The Ford Super Duty is synonymous with rugged durability and long-term reliability. Throughout the years, it has become a must-have truck for those looking to get the most out of a pickup truck. It’s built with heavy-duty components combined with tough looks, meaning for Ford dealers when it was new. With truck enthusiasts wanting to build custom rigs, the popularity of the Super Duty is definitely due to its ease of upgrades. Take for instance its simple leaf- and coil-spring suspension. For those wanting to upgrade a Super Duty suspension, doing so means not having to deal with a maze of brackets, control arms, and two days of install time at a professional shop. That is where a company like ICON Vehicle Dynamics excels in delivering everything a truck owner could need.
Although a lift does make the install somewhat easier, this can be done in your driveway with jack stands and simple hand tools.
With an untold number of Super Duty trucks on the road, and plenty of owners willing to take advantage of their lift-friendly suspensions, several suspension companies offer lift kits for them. So how do you pick one lift kit over another? The answer is simple: quality. It is ICON’s reputation for delivering a quality lift that caught the eye of Sean Egloff when he was looking to “level” his 2017 Super Duty, and he selected Icon’s 2-1/2-inch Stage 4 Suspension System.
The new ICON dual rate springs are similar to a progressive rate spring. However, a dual rate spring’s progression is from a first rate (flex rate) to a second rate (ride or road rate) as opposed to the continually changing rate of a traditional progressive rate spring.
This ICON suspension system is a leveling kit that delivers so much more than just a raised front end and a leveled truck. It’s a well-thought-out kit designed to not only raise the front of your truck, but also deliver great ride quality and performance. The Stage 4 system is designed for truck owners who use their trucks on- and off-road. And if you’re towing, hauling, or working a job site, the Stage 4 kit is right at home. Unlike lesser-quality leveling kits that only supply spacer blocks to install between the front coils and the truck frame, ICON’s Stage 4 System combines dual-rate coil springs, alignment cams, ICON CDC Valve 2.5 Aluminum Series front remote reservoir and rear piggyback reservoir shocks, and an all-new adjustable track bar designed specifically for the 2017-up Super Duty.
The stock Super Duty track bar measures 36.625 inches from eye to eye. The ICON adjustable track bar is adjustable from 36.75 inches to 37.75 inches and benefits from a massive FK rod end at one end, along with a greaseable and replaceable OE-style ball joint at the other end.
The Parts Of This Super Duty Suspension Lift
By ordering a kit, Sean received front coil springs (P/N: 62510) which are designed to deliver the ultimate performance and ride quality, while allowing for increased wheel travel, and the fitment of larger tires. The dual-rate design allows for a softer initial spring rate to deliver smooth road comfort and a firmer secondary rate that increases during compression for excellent bottoming-out resistance and off-road performance. Caster correction cams are also included to ensure proper caster angle with the new, taller ride height.
Next up are the ICON Vehicle Specific (V.S.) 2.5 Aluminum Series shocks (P/N: 67800CP front and P/N: 37705CP rear). These rebuildable shocks are designed and built specifically for each application in both length and damping tune. Like all of ICON’s shock absorbers, V.S. 2.5 Aluminum Series shocks are 100-percent revalveable. This additional force helps prevent harsh bottom-outs and controls the suspension when compressing at high velocity. The ICON CDC Valve is an externally adjustable valve incorporated into the reservoir that restricts oil flow into the reservoir which creates 10 levels of compression damping force ranges.
The ICON front shocks feature a remote reservoir that mounts to a supplied bracket. The shocks are a nitrogen-charged monotube design with a remote reservoir with valving technology that allows for 10 levels of high-resolution compression adjustability with the turn of a knob.
Finally, adding a lift to your truck will require a new adjustable track bar. The reason is that the factory non-adjustable bar will not allow the front axle to remain centered when the suspension is lifted, necessitating the adjustable bar to bring it into place.
Was It Worth The Work
Although the images and captions will give you an idea of how the install is accomplished, this article is not assembled as an installation guide for you to follow when upgrading your truck, you get one of those when you get the kit. Although I do feel it pertinent to let you know that Sean said the install took roughly half of a day for the guys at 4-Wheel Performance to complete. However, what we will get into is whether or not the kit delivers on its ride quality and performance enhancements it is supposed to give.
At 21 mph, Sean says there was a noticeable softening of drive feel at this speed. The noise of hitting bumps was reduced and the cinder blocks bounced less. He also noticed a substantial reduction in g-forces being exerted when driving over those bumps. At 29 mph he noticed a significantly improved feel when hitting the bumps. General noise was also significantly reduced. The cinder block bouncing around in the bed was also much less.
To get some solid — albeit somewhat “unscientific” results — Sean even did some real-world testing with a g-force-vs-time sensor in three axes (up/down, left/right, fore/aft). One test was with the truck driving with a cruise control setting at 21 mph, the other was done at 29 mph. The same route that included three significant bumps was utilized for both tests. For additional feedback, he even added a few cinder blocks in the bed of the truck to get an idea of how much any items in the bed would be thrown around.
“Anecdotally, the ride is significantly improved,” says Sean. “The feel is so much smoother, the side-to-side sway/stability is very much improved. The visual stance of the truck being leveled out also looks a lot better. In some sense, it also makes me feel like the truck ‘drives smaller’. The smoothness of the ride doesn’t make it seem so much like I’m driving around in a big clunky truck.”
Whether you’re thinking about leveling your Super Duty or even making reach the stars with a serious lift, ICON Vehicle Dynamics has what you need, and when your installation is complete you know you can haul a few cinder blocks around and they will not bounce around in the bad any more than when your truck was stock.
