great white
Retirement countdown!
- Joined
- Jan 21, 2012
- Messages
- 6,266
- Reaction score
- 210
Guys still manage to blow those up with any kind of lift and tire.
I think it was on pirate4x4 a gent used the RCV axles on a modest lift and something like 35's. Keep blowing them all to hell in mud holes. To make it worse, CV boots kept slipping off the joints during articulation. They eventually just refunded his money.
CV axles are just not made for any serious shock loads and as much as I don't like to admit it, not for rock crawling (KOH IFS buggies don't count!).
The major weakness on regular axles is the plunging tripod joint up by the differential and RCV addresses it by installing a 2303 porche style joint there. But the limitations of IFS are still there. In order to make any kind of IFS live in rock, you need to have the arm pivot right up by a center mounted differential. That's what IFS buggies do:
Making the axle run from the diff to the knuckle reduces the angles which give the joints a chance to survive big power, big meats and lots of abuse.
Obviously, either very impractical or very expensive on a GMT400. Those type of setups also have some serious issues in a road vehicle....
While I like my IFS, I have to say slip a 44 or 60 under the front if you intend to beat on the truck much more than a rough fire road.
I've actually explored building axles for my truck when I had my 88. Porche inner joints, 3/4 ton outers, chromoly shafts, splined slip joint shafts, etc, etc.
Redesigned arms for long travel, the whole 9 yards. I was almost ready to drop the bank account on building it.
Then, before I got a chance to talk to my machinist I went out on a trial ride with a couple buds. My big ol' eclb was doing ok and one of my buds had a K2500. He grenaded the center diff in a shallow mud hole. The casing deflected and it destroyed itself by splitting the case.
That got me thinking about the need for a different cast iron center and while I was planning a scheming it hit me: Not worth it. Get a better rig to start with or build a buggy if I wanted to abuse it in mud and crawling.
That would be my recommendation if you have even half a though about dropping 2 grand on RCV axles.
Or take a fraction of that 2 grand and buy a spare left and right axle to keep with you "just in case".
I think it was on pirate4x4 a gent used the RCV axles on a modest lift and something like 35's. Keep blowing them all to hell in mud holes. To make it worse, CV boots kept slipping off the joints during articulation. They eventually just refunded his money.
CV axles are just not made for any serious shock loads and as much as I don't like to admit it, not for rock crawling (KOH IFS buggies don't count!).
The major weakness on regular axles is the plunging tripod joint up by the differential and RCV addresses it by installing a 2303 porche style joint there. But the limitations of IFS are still there. In order to make any kind of IFS live in rock, you need to have the arm pivot right up by a center mounted differential. That's what IFS buggies do:
You must be registered for see images attach
Making the axle run from the diff to the knuckle reduces the angles which give the joints a chance to survive big power, big meats and lots of abuse.
Obviously, either very impractical or very expensive on a GMT400. Those type of setups also have some serious issues in a road vehicle....
While I like my IFS, I have to say slip a 44 or 60 under the front if you intend to beat on the truck much more than a rough fire road.
I've actually explored building axles for my truck when I had my 88. Porche inner joints, 3/4 ton outers, chromoly shafts, splined slip joint shafts, etc, etc.
Redesigned arms for long travel, the whole 9 yards. I was almost ready to drop the bank account on building it.
Then, before I got a chance to talk to my machinist I went out on a trial ride with a couple buds. My big ol' eclb was doing ok and one of my buds had a K2500. He grenaded the center diff in a shallow mud hole. The casing deflected and it destroyed itself by splitting the case.
That got me thinking about the need for a different cast iron center and while I was planning a scheming it hit me: Not worth it. Get a better rig to start with or build a buggy if I wanted to abuse it in mud and crawling.
That would be my recommendation if you have even half a though about dropping 2 grand on RCV axles.
Or take a fraction of that 2 grand and buy a spare left and right axle to keep with you "just in case".
Last edited:
