Land Cruiser vs Dana 60 (1 Viewer)

[Mieser]

That would be my guess. There is a lot of force being applied on those brackets during articulation. Suspension is trying to flex, radius arms are trying to hold everything in place. Lots of twisting. Weak link seems to be the axle tube.

There is 'some' compliance in the bushing system, basically little rubber mini-springs. At some point those will bind which I agree would be bad....

As long as the suspension is kept in a reasonable articulation range it shouldn't be too much of an issue. I think the stock 80-series front shocks are like 9.8" travel. If you have more shock than that I would probably start to worry a little bit more. I doubt too many people are actually using more than 10" of shock travel however during axle articulation. I do wonder when the stock system physically binds completely. I will have to put that on my list for when I get my hybrid moving around....

 

[maxamillion2345]

 

[mct75]

How big are the Dana 60 bearings compared to something crazy like rockwells or the volvo portals?

 

[maxamillion2345]

Honestly once you're at d60 level, bearings aren't really the concern.

Knuckles, shafts, gears, housings. Thats why people go to rocks, axletechs, mraps etc...

The volvo portals are not as strong as a 60 though. Maybe mogs but those have their own set of issues.

 

[Rivman1243]

That would be my guess. There is a lot of force being applied on those brackets during articulation. Suspension is trying to flex, radius arms are trying to hold everything in place. Lots of twisting. Weak link seems to be the axle tube.

What about with poly caster correction bushings?

 

[Mieser]

How big are the Dana 60 bearings compared to something crazy like rockwells or the volvo portals?

Which bearings? Pinion, carrier, wheel, kingpin?

Generally, Volvo portals are not THAT strong. They would basically be like a well designed toyota axle with a portal end. If I remember right the differential is actually very close to a Dana 30 in size. Birfs are similar in size to toyota mini-truck stuff. The magic happens in the portal wheel end with the 2:1 gearing. While saying that makes things 2x stronger is a bit of a stretch, that is generally what the portal end does. The Volvo portals had a pretty stout output shaft from the lower gear if I remember right, but it was an older coarse spline design. The bolt pattern was also odd. They had drum brakes. They needed a LOT of backspacing to work correctly.

Rockwell axles are off a 2.5 ton truck. There are good and bad things about them. In factory form they are not THAT strong with some of the factory axle shafts and joints. Again. It is an old design with coarse spline axles, older materials, etc. You can throw money at them to make them stronger just like everything else.

 

[mct75]

I did some reading and it sounds like "Axletech 4000"'s are the new and exciting thing. If I win the lottery I will get some.

 

[Mieser]

I did some reading and it sounds like "Axletech 4000"'s are the new and exciting thing. If I win the lottery I will get some.

In a dump truck maybe. At some point the axles are just too big....unless your running 54" tires and a 140"+ wheelbase.

The current trend I see developing is to the newer 'super' Dana 60 technology where people are fitting Dana 70 based high pinion gearsets in to Dana 60 housings, using Dana 80 carriers, bigger pinion and carrier bearings in some aftermarket stuff, bigger pinion spline diameters, 40 spline inner shafts are getting more popular, 1550 or rockwell size u-joints in the axle shafts, outer axles that spline directly into the unit bearings that are nearly 2" in diameter ( bigger than 40 spline!), bigger brakes, more steering angle, etc. All that will basically still fit in a 17" wheel and a stock 60 sized housing.

So much fun stuff to play with....

 

[Peru Darrell]

Known issue, especially with the Aussies. That's why Toyota sent engineers to study the longevity of the 80 series in Australia before final design and release of the 105 series to the Oceania market and NGO market. The axle housings were upgraded on the 105 series with the front control arm bracket set-ups.

Whether that did anything or not, I really don't know.

Well if the LC80 axle is weaker than my 105 I would look into a change. My FZJ105 is in the shop to straighten the front axle housing after one too many rough trails. Housing bent between the leading arms and the birf ball one one side, can't really see it in the pic

, but the camber is way off.

With all this talk about changing to Dana axles, if you want it all, just get Unimog portal axles. Strength and clearance all at once, already built. Now that would be an upgrade!!!

 

[scottryana]

Only problem is they are like 7:1, so you need 40" tires or a 60mph/100kph top speed. lol. Do you guys in Aus not have good fabricated housings to swap your parts into?

Well if the LC80 axle is weaker than my 105 I would look into a change. My FZJ105 is heading to the shop to straighten the front axle housing after one too many rough trails. Housing bent between the leading arms and the birf ball one one side.

With all this talk about changing to Dana axles, if you want it all, just get Unimog portal axles. Strength and clearance all at once, already built. Now that would be an upgrade!!!

 

[Peru Darrell]

Only problem is they are like 7:1, so you need 40" tires or a 60mph/100kph top speed. lol. Do you guys in Aus not have good fabricated housings to swap your parts into?

Well I figure if you are going to wheel it hard enough to break something, you're not driving it to the mall at highway speed and would appreciate the good low range. If it is just a mall cruiser or light trail wheeling then stick with stock toyota stuff.

 

[richardlillard1]

After reading this thread, I'm going to stop wheeling my Land Cruiser. I would sell it, but I don't think it would be fair or ethical to do that to someone given the information I now have.

Or are you guys saying that I should replace the axles as necessary PM like I should with my head gasket?

 

[Mieser]

Well if the LC80 axle is weaker than my 105 I would look into a change. My FZJ105 is in the shop to straighten the front axle housing after one too many rough trails. Housing bent between the leading arms and the birf ball one one side, can't really see it in the picView attachment 1314259 , but the camber is way off.

Out of curiosity, how is your suspension set up? How much uptravel from ride height? big bumper and/or winch?

 

[Cruiserdrew]

After reading this thread, I'm going to stop wheeling my Land Cruiser. I would sell it, but I don't think it would be fair or ethical to do that to someone given the information I now have.

Or are you guys saying that I should replace the axles as necessary PM like I should with my head gasket?

Lol. It's worth it to realize there are limitations! Land Cruiser axles are good, not immortal, but we all already own them and they are perfectly adapted for the truck they are in. To me the real problem is bending. I've replaced the front axle in my 80 due to it being badly bent, and in my 60 for the same reason. Heck even toyota added trusses to the FJ62 axle so they knew there was a problem. So yes, you may need to look at replacing your axle housing every 10 years or so.

I want a RuffStuff housing, maybe 2 of them, but I'll stick with the Land Cruiser outer stuff for awhile and maybe permanently.

With that said, I have a kingpin Chevy SRW D60 on the floor of my garage as we speak. If mass means anything it is easily twice the weight of a fully built 80 axle and the brakes are massive. It's a very impressive hunk of metal.

 

[OGBeno]

After reading this thread, I'm going to stop wheeling my Land Cruiser. I would sell it, but I don't think it would be fair or ethical to do that to someone given the information I now have.

Or are you guys saying that I should replace the axles as necessary PM like I should with my head gasket?

Now that's some funny s***.

 

[richardlillard1]

So yes, you may need to look at replacing your axle housing every 10 years or so.

Well I want to stay ahead of this thing, so I'll do it every eight.

No, seven.

No, eight should be okay.













I'm spiraling into a bottomless pit of despair.

 

[nukegoat]

Lol. It's worth it to realize there are limitations! Land Cruiser axles are good, not immortal, but we all already own them and they are perfectly adapted for the truck they are in. To me the real problem is bending. I've replaced the front axle in my 80 due to it being badly bent, and in my 60 for the same reason. Heck even toyota added trusses to the FJ62 axle so they knew there was a problem. So yes, you may need to look at replacing your axle housing every 10 years or so.

I want a RuffStuff housing, maybe 2 of them, but I'll stick with the Land Cruiser outer stuff for awhile and maybe permanently.

With that said, I have a kingpin Chevy SRW D60 on the floor of my garage as we speak. If mass means anything it is easily twice the weight of a fully built 80 axle and the brakes are massive. It's a very impressive hunk of metal.

Just hanging around? I could use the hubs off that

 

[Cruiserdrew]

Just hanging around? I could use the hubs off that

Keep looking! I'm eventually going to use this for something. Thinking a 1 Ton Suburban for Death Valley adventures.

 

[Tugarin]

Lol. It's worth it to realize there are limitations! Land Cruiser axles are good, not immortal

There is the little problem, my TLC is used as DD and long ranger on business matters, no heavy offroading or mudding. 80% of the roads I drive are gravel and broken asphalt. And in these conditions I have managed to bend the rear axle and broke the front.

In general it is a bit overloaded, front and rear ARB, second fuel tank, original winch. And usual crap to carry around on long trips.

Conclusion on my experience is following: axles of TLCs are weak. Common roads I drive daily see pics. I have company's 2016 Diesel Jeep GC - I drove it only once for long business trip and repair cost of the fuel system was around of 5700 USD due of poor fuel quality. So company agreed to compensate usage of my vehicle.

 

[mct75]

It's worth it to realize there are limitations! Land Cruiser axles are good, not immortal

I always envisioned a Land Cruiser as a "Lethargic Hercules" that might lumber around slowly but would never die or break (unless you use non-OEM parts)

Are the 80 axle housings just doomed or can they be made durable? I see they make gusset kits that you can weld to the balls. Would that fix the bending? What about cryo treating? Then they'd just crack instead of bend, right?