Icon RXT Toyota Tacoma Leaf Springs Review
Upgrading your leafs springs is a great way to achieve rear travel, better ride quality, and/or more carrying capacity to your Toyota Tacoma but if you’ve been doing some research you’ll notice that there are a lot of different leaf spring options on the market. Finding the leaf spring setup that caters to your needs can be challenging considering a lot of different aspects. About a year ago, I decided to change out my leaf springs on my 3rd Gen Toyota Tacoma for the Icon RXT Multi-Rate Leaf Springs. After some mild and more advanced offroading and tons of daily driving, here is my honest review of these upgraded leaf springs.
This article may contain affiliate links in which I may earn a commission on sales made through the links at no cost to you. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Thank you for the support!
Installation
Coming from someone with slightly mechanical ability but my Tacoma being the first vehicle I’ve done any type of suspension work on, the installation was pretty straight forward and easy. Performing the install by myself, I was able to complete both sides in roughly 3 hours. While I could do it by myself, I highly recommend having an extra set of hands due to the leaf springs being kind of awkward to remove by yourself. I installed the pack on option 1, or how they ship, but the pack comes with an additional leaf that can be set to 3 different configurations. I highly recommend setting the leaf springs to the option that you want before installing them on your truck.
If you are doing it yourself, you’ll need some basic tools such as:
Impact (While not necessary, It made the job A LOT easier.)
Set of sockets including a 9/16”, 7/8”, 17mm, and 19mm
Ride Quality
Before installing the RXT leaf springs from Icon Vehicle Dynamics, I had the OEM leaf springs with a 1.5” Add-a-Leaf and the ride was pretty stiff and didn’t offer a lot of travel when offroading. After installing the leaf springs on option 1, the ride was noticeably smoother and soaked up bumps rather than just hopping over them.
The RXT leaf springs were designed to work the best with the Icon RXT Suspension System, which I don’t currently have, but even without the full system I think the ride quality is great.
Durability
Overall after about a year of usage, the leaf springs are holding up really well. With regular cleaning I haven’t noticed many rust spots aside from where I may have scratched paint on the leaf springs.
The only complaint that I do have about the durability is the bushings. I have noticed that roughly 3 months after the install, the leaf springs did start squeaking at both the rear shackle bushings and the front bushing. After retightening the bolts it did go away for some time but living in the Ozarks a lot of mud and dirt can get in them and I notice them squeaking regularly until they are cleaned out thoroughly. In the future, I may consider upgrading the bushings to a higher quality set to reduce the squeaking but for now it’s livable.
Carrying Capacity
Since I installed the leaf springs on option 1, which is the lowest option, the bed does lower even with me just standing in the bed. If you haul or tow regularly, I highly recommend at least going with option 2 just to ensure your leaf springs hold up longer and don’t wear out as fast.
As mentioned, there are 3 different configurations with the Icon RXT Leaf Springs:
Option 1 - The lowest setting for the softest ride, but suffers carrying capacity.
Option 2 - The middle ground, for light hauling and a slightly stiffer ride. This is the most common option people use for these leaf springs.
Option 3 - This is the stiffest option but provides the most towing capacity.
Ride Height
Since there are 3 different options for the RXT leaf springs, you will get different ride heights depending on your configuration. The different ride heights are:
Option 1: 1.875” over stock (unloaded).
Option 2: 2.25” over stock (unloaded) or 1.75” over stock with a 200lb load.
Option 3: 2.625 over stock (unloaded) and 1.125” over stock with a 600lb load.
After about a year on option 1 with daily driving, offroading, overlanding, and occasional hauling, I have only noticed about the leaf springs settling about 0.2” inches. I usually only carry less than 100lbs in the bed regularly if anything at all.
Wheel Travel
The leaf springs alone offer quite a bit of additional wheel travel compared to the OEM leaf springs I had previously. I’ve noticed that when truly flexing the vehicle out, I’m amazed with how wheel I can keep traction even with the back wheels pretty much in the air.
If you want the full travel that the leaf springs offer, it’s not only recommended but required to have at least the RXT suspension system in the rear of your Tacoma.