Am i going overboard on Re-gearing and Dana 60 axles?

[awhitney1]

So I have a 2006 v8 4runner with a loaded weight of around 6200lbs. Looking to regear the differentials to Nitro 4.88 and installing a dana60 axle with 35 spline chromoly axle shafts, and Electric OX Locker. I'm just cruising around the back roads of Colorado and eventually want to tackle Moab without having to worry about breaking axles. I've included the options from East Coast Gear Supply of what I want.

Also the front diff will have 4.88 gearing with ARB air locker with RCV axles.

I want to be LOCKED AND LOADED!

 

[Syr4RinNC]

Yea I think that’ll do it. You’re giving yourself real insurance and protection against high torque situations.

What size tires are you running?

 

[y=mx+b]

[MENTION=130999]Inv4drZm[/MENTION] is going to be the best resource for this. I'd check out his build thread and hopefully he can chime in with some knowledge and experience with the ECGS Dana 60

 

[awhitney1]

35" Tires

Yea I think that’ll do it. You’re giving yourself real insurance and protection against high torque situations.

What size tires are you running?

 

[awhitney1]

Thanks man, i'll go through that and see what his experience is.

[MENTION=130999]Inv4drZm[/MENTION] is going to be the best resource for this. I'd check out his build thread and hopefully he can chime in with some knowledge and experience with the ECGS Dana 60

 

[little_joe]

Not going to critique your plan (nice choices!), but I have to ask - where will the fuse be?

By fuse, I mean: what will break?

A full-floating rear with those axle shafts likely won't break. The IFS front diff rebuilt with a locker may not break. The cv's are super stout and should hold up fine.

So then, when you have to get on it, or hop it, or other scenarios that might break stock components - is the fuse now your transfer case? transmission? driveshafts/ujoints? or ???

I hope you never have to find out, but with the new components under the 4R and your desire to do other trails, it's something worth considering. Perhaps you're going all in for reliability and don't plan to hammer it, in which case I'd say - enjoy the hell out of it!

 

[Inv4drZm]

If you wanted to cut some costs skip the rcv's and find a set of used CV's that need rebooted or something, they are fairly easy to swap on the trail so just bring them with you, but I've never broken one and I would say it's fairly uncommon a stock Toyota CV breaks, I even have 37" tires. But RCV's are good too.

If you are worried about it, I would say the weak link in the drivetrain is the t-case, and steering rack/ tie rods are still weak.

If you extend the Dana 60 3" each side like me, beware that the lower shock mounts are that much further from the tire, I hit mine on rocks all the time now and am planning to refabricate them up higher.

Let me know of any other questions. Page 38 on my build thread is when it gets installed.

The biggest problem with the Dana 60 is that you'll be trying to figure out how to run 37's.

 

[montijo505]

The biggest FIRST WORLD PROBLEM with the Dana 60 is that you'll be trying to figure out how to run 37's.

fixed it for you....... Lol

Sent from my SM-G986U using Tapatalk

 

[Jayson44]

35's on a d60 is gonna lose you some ground clearance. the pumpkin on that thing is YUGE and you'll be scraping a lot more than you are now with such "small" tires.

just something to think about. I'd be looking to run 37s (or bigger) if I was putting up the cash for a d60.

J.

 

[awhitney1]

Good question, I think the fuse that is going to pop, would probably be the steering rack. With the front locker, i'm hoping to get the marlin crawler rack whenever that comes out

Not going to critique your plan (nice choices!), but I have to ask - where will the fuse be?

By fuse, I mean: what will break?

A full-floating rear with those axle shafts likely won't break. The IFS front diff rebuilt with a locker may not break. The cv's are super stout and should hold up fine.

So then, when you have to get on it, or hop it, or other scenarios that might break stock components - is the fuse now your transfer case? transmission? driveshafts/ujoints? or ???

I hope you never have to find out, but with the new components under the 4R and your desire to do other trails, it's something worth considering. Perhaps you're going all in for reliability and don't plan to hammer it, in which case I'd say - enjoy the hell out of it!

 

[awhitney1]

Thanks for your experience and input on this, your build got me curious about getting dana 60s on my 4runner lol. I may stick with the OEM axles for the front, but still have a front locker. I eventually want to go with the marlin crawler kit that has the beefier front axles, control arms, tie rods and steering rack.

Not too concerned with the t-case, i'm not doing anything extreme here, just want to make this 4runner more bullet proof for some easy trails on moab.

Not sure why I would need to extend the dana60 axles, I think stock length for me with 35x13.5 tires seems wide enough.

If you wanted to cut some costs skip the rcv's and find a set of used CV's that need rebooted or something, they are fairly easy to swap on the trail so just bring them with you, but I've never broken one and I would say it's fairly uncommon a stock Toyota CV breaks, I even have 37" tires. But RCV's are good too.

If you are worried about it, I would say the weak link in the drivetrain is the t-case, and steering rack/ tie rods are still weak.

If you extend the Dana 60 3" each side like me, beware that the lower shock mounts are that much further from the tire, I hit mine on rocks all the time now and am planning to refabricate them up higher.

Let me know of any other questions. Page 38 on my build thread is when it gets installed.

The biggest problem with the Dana 60 is that you'll be trying to figure out how to run 37's.

 

[Inv4drZm]

Thanks for your experience and input on this, your build got me curious about getting dana 60s on my 4runner lol. I may stick with the OEM axles for the front, but still have a front locker. I eventually want to go with the marlin crawler kit that has the beefier front axles, control arms, tie rods and steering rack.

Not too concerned with the t-case, i'm not doing anything extreme here, just want to make this 4runner more bullet proof for some easy trails on moab.

Not sure why I would need to extend the dana60 axles, I think stock length for me with 35x13.5 tires seems wide enough.

Same, either Marlin or the JD Fab parts, there's a Tacomaworld thread on them, cool stuff. Haven't checked on the Marlin stuff recently.

With the rear axle, if you can stuff your tires up inside the wheel wells (I did it with 12.5" tires) it makes sense to stay stock width. With the wider 37's I figured I wouldn't even try, and now it matches the front long travel width. That and the tires and wheels act like a slider now on some of the real hard obstacles to push your body away from rocks or trees. Of course though the tires and wheels get scraped up more. Just my 2 cents.

 

[awhitney1]

I'll have to check on JD fab and see what I find.

What about a Diamond 9.5 axle? Any reason to chose one or the other? They seem pretty much the same as far as beefy-ness goes. Looks like the with the Diamond, I can fit 32 spline rear axle shaft compared to a 35 spline rear axle shaft on the dana 60.

Same, either Marlin or the JD Fab parts, there's a Tacomaworld thread on them, cool stuff. Haven't checked on the Marlin stuff recently.

With the rear axle, if you can stuff your tires up inside the wheel wells (I did it with 12.5" tires) it makes sense to stay stock width. With the wider 37's I figured I wouldn't even try, and now it matches the front long travel width. That and the tires and wheels act like a slider now on some of the real hard obstacles to push your body away from rocks or trees. Of course though the tires and wheels get scraped up more. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Inv4drZm]

I'll have to check on JD fab and see what I find.

What about a Diamond 9.5 axle? Any reason to chose one or the other? They seem pretty much the same as far as beefy-ness goes. Looks like the with the Diamond, I can fit 32 spline rear axle shaft compared to a 35 spline rear axle shaft on the dana 60.

I thought the Diamond uses stock sized axle shafts which are 30 spline. If they do use stock sized axles then IMO they aren't much or any stronger than the 8.2 axle as I've heard rumor of a couple of those breaking axle shafts and not the gears.

 

[awhitney1]

I was talking with Just Differentials and the guy said these 32 spline axle shafts will work:

Nitro Pro Series Chromoly 32 spline Upgrade Axle Kit

I thought the Diamond uses stock sized axle shafts which are 30 spline. If they do use stock sized axles then IMO they aren't much or any stronger than the 8.2 axle as I've heard rumor of a couple of those breaking axle shafts and not the gears.

 

[Inv4drZm]

I was talking with Just Differentials and the guy said these 32 spline axle shafts will work:

Nitro Pro Series Chromoly 32 spline Upgrade Axle Kit

My brother waited over a year for a full float Diamond rear axle to be built with the 32 spline Landcruiser axle shafts but they never got past the R&D phase even with multiple people's deposits. As far as I know they still haven't finished that full float project.

On the Nitro 32 spline axle product page it states "full float only" but I'll admit I don't know enough about the details to know if its possible to use on a semi float or if they did finish that full float project that has the special sauce of using the factory wheel speed sensors.

 

[awhitney1]

No idea, that's over my head lol.

Sounds like it's easiest to get a bolt on option with the dana 60s and 35 spline axle shafts/bearings and all the other goodies.

My brother waited over a year for a full float Diamond rear axle to be built with the 32 spline Landcruiser axle shafts but they never got past the R&D phase even with multiple people's deposits. As far as I know they still haven't finished that full float project.

On the Nitro 32 spline axle product page it states "full float only" but I'll admit I don't know enough about the details to know if its possible to use on a semi float or if they did finish that full float project that has the special sauce of using the factory wheel speed sensors.

 

[awhitney1]

So with the Dana 60, 35 spline chromoly axle shafts, electric OX rear Locker, 4.88 gears, ARB front locker and EVENTUALLY the Marlin Crawler kit, I should be beefed up a bit compared to rinky dink OEM crap.

 

[zothen]

I thought the Diamond uses stock sized axle shafts which are 30 spline. If they do use stock sized axles then IMO they aren't much or any stronger than the 8.2 axle as I've heard rumor of a couple of those breaking axle shafts and not the gears.

Are the factory 8.2 axle shafts chromoly? If not, then perhaps the aftermarket 30 spline chromoly axle shafts are still a significant upgrade.

 

[Ida4runner]

Not sure what you mean by tackle Moab?
With 35's your dana 60 rear axle will be bomb proof(actually way overkill)I'd just keep the factory axle, add a factory E locker, gear it and call it good. Now the front you're going to grenade either your CV's, diff, transfer case, tie rod ends or steering rack the first time you start bouncing the front end on rocks or bind the front with your tires turned.
I'm not even going to get into the rubbing issues your going to encounter with 35's on the front when you stuff them flexed with wheels turned.

I was in your situation years ago and kept my 4th gen street drivable and built a 1st gen into a crawler for Moab, smartest thing I did and when I got the Moab thing out of my system sold the 1st gen for not much of a loss and still had a the 4th gen that wasn't beat to crap.