A pile of goodies: Icon Leveling and King Shocks

It's not the first mod the truck got, that was the Truetrac, but up second is the suspension - and it needs it too.

I worked with Casey over at SoCal Supertrucks and they were great configuring and ordering a custom suspension for me.

We ended up leveling the truck with Icon springs and the TEI spacer and mixed in the King Piggyback shocks (at $500 a pop!) Also added the Icon adjustable track bar.
I have high hopes.

The King shocks are custom built, so I've been waiting a while and it showed up at about noon on the 3rd.

At first I was thinking: "let's just get it out of the package."
Then I'm looking at that little pile and thought: "install just the shocks."

Whew, expensive little pile.

So I got to work. But quickly realized, I was going to install the whole thing.

Dissassembly was very straight forward. Brake lines seemed pretty short, so I disconnected the bracket for now.

TEI Spacer



Stock vs Icon Leveling springs


Second issue I ran into was the large ring on the bottom of the king front shocks hits the shock mount. Decisions decisions, cut the truck or cut the shock. In the end I decided on the shock because that washer is just not structural and the bracket is.




At full droop the brake lines are too short. I drilled and tapped the frame (that was fun let me tell you) and relocated the brackets down a bit. I'll be looking for some Stainless Steel Lines in the near future.

The track rod came with no instructions, I asked Icon what length to set it at and they said 'stock'. Stock is just right to drive the passenger spring into the bump stop and make bad noises. I ended up with 3 turns out on the track rod and 5.25 out on the drag link gets the steering wheel pretty centered. An alignment shop will do better.

The rest of the install went pretty easily. The King piggybacks are a pain to get in there where they fit, but it can be done. I think I'd like to relocate the reservoirs to the frame if I can find some nice brackets.

I am having a problem with the tie rod hitting the sway bar links at full droop. I'll have to find some longer ones somewhere.


Here's the leftover parts, somehow I don't think Ford spent $4000 on this stuff.


Before

After


There is a noticeable increase in the height getting in and out of the cab.
According to my level, it's at a slight nose down attitude now.

Driving it, well, it's still a 1 ton truck, not much we are going to do about that, but it's smoother and flatter in the corners. Rides nicely.





Install time is a bit hard to estimate, I was dealing with a pool crisis during the day, it was hotter than blazes so I took a few 'breaks' for a 'beverage'. I started at 1p, took the first test drive around 8p. Still need to shanghai the GF to help me set the alignment.

Very nice write up!

PTSUPERD said:

Very nice write up!

Click to expand...

:whs:

Are you changing the wheels/tires, or keeping that stock for now??

Yes, the wheels are 22x10 ultras and the tires are Nitto Terras 35x22.

I played with it in photoshop and decided to go black on the wheels. They are at the powder coater now getting 'black chrome'. Probably be done next week. It's getting the Bushwacker flairs too, non-pocket style painted to match the body.

looking good man cant wait to see it with the wheels on it

Very nice! Cant wait to see the finished product.

Update to the Leveling install....

After a discussion with King and someone's post on the net (thanks) it was determined that I had to switch the front shocks because the hoses were exposed to the tire. Mine weren't hitting, but it was very close and these are still the stock tires.

After careful consideration I decided to drop the TEI spacer too. The truck settled in slightly nose up, with anything in the bed it would have been way up.

Back on track. Monday afternoon I decided to tackle this one. It was only 98°F.

I was flying thru the operation, 30 minutes and the springs were back in and the shocks were going on when I hit a snag.

In check for clearance the reservoir was in a crash condition with the caliper with the wheel turned to full lock and it wasn't a little bit either. 3" of interference.

Here's a side shot with the wheel turned to one extreme.


Looking straight down the shock, you can see the caliper in it's path.


Measuring from the caliper to the reservoir is 7"


Yet we have 10" of shaft showing.


In my world, we call that a crash condition.

Simple solution, move the reservoir up 3". Simple for King maybe to make that hose 3" shorter, but for me, not so easy.

After wrestling with it for a good hour I gave up, started calling King for help, couldn't get anyone so I went back at it. And found a solution that works and looks good too.

What I did was twist the shock's port so it was nearly facing away from the reservoir and then loosened the line a little and with wrenches turned the line until the reservoir tucked in the way I wanted. Now I can keep the top of the reservoir flush with the top of the shock and get the room necessary to clear the caliper.

Here's a couple pics



And finally, a shot of the tire turned all the way and clearance to the shock.


I'm pretty happy with that.

With the TEI spacer out I do loose an inch of down travel, but I think the look is better and it'll certainly be better with a load in the bed. Slightly nose down, but it looks level because the spacing in the wheel openings is even front to rear.

King did call back, but I'd already solved it by then. They asked for photos, I sent them of course.

And here's the before and after again.

Before


After w/ TEI spacer

After w/o TEI spacer

Looks perfect w/o the spacer. Nice write up and great looking truck.

good looking set up!

truck looks great!!!

Buuuuuut, i would think a kit that was designed for a truck, and cost as much as it does, would fit without mods to anything that was actually placed on the truck. I can see trimmings a few small things but to have to cut the washer on the shock and then index it seems like bad R&D. am I off here?

Truck looks great and can't wait to see the wheels installed. Your install makes me scared to install my ICON/OUO set up though.

Buuuuuut, i would think a kit that was designed for a truck, and cost as much as it does, would fit without mods to anything that was actually placed on the truck. I can see trimmings a few small things but to have to cut the washer on the shock and then index it seems like bad R&D. am I off here?

Click to expand...

I agree, thats big money stuff and I would expect a better fitment.

I cant believe they would tell you to set your track bar to same as stock when the purpose of it is to keep the axle centered and you were installing a leveling kit which would of course shift it to the drivers side if it was kept the same as stock and would be no purpose in buying an aftermarket one.

perfect without the spacer... never been a fan of the granny pants stance

Today was the day, this phase of the project is nearly complete.

Powder coating called last night, wheels are done so I ran down there and got them this morning. Called the body shop and they said I could come get the flairs this afternoon.

Around 3 I got there and they gave me a spot to park. I got right to work putting the Bushwackers on there.
Very easy job, hardest part is putting the rubber on and that's not very hard, just tedious.
Here's a photo of it when I got done. Looks pretty bad with the stock tires. I also want to paint the wheel well part of the flair black. I'm thinking maybe roll it on. Something to get it black in the wheel wells.


Off to discount tire
They made short work of it.


And home. It's a little dark, I'll get a better pic tomorrow.


Where it started


I'm still unsure about the 'black chrome'. It pretty much picks up any color around it and is that. Especially blue.

But yea, I like it

Nice truck!

:rockon:

Are you missing your rear center cap ? I see the one on the front being chrome, but not the rear....

Yea, they broke one and one was missing. Just little cheap plastic things, they are getting me 2 more.

FYI: Full size spare fits just fine.

Looks great. Just not a fan of flares. Can we get a front and rear shot?

sent from somewhere in the country