Portal axle setup

[Sp@nky]

I am promoting my mostly street 40 to a mostly trail rig .
In the plans are portal-tek axles.

If I plan to run 35's and not to raise it (the axles are already good for ~5") I was wondering if I should widden the track or change something else in the suspention set-up to get the most out of this change.

Tks

ps anyone running portal-tek w. comments, experiences, gotchas please pipe up

 

[John Smith]

For those like myself who have never heard of this company. http://www.portal-tek.com/

Sp@nky, any idea what these units run?

I personally believe these are way overkill for 35s but that is just my opinion.

 

[Sp@nky]

They run 9 to 13k + options for the pair

 

[Horsehead]

35's and portals is a little underkill... you could run 35's on SOA and longfields and save yourself a ton of money. If you're going to go big, go big. JMHO though.

 

[Sp@nky]

Well my thought is to compensate the "not so tall tire" diff clearance with portals.

 

[Toyoland66]

You seriously are going to spend $9-13k on those?

You can buy complete portals (like mog, volvo) for way less money than that, and totally pimp them, and still spend less than that.

Or buy dynatrack pro60's, or totally build a set of toyota axles, or buy another truck.....

And your gearing is going to be retarded low with such small tires (if u ever want to drive on the street that is)

 

[John Smith]

Wow! Those are some expensive portals. As others have said, you can source two entire volvo axles for the price of one of those.

 

[Sp@nky]

Well the Mogs have ridiculously long diffs, almost imposible to get passed the oil pan, especially without lift.

I've considered the Volvo c303's, not really excluded them, the minus is it's tallest ratio is just under 6:1 (if you can find that version), and a reputation for breaking the gears. They missalign when under power while a turn (Since I got a v8...) They also require "custom" wheels. I did get a price of around 6 to 7K for a fully set-up pair (narrowed, rebuilt & disk brakes).

The portal-tek is a fully custom (based on 303 design (not parts)) with gear ratio of 3.0 to 7.0:1

 

[Horsehead]

What is your application for these portals going to be? I'm just thinking, if you're going to be doing rock crawling where you're seriously concerned about breaking volvo gears, you're going to need tires bigger than 35s to clear obsticles portals or not. And if you're not going to be doing balls to the walls rocks, I'd suggest you look into a SOA and longfields. Hella cheaper.

 

[coolcruiserfj40]

Well the Mogs have ridiculously long diffs, almost imposible to get passed the oil pan, especially without lift.

I've considered the Volvo c303's, not really excluded them, the minus is it's tallest ratio is just under 6:1 (if you can find that version), and a reputation for breaking the gears. They missalign when under power while a turn (Since I got a v8...) They also require "custom" wheels. I did get a price of around 6 to 7K for a fully set-up pair (narrowed, rebuilt & disk brakes).

The portal-tek is a fully custom (based on 303 design (not parts)) with gear ratio of 3.0 to 7.0:1

tallest ratio is 5.99 they dont break gears they just dont like hard impacts, and you can get 4030 gears for them like i did and not worry about it and they dont missalign thats mogs your thinking off, they dont require cutom rims go2guy was selling his volvo beadlocks for 500 for 5, and why in the world would you narrow one? and you dont realy need disc brakes think about it....... if it can stop a huge truck with no problem i think it can stop a little cruiser

 

[lavarunner]

IMO.. thats like a saturn 5 and puting it on a bike for land speed at bonneville. I mean SPOA=35 at 3 k with gears long arbs and the Spring over..

 

[bandy rooster]

thanks for the good info coolcruiser, btw what are you doing over here this isn't hardcore section :harhar:

 

[coolcruiserfj40]

thanks for the good info coolcruiser, btw what are you doing over here this isn't hardcore section :harhar:

fine ill go back in the corner

 

[bandy rooster]

nevermind...lol looky where it ended up


hardcore.

 

[coolcruiserfj40]

nevermind...lol looky where it ended up


hardcore.

hah biotch now your in my world!

 

[Sp@nky]

Well since I live at the bottom of the CON, rockcrawling is one of my objectives, but the desert aint far either.

I read so much I do seem to have some facts mixed up, and Yet I still managed to miss a lot ( like frankenfourty !)

Anyway the breakeage is from of the reading i've come across here.
The disk brakes, I read, is to help with the cooling of the gears for the road trips, to Moab for example. Not a must for sure!

I plan to put some money behind my buildup "to do it right", I'm trying to avoid compromises... ok I dont want to throw money away either...;p

coolcruiserfj40, How much widder is your track on frankenfoutry? , could you point me in the right direction for the volvo set-up (contacts and such).

 

[coolcruiserfj40]

Well since I live at the bottom of the CON, rockcrawling is one of my objectives, but the desert aint far either.

I read so much I do seem to have some facts mixed up, and Yet I still managed to miss a lot ( like frankenfourty !)

Anyway the breakeage is from of the reading i've come across here.
The disk brakes, I read, is to help with the cooling of the gears for the road trips, to Moab for example. Not a must for sure!

I plan to put some money behind my buildup "to do it right", I'm trying to avoid compromises... ok I dont want to throw money away either...;p

coolcruiserfj40, How much widder is your track on frankenfoutry? , could you point me in the right direction for the volvo set-up (contacts and such).

i know of a few sets floating around, and i might have a deal going right now and will have a rear and front forsale possibly since i only want some parts that are spares with the set. and my width should be 80 to the outside of the tires i think thats what i figured when i got my custom rims which isnt something you have to have done, and you can go alot narrower i wanted the extra width i have 300m birfs and shafts and 4340 portal gears and cable locker conversion and some day disc, watch ebay a set sold for 2400 for 5.99s last month oh and if you only plan to run 35s you dont need any of that crap i have in mine, maybe the portal gears but thats if you realy plan to romp on it, the lower gear doesnt like heavy hits. ron at team purple used to bust a gear every event i think it was? and since putting in the 4340 gears he hasnt broke any, and he is HARD on his junk

 

[Sp@nky]

Thanks for the info coolcruiser.
let me know re: the axles if 4 sale.

Where does one get the 4340 gears?

what kind of offset do your rims have?

 

[ridgerunner]

Anyway the breakeage is from of the reading i've come across here.The disk brakes, I read, is to help with the cooling of the gears for the road trips, to Moab for example. Not a must for sure!

The cooling issues seem to be related to the 400 series Unimogs. Volvos are good up until about 90mph before heat seems to be an issue. I ran the drums under my 55 and never had any problem getting them to lock up, though others have had problems.

 

[coolcruiserfj40]

Thanks for the info coolcruiser.
let me know re: the axles if 4 sale.

Where does one get the 4340 gears?

what kind of offset do your rims have?

a few hundred were sold at auction in sweden very recently and sould betrickling over here soon, ron at team purple has the gears made last batch he had 10 made, 6 sets for him and 4 for me so i dont know if you can still get them at the price i paid since it was in a larger batch, and for asmuch as i paid on my rims you would think i would remember the offset wouldnt ya