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Make sure you really want to drive and live with an old design before dropping tons of money on a restoration. Driving a leaf spring suspension all solid axles
by qbasic_forever 3y ago
Make sure you really want to drive and live with an old design before dropping tons of money on a restoration. Driving a leaf spring suspension all solid axles and body on frame truck is wayyyy different than modern independent suspension unibody frame trucks.
You might not remember it but back in the heyday of those old trucks people were flipping and rolling them on the freeway all the time--there are conditions and speeds that they just plain are not safe to drive, and a lot of that comes from their inherent design which Icon can't fix.
- mb7733 3y agoAs far as I know all modern full-size pickup trucks are still frame-on-body, and most have solid rear axles. (In the mid/small size there's some unibody options like the Honda Ridgeline but that's nothing new. It's just a different type of vehicle, not something that's obsoleted a traditional truck.)
- qbasic_forever 3y agoElectronic limited slip diffs, ABS and wheelspin sensors with traction control, etc. go a loooong way to making modern stuff more drivable. There's no comparison to an old 80s truck with none of that stuff (and way less crash safety).
- twothamendment 3y agoMy 2014 truck has solid axels and body on frame, but the suspension is a million times better than the 70's International truck I was in when I hit my head on the ceiling as it went over a speed bump at a reasonable speed. Coils on all four corners and I'm sure some better engineering helps quite a bit.