ICON XD Forged Tie Rods

[Rick Astley]

No worries, this is a great discussion!

I like that you're happy with outside dialog while on the topic as a whole. It speaks well of your company and its ambitions within an industry it participates in!

A specific question for you: do you think this product is still on target with having production units to sell soon? If so, what's your current target?

(Of course knowing that dates and timeliness are not set in stone these days)

 

[Dusty at ICON]

I like that you're happy with outside dialog while on the topic as a whole. It speaks well of your company and its ambitions within an industry it participates in!

A specific question for you: do you think this product is still on target with having production units to sell soon? If so, what's your current target?

(Of course knowing that dates and timeliness are not set in stone these days)

We're still on track for the target date I mentioned in the first post: some time in January.

We try to stay open-handed about discussions in our threads, even when we're taking our lumps LOL.

 

[Ramble_Offroad]

Hey Dusty, thanks for keeping us in the loop. Looking forward to these.

Is Icon still thinking these will not be compatible with the HOSS 3.0 steering rack? If not, why? I’m considering a rack swap.

cheers.

 

[Inlinejohn]

@Dusty at ICON
What is the advantage and reasoning for keeping a similar shape to OEM tie rod compared to other mfgs that have solid billet straight tie rods?

 

[Dusty at ICON]

Hey Dusty, thanks for keeping us in the loop. Looking forward to these.

Is Icon still thinking these will not be compatible with the HOSS 3.0 steering rack? If not, why? I’m considering a rack swap.

cheers.

We're pretty sure they WILL be compatible with HOSS 3.0 based on everything we've read so far. But we'll be bringing a '23 Wildtrak in soon to confirm. We expect the only hiccup will be the boots that we include in the kit, which are sized to fit the end of the HOSS 1/2 rack.

 

[Ramble_Offroad]

We're pretty sure they WILL be compatible with HOSS 3.0 based on everything we've read so far. But we'll be bringing a '23 Wildtrak in soon to confirm. We expect the only hiccup will be the boots that we include in the kit, which are sized to fit the end of the HOSS 1/2 rack.

Thanks Dusty, appreciate the reply. If you learn anything new please let us know.

 

[Inlinejohn]

Hey guys I thought I'd post a few spy pics of something we've been working on here at ICON that we've hinted at elsewhere. This is our Extreme Duty Forged Tie Rod, shown in these photos next to a stock Bronco tie rod.

The adjustment threads, where we've seen most of the failures happen on stock tie rods, is 18mm versus 14mm on stock Bronco tie rods.

The outer tie rod is forged steel and has the same bend as factory tie rods for fitting all of the stock factory wheel diameters and offsets, along with just about any aftermarket wheel.

The tie rod end joint is beefier, metal on metal and greasable. It has the same operating range of angle as the stock unit.

The inner ball stud is machined from 4140 chromoly.

Not shown but the tie rods will come with a boot and other associated bits. These photos are of our first prototypes, which we will be displayed at the SEMA show in a couple of weeks. If you're going to be at SEMA, look for them in the ICON booth or in the New Products Showcase if you'd like to check them out in person. We're thinking the first production run will be done and ready to ship sometime in January. Pricing should end up somewhere in the $350 range for the complete kit (both sides). These will work with all HOSS 1.0 and HOSS 2.0 equipped Broncos (basically everything except Bronco Raptor and HOSS 3.0-equipped Wildtrak).

Please note that this is a sneak peek at a product that has not yet been released or announced to our dealers so if you inquire they won't know anything about it yet other than what they may have seen here. They'll get the official info and announcement when the time is right but we wanted to give you guys an early look since these are going to be at SEMA anyhow, and they have some relevance to the discussions that have been going on over in our Coilovers thread.

Have these been field tested? How are they “better” than solid tie rods or advantages/disadvantages from solid?

 

[killaz05]

I am very interested once these become available. I have a trip planned in April that would put these to the test. Ol’ Florida at the end of this month would have been a great test as well but I don’t see them getting here in time

 

[Dusty at ICON]

Have these been field tested? How are they “better” than solid tie rods or advantages/disadvantages from solid?

They've been on our 4-door since before SEMA with moderate use, though admittedly nothing too hard core in that time. I'm not sure what you mean by comparing them to "solid" tie rods. These are solid chromoly inners and solid forged steel outers, with all dimensions significantly beefier than the stock units, even compared to the HOSS 3.0 tie rods.

 

[Inlinejohn]

They've been on our 4-door since before SEMA with moderate use, though admittedly nothing too hard core in that time. I'm not sure what you mean by comparing them to "solid" tie rods. These are solid chromoly inners and solid forged steel outers, with all dimensions significantly beefier than the stock units, even compared to the HOSS 3.0 tie rods.

Solid like the full length RPG and others

 

[Dusty at ICON]

Solid like the full length RPG and others

I'm not going to disparage RPG, they make some nice stuff and those tie rods do look sexy, no doubt they are also very strong.

I think the most judicious way to look at it is that our tie rod is based on the stock tie rod design, beefing up and upgrading it where needed, but keeping it as much as possible a factory automotive style product. The one in your pic appears to be of a different approach of using racing components and adapting them down to a stock vehicle application. So we've come at it from different directions which is of course evident in their differences in appearance, and, I'm guessing, price as well. Which one is stronger? I don't know, but I would guess that both are overkill in this application.

 

[Inlinejohn]

I'm not going to disparage RPG, they make some nice stuff and those tie rods do look sexy, no doubt they are also very strong.

I think the most judicious way to look at it is that our tie rod is based on the stock tie rod design, beefing up and upgrading it where needed, but keeping it as much as possible a factory automotive style product. The one in your pic appears to be of a different approach of using racing components and adapting them down to a stock vehicle application. So we've come at it from different directions which is of course evident in their differences in appearance, and, I'm guessing, price as well. Which one is stronger? I don't know, but I would guess that both are overkill in this application.

Thank you Dusty

My only question was the rationale of not going solid one piece and you’ve answered it. I think your product looks fantastic and probably does the job perfectly. And at less than half the cost, seems a no brainer. I see they’re now offered online for pre-order $399

 

[TeocaliMG]

Thank you Dusty

My only question was the rationale of not going solid one piece and you’ve answered it. I think your product looks fantastic and probably does the job perfectly. And at less than half the cost, seems a no brainer. I see they’re now offered online for pre-order $399

The big downside IMO with the "racing style" "solid" tie rods is they have no seal (and thus no lubricant) in the Heim joint which is critical if you want to have a tight low friction joint that lasts a long time. The only way to get all three of those things is with a proper sealed joint. Additionally, often times these Heim style rod ends have less articulation than a proper ball joint.

Also, I bet the solid shaft of the RPG and similar units is stronger, but the multi piece bolted together stud at the end is likely not. I take a solid one-piece ball stud for that application.

 

[Inlinejohn]

The big downside IMO with the "racing style" "solid" tie rods is they have no seal (and thus no lubricant) in the Heim joint which is critical if you want to have a tight low friction joint that lasts a long time. The only way to get all three of those things is with a proper sealed joint. Additionally, often times these Heim style rod ends have less articulation than a proper ball joint.

Hence why I’m loving ICONs new tie rod

 

[killaz05]

Thank you Dusty

My only question was the rationale of not going solid one piece and you’ve answered it. I think your product looks fantastic and probably does the job perfectly. And at less than half the cost, seems a no brainer. I see they’re now offered online for pre-order $399

I saw they are on pre-order as well but not from the Icon website. Is the pre-order legit?

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