebound control available at lower speeds with an internal bypass. It's similar to how the stock dampers react to these kind of bumps, but it's louder when it happens.
This is the lesser of two evils compared to the icons making my dashboard hum, and creating new rattles every day they were on.
I don't know if it was the spring rate or the digressive damping of the icons that made them uncomfortable for my kind of roads, probably a little of both.
Big improvement here, but the thumping of the fox's now and then, I'm not too keen on.


Now for the high speed stuff.
Both dampers seem to have about the same terminal velocity but feel very different.

The icons make you feel more and more removed from the terrain the bigger and faster you go. Kind of gives you a false sense of security. But I never worried about stuffing the front end.
Handling at speed was good, but vague.
Best way I can describe them is to say that they took all the compression hits you could throw at them, and never got squirrelly on rebound, but there were times when it was tough to tell how many wheels you had on the ground, and indeed they didn't droop out fast enough to keep you in 100% control when cresting a fast rough hill with a slight direction change on the other side.
That could be a byproduct of the high amount of rebound damping required for the heavy spring rate ?
Regardless, the truck is still ludicrous fast compared to the stock shocks.

The RPG/fox's drooped out a lot faster, probably part of what causes the "thumping" I spoke of earlier. Despite that fast droop, rebound control was excellent. And the thumping goes away as you go faster, just like the stock dampers.
There's more feedback at speed as far as what everything is doing, and it was easier to make small line changes at high speed in the rough without feeling like you are rolling the dice.
Bottom line, there were more wheels on the ground at any given time...
They soaked up all the big hits just fine.
More body roll was evident, which I'm okay with to gain low speed compliance.
I'll probably put the sway bar back on with the fox's.
Overall quite pleased with these.


So I'll be sticking with the RPG tuned fox's for now, they're riding smoother for me for daily driving, and were turning in slightly faster times on my favourite test loops.
Recognize that daily driving for me is primarily in the dirt with a bit of highway to get there.

The icons certainly have their place, they were no doubt born in the land of big sand whoops.
They'd be for the guy that drives on freeways 5 days a week, and the second he hits the desert on the weekend, the pedal is on the floor and stays there.
Their focus is just a bit narrow for my uses. The compression adjuster is a moot point as the softest setting wasn't soft enough for the majority of my driving.


Regards,
Nathan

---------- Post added at 10:05 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:03 AM ----------

The offroad condition that is so difficult for me are trails that twist and are narrow not allowing speeds above 25. The worst of it is a combination of course washboard and many small to medium potholes. The ride is a miserable jarring experience. If you could drive 45 it smooths out. With 3.0 shocks i can drive fast enough to smooth it out but only on short straight sections. Here is the rub they are racing shocks and meant to go fast. I looked into drilling out the piston sleeve ports at ride height to customize the ride but I am not knowledgable enough to go down that road. The person that is the most highly regarded tuner did not think this is the way to go so thats the final word for me. This is all relating to the coilover shocks in front.

Which coilovers are you running ?

 

[justvettn]

Icons are not racing shocks

Why do you make this statement? The Raptor is not a race truck either.

 

[Cleave]

Why do you make this statement? The Raptor is not a race truck either.

The offroad condition that is so difficult for me are trails that twist and are narrow not allowing speeds above 25. The worst of it is a combination of course washboard and many small to medium potholes. The ride is a miserable jarring experience. If you could drive 45 it smooths out. With 3.0 shocks i can drive fast enough to smooth it out but only on short straight sections. Here is the rub they are racing shocks and meant to go fast. I looked into drilling out the piston sleeve ports at ride height to customize the ride but I am not knowledgable enough to go down that road. The person that is the most highly regarded tuner did not think this is the way to go so thats the final word for me. This is all relating to the coilover shocks in front.

I was trying to clear that up for wanderfalk