So many times I have been late to the party. This time, I was given an awesome opportunity! UPS delivered the only two sets of the IronMan Foamcell Pro suspensions in the US (for the FJ) to my front door! We're installing them Sunday and let the testing begin! There are two sets on display at SEMA if I am not mistaken, but we have the first two sets in captivity!
Nice looking shocks Nick, they are so dark it's hard to tell but the front shock spring is fully adjustable allowing installation from Stk to approx 3" lift ride height??
Are these expected to be available to everyone soon and any idea of cost.
Looking forward to the reviews.
I will check with IM and see when the next load is on the boat. They will be available though all IM distributors at some point. I was just lucky enough to be the first one to grab them for testing. I can't quote costs out loud here, but the kit including UCA's will competitively priced. The awesome thing about IronMan is that they police their Min Advertised Price program so you'll see that pricing pretty even across all the vendors.
Interesting new setup. Look forward to you review. Also, could you do me a favor? Can u measure the distance from the top mounting surface to the bottom shock hole? So that I can compare the maximum down travel due to coilovers to my Toytec BOSS, which is a similar setup.
My toytec only gives me 1.5" down travel. I have LR UCA and no swaybar. I'm 99% sure it's the coilovers limiting the travel so i want to compare the just coilover's at extended length.
We'll measure up the uninstalled length at full extension compared to stock before we install it.
I'll also make some notes on the final preload distance as well to make install a little more easy to fine tune.
The only little hiccup was that we had to trim some metal over the rear shock hardware to be able to get two wrenches in there to tighten up the hardware.
Hopefully by next weekend we'll be able to get some video of it in work and a ride report. We have one rig with no sway bar and one with. Also, we had to relocate the sway bar using the All Pro kit to keep the sway bar off of the shock spring.
Nice! It does looks good and thanks for the measurement. The shock being 1" longer than stock is a lot if I'm not mistaken. Are they specified as extended travel coilovers? How does it compare to 22.25"? This is the fully extended length of my coilovers from top plate to shock mount hole.
Well, when I said we were doing testing, I meant it!
We spent several hours today in the desert on all sorts of terrain and checking all sorts of speed ranges. Honestly, I could not be more impressed! This is going to be a great "all purpose" suspension for both a DD and trail rig. It is not a long travel, rock crawling suspension but for your average off road enthusiast it certainly fits the bill.
Somebody here has asked about height. The IM specs say two inches, but we came out at three over stock with the performance springs in the rear.
The other unique thing about these is that they are not nitrogen charged. These have the new foam cell material in the space where the nitrogen would have been. The biggest place I noticed the effect of this was on the rear shocks. My truck gets squierrely in the loose stuff especially if the trail is washboarded. I drove both of the test rigs today and I can't even begin to explain how comfy the ride was.
We were lucky enough to get the first set to test in North America. The Aussie's had already ran them through the ringer there. The next boat arrives somewhere around the middle of December so there should be North American stock before the new year.
Found out today that there will also be an extended travel version of the Foam Cell Pro! Pretty cool, and Iron Man is going to price them out at the same as their standard travel setup! Obviously the extended travel will require a UCA change.
Earlier you wrote, "The IM specs say two inches, but we came out at three over stock with the performance springs in the rear." Was that referring to the rear lift?
I would like the ability to make the truck level. If its lifting it 3" in the rear I doubt that'd be possible.
If you want just level, then go with the front shocks alone and adjust the preload accordingly. :rocker: You can also add the rear shocks. One thing people don't get is that a three inch lift on the front of the FJ will sometimes be four or five inches over the stock ride because of that stink bug droop that they have. :lol:
Nick,
Will the rear foam cell shock work OK with the factory spring and no lift?
I would think they wouldn't as they are probably too long to manage the increased lift.
Please clarify.
Could you please compare this kit vs Boss?
Thanks so much!
The Foam Cell will not fit the factory front springs.
I am not even sure how to compare them. They are two very different animals. First, the IM rears shocks are 2.5" bodies. They are just massive. Also, the FC Pro has no gas charge like the other brands. They have way more fluid volume and much better rebound dampening.
Thank you so much for the Review! I'm planning to buy a set of these within the next few weeks but was trying to decide between the firm or soft valving. Was wondering what you used for the tests.
Regarding mods that have added weight to my rig, I have a steel front bumper, 12,000 pound steel rope winch, steel rear bumper, rock sliders, and 33" MTs with steel wheels.
Nice review Nick...This is a really nice looking shock that could be a good option for those that don't want or need the rebuildable feature and cost of the higher priced products yet still get a fully adjustable spring compression. Any Idea of the compression rate of the spring, and are optional rates available.
^^^What.... Never would happen. :lol:
Dam risky though if you don't do the declaration, get caught you could loose your entire rig for a while or forever. We get bent over real bad dollar wise being honest. It sure would be nice to see more stuff on this side... Hint to vendors. :lol:
How does the canadian government know what parts you change on your vehicle and where you had the parts changed? Do they take a record of your vehicle when you enter the states and then check it again when you enter Canada?
Yeah, they have info on all of that. They can tell if you put a bunch of weight in and it's sitting an inch lower so in sure they could tell if you put a lift on....you'd have to be pretty suspicious for them to actually check the records tho.
Foam Cell shocks always scare me... Yes they are rather difficult to fade, but if you do, they dont recover when they cool down... they will need a rebuild... To me that is not acceptable on a rig you depend on. Most Aussie guys dont use foamcell for this very reason. Has this issue been resolved in the ironman shocks?
It absolutely has. The issues that the Aussies faced was several years ago. For the general off roader in our country, these will be the ideal shock. We tried to destroy them and could not. :rocker: That is aside from the engineering tests that were done in the lab.
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