Roryslife

So Ive been thinking about coilovers for a while... nothing fancy, just a bolt on kit or at least I thought so. I had been looking at Icon or Evo, but then I saw that Rubicon Express had come out with a kit that includes hydraulic stops and fox shorts. Also the brackets and stuff are supposedly American Made. To me it looks like the kit was almost an exact knock off of some of the other brands out there. Anyway, I got a really good deal on it and decided to pull the trigger. Note: I am having a professional shop install the kit.

Before I purchased it I had called up Rubicon Express to inquire about the kit... mainly as to lift height and whether the kit was tuned to a stock or modified jeep. Basically I was told it was set up on a stock jeep, so I assumed if anything that the springs would be a little light.

Imagine my surprised when I discovered that the front shocks were set up with a 350 10" over 350 14" Eibach springs and the rears were 550 14" over 400 10" springs. This is ridiculously stiff. Its so out of line with what the other kits from Rebel and Icon and Evo are set up at.

The shop installed the rears today, and even with a full sized 250 pound man sitting in the rear, and preload adjusted all the way up, the jeep is sitting at around 6" of lift in the rear. The springs barely compressed 1/2 a inch.

The shop got on the phone with Rubicon Express, but no love there. No feedback, explanation or help at all.

I dont think I can even swap the front springs to the rear, because even 350 will probably be too stiff.

Basically, Im going to end up having to buy all new springs probably and have the shocks re-tuned.

Moral of the story... I do not recommend this kit. Im pretty disappointed with RE customer service. By saving money, its going to cost me money.

Other miscellaneous notes: Im already invested, so I will keep the progress updated here.

Also... the rear shock bracket mounts on to the rear crossmember, so if you like me, got a slim bumper that required you to cut out the rear cross member, you will need to fabricate something up.

The actual mounts and brackets really are quality. No complaints about them (and I inspect welds for a living).

Their rear sway bar solution is kind of shitty. I just had it removed. Will end up going with Curry Anti-Rock.

They have a weird place for mounting the hydro stops. They are moved inside. You should be able to see from photos.

p.s. I know Im opening up myself to criticism (hi Dirtman)... but I really wanted to post my experience here so that whenever someone googles this kit... they will be able to learn from my mistake.

Roryslife

So my installer is doing a deal with his distributor and swapping out the crappy as hell springs that Rubicon Express sent. Here are some updated photos, including how it sits with the kit as is.

kjeeper10

Da F**k, how in the hell did they come up with those rates ?

TheDirtman

You might think about taking the tender coils off. Looks like it would drop you maybe 1.5" in terms of lift height. I understand the rates they use as from the photos it appears you only have about 4" of travel to full bump and the high rates will allow you to blast down whoops without bottoming out. They also increase the rebound to keep the wheels on the ground. The Evo kit bottoms out very easy at even slow trail riding over rough roads. The RK kit we recently did also bottom out pretty easy. You typically have a trade off of a rougher road ride with the go fast stuff. The EVO kits I have seen use 250/250 which is too light and is strange to run a double rate set up with basically a single rate. I am sure they do this for a good on road ride at the low lift height. EVO has recently moved up to a 400 lb rear coil on their lever system from 350 and can only guess it is to help with the bottoming out of the rear suspensionI would rather run something like a 200/300 or 150/350 which all have the same ride rate but will help to keep from bottoming out when the secondary coil rate kicks in.

I would not bash this kit until you go out and push it off road and see how it performs as it has coil rates set up for speed and you need that much lift height for the needed up travel to work properly. From what I see the real criticism i would give is that the shocks are too long. When you drop to a lower coil rate you will still need to bump up the coil preload to get enough up travel in the set up so you are not riding on the bump stops.

Also check the nitrogen pressure as a 50 lb difference in pressure can add up to 1/2" or more of height.

Ryan0260

I have been running the stage 2 ICON coilovers for over a year and it is an outstanding kit, both in quality and performance. It is a very expensive kit, but nothing has been spared with it. There is no rear sway bar used, and it definitely isn't needed. The springs are Eibach as well. It does seem like it will be real stiff, but with the adjustable ICON shocks, which are awesome, it rides surprisingly good. They also make a true hydraulic bump stop, as opposed to the cheap foam ones other kits use. You should be able to get diffferent rate springs through Eibach though. Like Dirtman said, just drive it for a while and let everything break in and then make changes as needed, and if the shocks are adjustable, play around with the settings on those as well.

Roryslife

Measurements with the stock springs. (they will be swapped out next week).

Rear (0" preload)
- 11" of shaft showing at full droop (on a lift)
- 8" of shaft showing at ride height
- 6" of up travel (measured from bump stocks at ride height)

Front (.5" preload)
- 11" of shaft showing at full droop (on a life)
- 5.5" of shaft showing at ride height.
- 5" of up travel (measured on bump stocks at ride height).


Note: there may be 1/2" of variation on all measurements. Approximated on the hydraulic bump shocks.

Roryslife

I was originally planning on going Icon, but the price difference was too great.

Different springs are on the way.

What springs does the ICON kit run?

This kit runs true FOX hydraulic bumps.

Ryan0260

They use Eibach springs as well. Will have to check rates. I know when I ordered it they said if it was too firm I could get diffferent ones from Eibach.

Roryslife

Awesome. Let me know. The kits are really similar. It almost looks like RE stole design from Icon. Your spring rates are probably close to what I should be running.

Whats your rig like? Thread or pics? Heavy, armor?

Ryan0260

It is heavy, armor, winch etc. The springs honestly don't sag regardless of how much weight you put on them. The brackets on the ICON appear quite different than yours. The rear bracket angles the springs a little more to avoid the rear track bar, and it works well. It did seem to break in a little after time, and the ride improved more. Have you called RE regarding their spring rates and why they are so stiff? It looks like yours is heavy to which would have been my guess as to why they did that.