I am sure that they do
. If we have an actual lawyer on the forum, I'd be curious on how much that actually protects someone from liability .
Portal Axles (74Weld)
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. If we have an actual lawyer on the forum, I'd be curious on how much that actually protects someone from liability .
As a “not a lawyer” if it’s not hidden, it protects them. Now, if they promote the on road use in video without a disclaimer, that may be a different issue.I am sure that they do
Nada on disclaimers on promotional their info/spec sheet (perhaps it's in the manual(s) that come with the portals; if so that's disingenuous). They do mention the stock ball joints and axles being "weak point", however. Sure makes me feel warm and fuzzy!
This "not a lawyer" thinks 74Weld should hire a better lawyer and have them review their promotional documents
.
I was the first one to put the 74 weld portals on a LC250 and all I can say is they tick all the boxes and are worth the money in my opinion.
are you concerned that your 37" tires put you outside of the warranty?
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I can get my head around the cost, and the cost/value actually make sense to me. Not having the ability to self-repair to extricate myself from the trail or road is an issue for me. Maybe you already have a solution worked out? The Dissent guys broke a portal and the e-locker on the last winch hill at Fordyce; seems lucky as it was unlucky that they were at the end of the trail.
I know Ben from Dissent (met him a couple times) and we've talked about his issues with 74 Weld Portals. I live about 20 minutes from 74 Weld so they have been using my LC for some R&D. I've been running 37s on portals for about 7000 miles now and they have taken mine apart several times to check to any signs of stress and they are always in prime condition. Dissent is running 40" tires and doing hard trails, pushing the LC to what may be its limits. I'm using mine, but not to the levels Dissent is (maybe 75% of what they do). Talking with the 74W guys about the issue with Dissent, they said they have only had one failure with their and it was Dissent's axels (I actually saw their broken shaft and the entire shaft showed twisting stress before the spline eventually snapped off). You can see how much torque had been applied to the axle before failing, and yes they tested the axle and it met all hardness specs. The other failures they've had were in Trophy trucks or Ultra4 cars which are punished but usually those failures are caused by lack of maintenance (forgetting to put oil in the portals).
The cost is higher than a suspension lift and regear, but gaining 4" of ground clearance is unbeatable and keeping factory geometry. Plus you reduce the load on your diff's, t-case and transmission, by moving the regear to the wheel. I guess its really up to each individual, but in my honest experience, I couldn't be happier with them.
The cost is higher than a suspension lift and regear, but gaining 4" of ground clearance is unbeatable and keeping factory geometry. Plus you reduce the load on your diff's, t-case and transmission, by moving the regear to the wheel. I guess its really up to each individual, but in my honest experience, I couldn't be happier with them.
I talked to Toyota and obviously an aftermarket part will not be covered under warranty by them, but as long as there aren't any modifications to the power train, the warranty is still covered. 74W basically told me they haven't established a warranty period for the portals because they haven't had a vehicle with enough miles where they see limits on them. They have a couple trucks with 30K - 40K miles and they still show now signs of excessive wear. They use a 1 ton unit bearing from a F-350, which is much stronger than a Toyota unit bearing, so as long as things are maintained (changing oil every 5,000 miles, which I do at every oil change, it really only adds about an extra hour of maintenance (especially if you have a friend with a lift)
I did buy the 100K mile extended warranty, mainly for all of the tech that still could cause problems.
I talked to Toyota and obviously an aftermarket part will not be covered under warranty by them, but as long as there aren't any modifications to the power train, the warranty is still covered. 74W basically told me they haven't established a warranty period for the portals because they haven't had a vehicle with enough miles where they see limits on them. They have a couple trucks with 30K - 40K miles and they still show now signs of excessive wear. They use a 1 ton unit bearing from a F-350, which is much stronger than a Toyota unit bearing, so as long as things are maintained (changing oil every 5,000 miles, which I do at every oil change, it really only adds about an extra hour of maintenance (especially if you have a friend with a lift)
I did buy the 100K mile extended warranty, mainly for all of the tech that still could cause problems.
I'm not talking about toyota warranty. 74weld has updated their warranty for tire size. You can look at post 12 on this thread for screenshot
FWIW - liability will be highly state dependent. But I think as a general rule - no, the disclaimers like "for offroad use only" will not offer any liability protection for the manufacturer or the end user. You can't disclaim responsibility to a third party when you are selling a product you know will be used in a certain way that may be unsafe. Liability could extend to the manufacturer, the retailer, installer, owner, and driver. If I were a plaintiff's attorney - I'd include all of the above.
Your auto insurance may also reject coverage if you don't disclose the modification. Again - that's highly state insurance law specific - but it's a common basis for denying a claim. The factual issue would be proving that the portals were the cause of a collision. In the case of a stock suspension component failure that is over-stressed by the leverage, for a plaintiff's attorney that's an easy thing to prove. For a case of a typical collision it may be harder to establish that the collision could have been avoided without the portal boxes. I think the best practice on the insurance issue is to inform the insurer that the vehicle is modified in writing. I don't recall my current insurance asking for any information about it, but I'd bet it's in the policy somewhere.
I personally wouldn't lose a lot of sleep over the liability issue - I'd buy insurance for that. But I would want to make sure that it is actually safe. It seems like they have a pretty good track record so far of safety. I'd just drive reasonably with the understanding that the vehicle is modified.
Your auto insurance may also reject coverage if you don't disclose the modification. Again - that's highly state insurance law specific - but it's a common basis for denying a claim. The factual issue would be proving that the portals were the cause of a collision. In the case of a stock suspension component failure that is over-stressed by the leverage, for a plaintiff's attorney that's an easy thing to prove. For a case of a typical collision it may be harder to establish that the collision could have been avoided without the portal boxes. I think the best practice on the insurance issue is to inform the insurer that the vehicle is modified in writing. I don't recall my current insurance asking for any information about it, but I'd bet it's in the policy somewhere.
I personally wouldn't lose a lot of sleep over the liability issue - I'd buy insurance for that. But I would want to make sure that it is actually safe. It seems like they have a pretty good track record so far of safety. I'd just drive reasonably with the understanding that the vehicle is modified.
Interesting technical note - the 2nd gen Tundra front wheel bearing is slightly larger than the F350 unit bearing. Not sure how the new GA-F unit bearings compare. But I thought it was interesting.
Tundra left, F250/350/450 unit bearing on the right. Would be interesting to see a comparison to the LC250.
Credit to Bjowett on here:
A good portal is an Unimog, for 20k you can get a surplus somewhere....
bjowett
Supporting Vendor
It’s worth noting that the Ford bearing is for the 99 - 04 Superduty. Later Ford models may be larger or? The LC200/Tundra unit bearing has larger bearing rollers/cages/races than the pictured Ford piece, but the Ford housing and flange are a bit heavier when compared to the Toyota piece.
hey OP, now that 74 Weld lowered Portals to $17k, does that bring you back near the edge? or did you talk yourself back into a safe place with your money? I think they add too much track width, if they could bring that in somehow to add maybe just 1.5" per side, it'd be easier to find wheels with the correct offset and not have too much poke
