Orion and Atlas transfercases avail soon

[Dusty]

My point exactly. The Atlas is a sorely needed 80 series mod once you've gotten rid of that heavy top

There was a recent thread on cutting off the cargo area, and Slee was saying you just don't lose any weight - anything you cut off is typically replaced by tube and the weight remains. Slee has also said that the stock axles aren't up to that kind of wheeling in the long run and he is looking into Rockwells.

So basically, you are going to cut off the majority of the body, replace the transfer case and both axles, and still have a rig that is heavier and wider than it's peers and still has a seriously low hanging frame and has to be hauled around on a trailer. That's the long term reality of an 80 that is going to hit trails that require the kind of low gearing you get with an Atlas.

Which as was pointed out above, we have every right to do. Post 'em up when you get there

Nay that borders on apostacy. Next your going to say you went and baught another xj. The 80 is not the best rock wheeler out there; my brothers remind me of that regularlywith their jeeps and zukis. But she does most everything better than most. And she sure is sexy. sometimes I just sit in the carage and look at her and think of ways to make her hotter. With 35's and 4:1 tcase the 80 will hang with a tj on 33's with stock np231 and a single rear locker. give that tj long arms and 35's and a rubicon 4:1 tcase and the 80 will always be playing catch up...But most of the time you dont date the cheerleader that wrestles best but rather the one who looks best in the singlet

 

[Nay]

Nay that borders on apostacy. Next your going to say you went and baught another xj. The 80 is not the best rock wheeler out there; my brothers remind me of that regularlywith their jeeps and zukis. But she does most everything better than most. And she sure is sexy. sometimes I just sit in the carage and look at her and think of ways to make her hotter. With 35's and 4:1 tcase the 80 will hang with a tj on 33's with stock np231 and a single rear locker. give that tj long arms and 35's and a rubicon 4:1 tcase and the 80 will always be playing catch up...But most of the time you dont date the cheerleader that wrestles best but rather the one who looks best in the singlet

Nah...I'm just trying to get everybody focused on saying "I want a 4:1 option that keeps my stock case, doesn't require crazy mods, and doesn't cost a fortune" rather than getting excited about 200:1 crawl ratios with an Atlas. That way, we might actually get it. I have four kids - there are no other options for me . The 80 makes no sense as a base platform once you have to start cutting off the cargo area and replacing the axles (neither does an XJ for that matter, despite the number of people who have tried).

BTW, I think an 80 on 35's will eat a TJ on 33's with just a rear locker alive in anything but a really tight trail - the Unlimited Rubicon is an entirely different story, however, becuase it has a much better wheelbase and other goodies. I've been through some stuff that was spanking a decked TJ on 38's and I just used the hand throttle and idled through it (next obstacle was completely the other way around, of course ). Wheelbase often rules when mated up to a good drivetrain, and I'm still running on 4.10's and at 9,000 ft elevation and higher on most trails.

Which I why I just want that 4:1 since neither I nor 99% of other 80 owners are taking our 80's on trails that are likely to ultimately reduce it's physical size due to severe damage. I have no use for mods that will force me to spend a mint to catch the falling dominoes...that is what Jeep ownership is like and I had enough of that with my XJ

 

[calstyl2]

but you will not get 4:1 in the stock case unless you drop the tank, the crawler box may require that, the easiest potential option is the Orion if in fact AA is working on that, they have been known to promise and take along time to get a product to market(I waited 2years for the 40 Orion). You cannot make a gear set work as I suspect you know, so what are the options? not many

 

[Dusty]

I conversed with scott pertaining to the gas tank issue with use of the atlas. Scott wasn't aware of the issue and it sounds like Advance hasn't put much thought into making the atlas tcase work in the 80. When asking Scott to commit as to if atlas realy will pursue an atlas adapter he responded in email:

Dustin,
"No, we are not making an Atlas with a rear output to the pass
side. If the gas tank is in the way then the Orion will be the only
option. "

Hmmm
makes one question even the existance of an orion option for the 80....
I will believe it when I see it
But I hate waiting and dont know how I could handle Advance telling me "just 3 to six more months on that orion case" in 3-6 months from now.

A sure bet would be a set of 4.88 R&P and a $1000 3.1:1 tcase gear set from marks. that gives me a total lower gearing improvement of 35% compared to an improvement of 40% by going to the 4:1 orion case (5.29RP + 3.1tcase= 38% reduction)

Is it worth waiting for orion for a mere 5%? (assuming one isn't planning on going lower at the R&P)

if one does the 4.88 (or 5.29) gear swap by themselves and adds the $1000 marks gears (3.1:1) the price for the total is not much diff than the orion case.
I've watches my dad set the gears on ford axles (he just installed a couple arbs in his tj-8.8" explorer swap) but never the toyota

I would love to hear Christo's comments on the marks 3:1 tcase gear set they recently tested in the 100 series:
was instal difficult?
were they quiet?
With shipping costs from australia and such considered what would be the cost of purchase for us?
how soon will they be available?
has slee looked into other tcase gear sets for the 80 besides those offered by marks?

 

[Dusty]

Just spoke to Advance
The price of the gearmaster 3.1:1 gear set to my door in california (shipping included) is $1040. Of course not a soul there knew anything about the gears and none are in stock.

 

[Hayes]

Just spoke to Advance
The price of the gearmaster 3.1:1 gear set to my door in california (shipping included) is $1040. Of course not a soul there knew anything about the gears and none are in stock.

I've been waiting to hear reports on this option.
I hope you're able to make something happen.

Mark's gear set + 4.88's seem like the way to go--especially considering how many folks are already running 4.88's. You get the highway advantage of the higher-ratio r&p, and the extra boost of the t-case gears on top of that when you're off-road.

Can't you just call Australia and order the gears direct?

 

[Dusty]

I emailed them this exact question last week and was told to make all orders from AA. One good thing about AA is that they told me I wont be charged a premium on overseas shipping as they get some stuff from Marks semi-regularly. we only pay shipping from AA (cali) to our door

 

[alkaline747trio]

So the t-case gears are avaliable, for about a grand...how much effort is it to change those? But is the Orion worth the weight?

 

[clarkrw3]

This is great news...time for the 37's

 

[Mark W]

I emailed them this exact question last week and was told to make all orders from AA. One good thing about AA is that they told me I wont be charged a premium on overseas shipping as they get some stuff from Marks semi-regularly. we only pay shipping from AA (cali) to our door

I've dealt with the guys at Marks first hand and the guys at AA at the same time trying to resolve a problem with a Mark's gears install in a split case.

Less than impressed with Mark's. Basically they had sold it and had already received their money so didn't really care about things after that.

AA (as usual) went out of their way to make things right. In the end, Marks did nothing and AA took it upon themselves to pick up some of the slack so that my customer didn't get hit *quite* as hard as he could have.


Mark...

 

[Dusty]

I must agree about Marks. Its like pulling teeth to get info out of them. I only convese with them with email but I get an answer for every 3 emails I send and it's usually "talk to advance". they still havn't answered the question as to if there will be any problems running the gears in the later (viscous coupler) tcase.

I had a good talk with the guy at klune-v yesterday. only last week he baught a 92 fj80. he likes the truck. he asked me 20 min of questions. He said he has plenty of business and has no need to pursue the 80 series in his klune-v market. He told me that if someone were to send him a trashed transmission he would take a look. they do have a recent 19 spline solution for the 40 series guys.

 

[Nay]

Here was our last thread along these lines:

https://forum.ih8mud.com/showthread.php?t=111286&highlight=rockhopper

Did anybody ever verify the whole Rockhopper 45% gear reduction using high quality Japanese gears? BBM Rick was out saying he had 'em and then sold his rig.

A 3.6:1 would be enough, really. 4:1 is great, but if 3.6:1 is possible that should be on the market for sure. Add 5.29's and I've got plenty of crawl for 35's on a rig that plans to stay intact

 

[theyis]

I had a good talk with the guy at klune-v yesterday. only last week he baught a 92 fj80. he likes the truck. he asked me 20 min of questions. He said he has plenty of business and has no need to pursue the 80 series in his klune-v market. He told me that if someone were to send him a trashed transmission he would take a look. they do have a recent 19 spline solution for the 40 series guys.

Hey Dusty,

I talked to him as well about a month ago. I was planning on running 80 running gear in my 40. I got the same story but here is the scoop. So long as you're willing to run the older split t-case, all that really needs to be done is to adapt the A442 to the front side of the klune. Okay, I know "all" really simplifies a big problem but it could be relatively simple. Does anyone have a transmission lying around so I can see what the output looks like? If so, post up! We are still going to have to deal with the gas tank I think... The klune adds something like 9 inches to the driveline. The plus side is that we wouldn't have to mess with the rear axle since this solution uses a LC t-case.

Somebody post pics of the transmission output...

Kyon

 

[redcheetah]

I know I am a bit late on this thread but have been thinking more about the low range tcase gears recently. How much trouble is it to swap the tcase gears to the marks 3.1:1 gears? Or should I say what exactly is needed to make this happen? like everyone has said, with the 4.88s it could finally provide the control of lower gearing in the rocks

 

[Wrench]

I know I am a bit late on this thread but have been thinking more about the low range tcase gears recently. How much trouble is it to swap the tcase gears to the marks 3.1:1 gears? Or should I say what exactly is needed to make this happen? like everyone has said, with the 4.88s it could finally provide the control of lower gearing in the rocks

Not worth it. IMO You don't gain much and you lose your standard low range. A 3 spd crawler box is the only way to go. With just the gears you only get 25% reduction vs 200+% with the crawler box. Big difference. I have the crawler box and it makes a huge improvement in control and off road ability.

 

[calstyl2]

I talked with a source at AA, they are working on a Orion HD for the FZJ-80, this is for a Cruiser vendor who will market it. They did not have a timeline for bringing the Orion to market. I expect this to be a major improvement for trail use on 80 series.
I got the impression that some are on vehicles

 

[Dusty]

Not worth it. IMO You don't gain much and you lose your standard low range. A 3 spd crawler box is the only way to go. With just the gears you only get 25% reduction vs 200+% with the crawler box. Big difference. I have the crawler box and it makes a huge improvement in control and off road ability.

you make me want to steal your junk. be sure to lock your truck

 

[Wrench]

Ha Ha you had your chance.

 

[redcheetah]

I am way jealous wrench. I have had 4:1 and 6.5:1 cases in a few of my other wheeling rigs. Going back to the standard 80 4lo leaves a lot to be desired. I cant wait to see these boxes hit the market. However, I am pretty sure my bank account is dreading the day they are released.

 

[lagwagon]

pic of the output.