In our last article we explained how the different components of our Icon Vehicle Dynamics suspension system that we would be installing on Project Tundra worked. In this weeks story, we are going to discuss the installation, setting up the suspension and testing it on and off road. Our Icon system is a much more sophisticated system over what we had so we were eager to see what it could do in both on and off road driving.
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We first started by disassembling our rear suspension. We unbolted the U-bolts holding our leaf springs to the rear axle.
We also removed the upper and lower mounts for our air bags and the air bags themselves. We had previously removed the front and rear shocks but didn’t get any pictures of that.
Supporting the rear axle we removed the stock leaf springs.
The next thing was to remove the bracket supporting the factory bump stops. We had to grind out the induction welded studs holding it to the chassis.
We had to grind the spot welds out of the stud heads.
14 comments
It’s always interesting to see these builds that showcase higher end components than most people will reach for. That being said, I think you are pushing the envelope of calling this “bolt on” when you needed to weld the shock mounts, fabricate your own brackets, and cut away the inner fender. I still appreciate the design work that went into this suspension package.
Thank you for the edit suggestions. These mods are very minimal when compared to a lot of dual shock conversions and rear suspension conversions that add this much travel. If you look at our build series our first step was pure bolt on and we wanted to go beyond that.
I’m trying to understand from the pictures, but does the top hoop in the front bolt to the frame, come up and attach to the top of the coilover mount? do the 4 top hat bolts pass through the hoop assembly into the coilover? I love how this setup is essentially a long travel system without adding the longer upper and lower control arms. Jealous for sure.
You got the loop mount right! This system has a lot more droop than the stock suspension and gives you about 1″ more up travel than the stock suspension and a couple more in droop in the front and about 2 more inches of up travel in the rear and 5 more inches of droop so if you get air born, the suspension will droop and give you more travel to absorb the landing.
This is all out of my range of experience. Big trucks, open wilderness and fast bombing of stuff.
Are you going to post some comparison videos that can highlight the differences?
Yes the video is coming out this week or next week.
It’s a bit of a shame that suspension companies ONLY make off road suspension kits. Nobody makes lowering or street kits for trucks anymore. I really want to lower my Tacoma but there’s only a single low quality lowering kit for it and it only has a 2″ drop. I don’t intend to do any real off-roading with my truck and I think lowered 4-5″ with some nice fat wheels and tires would look really good and make it a bit more practical for the towing/commuting/hauling I do with it. I bet the Icon dampers with some custom springs and arms would work really nicely.
I’ve done a tundra with icon coilovers with the same damping benefits with the lift collar all the way up and it was the same height as stock. It also enjoyed the same ride & handling benefits seen here in Mike’s experience.
So you basically have a Toyota Raptor. Very cool. My friend owns a Raptor and when he took me out and jumped it I was ready to crap my pants. . . until we landed. That thing jumps smoother than my trucks take a washboard dirt road. I have been nothing but disappointed with run of the mill Bilstein “heavy duty” shocks. If you want quality damping unfortunately you really have to open your wallet.
I’m running the same Icon RXT leafs and Omega bypass shocks on my 17′ Tundra, and need to install some air bags for towing. Hoping you could give a parts break down for what was used on this build, specifically the upper and lower mounting brackets for the bags and cradles. Thanks in advance and crazy nice build BTW!
All the parts and the manufacturers are listed in the article.
yea but who makes those offset mounts for the airbags?
Comes with the airbags.
You got the loop mount right! This system has a lot more droop than the stock suspension and gives you about 1″ more up travel than the stock suspension and a couple more in droop in the front and about 2 more inches of up travel in the rear and 5 more inches of droop so if you get air born, the suspension will droop and give you more travel to absorb the landing.