We've recently made great strides on reigning in the frustrating original handling of our 2014 F250 6.7L "Project Ice Box" buildup and are happy to announce there is hope for this big boat yet. We were desperate to throw on a set of off-road tires and custom wheels to get more of an off-road ready feel but, in order to do so, there's always that issue of clearance. Throw a set of 35" tires and oversized wheels on a stock Super Duty and, unless you don't plan on making any turns, you're probably not going to make it out of the parking lot. We're really excited about ICON's new lift systems for the 2011-2015 6.7L Super Duty so this week we took the plunge and gave our refrigerator-on-wheels their Stage 1 package. This afforded us enough clearance to throw on a set of rugged 35" Mickey Thompson off-road tires and an aggressive set of Fuel Maverick Wheels to go along with the "blacked-out" exterior parts we're planning on adding for this build.
Right off the bat, this combination of ICON's 2.5" Lift Kit, 35" Tires and black-milled Maverick Wheels not only gave our truck a dramatic change in looks but the kind of handling we were hoping for as well. Going from the narrow stock tires and wheels that came straight from the factory to a much larger 20"x12" size as well as an aggressive -44 offset has given our 6.7L stout turning and off-road ready handling as it now holds down a wider footprint.
If you're wondering why the heck we haven't jacked this thing way up with a towering lift yet... don't worry those plans are definitely in the works. We simply can't help ourselves. But for now, we wanted to try out ICON's 2.5" Lift and give it a whirl ourselves. So far we're really impressed with the change in suspension. This kit gives the front of your Super Duty an impressive set of new springs that drop right into place of stock to provide the 2.5" lift in order to get rid of that annoying front-end factory rake. They also throw in a set of alignment cams so you won't have to worry about keeping your rig on the road. The big difference maker, however, is their full set of front and rear 2.0" Shocks. These mono-tube shocks feature aluminum bodies, larger pistons and rods, and carefully designed valving that greatly improves suspension response while reducing fade over your Super Duty's original stock shocks.
You'll definitely have to stay tuned to see what we do next. Even though at this point, we've already thrown on some other awesome upgrades that you might not notice like aFe's Stage 2 Pro 5R Cold Air Intake, an enormous MBRP exhaust and some aggressive tuning, we still have a lot in store until our "Ice Box" puts the chill on the Phoenix area. Up next, we're going to try out ICON's 4.5" Stage 1 Kit to see the difference.
