Suspension Tuning

[Superdannyboy]

Its a lot harder to adjust in compliance for a leaf spring over a coil spring. I am sure Deaver makes a more to spec leaf then other company's. Maybe the leaf has to be altered. Give all the information you can to the Suspension Specialist. Write down what you think you are trying to achieve. What adjustments you made and how it felt. Did it improve or get worse for your application. The more information the better. Read about low and high speed damping.
It will be interesting what they say about the quality of the Icon shock. Please relay this information back. Would be nice to know how rebuildable the Icon Suspension is and how it compares to other manufactures. In some areas you may find a better suspension tuner in the motorcycle industry. Unless you have a large 4X4 off road community. I have a guy in my area that just does motorcycle suspension. Send the shocks to the right people or you may be wasting your time. Someone who has made a career out of it.

Regarding the post that was deleted. The person was not taking the best example to alter. It was an Eibach shock. It may seem incorrect to grind off the peen marks on the nut that holds the shim stack on, but that's what you do. Then you repeen the nut back on so it will not come off.
You do not want to play with this if you do not know what you are doing.

So a rep from icon said that to start they will adjust the shim stack in the rear shocks to work with the spring rate of the deavers. I'm sure this alone will get me within tolerance of what I'm after.

I have no idea what goes on inside but I have spent a few hours reading on it. I'm really busy as we all are. From may of this year to may of next year I have 18 classes left to finish my mechanical engineering degree. I'm knocking out 3 right now and in fall I have 6 classes then I'll do 2 in wintermester then spring I'll have 6 classes and I'll take my last class in maymester. I'm working full time in a manufacturing shop programming CMM's. Also have a baby on the way. We make time for what we want but man is my time limited to really tweak with things right now. Lol. I'm excited for what is to come with the shocks.

Sponsored

 

[Scooter]

Superdannyboy. Thanks for the insight on your studies. Your doing the right thing keep plugging away and it will all pay off. I am a Machinist. The field has done me well. Hmm, CMM, Metrology.
Cool on some machines that you can write a program like CNC. Hey, when you get all educated try to listen to the Machinists on the shop floor for productivity and quality improvements.

 

[P. A. Schilke]

Its a lot harder to adjust in compliance for a leaf spring over a coil spring. I am sure Deaver makes a more to spec leaf then other company's. Maybe the leaf has to be altered. Give all the information you can to the Suspension Specialist. Write down what you think you are trying to achieve. What adjustments you made and how it felt. Did it improve or get worse for your application. The more information the better. Read about low and high speed damping.
It will be interesting what they say about the quality of the Icon shock. Please relay this information back. Would be nice to know how rebuildable the Icon Suspension is and how it compares to other manufactures. In some areas you may find a better suspension tuner in the motorcycle industry. Unless you have a large 4X4 off road community. I have a guy in my area that just does motorcycle suspension. Send the shocks to the right people or you may be wasting your time. Someone who has made a career out of it.

Regarding the post that was deleted. The person was not taking the best example to alter. It was an Eibach shock. It may seem incorrect to grind off the peen marks on the nut that holds the shim stack on, but that's what you do. Then you repeen the nut back on so it will not come off.
You do not want to play with this if you do not know what you are doing.

Hi Brian,

Couple of comments. If Deaver is a spring pack, not a monoleaf, you are dealing with coulomb damping which is a bit harder to calibrate around...

As for the guy taking the Eibach apart. He clearly did not know what was going on. He was in self engrandizing mode... He got caught out...

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired

 

[Superdannyboy]

Superdannyboy. Thanks for the insight on your studies. Your doing the right thing keep plugging away and it will all pay off. I am a Machinist. The field has done me well. Hmm, CMM, Metrology.
Cool on some machines that you can write a program like CNC. Hey, when you get all educated try to listen to the Machinists on the shop floor for productivity and quality improvements.

Lmao I was a machinist for 3 years. Even did a 2 year degree in advanced manufacturing where we started on manual mills and lathes before we could touch the cnc machines (even though I was doing setups on cnc machines at work everyday and running parts) then after the manual mills and lathes we got to do a beginning and advanced CNC programming classes and 5 design classes and like 3 classes just operating CNC machines and a class just on metrology (they even tested us on how fast we could measure parts with calipers and micrometers) an edm class, and a specialized tools and fixtures class which was mostly on the design of complex dies for injection molding and what not (that was actually my favorite) then I went to a university for mechanical engineering and none of those classes transferred. I had to take a "manufacturing class" where I literally watched the teacher lay a parallel flat on its side in the vise and clamp down on a rough piece of material that wasn't even squared up without using a rod against the adjustable hard jaw and was milling with a super dull endmill and kept putting his fingers by the spindle as it was rotating golly I learned to just shut up and get thru the class. When I was a machinist I hated engineers it's like a similarity to college rivalries you know, and I still kinda do lmao. I value talking and learning from technical guys that actually know how to physically make and do things not just theory. So I hear you, always listen to a good machinist, not a button pusher, but a good machinist. There is a huuuuge difference.

 

[Superdannyboy]

Hi Brian,

Couple of comments. If Deaver is a spring pack, not a monoleaf, you are dealing with coulomb damping which is a bit harder to calibrate around...

As for the guy taking the Eibach apart. He clearly did not know what was going on. He was in self engrandizing mode... He got caught out...

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired

Hi Phil,

How's it goin!?

Deaver is a company that makes progressive leaf packs known mostly to the desert trucks out in California that can't afford to link the rear and add coils. I'm in that boat. The deaver pack has 10 leafs that have a progressive rate and a lower spring rate than the standard parabolic leaf spring that comes stock.

 

[Frenchy]

Hi Phil,

How's it goin!?

Deaver is a company that makes progressive leaf packs known mostly to the desert trucks out in California that can't afford to link the rear and add coils. I'm in that boat. The deaver pack has 10 leafs that have a progressive rate and a lower spring rate than the standard parabolic leaf spring that comes stock.

Damn i didnt realize you had that many leafs!!! The Old Man EMU leafs have 4 on each on the basic.

 

[Superdannyboy]

Damn i didnt realize you had that many leafs!!! The Old Man EMU leafs have 4 on each on the basic.

Yes it is the ultimate speed bump soaker upper. I bomb thru them when there aren't any cars.

 

[Scooter]

I like big words. My father always used them. What's engrandizing it does not come up on a word search. . Aggrandizing ?

 

[P. A. Schilke]

Hi Phil,

How's it goin!?

Deaver is a company that makes progressive leaf packs known mostly to the desert trucks out in California that can't afford to link the rear and add coils. I'm in that boat. The deaver pack has 10 leafs that have a progressive rate and a lower spring rate than the standard parabolic leaf spring that comes stock.

Hi Danny,

Looks like Deaver took over for a company that sponsored our Rough Rider Teams back in the day...National Spring. Multi leaf springs like Deaver.... Wonder what happened to National Spring??? Los Angles Sheriff Racing, Greg Foutz and others used National....never had a spring failure with these springs. I tested these springs in our Dearborn Test labs and they were robust as hell.... You could not break them...

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired

 

[P. A. Schilke]

I like big words. My father always used them. What's engrandizing it does not come up on a word search. . Aggrandizing ?

Sorry...I do not spel gud

 

[Superdannyboy]

Hi Danny,

Looks like Deaver took over for a company that sponsored our Rough Rider Teams back in the day...National Spring. Multi leaf springs like Deaver.... Wonder what happened to National Spring??? Los Angles Sheriff Racing, Greg Foutz and others used National....never had a spring failure with these springs. I tested these springs in our Dearborn Test labs and they were robust as hell.... You could not break them...

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired

OoOOoOOo nice a back story. That's interesting, and also good to know. I do follow LASD on my Instagram and they do some sweet builds. Same goes for Foutz. You have had an interesting career. Now when people ask about my setup and I talk about the leafs I'm gonna say they're robust as hell, a retired ford engineer said so.

 

[Superdannyboy]

Hi Danny,

Looks like Deaver took over for a company that sponsored our Rough Rider Teams back in the day...National Spring. Multi leaf springs like Deaver.... Wonder what happened to National Spring??? Los Angles Sheriff Racing, Greg Foutz and others used National....never had a spring failure with these springs. I tested these springs in our Dearborn Test labs and they were robust as hell.... You could not break them...

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired

After doing some digging, it looks like years back people either went to national spring or deaver to get their custom leafs, but I don't think they are the same company. Unless deaver bought out national spring. But I saw multiple threads referring to which of the two companies people thought was better or just stating they use one of the companies over the other. I also saw, as time progressed, that people were saying national spring started out great but over time the owners got older and kinda well fell off of the map.

That's what I dug up.

 

[Superdannyboy]

FWIW I played with the compression settings some more. My little brain was always thinking for a smooth ride on road I need to keep the compression low to keep the ride soft. Well I did about 6 laps around the neighborhood and on the last one I said what the heck and cranked all 4 corners to the highest compression setting. This is the best ride yet. Still isn't perfect as there is still a bit of a bounce in the cab, however the suspension soaks up everything and handles pot holes so much better. I actually aim for abnormalities in the road lol. I'm still sending the shocks probably in about a week and a half.

I was super excited this day I wrote this and of course it felt good because I was flooring it each time I changed the settings. It was when I drove regular over the next few days that I realized the rear was too rough at the max compression setting. Haha. I took off the rear shocks today to send them to get tuned. I was also talking to my buddy who rebuilds shocks mostly for track cars and he said that the bounce I feel ever since putting my long travel kit sounds like I need more rebound up front so I'll take off my coilovers soon too and ask for more rebound when I send them in to get revalved.

 

[Scooter]

Icon Service Intervals. looks like every 15 000 miles the shocks should be serviced.
Here's some info and costs.

ICON Factory Shock Service | Icon Vehicle Dynamics -

 

[Superdannyboy]

Icon Service Intervals. looks like every 15 000 miles the shocks should be serviced.
Here's some info and costs.

ICON Factory Shock Service | Icon Vehicle Dynamics -

Thanks for the link.

I'm doing some hw then I'll take off the coilovers. Gotta learn how to do it myself with the amount of maintenance required. I also wanna learn to rebuild shocks.

Sponsored