ICON Complete Coilover Suspension Systems (Stages 3 through 8)

[kodiakisland]

If it's currently contacting the stock tie-rod, please contact our customer service folks so we can try to diagnose what went wrong either with the installation or some sort of a production variation. We have not seen that on any of the installations we've done.

I posted a picture above with contact at full lock. This is before proper alignment, so I'll wait until that's done to pursue further, as that may remedy it.

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[Triceratops]

I posted a picture above with contact at full lock. This is before proper alignment, so I'll wait until that's done to pursue further, as that may remedy it.

Adding castor will help. I don’t remember the specs off the top of my head. I think we couldn’t quite get it to 5 degrees (don’t quote me) but the more the merrier. Castor specs are normally pretty wide range. Just make sure you at the top of the range.

 

[ChrisInSC]

If it's currently contacting the stock tie-rod, please contact our customer service folks so we can try to diagnose what went wrong either with the installation or some sort of a production variation. We have not seen that on any of the installations we've done.

Well his is not an isolated incident, here is my tie rod with out a sleeve making contact and taking chucks out of my springs. Icon should be ashamed that this is even happening. But worse I’m ashamed that I spent $7k+ on these to make my bronco inferior . The only silver lining is my wife isn’t on this forum to know how much money I wasted.

 

[Evolkidbell]

Well installed stage 8 on my bronco and I’m not comfortable with how close the tie rod is to the coil. It really seems like a design flaw by Icon. I’ve since driven about 700 miles and you can see they make contact on the picture below. Not sure I could get a sleeve on them if I even wanted to. I’m super frustrated by this. Totally unacceptable design. Cup should have been raised about 3/4 inch.

This is too close. looks to have been rubbing on the coil already.
Looks like the lower Bar-pin is un equal in offset from center. What does it look like when you turn it around? Looks like a ton of clearance to the axle.

IIRC when I worked on one of the Chevy 1500 kits, the bar-pin needed to be offset to clear something. Made it clear in the instructions to check for that.

 

[kodiakisland]

This is too close. looks to have been rubbing on the coil already.
Looks like the lower Bar-pin is un equal in offset from center. What does it look like when you turn it around? Looks like a ton of clearance to the axle.

IIRC when I worked on one of the Chevy 1500 kits, the bar-pin needed to be offset to clear something. Made it clear in the instructions to check for that.

Yeah, several posts above address that. It's to clear the sway bar connects on the other side.

 

[Evolkidbell]

Yeah, several posts above address that. It's to clear the sway bar connects on the other side.

I saw. Hard to tell but in some of these picture, there looks to be room. The SB end links shouldn’t move with steering input.
Curious what the measurement is from the lower mount to the spring. One other mfg is 6.5”.

 

[DREWR13]

Best I could get in a quickness

 

[DREWR13]

I also had someone help me and hold the wheel full lock on both driver and passenger sides. no rubbing sitting on flat ground.

Driver side is a little closer and might have 1 small scratch but cant tell if it was from install or rubbing.

 

[Triceratops]

@Triceratops, you seem to think this is a defect that we've hidden from customers, and that is simply not the case. Clearance for other manufacturer's aftermarket products is a feature we have recently learned is important to some of our customers, important enough that we've decided to make a running change, and offer it for free to you and other existing customers. They've been working on it since last week. Like I said, I'll post the details on getting them soon.

While I wouldn't call it a "defect" I would call it a HUGE design miss. If this design miss or flaw was known before launch (and how could you not know about the tie rod issues if you have been a part of this community) and that is not disclosed (you have compatibility stated for tires) and you went ahead with the launch that is a bad company look. It just is, and apparently you need a lot of people here to tell you that.

Also trying to downplay it by calling them "large and bulky" when its been shown even the slimmest sleeves are not an option is some serious bs.

My favorite so far is "our engineers have always believed that the proper solution to the tie-rod issue is , quite simply, a better tie-rod, rather than a splint or other add-on."

THAT SOLUTION DOES NOT CURRENTLY EXIST. Except maybe the heim aluminum ones (but they are wider, may not fit, expensive, and not that great) And on top of that its going to cost us more money, but why would y'all care.

Lastly I may not be a hot on the issue if the first response from you wasn't literally "a shock is a shock". One of the most tone deaf responses for people that just spent $3K-$8K on a product that is not working as intended. And my the first response from your technical service was paraphrasing: "yah we know about it, its a pain, no solution and above all NO returns".

This is likely to most expensive "upgrade" that people will do to their vehicles. Having been around this community and not understanding the market is ridiculous. At least you could admit is that: "We F*cked up, and we'll make it right." Instead we get these non apologies and a we'll retrofit it, your lucky for that. Never mind us not knowing: is this an easy retrofit I can do in the driveway? do I have to go pay even more money for installation. I assume alignments are left in tact?

Instead its a: "we never said it would work with any of the most common upgrade that anybody wheeling this vehicle does. It's your fault." And now the back peddling has begun.

Company responses can in fact make the problem worse.

 

[JustSendItDude]

I'm very curious to see how they try to alleviate this issue. As @rtaylor showed with his install, if you install the front coilovers with the offset towards the front of the vehicle, the sway bar link comes just as close to the spring as the tierod did with the other orientation.

These were a few photos from the sway bar link damage to my springs when I swapped the coilovers with the offset towards the front. The same type of damage occurs on the spring from the sway bar as the tierod did from the other side.

As someone else stated, I'm curious if the King or Fox coilovers have the same issue. If they can have their spring and spring cup positioned a little higher, we would be able to confirm that changing the offset of the lower pin is not going to solve most problems people will run into installing the ICON kit.

 

[Dusty at ICON]

@Triceratops I apologize for responding before I had better understanding of the issue and what our folks here were doing about it. I regret that I chose my words poorly. We understand your frustration, and If ultimately you want to return the product I think we can arrange that for you. But I really think you'll be happy with the system once we get past this. If you want to try the retrofit we've come up with, we can send the kit to you, probably by tomorrow. Just DM me your address, and please let us know which dealer you originally purchased through.

Everyone, the retrofit kit is a fairly simple installation that anyone who has ever worked on their own stuff should be able to do fairly easily, with no special tools. The kit yields an additional .530" of clearance between the stock tie rod and the coil cup, which should be enough clearance for most tie-rod stiffeners, once caster has been properly set. We have 6 kits that we made in our R&D shop, which we can send out as soon as we're done writing up the instructions and boxing them up, hopefully by tomorrow as I told triceratops. If you would like us to send you one, please DM me your address along with which dealer you originally purchased your kit from. (we are pushing a larger run of them through our production shop, but we have the 6 kits now from R&D, for those with an immediate need).

@JustSendItDude, the retrofit does move the back of the coil cup closer to the sway bar link joint, but not as close as simply flipping the pins around. On our Badlands with the electronic sta-bar, there is plenty of clearance. On non-Badlands it may be a little tighter but should be OK. We're working to verify that now, and I will report back.

 

[DREWR13]

Seems like one without an offset would put it in a good spot.

Edit - Also I would be interested in a fix kit as well to be safe but would defer until people who are making contact get taken care of.

 

[JustSendItDude]

@Dusty at ICON - I appreciate the promptness in trying to get a fix out. I'll DM you my info as I want to install the retrofit kit ASAP and will be happy to provide feedback. I've got the Black Diamond trim, so my sway bar link will be pretty close.

Lastly, I want to follow up on your offer to @Triceratops and the possibility of returning the suspension setup. If the retrofit kit does not alleviate the contact issues, what steps would I need to take to return the setup as I would be past the "return period" for the two vendors I purchased my setup? I hope this new kit fixes the issue, but if it does not, I would be interested in getting a refund.

 

[ChrisInSC]

@Dusty at ICON - I appreciate the promptness in trying to get a fix out. I'll DM you my info as I want to install the retrofit kit ASAP and will be happy to provide feedback. I've got the Black Diamond trim, so my sway bar link will be pretty close.

Lastly, I want to follow up on your offer to @Triceratops and the possibility of returning the suspension setup. If the retrofit kit does not alleviate the contact issues, what steps would I need to take to return the setup as I would be past the "return period" for the two vendors I purchased my setup? I hope this new kit fixes the issue, but if it does not, I would be interested in getting a refund.

I second his sentiments. If the fix is not 100% I would also like a path for full refund as promised above.

 

[JustSendItDude]

So, I stumbled upon a not-so-good picture of the tierod and King suspension setup. It looks to me that the tierod goes under the lower spring cup on the King suspension, similar to how the SAS coilover allows it to pass under. The owner said the only issue he had with the tierod and KIng coiloverc clearance is when he had the larger BroncoBuster brace.

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