Two piece rear drive shaft?

[woytovich]

So I do some significant rock crawling in my FJ60 and the one question that I find myself asking often is: "Is my rear drive shaft clear?"
That said I was wondering if anyone has swapped the relatively long rear shaft for a 2 piece arrangement like you often see in box delivery trucks. That in combo with a significant upward turn of the rear axle, like is done in a spring-over, only moreso, would make for a lot less exposed drive shaft.

Thoughts?

 

[Spook50]

I'm curious. In theory it makes sense. Myself I'd just stick with the 1 piece driveshaft, but to be fair I don't do any crawling, save for going over the occasional downed tree.

Also is the 1 piece in your pic from your 60? Custom job or did you order it from somewhere?

 

[cruisermatt]

You’d be adding extra angle, more stress on the joint, and also more operating range for the rear part of the shaft. Also you have an H55f/toybox right? So your rear driveshaft should be pretty short already.
Edit : drunk error

 

[klinetime574]

That would be interesting. I believe the early Tacoma’s had a similar driveshaft. “Carrier bearing.” Or something like that.

I’m kinda thinking what @cruisermatt is thinking. Would you even have room for that?

I’m not saying no, just wondering how it could work.

 

[woytovich]

The drive shaft pictured is not mine. It's just a grab from the interweb.
I agree that the angle of the joint would be steep. And the amount of work involved might not be worth it. It was mostly a hypothetical question
I guess you could make the first drive shaft section short to keep the angle from being as steep.

 

[cruisermatt]

Lots of long wheelbase 2wd vehicles have this. Fine for the street with limited travel with the OEM carrier bearings.
You might be interested to look into buggy driveshafts. A lot of those guys run a setup like this up front where they have transmission pan clearance issues. @Mace has a setup like this on the front of his FJ60. I’ve actually looked into this since my front driveshaft is pretty long and hangs down kinda, I also didn’t turn the pinion up when I did my SOA so my front driveshaft might be a bit of a rock magnet. I elected to just see how much it gets smashed before I get crazy with a setup like this.
I don’t think it’s worth the effort and extra set of joints and parasitic loss just for inch of clearance on already short rear driveshaft.

 

[cruisermatt]

one question that I find myself asking often is: "Is my rear drive shaft clear?"
Thoughts?

Here’s what I do. Take a length of 2.5” DOM tubing, good wall like .188”. Cut you driveshaft in half, slide the DOM tubing inside (2.5” should be a good slip fit), and weld the DS back up. Add some plug welds on it too.
Now you have a .250” wall driveline you can slam on rocks without concern.

 

[Spook50]

Here’s what I do. Take a length of 2.5” DOM tubing, good wall like .188”. Cut you driveshaft in half, slide the DOM tubing inside (2.5” should be a good slip fit), and weld the DS back up. Add some plug welds on it too.
Now you have a .250” wall driveline you can slam on rocks without concern.

Yes but for a rear be sure you get it balanced after that!

 

[cruisermatt]

Not worth balancing. I have a good balanced DS and a trail DS and swap at the trailhead. And I’m fairly certain @woytovich 60 doesn’t see the street at all.

 

[woytovich]

Very little street, although balanced would be nice for trips from campground to wheeling site... or out to get gas...

 

[cruisermatt]

Very little street, although balanced would be nice for trips from campground to wheeling site... or out to get gas...

You won’t notice a unbalanced driveshaft over your TSL’s and beadlocks. Trust me.