Is the Carli markup worth it on the Fox 2.0 coilovers?

[mrack]

Shopping for my 2nd set of coilovers after the Icon 2.5 I had turned out to be complete garbage. Looking at this Carli commuter kit which uses the fox 2.0 coilovers:

Commuter System

Designed and tuned for the truck that spends its life on road with occasional dirt trails, this custom shock project was intensely focused on delivering a comfortable in-town ride and smoothing the freeway's all while improving vehicle control for light off-road adventures. FOX IFP Pintop shocks...

www.carlisuspension.com

Is the markup on the coilovers worth it for whatever custom tuning they do? Obviously the kit comes with a lot more than just the coilovers but according to my estimations, if I sourced all those parts separately from other quality manufacturers and bought the standard Fox 2.0 it would be at least a few hundred cheaper. Anyone have experience, thoughts, speculation? My truck is a 2016, I tow a ~5000lb travel trailer and take the truck on the dunes semi regularly during the summer (maybe 5-10 trips a year).

 

[danielmid]

Fox 2.0, well anything 2.0, should be a significant downgrade from most everything 2.5. What was the issue with the Icons?

To answer the thread question, most shock tuners say the 2.0 IFP are not tunable so I'm not 100% that Carli even touches them.

 

[mrack]

Fox 2.0, well anything 2.0, should be a significant downgrade from most everything 2.5. What was the issue with the Icons?

To answer the thread question, most shock tuners say the 2.0 IFP are not tunable so I'm not 100% that Carli even touches them.

The Icons were terribly stiff with a whopping 650lb coil (which I was not aware of before buying), and only had about a 1/2” travel on the shock under the weight of the truck, so they constantly bottomed out on any decent sized bumps. Basically anything big enough to get that big hard spring compressed was immediately faced with a bump stop. On road was tolerable (but still a huge downgrade from my 100k mile old leaking stock struts), off road was absolutely pathetic. I couldn’t believe it for the price I paid. After contacted icon they told me they can’t refund me but they’ll build and ship me a free set of replacement coilovers. At least they’re doing something but I’m not even going to try installing the 2nd set when they get here.

So after that experience I am leery of getting another set of coilovers. I may just do bilsteins or an eibach pro kit. Thanks for the info on the tuning, I suspected the extra price was for the Carli name and not the performance.

 

[LumberJakl]

Not sure with stock setup, but when I changed over from ICON to Fox 2.5 - I noticed a huge difference for ride quality on road and offroad BUT you have to get the full coil w/ res serviced every 15,000 to 30,000 depending on the road conditions you tackle through.
I snapped the coil, then the strut assembly 6 months later on the ICON, and that's the last time I will purchase their product.
I don't think having a "special tune" is necessary once you have the 2.5 package - In my opinion

 

[ram1500rsm]

The Icons were terribly stiff with a whopping 650lb coil (which I was not aware of before buying), and only had about a 1/2” travel on the shock under the weight of the truck, so they constantly bottomed out on any decent sized bumps. Basically anything big enough to get that big hard spring compressed was immediately faced with a bump stop. On road was tolerable (but still a huge downgrade from my 100k mile old leaking stock struts), off road was absolutely pathetic. I couldn’t believe it for the price I paid. After contacted icon they told me they can’t refund me but they’ll build and ship me a free set of replacement coilovers. At least they’re doing something but I’m not even going to try installing the 2nd set when they get here.

So after that experience I am leery of getting another set of coilovers. I may just do bilsteins or an eibach pro kit. Thanks for the info on the tuning, I suspected the extra price was for the Carli name and not the performance.

You're not getting much out of any 2.0 body shock or coilover in a full size RAM 1500, at least not driving over 25-30mph through that sand per you pic in the OP There is not enough displacement on the shocks to control the weight of the truck, and i'm surprised Icon is building you a new set on their dime, did they say somehow the set you've got was built for a different application ? It doesn't make sense to have only 1/2" travel on the shock under the weight of the truck with 650lbs springs. The assembly measures 22 and 3/4 i believe so there should be enough shaft for move than 1/2 travel.
See what's different in this 2nd set. can you snap some pics at your current set installed ?

 

[ram1500rsm]

Not sure with stock setup, but when I changed over from ICON to Fox 2.5 - I noticed a huge difference for ride quality on road and offroad BUT you have to get the full coil w/ res serviced every 15,000 to 30,000 depending on the road conditions you tackle through.
I snapped the coil, then the strut assembly 6 months later on the ICON, and that's the last time I will purchase their product.
I don't think having a "special tune" is necessary once you have the 2.5 package - In my opinion

Your assembly with the shorter icons and that huge spacer at the top is longer compared to the Fox assembly. I'll say longer by about 2" ? My guess you topped up the CO's on a hard landing or hit it hard on some sort of pothole or something alike ?

 

[mrack]

@LumberJakl Wow, at least I'm not the only one who's finding out how bad these things are. I couldn't find any reviews on them when I bought them but decided to take a chance. Lesson learned, never doing that again. What's the approximate cost to get the fox 2.5 serviced? Do you have to ship them back to fox?

@ram1500rsm I'm not a hardcore offroader and not planning on doing any prerunner stuff, the only issue I've had with the stock suspension is I can't go over whoops at any more then 5mph, the suspension is too soft and throws the front end into the sand every time. My front bumper has been bent in more then once that way. Icon didn't ask much questions, just said there might be a problem with my set and they'll build me another. I asked about possibly a lighter coil but that was a no go. The issue with the Icons is just simply terrible design, cheap junk with a big price tag. Can't believe more people aren't talking about this.

Here's some pics from when the icons were installed. I yanked them back out a few hours after installing, certainly never took them on the dunes or anything. Those bricks probably would have rattled me and my truck apart.




I PMed @ThunderMug95 about it a while back when I installed them since I knew he had a set. His have the same lack of travel but he said he's been happy with the ride, I'm guessing he stays on road, maybe he can chime in.

 

[mrack]

Back to the original topic, the Fox 2.5 are a good bit more then I was looking to spend on coilovers. Sounds like the Fox 2.0 wouldn't be a very big or worthwhile improvement over stock? In which case I may just be better off with a set of Bilstein 5100s or similar, sounds like those might give me just the little extra bit of stiffness to hopefully not throw the truck all over the place on whoops, and of course still ride well on road. I hear the eibach kit is softer so that's probably not my best option. Truck just passed 100k and one of the stock struts is leaking pretty good so I need to do something before too long.

 

[ram1500rsm]

@LumberJakl Wow, at least I'm not the only one who's finding out how bad these things are. I couldn't find any reviews on them when I bought them but decided to take a chance. Lesson learned, never doing that again. What's the approximate cost to get the fox 2.5 serviced? Do you have to ship them back to fox?

@ram1500rsm I'm not a hardcore offroader and not planning on doing any prerunner stuff, the only issue I've had with the stock suspension is I can't go over whoops at any more then 5mph, the suspension is too soft and throws the front end into the sand every time. My front bumper has been bent in more then once that way. Icon didn't ask much questions, just said there might be a problem with my set and they'll build me another. I asked about possibly a lighter coil but that was a no go. The issue with the Icons is just simply terrible design, cheap junk with a big price tag. Can't believe more people aren't talking about this.

Here's some pics from when the icons were installed. I yanked them back out a few hours after installing, certainly never took them on the dunes or anything. Those bricks probably would have rattled me and my truck apart.

View attachment 526478
View attachment 526479

I PMed @ThunderMug95 about it a while back when I installed them since I knew he had a set. His have the same lack of travel but he said he's been happy with the ride, I'm guessing he stays on road, maybe he can chime in.

Wow yes that dont seem like much up travel. It's IFS so is not exactly we have tons of travel in the front, but it should not be that little either going up. Not sure what's going as you have CV angles like something with 3" lift but you barely have any exposed shaft. What lift are you getting witht that preload ?
I don't know many people with the Icon setup so i can't tell you what to expect and what's normal for them. @hodge-xj was running the Icon setup, maybe he'll able to chime in.

Wait to see what's different in the new CO set from Icon. For Icon to come back to you and say they'll build you a new set because it appears this one is not right it's something you don't see every day.

If you have a chance can you lift the truck up from the crossmember and lift the wheels in the air? Measure from the top hat of the CO to your lower shock bolt eyelet.

 

[mrack]

Wow yes that dont seem like much up travel. It's IFS so is not exactly we have tons of travel in the front, but it should not be that little either going up. Not sure what's going as you have CV angles like something with 3" lift but you barely have any exposed shaft. What lift are you getting witht that preload ?
I don't know many people with the Icon setup so i can't tell you what to expect and what's normal for them. @hodge-xj was running the Icon setup, maybe he'll able to chime in.

Wait to see what's different in the new CO set from Icon. For Icon to come back to you and say they'll build you a new set because it appears this one is not right it's something you don't see every day.

If you have a chance can you lift the truck up from the crossmember and lift the wheels in the air? Measure from the top hat of the CO to your lower shock bolt eyelet.


View attachment 526488

Got exactly 2.5 inches, perfectly leveled my truck (which is an outdoorsman so a little higher in the back). Felt to me icon was more just throwing free stuff at the customer to make them happy then actually admitting to and trying to rectify the issue.

Oh, and I forgot to mention getting ahold of Icon was an absolute pain in the rear. After emailing every address I could find and messaging them every way possible I got nothing, what I ended up doing was leaving negative comments on every social media post they made, they got back to me realllll quick after that.

Like I said the icons are no longer in the truck, I actually sold them on marketplace for a few hundred bucks to recoup a little of my lost money. But if it would still help I could measure that.