Icon stage 8 or Carli Kings for 4 door bronco?

[zathus]

I have a 2022 wildtrak with hoss 3.0. Currently has the zone lift to fit 37s since that was the only lift I found that was specific to the hoss 3.0. Does great but I'm looking to upgrade. I really wanted the Bilstein 8112's but there's no reliable information I can find that they will work comfortably with 37-in tires. They're meant for 35 so, they're out. I've been eyeing the icon stage 8. The idea of being able to adjust the via my phone seems pretty cool. Or the Carli King shocks tuned for the bronco. Any advice? Anybody have the icon or Carli?

Thanks

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[Hbrichman]

I don’t have any experience with Icon, but I ran Carli on my last truck (Ram 1500) and they were great. Never had a failure and the valving was perfect.. I was set on running Carli with the Bronco but ended up picking up slightly used Accutune King’s for a price I couldn’t pass up.

 

[F-Spot]

FYI, the Carli tuned Kings for the Bronco likely need aftermarket fenders for 37's to work.

 

[zathus]

FYI, the Carli tuned Kings for the Bronco likely need aftermarket fenders for 37's to work.

Interesting. I didn't realize that. Thanks for the heads up

 

[F-Spot]

Interesting. I didn't realize that. Thanks for the heads up

I suggest you contact Carli to confirm…just remember reading that was the case when they first released it. You may need to run factory wheels or aftermarket wheels with as close to factory positive offset to keep the tires stuffed within the fenders. Otherwise, aftermarket fenders is likely the way to go with the Carli kit.

 

[Squatch]

This is from @Carli-Dan when they were running 37s for R&D, so they should be able to advise you on it.

I'm running Icon Stage 4, got a good deal on it, but Carli does great stuff and I'm sure you can get 37s using them if you want. Check the whole thread too.

We focus on R&D. Running the sales and distribution for this company for the past 11 years has been amazing BUT, there's a constant pursuit of perfection that would drive a salesman nuts. I have MANY times, taken pictures and put things out in the web-world way too early and we're trying not to do that here. We want buzz to roll into preorders - that said, our R&D takes time.

Much of the hold-up has been Ford releasing alignment specs for these rigs. Most are carrying over specs from the Ranger platform or using the Bronco Sports. We waited for the 2021 Wildtrak to be loaded into the Hunter Rack we utilize to ensure we're building to the correct spec.

As we're going deep (steering and suspension), ensuring all plays well together is paramount. We had to alter the caster of our Billet upper arm to get the spec we wanted - this altered the toe-change through the travel spec. Factory sees over 3° of toe-change through travel with OEM Kings bolted in; we've got ours to half this after correcting caster.

Refinement takes time. We know we're missing the boat on the super eager to modify, but we're not willing to sacrifice our R&D process to be first to market. Kills me a little inside but it's in our DNA to perfect our offerings.



These won't be heims, they're encapsulated uniballs. We make the rod end into which it presses. We take an FK AIN12 (3/4" Bearing with 48,675 lbs. static load rating), press-fit our proprietary bushings onto the outer bearing race and press it into our housing. This provides a small amount of vibration damping to drastically extend the life of the uniball. We use this style in our Ram and Ford HD Track bars that see ungodly forces with awesome result.

We looked into isolating these from the elements but that amount of misalignment this joint needs to see without binding would make it impossible to spec a sealed boot.

That said, life should be LONG and replacement parts readily available and relatively cheap.



We're shooting to have our front upper arms, Carli-SPEC Kings, Rear Arms and track bar, front and rear bumpers and rock sliders available end of first quarter 2023. It's looking good!



I can't tell you all the judo on the geometry as that's locked up in engineering but it would make you sick to see the amount we've played with the steering system. We cycle all travel with no bind, add significant strength to the inner and outer tie-rod ends and cut the toe-change in half from factory steering with the Kings installed.



We run Factory Sasquatch Wildtrak wheels with Ford Performance Beadlock Rings and 37s. The resi clears fine on factory Sasquatch wheels/tires.

 

[Snacktime]

Neither, call @AccuTune Offroad and get something custom.

 

[Carli-Dan]

FYI, the Carli tuned Kings for the Bronco likely need aftermarket fenders for 37's to work.

Interesting. I didn't realize that. Thanks for the heads up

Our Kings are designed to bump in the same location as the factory SAS struts. We do this to maintain the stock tie-rod geometry. Pushing the bump location lower while increasing the travel is a dangerous prospect with the steering geometry of the Broncos.

We run the ADV fiberglass and the 37x12.5" tires still scrub at the top-center of the front fenders with the factory SAS wheels (converted to beadlocks). Nothing gets damaged, but it still rubs. For this reason, we recommend 35" tires on stock fenders or 37" tires on aftermarket fenders built to accommodate 37" tires.

We run these things in the dirt; we've had customers swear their 37" tires fit fine on stock fenders... They're definitely not using their Bronco to its potential as they'd be leaving their stock flares out in the desert. So, it depends on your use case as to what the best tire will be, but it's worth noting that a lot of people claim the 37" tires fit where they don't. We cycle our suspensions and ran this rig through (2) 1,100 mile Baja Trips before releasing it; we'll only sell and recommend what we know will work in this test environment.

 

[Baja Bronco]

Both good systems. I run the ICON Stage 8, no complaints. Well, the only complaint was I had to change my phone from a Droid to an iPhone, lol.

 

[zathus]

Both good systems. I run the ICON Stage 8, no complaints. Well, the only complaint was I had to change my phone from a Droid to an iPhone, lol.

Can you elaborate a little bit? What's your setup, use case. Ride vs stock. Any issues with the suspension real time adjustment?

Our Kings are designed to bump in the same location as the factory SAS struts. We do this to maintain the stock tie-rod geometry. Pushing the bump location lower while increasing the travel is a dangerous prospect with the steering geometry of the Broncos.

We run the ADV fiberglass and the 37x12.5" tires still scrub at the top-center of the front fenders with the factory SAS wheels (converted to beadlocks). Nothing gets damaged, but it still rubs. For this reason, we recommend 35" tires on stock fenders or 37" tires on aftermarket fenders built to accommodate 37" tires.

We run these things in the dirt; we've had customers swear their 37" tires fit fine on stock fenders... They're definitely not using their Bronco to its potential as they'd be leaving their stock flares out in the desert. So, it depends on your use case as to what the best tire will be, but it's worth noting that a lot of people claim the 37" tires fit where they don't. We cycle our suspensions and ran this rig through (2) 1,100 mile Baja Trips before releasing it; we'll only sell and recommend what we know will work in this test environment.

Excellent points and making me reconsider my direction. Maybe the fenders are the first obstacle and not the suspension

 

[Baja Bronco]

Can you elaborate a little bit? What's your setup, use case. Ride vs stock. Any issues with the suspension real time adjustment?

My set up - 22 OBX. ICON Stage 8 (billet, not tubes). 37x12.5x17 Toyo RTs, ICON Wheels. 19K miles 15k miles in Baja, the other 4K miles getting from my house to the border and back Once it’s adjusted, I really don’t move it. Full soft on road, 8 off road. Minimum or zero dive, and lean. Not sure if that’s what you wanted?


Excellent points and making me reconsider my direction. Maybe the fenders are the first obstacle and not the suspension

 

[Carli-Dan]

Excellent points and making me reconsider my direction. Maybe the fenders are the first obstacle and not the suspension

That's what we did. Got all the body work done first as ADV told us the fenders would clear, then worked with KMC on some "tank" beadlocks in 0 offset that we were told would fit the 37" tires to the ADV perfectly. With the fenders on, we brought the bronco in, mounted the beadlocks and cycled the Kings to find it didn't clear AT ALL. Not throwing shade at anyone, but no one cycled anything before making recommendations which was a bummer. There was no way to make the ADV liners work so we tossed those. We ended up using the stock liner to the pinch weld, then made our own to bridge the gap to the fender.

The 0 offset poked the tires too far; that's how we ended up back at the SAS wheels with Ford Performance beadlock rings. We cycled this combo and trimmed what we had to and it cleared everywhere but the very top of the wheel arch.

Once we got there, we sent it off for paint. Then, ADV Released their larger fenders that CJC Offroad ran on their first-edition build that were a much better clearance option.

 

[zathus]

I ended up going with the Icon CDEV set. not the full stage 8 kit. got a smoking deal on FB for 2100 for the 4. install and work great! but even if a seal goes quickly still worth it as rebuilds are not that expensive

 

[SmilingSasquatch]

I'd go with the Icon Stage 8 since you already want to run 37s and the phone adjustment feature is pretty sweet for dialing it in on different terrain.

 

[Wildtrak_Bobby]

Our Kings are designed to bump in the same location as the factory SAS struts. We do this to maintain the stock tie-rod geometry. Pushing the bump location lower while increasing the travel is a dangerous prospect with the steering geometry of the Broncos.

We run the ADV fiberglass and the 37x12.5" tires still scrub at the top-center of the front fenders with the factory SAS wheels (converted to beadlocks). Nothing gets damaged, but it still rubs. For this reason, we recommend 35" tires on stock fenders or 37" tires on aftermarket fenders built to accommodate 37" tires.

We run these things in the dirt; we've had customers swear their 37" tires fit fine on stock fenders... They're definitely not using their Bronco to its potential as they'd be leaving their stock flares out in the desert. So, it depends on your use case as to what the best tire will be, but it's worth noting that a lot of people claim the 37" tires fit where they don't. We cycle our suspensions and ran this rig through (2) 1,100 mile Baja Trips before releasing it; we'll only sell and recommend what we know will work in this test environment.

@Carli-Dan

Could you cycle fully on a 35 with a 0mm wheel after putting on the kings?

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