Interesting to hear. I have not heard the negative reviews on reliability and customer service so I need to dig in more. From the few reviews I have read along with speaking to local shops where I live, Icon seems well respected. From what I have been reading I am getting essentially that King is best for off-road and specifically racing off road and can be a bit soft on the road. Dobinsons for customizing for additional weight added to truck typical with overlanding.
I am super happy with my King shocks + Total Chaos UCA. It is adjustable, so you can get firmer on street if you want.
Icon has a really wide range of options (12 stages?) which makes choosing the right setup a little bit challenging imo especially if someone tries to DIY. Maybe if a shop configures and installs an Icon, it will be ok like you mention. It's great that the better setups have the ability to fine tune a suspension with high and low speed compression adjustment (for example). I also like that Radflo is willing to customize at their factory their spring rates like Dobinsons.
I put a full king setup on my Tacoma and was very happy with on road driving performance. They did not feel too soft in the least. The biggest frustration I had was them rusting as I am in the salt belt. The rust was significant enough that it has kind of put me off aftermarket suspension at all on my LC. That being said… I did 10 hours of driving this weekend and was thinking about suspension improvements.
this too is interesting as I live on the ocean. Icons are aluminum.
I might be reading it incorrectly but looking at the King options on Accutune, the listing mentions 6061-T6 aluminum: Kit: 2024+ Land Cruiser 250 King 2.5 Shocks W/Adjusters – AccuTune Off-Road
I've watched the Overland and the Dirt King videos blind testing shocks. At this point, I'm pretty convinced that Bilstein is likely the way to go to get a true upgrade at a fair price.
I'm in the same boat, ordered my Dobinsons MRR kit 3 weeks ago, hope to get them by the end of the month. My shop has been in contact with the Dobinsons folks about the proper setup, hopefully they continue the support after installation so we can get the tuning right. I have to believe that with 3 controls an appropriate tune can be dialed in, but frustrating that the Overland Outfitter folks weren't able to get a recommended tune that worked well. Awaiting the follow up video, a little nervous too.
I was thinking the same thing last night watching that Dobinsons video. Might be worth waiting a while longer for them to come out with their product.
The other option is Accutune. They may actually provide the best end-user product. Accutune takes the King shocks and tunes them specifically for the LC.
I'm thinking that any of the upgrade suspensions that are offered OEM for the 6th generation 4Runner (Fox, Bilstein, Old Man Emu) will be well tested and durable choices when they are available for the LC250.
I've had the same thoughts. But, the shocks and springs will not be tuned specifically to the LC. I'm wondering if the Fox TRD shocks that will be on the 4Runner TRD Pro would fit on the LC. The GVWR of the LC is 6725 and the 4Runner TRD Pro is 6780 (pretty close). Of course, just changing out the wheels and tires will also change the performance of our suspension (unsprung weight change). It'll be interesting to see if the lower and upper control arms are the same or different as well.
I got this same suspension setup, except paired with the Icon 2" rear springs - love it so far!
These suspensions IMO will also have the benefit of having passed the Toyota OEM testing/R&D process. Maybe like other builders they will also accommodate different spring rates or lengths.
Loving my King setup with Camberg UCAs. I was between King and Dobinsons MRR which I had before and would have been happy either way, I just got a deal on the Kings.
