if I could throw in my two cents worth to reply to those who question the strength of Volvos. Generally the weakest link on most built 4x4's on conventional axles is the CV joint. The CV's on Toyota 45"s ,Hilux's, GQ Nissans, early Rangeys and 110 Landys are all identical in size.Eg. You can remove the balls and spiders from a range rover cv and fit it into a toyota one. only the heat treatment and the splines vary from one brand of vehicle to another. The volvo front axle has identical size cv's to all these vehicles but because of hub reduction there is only half the stress. Before I converted my Landrover to portals I used to run Salisbury (read Dana 60 ) axles front and back, but I built the front end to take LandRover swivel housings and Toyota CV joints. After shattering several cv's I concluded that unless I could find and adapt much larger ones the front diff was overkill and only ate up valuable ground clearance. I could not afford Volvo axles at that time ( still can't ) so I built my own portal hubs for Range rover diffs , also fitted with Toyota cv's and I have not had a problem since. So what I am getting at is that it does not matter how big and strong you may think your Nissan or Toyota etc diffs are , You are still limited by the strength of the CV's. Yes i know about Marfields and Long fields, but you can put them on Volvos too and they will still be effectively more than twice as strong as a Toyota or Nissan with similar equipment. Given enough engine, enough tire and too much right foot you can break anything, with the possible exception of Mogs, but I have heard of them blowing the portal boxes because they use helical gears instead of straight cuts. This surprises me a little because a 404 Mog with all the optional crawler gears is reputadely capable of reliably towing something like 900 tons when used as a railway locomotive.
Bill aka daddylonglegs from outerlimits has built some pretty trick landys in the past
Would have to be one of the coolest Landys around.....
It also ran an idea of Bills "forced articulation" Was featured in a 4wd monthly a couple of years back. Quite a cool idea. Basically "forced" the front axle to flex like the back axle (in a crossaxled situation) therefore the body would only tilt half of axle angle..... hard to explain.
I apologise for the quick interuption , but you landie/rangie guys(thinking of Mike, furgus etc etc) could be interested in a rangie on TM in Hams (search and ye shall find - too easy to post link ). Its on my watch list but I probably wont buy, but its got a bit of good fruit that could be robbed if you break it down
lilpigzuk wrote:Would have to be one of the coolest Landys around..... It also ran an idea of Bills "forced articulation" Was featured in a 4wd monthly a couple of years back. Quite a cool idea. Basically "forced" the front axle to flex like the back axle (in a crossaxled situation) therefore the body would only tilt half of axle angle..... hard to explain.
It was basically a shaft connected to the rear housing that came halfway up the truck and had a gear on it. The front axle had the same sort of shaft attached that ran back down to the same place with another gear on it. The two gears intermesh so that when one shaft twists with the axle it turns the opposing gear, forcing the other axle to be twisted in the opposite way.
I think he used a modified transfer case to do the 'gear' bit in the middle.
Damn, homebuilts huh?.. Like the ones I've been building in my head for the last year or so to bolt onto Toy axles
Are you lot to young to remember VW COMBI's ? They have a nice Portal set up that was adapted to Toyota axles by a mate of mine and used successfully in his trails vehicle. That should give you a few sleepless nights Steve Can't Sleep, FITZY.
I just read that link DAMM! Holy hell I did the math 8 transfercases to get enough gears to make the portals.... I like it but there has to be a less gear intensive option.... oh and the upside down diffs makes me cringe hows he getting oil to the pinion bearing ??
VW Combi Are you talking about the "bus" becouse I'm pretty certain the normal combi didn't have portals my ole man used to cut them up to make lambing hacks... shorten them put a pen in the middle and new cab a set of spud lugs and away ya go makes offroad a whole new experiance when your seated infront of the front axle Need more details please