Portal axle thoughts?

crackedcornish

crackedcornish

TJ Enthusiast
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Yuma, AZ, United States
seems like the dana 30/35 combo in most YJ/TJ's would be the perfect candidate for some aftermarket gear boxes bolted to the ends of them, but I tend to see them available only on larger axles like dana 60's, humvee's,and unimogs

anybody have a theory or reason why they aren't made for the lighter axles, that would actually benefit the most from such a thing?
 
crackedcornish said:
seems like the dana 30/35 combo in most YJ/TJ's would be the perfect candidate for some aftermarket gear boxes bolted to the ends of them, but I tend to see them available only on larger axles like dana 60's, humvee's,and unimogs

anybody have a theory or reason why they aren't made for the lighter axles, that would actually benefit the most from such a thing?
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Expense. No one in their right mind would pay the money to put portals on the ends of an axle that is worth 100 bucks on a good day. Just the ones for a SxS are about 3 grand and those are very light duty compared to what a Jeep would need.

Also, it is very difficult to get the geometry of the suspension dialed in to work correctly due to the high leverage the portal puts on the links being underhung way below centerline.
 
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mrblaine said:
Expense. No one in their right mind would pay the money to put portals on the ends of an axle that is worth 100 bucks on a good day. Just the ones for a SxS are about 3 grand and those are very light duty compared to what a Jeep would need.

Also, it is very difficult to get the geometry of the suspension dialed in to work correctly due to the high leverage the portal puts on the links being underhung way below centerline.
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I realize this thread is EXTREMELY old but this might be worth the resurrection..
Just south of $10k a piece


$9950.00
https://www.dstracaxles.com/collections/jeep-tj/products/ds76-portal-competition-front-axle-tj

$9450.00
https://www.dstracaxles.com/collections/jeep-tj/products/ds76-portal-competition-rear-axle-tj
 
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Gollywomper said:
Wear on those ball joints would be severe. The scrub radius would be terrible.
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I would imagine no more so than what would be seen on a 1 ton truck with dually adapters.
It'd be pretty easy to compensate for the portal with appropriate positive offset wheels..
 
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The red line is where it pivots. The tire will have to roll to turn. Imagine a 46” tire so what bound up in the rocks with a hydraulic cylinder putting a lot of force on it.

8A2AC5A8-EA10-4277-99C2-86F2CBE20523.jpeg
 
Gollywomper said:
The red line is where it pivots. The tire will have to roll to turn. Imagine a 46” tire so what bound up in the rocks with a hydraulic cylinder putting a lot of force on it.

View attachment 252647
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Like I said it could be compensated for using the appropriate positive offset much the same as 1 ton trucks use on dually applications.
 
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That’s got to be close to 12”. Do they make them with that much offset? Portals would be sweet with the added clearance and gearing.
 
Gollywomper said:
That’s got to be close to 12”. Do they make them with that much offset? Portals would be sweet with the added clearance and gearing.
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I'd say closer to 6 or less than what you would normally see on a 5600lb axle at the flange, which is pretty close to the average 1 ton spacer. There are all kinds of custom backspaced wheels available for duals. But considering the cost for that type of wheel, I would think you could probably custom order what ever you want.
Screenshot 2021-05-15 171944.png
 
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reddvltj said:
Like I said it could be compensated for using the appropriate positive offset much the same as 1 ton trucks use on dually applications.
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Possible but if you figure the axle tube diameter at 4" and stack that up from the top of the upper balljoint to the nut on the lower which is roughly the center of the rotor, you're looking at 12" to need a 24" diameter rim. If you kinda assume you want the ball joints close to being inside the rim edge at least for the lower, that is a crazy amount of offset and you're dragging the ends of the lug studs on every rock and tree you get near.

Not saying it can't be solved but I wanna see it when you get done. The steering for anything on the street is going to be a serious challenge with the tie rod that far inside. It almost has to be full hydro so you can't expect good street steering.
 
mrblaine said:
Not saying it can't be solved but I wanna see it when you get done. The steering for anything on the street is going to be a serious challenge with the tie rod that far inside. It almost has to be full hydro so you can't expect good street steering.
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Let me preface this with, these axle will likely never be in my budget, at least not in the foreseeable future.

mrblaine said:
Possible but if you figure the axle tube diameter at 4" and stack that up from the top of the upper balljoint to the nut on the lower which is roughly the center of the rotor, you're looking at 12" to need a 24" diameter rim. If you kinda assume you want the ball joints close to being inside the rim edge at least for the lower, that is a crazy amount of offset and you're dragging the ends of the lug studs on every rock and tree you get near.
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Going off what the specs say, it uses a 13.2" vented rotor so conceivably you could get away with an 18 to 20 inch wheel, and be able clear the upper bj. Unfortunately they're not using actual photos of what potentially would be the set up for a TJ so that's just a guess. Also as you said it also will have much to do with how the steering is set up. They do offer full hydro as seen in the pic, or their "Dstrac HD uniball Steering system with upper uniball link to ease client steering link setup."

1621123459983.png

The question is, would the benefit, of extra 4 inches of axle clearance, outweigh the added scrub radius?
 
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