Published on April 24, 2025 Author Devan Ence Photo Credit Devan Ence Share article Facebook 0 Twitter 0 Mail 0 2024 Tacoma Gets an ICON Stage 4 Suspension Upgrade The 2024 Toyota Tacoma has a solid suspension from the factory but we all know there is still much to be desired from stock components, especially when building your ideal overland rig. To help with this, we decided to go with the ICON Dynamics Stage 4 suspension system. The package includes new upper control arms, 2.5 bypass front coilovers, 2.5 bypass shocks in the rear and new rear coil springs. This should greatly increase the performance of our Tacoma. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter We only ran into one issue while installing the suspension kit and it was with the engineering on the stock suspension. The kit from ICON went on like a dream and I would highly recommend it. Here’s the complete Stage 4 kit out of the box Take a look at the stock rear suspension. We removed the bolt on the axle that holds the Panhard bar in place Next, the harness bracket on axle was removed The rear sway bar was then unhooked We then loosened the nut on top of the rear shock. To get it off we had to use a pair of vise grips and a wrench. Next, the bolt that holds the lower portion of the shock was removed. Before we lowered the axle, the bracket that holds the brake lines to the frame was detached. We then lowered the axle and removed the old coil spring over the axle. The new coil spring from ICON could then be installed. The new shock was slid into place, and the bolt was reinstalled on the lower portion of the shock. The nut on the top of the rear shock was then tightened. We made sure to go back through and reinstall the Panhard bar, as well as the rear sway bar, and all of the brackets we took off or loosened during the disassembly process. One last look at the stock front suspension. We loosened the nut on the ball joint but didn’t remove it all the way yet. The bolts on the lower control arm were loosened so they could move freely. We then removed the bolts that hold the lower control arm to the knuckle. Next, we removed the bolt on the lower coilover and swung the lower control arm out of the way. The bolts holding the upper part of the coilover in place were next to be removed. The front sway bar was then unhooked. We then finished removing the nut on the ball joint. The bolt for the upper control arm was removed. This is where we ran into issues on the driver side. The way Toyota engineered this made it extremely difficult to get the bolt out because it comes toward the radiator support. It is almost too long to remove, but with some patience it does come out eventually. We then pressed the new bushings in place on the replacement upper control arms. We also installed the grease fitting on the upper control arms. On the driver side, we reinstalled the upper control arm bolt the opposite way it came out which was way easier. Then we reinstalled the knuckle to the new upper control arms. Next, we slid on the new bypass coilovers. We installed the bolts on the coilovers both top and bottom. Everything that was removed during disassembly was put back on, and all bolts that were loosened were tightened back down. Here is the new suspension installed. And here is the finished product.
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