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Introduction-
Like many of you, my wife and I ordered our Bronco the day the reservation banks opened in July of 2020, what else would you do during a pandemic? We lived in Austin TX at the time, so we went back and forth for weeks on which trim and options to select. We had started reading that depending on the options, it could delay your delivery date. This was going to be my wife's daily driver, and 99% of its life was going to be spend on asphalt. We choose a 2dr Outbanks non-sasquatch package with no add ons...well except for the weather floor mats. In April of 2021, we had an opportunity to move to rural Wyoming. And when I say rural, I mean we live on a dirt road 20 miles to the nearest paved Hwy, an hour to the nearest grocery store and an hour and a half to a Walmart. Because that's how we judge our lives now, is how far to the nearest Walmart. We flew back to Texas in October of 2021 to pick up the Bronco, which was a great road trip back to Wyoming. On the Hwy and paved roads, the Outbanks stock suspension is good. It always felt a little twitchy which I assumed was the short wheelbase. Once we got some miles on it and driving on dirt roads, trails, in the mud and snow; we felt this weird squishy wiggle in the rear end. It got to be where my wife did not want to drive the Bronco and would take my F150 instead. Now to be fair, I did put a 2.5" leveling kit with 34x11.50's on the OEM wheels. Not sure if this affected this in anyway. As any good husband would do, I saw this as an opportunity to make the Outbanks better than a sasquatch package. Side note, my F150 has ICON 2.5 front and rear with Resy's and ICON UCA's. I called Stage3Motorsports, who I went to for all my F150 parts (not sponsored from ICON or Stage3, I just really like their products and customer service). I went with a Stage 7 set-up with 2.5 CDCV front and rear, UCA's, Upper and Lower Links, Track Bar and Rebound Pro's 17x8.5 with 37x12.50's KM3. It looks amazing and the handling is night and day.
Review-
The ICON set-up is amazing, even with 37's, It handles amazing on the mountain roads. My wife could not believe how much difference the suspension made. Even that weird squishy wiggle in the rear was gone, the twitchiness of the Bronco is gone. I think that had a lot to do with the big stock rubber bushing in the rear links compared to the solid machined bushing on the ICON rear links. We have about 2500 miles and 2 months on the suspension now. The first 1000 miles or so, the suspension was pretty stiff, even on the softest setting. It's softened up a bit now, we run the resy's on 3 up front and 4 rear daily for the dirt roads with wash board and potholes. When we are on the Hwy or asphult, I'll run the front on 5 and 6 in the rear. We resently purchased an Airstream 16X to tow behind the Bronco. There was a little squat in the rear and felt a little soft with the 16X in the tongue. But I set the rear resy's to 10 and left the fronts at 5. It did great. Even with Hwy speeds on I-80 (some of you might know what I mean by that). My only disappointment is that the rear coilover bodies started to rust. They still perform great. I did contact ICON and they were great. They are being covered under warranty and looks like they will be sending a new set out for replacement. It seems that there was a platting issue on a few of the rears. Just another reason I really like ICON, their customer service.
When we were at Bronco Super Cel West, I got a chance to speak with Scott from ICON. I had told him about the suspension feeling stiff. He recommended that I give them a little time to see if they soften up. Scott also mentioned that ICON offers free custom tuning. Depending, if you are more Baja, street or rock crawler there is an option to dial your setup. I feel that given a little break in period, the setup that the 2.5 CDCV comes with, will be a pretty good all-round setup for 90% of Bronco owners.
Hope this has helped.
BN @AVC101
IG @elev7222
Like many of you, my wife and I ordered our Bronco the day the reservation banks opened in July of 2020, what else would you do during a pandemic? We lived in Austin TX at the time, so we went back and forth for weeks on which trim and options to select. We had started reading that depending on the options, it could delay your delivery date. This was going to be my wife's daily driver, and 99% of its life was going to be spend on asphalt. We choose a 2dr Outbanks non-sasquatch package with no add ons...well except for the weather floor mats. In April of 2021, we had an opportunity to move to rural Wyoming. And when I say rural, I mean we live on a dirt road 20 miles to the nearest paved Hwy, an hour to the nearest grocery store and an hour and a half to a Walmart. Because that's how we judge our lives now, is how far to the nearest Walmart. We flew back to Texas in October of 2021 to pick up the Bronco, which was a great road trip back to Wyoming. On the Hwy and paved roads, the Outbanks stock suspension is good. It always felt a little twitchy which I assumed was the short wheelbase. Once we got some miles on it and driving on dirt roads, trails, in the mud and snow; we felt this weird squishy wiggle in the rear end. It got to be where my wife did not want to drive the Bronco and would take my F150 instead. Now to be fair, I did put a 2.5" leveling kit with 34x11.50's on the OEM wheels. Not sure if this affected this in anyway. As any good husband would do, I saw this as an opportunity to make the Outbanks better than a sasquatch package. Side note, my F150 has ICON 2.5 front and rear with Resy's and ICON UCA's. I called Stage3Motorsports, who I went to for all my F150 parts (not sponsored from ICON or Stage3, I just really like their products and customer service). I went with a Stage 7 set-up with 2.5 CDCV front and rear, UCA's, Upper and Lower Links, Track Bar and Rebound Pro's 17x8.5 with 37x12.50's KM3. It looks amazing and the handling is night and day.
Review-
The ICON set-up is amazing, even with 37's, It handles amazing on the mountain roads. My wife could not believe how much difference the suspension made. Even that weird squishy wiggle in the rear was gone, the twitchiness of the Bronco is gone. I think that had a lot to do with the big stock rubber bushing in the rear links compared to the solid machined bushing on the ICON rear links. We have about 2500 miles and 2 months on the suspension now. The first 1000 miles or so, the suspension was pretty stiff, even on the softest setting. It's softened up a bit now, we run the resy's on 3 up front and 4 rear daily for the dirt roads with wash board and potholes. When we are on the Hwy or asphult, I'll run the front on 5 and 6 in the rear. We resently purchased an Airstream 16X to tow behind the Bronco. There was a little squat in the rear and felt a little soft with the 16X in the tongue. But I set the rear resy's to 10 and left the fronts at 5. It did great. Even with Hwy speeds on I-80 (some of you might know what I mean by that). My only disappointment is that the rear coilover bodies started to rust. They still perform great. I did contact ICON and they were great. They are being covered under warranty and looks like they will be sending a new set out for replacement. It seems that there was a platting issue on a few of the rears. Just another reason I really like ICON, their customer service.
When we were at Bronco Super Cel West, I got a chance to speak with Scott from ICON. I had told him about the suspension feeling stiff. He recommended that I give them a little time to see if they soften up. Scott also mentioned that ICON offers free custom tuning. Depending, if you are more Baja, street or rock crawler there is an option to dial your setup. I feel that given a little break in period, the setup that the 2.5 CDCV comes with, will be a pretty good all-round setup for 90% of Bronco owners.
Hope this has helped.
BN @AVC101
IG @elev7222
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