Cracked Birfield

[Little Boss]

My understanding is that for on road driving, the OEM's are better suited. Albeit, I'm at 120,000 miles with no record of PO service on front axle and I'm in need of new ones. I understood Bobby to say that I shouldn't expect to get more than 80-100,000 miles out of his chromoly longfields when used on road, i.e., Daily Driver.
Rob

Bobby could not say whether we would get 100,000 or not with the longfields as a daily driver as the data is just not in. Yes, this is my daily driver. We also wheel it. We are also learning about all that we need to do to maintain it and protect it. We do not have a separate vehicle for wheeling. So with that, we got 180 off of oem's. Luckily they didn't break on the trail. I was able to get to the shop. However, with as many miles as my truck has on it, I would rather replace with the cromoly lonlfields than oem beings that I know that we are going to go to moab, the rubicon, and parts of fordyce. I would rather know that I have strong birfs while on the trail knowing that I am going to be doing more and more of this.
Also take all products with a grain of salt. Just because Bobby doesn't have the data yet to prove that his cromoly longfields will last 100,000 and more, doesn't mean that they wont. If you going to wheel I wonder why choose oem at 120,000 when only gaining 20,000-40,000 conservatively from the longfields. I guess that is a years worth of DD. It seems that a birfield change is pretty "easy" for most cruiser heads. For me it was foreign language. What I wonder is why if it seems to be a normal part of maintenance, and not that big of a deal, why not go for the longfields when the oems may not get you that much more miles. I think my birfs broke down due to the fact that they were not serviced "seals, grease etc. " and the fact that once we got it at 146,000 miles and we wheeled it. It just didn't continue to be a daily driver. Theres multipe factors. Mileage, service, wheeling, weight, lockers, and a known weal link for toyota.

Teresa, wife of norcal sam

 

[robjam]

Little boss, nice to meet you. I understand your thoughts and your questions are justified. I haven't decided what to do myself. I did want to clarify my understanding of the differences between the products as some had asked for that clarification.
I'm really not getting much offroading in and yes that is my own fault. I do pose this question back though.
In consideration of your 180,000 miles on OEM birfs and they broke shortly after/during your wheelin', how many miles might one get out of OEM birfs as a DD with all the proper service? 200-240,000 miles? not sure myself, but that is a whole lotta miles. If the data isn't in on the lifespan of the longfields as you say, it is tough to make a truly educated decision. Thus my quandary.

But lets consider some numbers and see what a guestimate might reveal:

Assuming
OEM Birfs last 200,000 miles properly serviced (you came close)
Longfields last 120,000 miles properly serviced (data not certified)

Over 600,000 miles
OEM Birfs $500 each = $3000 dollars for 600k 3 replacements
Longfields $300 each = $3000 dollars for 600K 5 replacements

If that holds true then Longfields are better for one who offroads and doesn't mind 2 more replacement intervals.
For the DD, the gain is 2 less service intervals. In MY situation, I prefer less service time if I'm getting less wheeling time.

Honestly, we have a tie-breaker here from a cost perspective, IF we use the numbers I have proffered.

I support your last sentance
"Theres multipe factors. Mileage, service, wheeling, weight, lockers, and a known weal link for toyota. "
EXCEPT, considering what Toyota engineered the birf to do, it does. I recently stated that the OEM Birfield may be a weak link as well. However, after reading IH8MUD and doing my own research, I would like to back away from that statement. I believe the LC is an extremely capable, offroad machine. But Toyota LC's, IN GENERAL, are seen going down paved roads, not the roads for which the Longfield were designed/engineered.
Hope to keep up these wonderful rants / debates / educational sessions at a more reasonable hour.

and to all a good night,

Rob

 

[Russ in California]

Are there any cheaper options for a DD that probably will never see the off road(see sig line)? Don't know if I want to go to the bother with "good" used birfs but Long's or OEM are a little more than I'd hoped to pay.

 

[Rich]

Some guy on the east coast "cv unlimited" or something to that effect was selling cheapies on ebay. I have no knowledge of quality, one way or the other. A number of postings were made here at the time.

 

[Tapage]

Are there any cheaper options for a DD that probably will never see the off road(see sig line)? Don't know if I want to go to the bother with "good" used birfs but Long's or OEM are a little more than I'd hoped to pay.

good used ones function fine .. if you are 100% sure that you never go to stress those ones ..

After I put my cromo set in front .. I keep my olds as spare, I thought much of us have the same scenario.

 

[Russ in California]

Does the inner axel always get replaced with the new birf? Doesn't look like they all come with the inner.
I saw these on ebay. Not a bad price, especially if the rig isn't going to see much if ANY wheeling .
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7995742247&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT

 

[Tapage]

Does the inner axel always get replaced with the new birf?

Not necesary ..

 

[landtank]

I have about 194k on my truck with the original birfs. I can tell you that I have quite abit of wear on the PS birf but no clicking yet.

I'm planning on doing something about this, this spring. Maybe Bobby would cut me a break on price as I could probably provide on road wear data faster than anyone else as it would only take me about 2.5 years to rack up another 100k.

 

[actionjackson]

Does Bobby still offer lifetime warranty on his chromos? If so you should factor that in your decision as well. I absolutely love mine. Haven't figured out how to break one yet. I'll keep workin on it. Good luck with yours.

 

[Russ in California]

just about to lay down the coin for some new birfs today, and after yesterdays tire rotation, had a flat on the rh front this morning. One bald weak spot and tire cord wire poking out at the side of the tread. Throw on the spare and head for the tire shop and low and behold no shaking, wobbling or noise from the front now. Actually quite smooth. Was the birf even bad in the first place? Funny how we thought the noise and shaking was from the front right side mostly, and now its gone with the change of a tire that started in the back. Chasis shop guys didn't check the tires as well as they though or maybe, they don't know there hole from an ass in the ground.
So that saves me some big dollars right now. New tire and off I go. With the new Dayton, the beast now only has 3 brands of tires on it with very good tread. Kind of how we got it.