New parts installed (ICON, Core 4x4, Hellwig, SuspensionMaxx)

[MidwestExpress]

Could possibly be the torque wrench is inaccurate if it’s an off brand. Loosen the bolts again, drive back and forth 5-10feet a few times and then re torque

Loosen the UCA bolts and jump on the bumper then retorque Aligment shouldnt have changed so it's weird the truck is pulling to the right. could be also the wrench is messed up and you ended up with more torque as quick shifter has also indicated.

Thanks guys, I haven't tried yet but in the next couple days I'll give your recommendations a shot. The truck is pretty much just sitting nowadays, so it's not like I have to listen to the squeaks on the drive to work or anything but obviously do want to get it resolved.

 

[MidwestExpress]

Today I loosened the UCA frame bolts and drove the truck back & forth a bit in the driveway + bounced on the bumper and door sills some. The squeaks are there no matter how loose or tight I go with the UCA frame bolts while bouncing it. It seems to be happening on both sides. It may not be the UCA frame bolts? Are your trucks 100% silent when you bounce them? When driving, I only hear them over larger bumps with the windows down and radio off. I'm starting to question if I ever drove like that before to know if the squeaks really started just this week after adding grease or if they were there before and I just never noticed.

Everything visually looks good with the suspension and feels fine when driving. I'm actually gonna see my brother-in-law tomorrow and will have him bounce it a little while I crawl underneath and try to pinpoint the sound better. I'm not driving Miss Daisy, so some squeak that I only hear on large bumps, with the windows down and radio off isn't the end of the world as long as it doesn't indicate some physical issues with the parts down the road.

 

[hodge-xj]

Icon seems to be notorious for this issue with alot of their product applications. When i was active on the f150 forums it was much the same. So I dont think you did anything wrong. IIRC, it's the bushings squeaking in the UCA not the mount. I've seen some guys get a single wrap of Teflon tape around the bushes before putting them in the UCA and that worked, but that requires disassembly and is a PITA.



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[ram1500rsm]

Do you have a piece of fuel or trans hose laying around long enough you can use it as a stethoscope?. Have somebody jumping on the door sills while you listen with the hose around the bushings area.

My ICI bumper can also make a noise that if I didn't know better I'll say it was my UCA bushings squeaking loudly. Using the hose I did determine the noise was coming from a couple of bolt/nuts from 2 brackets in the front that are held by another bracket connected to my body mounts. It's an easy fix I just have to loosen up those bolts and re-tighten until the next time the truck is in the dirt again so Ive learned to live with it. I've thought of using nylon washers on those two bolts to see if I can improve the design but I think they'll make that noise no matter what because metal vs metal action in that particular spot. Dirt makes the bumper sing

Another thing in my case that makes a similar sqweaky noise is the Mopar oil pan skid when the bolts are a tad loose. And it's loud as well when that happens

 

[MidwestExpress]

Icon seems to be notorious for this issue with alot of their product applications. When i was active on the f150 forums it was much the same. So I dont think you did anything wrong. IIRC, it's the bushings squeaking in the UCA not the mount. I've seen some guys get a single wrap of Teflon tape around the bushes before putting them in the UCA and that worked, but that requires disassembly and is a PITA.



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I did read on other forums about Icon (and other brands with poly's) UCA squeak before I bought them - in most of the cases I read, it seemed to be resolved with regular greasing, which I figured that I'd be able to do no prob (why I greased them earlier this week). Good idea on the Teflon, it may be something I try if I decide to go that in depth with it. Icon hasn't responded to my inquiry btw.

 

[MidwestExpress]

Do you have a piece of fuel or trans hose laying around long enough you can use it as a stethoscope?. Have somebody jumping on the door sills while you listen with the hose around the bushings area.

My ICI bumper can also make a noise that if I didn't know better I'll say it was my UCA bushings squeaking loudly. Using the hose I did determine the noise was coming from a couple of bolt/nuts from 2 brackets in the front that are held by another bracket connected to my body mounts. It's an easy fix I just have to loosen up those bolts and re-tighten until the next time the truck is in the dirt again so Ive learned to live with it. I've thought of using nylon washers on those two bolts to see if I can improve the design but I think they'll make that noise no matter what because metal vs metal action in that particular spot. Dirt makes the bumper sing

Another thing in my case that makes a similar sqweaky noise is the Mopar oil pan skid when the bolts are a tad loose. And it's loud as well when that happens

Thanks, I haven't had someone else bounce it while I'm underneath yet. I'll definitely use a hose to pinpoint better.

 

[crazykid1994]

Any chance you’ve gone off-road with this setup yet? Curious how the valving reacts in the icon setup. I kinda looked away from them due to a more linear valving but they might be perfect for my plans. I don’t plan on any high speed dunes or desert running. More aimed at off-road trails. I have bilstein 5100s with my eibach coils and these handle decently but I have no experience otherwise and have been thinking about custom valved kings from thuren but need something with more weight capabilities due to my off-road bumper and plans to add a winch

 

[hodge-xj]

Any chance you’ve gone off-road with this setup yet? Curious how the valving reacts in the icon setup. I kinda looked away from them due to a more linear valving but they might be perfect for my plans. I don’t plan on any high speed dunes or desert running. More aimed at off-road trails. I have bilstein 5100s with my eibach coils and these handle decently but I have no experience otherwise and have been thinking about custom valved kings from thuren but need something with more weight capabilities due to my off-road bumper and plans to add a winch

Honestly, when myself, ram1500rsm, revit, bruiser ram, joshuaeb, and a couple others were discussing all the workings of the way coilovers etc feel it's so subjective that without a ride along it's hard to convey. King and fox will feel much more plush on road being progressive. Especially if you get some tuned units. Icon and my 6112s are a bit more sporty feeling being linear/digressive. It's the initial moment of impact that you feel a difference, especially on things like chatter and pot holes. If you aren't gonna be hitting high speed **** hard, thuren stage 2 or 3 should ride like clouds on road and allow low speed compliance offroad. Won't really need to get into harder hits to get the valving to feel plush. I believe ram1500rsm is up to stage 6 for his use and he never has a bad thing to say with kings. My buddy with a taco BEATS his icon setup and loves it. Kinda just which flavor you like best. Thuren, accutune, icon all can get a higher rate coil on there for ya to compensate for the add ons.

The difference in 5100s to 6112s was huge, so anything you jump into will be so much better I csnt imagine you'll be unhappy. And being down south, you don't have the winter demons to consider which is what steered me away from those options due to such frequent rebuild intervals. Open the wallet and you'll buy miles of smiles

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[MidwestExpress]

Any chance you’ve gone off-road with this setup yet? Curious how the valving reacts in the icon setup. I kinda looked away from them due to a more linear valving but they might be perfect for my plans. I don’t plan on any high speed dunes or desert running. More aimed at off-road trails. I have bilstein 5100s with my eibach coils and these handle decently but I have no experience otherwise and have been thinking about custom valved kings from thuren but need something with more weight capabilities due to my off-road bumper and plans to add a winch

Living on the KS/MO stateline, my off roading consists of unkept gravel/dirt roads and farm land. Typically flat land, without any steep inclines/declines. I don't do any rock crawling type stuff. There are some off road parks within a half days drive, but I've never been. My suspension setup is overkill for what I really need. I had 5100s on stock springs for a long time and they did an ok job, but I had to brace myself for hard hits often and wanted to be able to drive faster and have less fear of the next bump. This Icon setup has worked out great, it smooths out the little stuff and reacts better to the bigger stuff than the 5100s.

I'm far from a suspension guru - the 5100s, then this Icon setup are the only suspension mods that I've ever done to any vehicle beyond throwing in yellow Bilsteins on a 2001 Ford Ranger that I used to have. It's not what I would consider a "soft" suspension - I'd bet King & Fox are softer, but I don't mind a firm suspension and a truck feeling like a truck.

 

[crazykid1994]

Honestly, when myself, ram1500rsm, revit, bruiser ram, joshuaeb, and a couple others were discussing all the workings of the way coilovers etc feel it's so subjective that without a ride along it's hard to convey. King and fox will feel much more plush on road being progressive. Especially if you get some tuned units. Icon and my 6112s are a bit more sporty feeling being linear/digressive. It's the initial moment of impact that you feel a difference, especially on things like chatter and pot holes. If you aren't gonna be hitting high speed **** hard, thuren stage 2 or 3 should ride like clouds on road and allow low speed compliance offroad. Won't really need to get into harder hits to get the valving to feel plush. I believe ram1500rsm is up to stage 6 for his use and he never has a bad thing to say with kings. My buddy with a taco BEATS his icon setup and loves it. Kinda just which flavor you like best. Thuren, accutune, icon all can get a higher rate coil on there for ya to compensate for the add ons.

The difference in 5100s to 6112s was huge, so anything you jump into will be so much better I csnt imagine you'll be unhappy. And being down south, you don't have the winter demons to consider which is what steered me away from those options due to such frequent rebuild intervals. Open the wallet and you'll buy miles of smiles

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Living on the KS/MO stateline, my off roading consists of unkept gravel/dirt roads and farm land. Typically flat land, without any steep inclines/declines. I don't do any rock crawling type stuff. There are some off road parks within a half days drive, but I've never been. My suspension setup is overkill for what I really need. I had 5100s on stock springs for a long time and they did an ok job, but I had to brace myself for hard hits often and wanted to be able to drive faster and have less fear of the next bump. This Icon setup has worked out great, it smooths out the little stuff and reacts better to the bigger stuff than the 5100s.

I'm far from a suspension guru - the 5100s, then this Icon setup are the only suspension mods that I've ever done to any vehicle beyond throwing in yellow Bilsteins on a 2001 Ford Ranger that I used to have. It's not what I would consider a "soft" suspension - I'd bet King & Fox are softer, but I don't mind a firm suspension and a truck feeling like a truck.

Thank you to both of you for your very detailed response. Everyone says that Bilstein 5100 are bottom line which I agree with. They’re cheap just basically for a more firm controlled ride over factory with a mild lift. Given that these have treated me well over the last 15-20000 miles and I’ve had no complaints with the, I’m scared that swapping to something of better quality is going to ruin me for life I hear everyone saying how well the icons and fox and other brands ride over the bilstein 5100. I hate to admit but I’ve gotten air off these washboards down here in Florida once or twice and surprisingly the bilstein 5100 front and rear with eibach coils front and rear have held up decently and have definitely been abused beyond what I have expected out of them.

 

[joshuaeb09]

Any chance you’ve gone off-road with this setup yet? Curious how the valving reacts in the icon setup. I kinda looked away from them due to a more linear valving but they might be perfect for my plans. I don’t plan on any high speed dunes or desert running. More aimed at off-road trails. I have bilstein 5100s with my eibach coils and these handle decently but I have no experience otherwise and have been thinking about custom valved kings from thuren but need something with more weight capabilities due to my off-road bumper and plans to add a winch

Like @hodge-xj pointed out we've all talked about it a lot in detail, but only doing a ride along if you can will let you know what you want. I had 5100's w/ Eibach springs and wasn't happy with my bumper on it, but I also had the 1st batch of them that didn't perform as advertised. I ended up getting what I wanted which was the Kings after much deliberation on cheaper solutions that @hodge-xl can attest to lol. With my ranch hand bumper the higher spring rate with lower preload on the large body King's was the ticket to the ride I'm after on and off road.

I might get them re-valved when I need to rebuild them, but the off the shelf valving actually isn't a bad jack of all trades for my uses. They're nice when I want to go fast in gravel, nice on the highway, handle the **** farm roads quite well, still handle doing truck things well, and don't do bad going slow or fast in the field. Best thing about the high end coil overs is you can have them tuned to do exactly what you want them to do if the off the shelf valving isn't what you're after.

 

[crazykid1994]

Like @hodge-xj pointed out we've all talked about it a lot in detail, but only doing a ride along if you can will let you know what you want. I had 5100's w/ Eibach springs and wasn't happy with my bumper on it, but I also had the 1st batch of them that didn't perform as advertised. I ended up getting what I wanted which was the Kings after much deliberation on cheaper solutions that @hodge-xl can attest to lol. With my ranch hand bumper the higher spring rate with lower preload on the large body King's was the ticket to the ride I'm after on and off road.

I might get them re-valved when I need to rebuild them, but the off the shelf valving actually isn't a bad jack of all trades for my uses. They're nice when I want to go fast in gravel, nice on the highway, handle the **** farm roads quite well, still handle doing truck things well, and don't do bad going slow or fast in the field. Best thing about the high end coil overs is you can have them tuned to do exactly what you want them to do if the off the shelf valving isn't what you're after.

Well I’m running batch 4 from eibach and only received 2” on the first notch... set to the second notch I’m around 2.5”.
they don’t ride bad compared to stock springs. Definitely different than stock. My bumper is only about 80 lbs so not super heavy but you know it’s there. I’m stuck trying to figure out what’s best for my application since I’m new to this. I agree it would be easier if I knew people closer with those other brands to test ride in.

 

[joshuaeb09]

Well I’m running batch 4 from eibach and only received 2” on the first notch... set to the second notch I’m around 2.5”.
they don’t ride bad compared to stock springs. Definitely different than stock. My bumper is only about 80 lbs so not super heavy but you know it’s there. I’m stuck trying to figure out what’s best for my application since I’m new to this. I agree it would be easier if I knew people closer with those other brands to test ride in. View attachment 202275

Yea with just 80 lbs you won't need to go as heavy on springs. The shipping weight on my full guard bumper was like 190 if I remember correctly without the pallet it came on. Sticking all that weight out at the end wasn't really kind to the Eibachs and on notch 3 they didn't ride so hot after a while even though they did get it back off the ground. I mean it wasn't terrible, but washboard like the gravel road I live on was annoying enough to prompt the upgrade. I did add the load range C2 Toyo's before the swap and they helped quite a bit, but the bills with those springs that preloaded just couldn't keep things controlled to my liking.

 

[crazykid1994]

Yea with just 80 lbs you won't need to go as heavy on springs. The shipping weight on my full guard bumper was like 190 if I remember correctly without the pallet it came on. Sticking all that weight out at the end wasn't really kind to the Eibachs and on notch 3 they didn't ride so hot after a while even though they did get it back off the ground. I mean it wasn't terrible, but washboard like the gravel road I live on was annoying enough to prompt the upgrade. I did add the load range C2 Toyo's before the swap and they helped quite a bit, but the bills with those springs that preloaded just couldn't keep things controlled to my liking.

Well with plans to add a winch... my weight will be going up. Thankfully the winch isn’t going on for a couple years. Not till I plan on using it as a camping rig and doing a build on it. I tried to keep to a lightweight low profile bumper

 

[hodge-xj]

Thank you to both of you for your very detailed response. Everyone says that Bilstein 5100 are bottom line which I agree with. They’re cheap just basically for a more firm controlled ride over factory with a mild lift. Given that these have treated me well over the last 15-20000 miles and I’ve had no complaints with the, I’m scared that swapping to something of better quality is going to ruin me for life I hear everyone saying how well the icons and fox and other brands ride over the bilstein 5100. I hate to admit but I’ve gotten air off these washboards down here in Florida once or twice and surprisingly the bilstein 5100 front and rear with eibach coils front and rear have held up decently and have definitely been abused beyond what I have expected out of them.

Going to a performance suspension will ruin your perspective of "nice" moving forward. So just prepare for it. It all started for me when I put thuren stuff under my 2500 and it rode amazing for what a 3/4 ton truck is.

Even my 6112/fox/ Frankenstein setup rides leaps and bounds above a stock truck. I spend most of my time behind the wheel commuting so I have quite an "in tune" relationship with my rig. It makes the experience so much more enjoyable overall, doesn't matter if it's gnarly pothole and broken pavement or offroad washboard, a nice suspension makes enough difference that it's normally the only thing I voluntarily sink money into immediately. For as indecisive as I am at most things, I'll always swap suspension for the best I can afford.

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[ram1500rsm]

Well I’m running batch 4 from eibach and only received 2” on the first notch... set to the second notch I’m around 2.5”.
they don’t ride bad compared to stock springs. Definitely different than stock. My bumper is only about 80 lbs so not super heavy but you know it’s there. I’m stuck trying to figure out what’s best for my application since I’m new to this. I agree it would be easier if I knew people closer with those other brands to test ride in. View attachment 202275

The Eibachs may have same/close to factory coil spring rate ? but longer. If we only knew the factory spring rate things will be easier. My ICI front Bumper is 80lbs and i rock 160-200lbs extra, courtesy of steel rock sliders as well that add weight across front/center and rear of the truck. My Kings have 500lbs/inch spring and they seem enough for the task. Kings OE are 14" long and 500lbs/inch while Icons OE are 13" long and 650lbs/inch rate, You'll have an extra 300lbs per inch of weigh support in the front but 1" shorter springs. i guess one will wash the other depending on what you'll have in the front. I have 1" of preload above my King adjusters which for most applications seem ideal.
2020-04-13_04-31-53 by RAM RSM, on Flickr

2020-04-13_04-31-42 by RAM RSM, on Flickr

If you look at the Icons open thread from the factory, they also have about 1" for 2.5" lift
This is from BruiserRAM Install thread

 

[crazykid1994]

Given the winch I’m looking at is 80 lbs with Rope that will put close to 180 lbs on the front of my truck after I add the winch tray. Plus I have plans to get rock sliders and am in the process of figuring out how to fully belly pan the truck. Most likely will end up using aluminum for weight savings.

 

[ram1500rsm]

Don't worry about springs and weight support . If you want Kings or Fox or Icon or Radflo, you can get up to 700lbs/inch springs and they could even vary length if that rate wasn't enough plus you can get the springs when you place the order. King makes their own springs. Fox and Radflo use Eibach, I think Icon makes their own spring. King has more spring options so really front weight support is not a problem at all when it comes to performance coilovers.