Delta VS 6” radius arms installed/review

[baldilocks]

So with a DC front shaft, would they cause vibes or no? I don't have my stock front shaft anymore.

I didn’t test with my dc shaft, but, I would expect some vibration due to the fact that the pinion position won’t be in the text book location, at least it’s not in my 80.

However, I think yours is lifted a bit less than mine so you might be looking at a set of the 4” arms instead of 6” like I got.

I have been saying and will always say that, once our lift goes up past 3.5” max 4”, there is no way to obtain good castor angle and keep a front driveline happy at all speeds without doing a knuckle ball cut and turn and then high steer would would most likely be necessary to move the tie rod to the front because it would be mashed into the arms.

In my case, currently at 3* castor I could do a cut and turn to bring the pinion down some to more closely match the angle on the XFR output flange and still be at a tolerable castor of about 6*, but then there is the tie rod problem again which would dictate moving the tie rod to the front. The struggle gets real at 4”+ lift. We have to make compromise or spend the hard earned dollars.

I had the pleasure of wheeling a couple weeks ago with a member who’s rig is set up on a full Slee 6” lift kit which includes, new arms and a dc shaft. The front pinion position was just as low, if not lower than mine, meaning the front U-joint angle was as far off or more than mine for the dc shaft.

This is another example showing how difficult, if not impossible, perfect pinion position and desirable castor angle are to obtain simultaneously with taller lifts unless some cutting and welding is done. A part time kit will solve this issue for most of us imo.

You can learn more by communicating directly with Delta VS.

 

[baldilocks]

View attachment 1894590 So I got 23.5 roughly to the top driver side panhard bolt and 18.5 inches on the pass mount bolt. I don’t have a way right now to measure pinnion angle
Slee arms with Slee hd tie rod

HUGE space between tie rod and arm! Your measurements are very close to the ones I posted. Do you know your castor angle?

 

[ajax1]

HUGE space between tie rod and arm! Your measurements are very close to the ones I posted. Do you know your castor angle?

Yes I was surprised to see you don’t have as much, the newer Slee arms are the same way clearance wise. I had Slee castor plates previous and was at 2.1 and 2.3 caster, from my understanding with Slee arms you get another 2 degrees , not for sure though, I’d say I have 4 degrees. My steering is def heavier now with the more caster. My truck already drove pretty smooth as far as highway manners. It is def better with more caster

 

[GW Nugget]

Thanks for posting... you have more pictures of these arms the Delta has on there website.
Great to have more options for the 80 series.

 

[landtank]

View attachment 1894442 With this [/USER]

You should re-tube that shaft and reclaim some of the splines.

 

[baldilocks]

You should re-tube that shaft and reclaim some of the splines.

Possibly. That is the shaft that was on it when I bought it all stock, never ran it off road before last weekend. I am surprised how much splined area is still engaged actually and it’s not a whole lot shorter than the custom dc shaft I ran at 3” lift all the way up to my current lift. But, yeah, logic says to lengthen it and go with .120” wall tube.

 

[landtank]

Possibly. That is the shaft that was on it when I bought it all stock, never ran it off road before last weekend. I am surprised how much splined area is still engaged actually and it’s not a whole lot shorter than the custom dc shaft I ran at 3” lift all the way up to my current lift. But, yeah, logic says to lengthen it and go with .120” wall tube.

.120 wall is a waste as far as I'm concerned. Too much work and cost for what is little to no ROI. How many front shafts do know of that have taken a hit? Metric tubing can be gotten in .090 wall and requires zero machining. My cost for retubing and hi-speed balancing is around 125.00.

 

[Broski]

Baldilocks those look sweet, The hardware does not look OEM. The serrated OEM nuts help keep these tight. FSM state only tighten the bolt not the nut & one time use only.
When mine came loose it elongated the holes in the mounting plates

 

[baldilocks]

Baldilocks those look sweet, The hardware does not look OEM. The serrated OEM nuts help keep these tight. FSM state only tighten the bolt not the nut & one time use only.
When mine came loose it elongated the holes in the mounting plates

Dave at Delta ensured me this hardware is oem. No matter anyway because I didn’t end up using it.

Yeah, my forward bolt holes are elongated a bit fore to aft. I’ll have to fix that some day. Thanks for checking in.....

 

[Delta VS]

Baldilocks those look sweet, The hardware does not look OEM. The serrated OEM nuts help keep these tight. FSM state only tighten the bolt not the nut & one time use only.
When mine came loose it elongated the holes in the mounting plates

What hardware are you referring to? We only sell genuine Toyota hardware along with the radius arms.

 

[landtank]

Dave at Delta ensured me this hardware is oem. No matter anyway because I didn’t end up using it.

Yeah, my forward bolt holes are elongated a bit fore to aft. I’ll have to fix that some day. Thanks for checking in.....

from the factory the front holes are elongated. Nothing to fix there.

 

[kombi]

are these any longer(pushing the axle forward) then the slee 6in arms? i have clearence issues with my 6in arms and my steering upgrades that i need to solve by ether going 3link or relocating my frame/arm mounts.

 

[baldilocks]

are these any longer(pushing the axle forward) then the slee 6in arms? i have clearence issues with my 6in arms and my steering upgrades that i need to solve by ether going 3link or relocating my frame/arm mounts.

In my first post I describe the Delta VS arms as being 1/2” longer than stock arms. I don’t know how long Slee arms are but they should be very similar in length.

Let’s keep this review focused on the subject material. My plan is to come back with updates containing facts and my opinions about the Delta 6” arms over time.

 

[cybrstar]

Any updates? Bending? Denting? Wheeling? Still straight?

 

[baldilocks]

My rig has been under the knife ever since my last update, so, no more info to share yet but there will be more posts when I have something to pass on. It may be a while.

I’m not an engineer but these arms seem quite stout. According to @Delta VS, a stock 80 arm weighs 17lbs where as these 6” Delta arms weigh 25lbs each. This indicates no shortage of material used.

 

[DanMedeiros]

Worked well for me since I installed them. Drove fast over washboard for hours in Baja

 

[cybrstar]

Anymore updates?

 

[Bludozer]

Would love to hear @baldilocks thoughts too, but I am running the 4 inch arms and have nothing but positive things to say so far. I am no where near as hardcore but they have taken everything I've thrown at them so far...high speed washboard roads, low speed flex/crawling, miles of highway and country roads. Felt great the whole time.

 

[Nad Aitch]

This is really interesting Intel-

This is now not optimal for either a dc shaft or a standard shaft because the operating angle of the pinion Joint is approx 7* and the operating angle of the XFR case joint is approx 14*. Operating angle was derive at the XFR case end by adding the static slope of the shaft to the 2* the flange is pointed up ward. Front operating angle was calculated by subtracting the approx 5* pinion up from the static slope of the shaft.

Running it out of phase, how it came from the factory, was no good. After putting the yokes in phase, I could run 40mph+ before noticing any vibration.

My 80 has a part time kit installed so I also tested for vibes with the shaft being driven under no load, as in with hubs locked and center diff lock switch disengage, and was able to drive 55mph with no vibes.

I’m quite pleased with how the standard shaft is working out despite approx 7* difference in U-joint operating angles. I figure 40-45mph should be fast enough for my purposes when in 4wd mode.

@cruisercesar

I've been quite curious regarding

1.) how fast you can go in 4wd w/o vibes with excessive pinion angle difference/ caster correction. And
2.) if the vibes are still present in 2wd with hubs locked. You answered "no" here- tysm that's what I suspect since even though the pinions are spinning at a different speed, it's not transmitted through the driveline.

I find it interesting you went back to in phase-
I had issues with 3" arms in phase, but going out of phase fixed that right up.

I suspect that out of phase can accommodate a wide variance in working angles (WAG up to 5°) but once that is surpassed to the point that pinion angle difference is lesser than working angle difference, in phase again becomes optimal.

Just an anecdotal observation from scrolling threads + personal experience. I'd like to go part time just to experiment with ~6° of caster but I'm currently at 4° without vibes and have higher priorities to throw cash at.