2.5 lift and portals or 6 inch lift? (1 Viewer)

[concretejungle]

I have been thinking about this a lot lately. Seems that with the 2.5 inch lift there's not a ton of stuff to replace other than springs, shocks and caster bushings. Then add in the swaybar spacers (optional for some) and extended brake lines and that's about it. With that you can easily run a 33 inch tire or perhaps a 35 with rubbing. Now, a 6 inch lift requires replacing a lot of stuff to make it work. It's a sweet set-up, but it's pricey.

I was thinking stay with the 2.5 lift and get portaltek to slap some portal boxes on the ends of your 80 axles. I know you may lose some highway cruising gearing (or maybe not i'm not really sure). This way you will have the ability to run at least 35 or 37 inch tires and have a minimal lift to keep the center of gravity low. Also, all the driveline components such as front/rear driveshafts, panhard rods, control arms ect... will not need to be replaced.

Any thoughts on this?

 

[lx450landcruiser]

I like it.... do it and let me know how it turns out

mike

 

[aamiggia]

Most people who get portals are looking to get ground clearence for rocks. In the case you mentioned you would want them to give more lift and less hassles.

In that case what about a 2.5" OME lift and a 3" body lift. Lower centre of gravity, clearence for larger tires, no suspension hassle, and a boat load of money cheaper.

Portals have a purpose, but not just for larger tires. JMTC

 

[PKP80]

What are portals? some kind of spacer device?

 

[Gold Finger]

I like the idea of portals. If you got them from one of the later Unimog 406 then you would have disc brakes where as with the Volvo Laplander you are limited to drum brakes. You would not need to go mega with the tyre size as you would have plenty of ground clearance.

 

[Buckru]

This has been something Ive pondered and researched a little. My ultimate build up would be 35's, 4.88's and lockers (dont have the elockers). This would be a much cheaper route than building up the suspension, regearing and adding ARB's. One could just buy the axle already geared with the vacum actuated locker. And you wuold gain valuable ground clearance as a bonus.

Buck

 

[hoser]

What are portals? some kind of spacer device?

Portal Axle.

 

[dclee]

One thing to think about, there are other reasons for a lift than just fitting big tires. Especially on a LWB vehicle like an 80, lifting the chassis also gives you better angles (approach, departure, break-over) so you don't hang up on stuff.

I really like the idea of portals, but wanted to keep my axles fairly stock, so that trail spares would be easier to come by if I broke something. Not likely to find replacement parts for a Volvo or Mercedes gear-reduction hub on the trail! As this is not a daily driver, the COG increase was not as much of a concern for me. YMMV.

 

[landtank]

I'm waiting for the 4" lift that has been mentioned by both Slee and MAF. That will be my final suspension setup if they ever arrive.

 

[concretejungle]

I thought, and perhaps portaltek may jump on this thread and clarify, that they can pretty much build you whatever axle you want, to what length you want, what inners you want and then mount the boxes on the end. So you could continue using cruiser axles and diffs for the ease of parts.

Derek, using the portal outters, that will give you at least 3-4 inches lift, on top of the 2.5 from the springs. Well, maybe i should phrase it as ground clearance rather than lift using the portals. The suspension component (springs) would be considered the "lift" i guess. So this set-up should pull the frame far enough up from danger and have the diffs pretty high also.

 

[Steve-O]

Portals are pretty cool, I've never seen them on an 80 however. I would love to be humured with a price of custom ones built for you. Very cool set-up, but price and hassle of putting it all together would probably out-weigh the extra ground clearance. I like Rick's logic on this one!

Steve

 

[Beowulf]

Drexx built his 80 with Hummer portals on Ford axles.

His description says:
Differential Engineering portal axles; armored Humvee portal boxes on Ford 9” diffs on custom axles housing & GMC K2500 disc brakes & Humvee CTIS

I'm sure it was spendy.

-B-

 

[concretejungle]

I like Rick's logic on this one!

Steve

It wouldn't have anything to do with the fact you were the mentioned vendor would it?

Really though, i don't see how it would be that super hard. None of the suspension linkage would change since you would be retaining the 80 axle housing and diffs, or i'm sure volvo's could be used also, but then you would need to reattach the linkage points to the housing.

 

[dclee]

Really though, i don't see how it would be that super hard. None of the suspension linkage would change since you would be retaining the 80 axle housing and diffs, or i'm sure volvo's could be used also, but then you would need to reattach the linkage points to the housing.

What do you do on the hub end (where all the steering linkage attaches)? I can't see how you'd retain any of that with a custom portal hub bolted on. I guess I'd have to see how they build these things.

Anyway, better not break anything in the hub (CVs, etc.) while you're on the trail! They'll probably have to helicopter your rig out!

 

[landtank]

I like Rick's logic on this one!

Steve

I wouldn't get too worked up Steve, as of right now I'm only interested in the springs. I'm not all that enthused about how either of you address caster.

While I think your solution is better than Slee's, it negates the posibilities of bolt on sliders which in my opinion is a major mistake.

I do however have a design of my own in the works .

 

[Josh83]

Portal boxes on your axles would not help you keep a low center of gravity. It would probobly be a little higher than a regular 6" lift because the axles would be that much higher also. It is still a higher truck, which means higher center of gravity. A 2.5" lift plus 3" of portal axles is still 5.5" higher than stock.

 

[Radd Cruisers]

The key is to engineer the lift so you do not go more than 4 inches and the rest is sag, would give good articulation.

Everything is a trade off.

 

[Stumper]

Russ here at PortalTek jumping in here....been a while since I have been online.
We are still on track for 2nd gen portal axles later this summer, our own castings, bearings and everything, shafts and centers will be set up soon. Our plans of right now, is to put a set under my FJ55, a H**P, and there has been a bit of discussion between us to slap a set under my 80. There is a bit more work involved with just setting up the suspension correctly and deciding whether use just the stock 80 setup or do a different custom setup.
We can build anything we need to, and just about anything anyone wants.
More info will be available very shortly, as soon as I can get through dealing with our online hoster and finally get the web site up and running....no later then start of next week for sure.
If you have any questions at all, let me know. I can get you specifics of where we are at, what we can do, and let you know what ever you need.

I can promise you...... you will be impressed when these roll out.

Russ

 

[Hanna Quality]

Humm 9 portals under Drexx's U80, all new parts, 8 inches of lift, 4 inches wider track width than stock, CTI, ARBs, 4:80 final drive, almost 16 inches clearence under the differencial, uses stock drive lines, weigh the same as Dana 60s......

Steve at drivetrain engineering did an amazing job building the Humm 9 axles

There is a Fj40 with the 2nd set of Humm 9s from Steve

Ken

 

[PKP80]

Humm 9 portals under Drexx's U80, all new parts, 8 inches of lift, 4 inches wider track width than stock, CTI, ARBs, 4:80 final drive, almost 16 inches clearence under the differencial, uses stock drive lines, weigh the same as Dana 60s......

Steve at drivetrain engineering did an amazing job building the Humm 9 axles

There is a Fj40 with the 2nd set of Humm 9s from Steve

Ken

Ken,
you have anymore pics of Drezz's U80? I'm sure we'd all like to see that 16in. of clearance. Get him on the Truck of the week list.