Icon's vs Bilstein 6112.

[cr500taco]

I currently have the Bilstein 5100s front and 5125s on the rear of my 97 Tacoma 4WD. I am going to need to replace my shocks and struts, soon. I have been been looking into upgrading to the Icon's front and rear, but been looking into the Bilstein 6112's, lately since they are cheaper. But I'm sure the Icon's are worth the extra money. The front end is stock for now, but I do have an All Pro tube bumper that I am going to install, soon. I want to get a winch and possibly sliders, but don't know when that will be. I don't think that I want to go the Eibach 3" lift springs on the 5100's route to compensate for the extra weight, even though people seem to be happy with that setup. I haven't noticed anybody on this forum running that setup. What's the difference between the Icon's and the Bilstein 6112?

 

[cr500taco]

Bump, anyone?

 

[JduRunner]

Icons are adjustable, and can be rebuilt. Both use digressive valving rather than progressive like Kings do. I have Icons on my 4Runner and for the most part have been happy with them. To be honest though if I were to do it all again I'd probably just go with an appropriate weight OME kit. The bearings on coilovers transmit more road vibrations, and while the concept of being rebuildable sounds great, when its your daily driver you are without a car for a week while they get rebuilt. There was an article on Expo about the kit.

Did Bilstein Just Make The Ultimate 4Runner Overland Suspension System? - Expedition Portal

Improving on the already great ride of the Toyota 4Runner.

expeditionportal.com

 

[cr500taco]

Icons are adjustable, and can be rebuilt. Both use digressive valving rather than progressive like Kings do. I have Icons on my 4Runner and for the most part have been happy with them. To be honest though if I were to do it all again I'd probably just go with an appropriate weight OME kit. The bearings on coilovers transmit more road vibrations, and while the concept of being rebuildable sounds great, when its your daily driver you are without a car for a week while they get rebuilt. There was an article on Expo about the kit.

Did Bilstein Just Make The Ultimate 4Runner Overland Suspension System? - Expedition Portal

Improving on the already great ride of the Toyota 4Runner.

expeditionportal.com

Thanks for the link, that was good info.

My truck is my DD. If I was to go with the Icon's, I was planning on keeping my 5100's and putting them back on for the time being, when it was time to rebuild the Icon's.
When I got my 5100's , I looked into the OME's and decided against them. The reason why I am considering the 6112's over the 5100's for next time around is to get the appropriate rate spings.

 

[tennesseewj]

6112s (and 5100s) are steel bodies. Icon uses aluminum. Depending on the amount of road salt in your area, that can make a difference.

Also, keep in mind you can drop the spring seat on your 5100s and then change the coils out to get whatever lift & spring rate you desire.

Nothing wrong with 6112s or Icons, but if your use doesn't require the increased damping capacity provided by the larger shock body, there may be no need to upgrade your 5100s.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

 

[Watt maker]

I run 6112's on my 4th gen and Icons on my 5th gen. Before the 6112's, I ran 5100's on my 4th gen for around 90k miles. The 5100's served me good initially but as I added weight to the 4runner and started adventuring on more difficult and/or fast trails the 5100's just couldn't keep up at all. In my opinion, the 6112's offer a better ride than the 5100's but also have much better control and won't fade out like the 5100's would. I'm now running 700# springs with the 6112's because I have a heavy steel bumper up front but they seem to handle it just fine. The only complaint I have about the 6112's is that they don't offer as much travel as the Icons or even the 5100's and when pushed real hard they seem to lose just a little bit of oil. The Icon's are on another level, especially when pushed hard. I've had them for over 100k miles (rebuilt once) and they never fade or blow through the travel when taking a big hit. I have the extended travel version and they do seem to offer more travel than the others I've ran in the past. I also like that I can fine-tune the ride and the height of them without taking them off the vehicle and there's a ton of adjustment in both directions. The only complaint (if that's what you would call it) is that I do feel every little bump/rock in the road due to them having bearings at the ends instead of rubber or poly bushings.

 

[blueranger501]

A lot of negativity on here regarding ICONs, figured I should add my positive experience.

Original [Donahoe] ICONS extended travel, rebuild once @ 80K, now have 150k. Was romping on them last week in the desert, no issues, did great.

Rear has 2.5" piggybacks - never rebuilt (suppose I should).

Been very happy and please with the performance and longevity of my set - only thing I would change is a dust sleeve to keep the shaft clean and hopefully rusting / pitting less.

 

[knoxswift]

I have icons all around on my second gen. No complaints they are great. Someone already mentioned they are NOT progressive. They are great for fast off road fun.
I have had no failure or issues I like the ride on and off road.

 

[bkg]

I have DR/Icons on the front of my doublecab… icons on the rear. They're fine. I have no particular issue with them at all. I had icons on another Tacoma years ago and they always seemed to spring a leak...

I have Fox on the F350, Bilsteins on the wife's 5th gen, Radflo/Walker Evans on the xtracab, Bilstein/OME on the 4runner.

I clearly am not committed to any particular shock company.

 

[DaveInDenver]

The bodies on Icons, like is typical of most threaded body shocks, is steel. They have to be to hold the spring seat without stripping the threads. Icon sells a anti-corrosion coating that is supposed to be effective, though.

Smooth body shocks often are aluminum. The only aluminum threaded body shocks I know of are the FOX 2.0.

FWIW, I bought FOX 2.5 coil-overs and if I was to go back I wouldn't, I might go 2.0 or probably just Bilsteins personally. It's not that I dislike high end coil-overs, that's not the case and I have no reason to sell them. But I don't need them and would have saved the money.

 

[Tex68w]

Put me in the hate on Icon group.

 

[Kpack]

Rebuilding isn't as cheap as I thought. I bought a used set of Icon's with the thought that I could just rebuild them and it wouldn't be a big deal. Well when I finally got around to it, $400 and almost 3 weeks later I had the coilovers back in my hands. That was more money and more time than I had hoped. Granted, there were some parts that needed to be replaced (shafts, lower spherical bearings, one adjustment collar), but that's what happens when you rebuild: parts need to be replaced.

Would I do something else if I were to do it again? I probably would've bought new and not worried about rebuild for 3-4 years. For myself I probably would've still gone with rebuildable coilovers because in my application they allow for more down travel than something like Bilstein (I believe).

 

[DaveInDenver]

@Kpack makes a fair point about potentially gaining an inch of spring travel (e.g. mid travel) with coil-overs. A couple of things comes to mind about that. On a 1st gen Tacoma can you get extended travel coil overs? Also remember to go that way you need to replace the upper arms, too.

 

[bkg]

@Kpack makes a fair point about potentially gaining an inch of spring travel (e.g. mid travel) with coil-overs. A couple of things comes to mind about that. On a 1st gen Tacoma can you get extended travel coil overs? Also remember to go that way you need to replace the upper arms, too.

Want to add one thing to this... on my tacoma that has DR’s with total chaos upper arms... the suspension could drop more than the tie rod ends could tolerate. I ended up installing limiting straps up front to keep pressure off the tie rod ends.

YMMV, etc. May not be an issue for anyone other than me, but worth watching out for...

 

[DaveInDenver]

@bkg - yours is 1st gen, right (from you avatar)? I haven't heard of this with 2nd gens or considered this so my interest is suitably piqued.

Also the lower ball joints on 1st gens probably don't need any extra help becoming grenades I imagine.