The Unimog Axle Option

[Kiel]

Well it was brought up and I think many people at one time have thought about unimogs portal axles at one time or another. Everythink from 404,406, 411, 416 etc etc, front and rear steer etc. What is everybodys preference/expirience. I'm just scared of portal boxes, but they do make some aftermarket housings that have yet to see failure from what I've read but at around 700 bucks a piece, it's borderline insane!!

 

[mbryson]

I think they're sweet (ground clearance is awesome), but have seen too many portals ripped off the axle housings for my taste. You've also got the parts availability issue if you do break them. I can't imagine NAPA (CarQuest or whatever) in Moab (or whereever you are) is going to have parts sitting around for a 'mog axle.

I went with a D60 front and a 14 bolt rear. Strong, reasonably priced for what you get and will stand up to 38-40" tires and some pretty nasty abuse in stock form. Works for me. Oh, and I bet you can get parts MUCHO faster than a mog (some are probably on the shelf wherever you are).

 

[Milner]

Oh Bart

Anyway....I too have seen a lot of problems with stock mog boxes, and with narrowed mogs....seem to be difficult to narrow and keep everything lined up.

As with the rockwells, the front presents clearance issues. The pinion is way up there and pretty long....

 

[Rot Box]

My dream is Portals under the Rot Box.......For my style of wheelin, and the size of tire I would run combined with the weight of my massive 20R I think I would be OK or even very well off. I don't doubt that they break, leak, or cause problems for setting up suspension, but how many of them have been in competitions with success? The FJ45 in the TTC comes to my mind every time I start dreaming. I could be wrong, and I'm definatly not speaking from exprerience, but I think I could make it work.

 

[mbryson]

My dream is Portals under the Rot Box.......For my style of wheelin, and the size of tire I would run combined with the weight of my massive 20R I think I would be OK or even very well off. I don't doubt that they break, leak, or cause problems for setting up suspension, but how many of them have been in competitions with success? The FJ45 in the TTC comes to my mind every time I start dreaming. I could be wrong, and I'm definatly not speaking from exprerience, but I think I could make it work.

There's no doubt they work and have some pretty significant advantages over any domestic axles. There's just some trade offs (like in everything) to make them work. I'm going for cheap, so I just bucked up and got a boring 60/14 bolt. YMMV

 

[Bart]

Okay, I'll chime in. If you're going to run Mogs, buy two sets! That will give the spare parts you need to keep them going. You can't walk into any auto parts store and get parts. As you start going through parts you can track down spares as you need.

Be prepared for some wild geometry problems with the links. You have to have tall upper control arm mounts so you can mount the lower control arms at the main tube. That makes for some interesting clearance issues with the uppers.

I'd also advise to leave them full width, then you get away from housing issues associated with narrowing the Mogs.

 

[rondo]

Go here: http://www.killeraxles.com/html/used_unimog_axles.html

Warehouse in Ogden. Supposedly they have all the parts you could need, a pinion to replace the funky torque tube, even disk brake option with 8 lugs to fit your tires and wheels. Prices on the core aren't too bad, but gear ratio is very deep and locker, disk brake kit is pricey. I think a guy would be into this axle for as much as a rebuilt Dana 60 or more.

The only vehicle i've seen run these (except for real unimogs) was a TJ in Las Cruces NM. It looked as sweet as sweet could be but off road it was a POS that couldn't climb a thing.