Sleeving Driveshaft (1 Viewer)

[1973Guppie]

Pulled my rear driveshaft tonight with the intent to bring it into the driveline shop tomm to have it sleeved to a thicker wall tube. I am wondering what size other people have used?

My truck is definitely not a crazy rock crawler but I do get into the rocks usually and want to thicken the wall of the tube in order for it to handle being dented by rocks. As an example I plan to run moab rim, kokopelli, poison spyder mesa during cruise moab. I also usually do trails like john bull, gold mountain etc in big bear. I try to keep it as a good overall on and off road expo truck.

the guy at the driveline shop reccomended NOT going to .120 wall as he said it would be too heavy and cause issues driving it on the street. He reccomended .095 wall tubing. I am not sure I understand why the .120 wall would be an issue as the front shaft I ordered from Tatton is .120 wall.

I do drive 75 on the freeway now nicely and don't want to mess that up.

Any advice appreciated.

Noah

 

[mudgudgeon]

heres my understanding, which may be wrong.
the heavier wall thickness is harder to balance, and the heavier shaft weight puts greater force on uni joints. the way uni joints work means the drive shaft rotates (orbits) around an axis that is not centre of the shaft. the additional thickness and weightbwill amplify the forces involved.
minor damage that puts a shaft off balance will also have a bigger impact on balance and uni joints

 

[Cruiserdrew]

It's all a balance of strength, balance, available.

The local here seems to like 0.120 wall. 0.25 would be stronger and much harder to balance. I wouldn't sweat it. Use what the local drive line shop likes and drive on. You'll be back there in time. If your local guys say 0.95 wall, use that. That's already 50% more than stock.

 

[Tools R Us]

Mine is .120 wall DOM, smooth as stock, have had several done. If your shop isn't confident, best to follow their recommendation or find a confident shop. That said, doesn't sound like you need anything more than stock?

 

[1973Guppie]

Mine is .120 wall DOM, smooth as stock, have had several done. If your shop isn't confident, best to follow their recommendation or find a confident shop. That said, doesn't sound like you need anything more than stock?

yeah I am trying to beef things up a bit with the intent of going on more wheeling trips and making the truck overall more reliable, even in the rocks. I do plan on running the rubicon etc in the future in it. Knowing that .095 is 50 percent stronger helps. That was my next question. I suppose if I dent that then I get .120 wall.

I don't beat on the truck by any means but to me the rear driveshaft on these trucks really is out there and exposed to a lot of trail damage.

 

[landtank]

the tubing is metric and according to my guy he can only get it now in the thicker variation which I think is .95. I beliee putting the thicker .120 wall stuff on Toyota joints means machining the parts. This probably isn't true with the spicer shafts but I'm not sure.

 

[NLXTACY]

Went to .120" on my 396 Camaro. It balanced fine but between the tubing and the torque I broke u-joints quite a few times.