Do You Run Diff Armor? (1 Viewer)

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DangerNoodle

Essentially a fire wielding monkey.
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I'm wondering if I should run any sort of diff armor on my build. Now would be the time to add it, but I am kind of split between all the choices. I have FJ80 axles on 37's for a 40, and I'm planning on wheeling it pretty hard. If you guys do run armor, what kind do you run? I'm looking at the Ruff Stuff 3/8" bash plate or some of the Ballistic Fab armor. Should I run full face armor, or is the bash plate enough? Does the underside near the drain plug need to be really reinforced? Would you guys even bother? Also, will minitruck 8" armor fit the 8" front FJ80 housing?

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Thanks,

-Noodle
 
Do you actually wheel your truck, or is it a mall crawler?

Duh, yes, run diff armor :lol:
 
Do you actually wheel your truck, or is it a mall crawler?

Duh, yes, run diff armor :lol:

I'm pretty much planning on it, I just kinda want to know what you all are doing.
 
Alright, I ordered full diff armor from Ballistic Fab.

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You definitely want to run the armor
 
Good choice. Have a massive 15 bolt cover on my 14 bolt rear, but I ran without on the front Fj60 housing for years. Lots and lots of scrapes on the bottom, axle tubes, along with a slightly bashed in front....and then ordered that moto farkles bash plate from somewhere here on Mud. Waste of money, should have just ground down a Ruff Stuff 8" cover or gone with a halved sewer cap.

Do plan to grind down the edges of that bottom plate when you weld it on so it doesn't create a lip to catch on rocks or tree stumps. Good 20+ minutes with a grinder, or maybe even do it on the bench grinder before welding on....
 
Good choice. Have a massive 15 bolt cover on my 14 bolt rear, but I ran without on the front Fj60 housing for years. Lots and lots of scrapes on the bottom, axle tubes, along with a slightly bashed in front....and then ordered that moto farkles bash plate from somewhere here on Mud. Waste of money, should have just ground down a Ruff Stuff 8" cover or gone with a halved sewer cap.

Do plan to grind down the edges of that bottom plate when you weld it on so it doesn't create a lip to catch on rocks or tree stumps. Good 20+ minutes with a grinder, or maybe even do it on the bench grinder before welding on....

Thanks for the tip. Probably a good idea to use a die grinder to smooth out the weld bead anyways.

Funny enough that this is in the hard-core corner. I thought protecting your rig was essential for any off-road/expedition travel. Ha, guess I'm wrong.
 
Thanks for the tip. Probably a good idea to use a die grinder to smooth out the weld bead anyways.

Funny enough that this is in the hard-core corner. I thought protecting your rig was essential for any off-road/expedition travel. Ha, guess I'm wrong.

The funny thing is, on my other 40, I've never run armor, and even though have wheeled it pretty hard, haven't really had too many problems. I go slow and don't use the skinny pedal too much, so I don't hit stuff very hard if I do. This rig is probably going to change that.....
 
10" sewer cap going on mine. $40, all 3/8", just need to trim the height down and pop a threaded fill hole in it.
 
I usually just take a strip of hardox about 1.25" wide , curve it to match and weld it to the diff housing where the ring gear is. You don't really need much. The only issue I've had are when that part of the housing gets bashed in by rocks and makes contact on the ring gear. Everywhere else there is lots of room for indents.The ring gear is what needs protection. Its a pain to have to pull the third member to beat it back out and reinforce. Also my truss runs from ball to ball on the front side of the diff so I just marry the strip of hardox to my truss.
 
Cheap insurance.
Had to cut the top off to clear the Panhard bar

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For anyone who runs the ballastic fab diff armor did it fit without modification? I venture to guess it does not.
 
For anyone who runs the ballastic fab diff armor did it fit without modification? I venture to guess it does not.

The rear did not. Everything was opposite for my 80 ff rear. Front 8" stuff fits great.
 
The rear did not. Everything was opposite for my 80 ff rear. Front 8" stuff fits great.

So you had zero issues fitting the front diff cover on your stock 8"?

I had a shop do the work since I'm busy with a house remodel. So I had issues and want to see what the root cause was for my 80.

I venture to guess why your stuff works fine (on the front) is you've modded 80 series components to a 40. I'm curious about the stuff just for an 80s series.
 
So you had zero issues fitting the front diff cover on your stock 8"?

I had a shop do the work since I'm busy with a house remodel. So I had issues and want to see what the root cause was for my 80.

I venture to guess why your stuff works fine (on the front) is you've modded 80 series components to a 40. I'm curious about the stuff just for an 80s series.

The 8" stuff is just any toyota 8" diff cover. It doesn't cover the bottom or anything, just the front. It fits fine in that manner, but I am adding some 3/8 bottom skid plate. As a note, I am running hellfire knuckles, and the armor interferes with my tie rod at full lock, so it needs to get trimmed a bit for my application.
 
The 8" stuff is just any toyota 8" diff cover. It doesn't cover the bottom or anything, just the front. It fits fine in that manner, but I am adding some 3/8 bottom skid plate. As a note, I am running hellfire knuckles, and the armor interferes with my tie rod at full lock, so it needs to get trimmed a bit for my application.
Well the shop that did the work didn't tack weld and test for panhard bar fitment. They welded the cover on and then found out after the fact that the panhard doesn't fit. My bill went from 350 -> 809. Suffice to say I'm beyond pissed and realized I should of just done the work myself. Also I feel like the panhard bar they used is inferior since one side uses a poly bushing and the other is a heim joint. I'm currently trying to figure out how I'm going to cut off both ends and weld the OEM ends on.
 
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Well the shop that did the work didn't tack weld and test for panhard bar fitment. They welded the cover on and then found out after the fact that the panhard doesn't fit. My bill went from 350 -> 809. Suffice to say I'm beyond pissed and realized I should of just done the work myself. Also I feel like the panhard bar they used is inferior since one side uses a poly bushing and the other is a heim joint. I'm currently trying to figure out how I'm going to cut off both ends and weld the OEM ends on.

I absolutely loathe working on cars hence why I'll never do a crazy project even though I have the skills and knowledge (playing music is a far superior way to spend my time). I want to build my offroad/overland rig to be as low maintenance as possible (hence buying an 80 series and dumping my 3rd gen 4runner) and heim/poly joints are 100% not that.

Heims arent bad, they just wear. I would worry about the poly on a panhard, though for the amount of stress it will always be seeing.
 
Heims arent bad, they just wear. I would worry about the poly on a panhard, though for the amount of stress it will always be seeing.

Well you just said it. "heims aren't bad, they just wear"

I don't want a truck that I have to maintain. I'd rather over build something and be done with it.
 
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