torq axle - portaltek portals for dana 60

rondo

rondo
Location
Boise Idaho
These portals which fit on dana 60s really got me drooling! Read about them in peterson's 4wheel mag. It's a sorry mag, don't get me wrong-last article about them was in 2009 and they rarely revisit the products they hype. This says portal-tek is out of biz: http://portal-tek.com/

Torq axle bought them out but their website is either not populated our my work 'puter won't read it. With such little info and so much drama attached to how the last company died and allegedly took people's $, i'd be very hesitant to buy without a lot more info. There may be info on pirate but my work puter blocks that too grrr

Filthy motorsports has them for $3495 http://www.filthymotorsports.com

The discussion may be mute because the wifey threw a fit when i even mentioned it :D The buy in is pretty high with new wheels, would have to change my ring / pinion from 5.38 back to 3.08 or something just to hit 25 mph and up, then what do you do if it breaks?
 
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thenag

Registered User
Location
Kearns
This is one of those things that someone will come up with every few years, great idea, decent implantation (although putting that kind force on a d-60 king pin is questionable) It just ends up being too much money to catch on, and not enough name recognition.

I think if an axle manufacture, dynatrac, or someone, sold whole axles with portals on them people would buy them. Part of the problem with Portal tec, is if you have a set now and need parts would you be able to get parts? Would you have to have parts machined? Also adding portals to an already built suspension would probably mess up all your link calculations so re-tuning the suspension at a minimum, rebuilding the suspension at worst...

Although I think a ford 9 center with some kind of purpose built portals with gear reduction would be killer for smaller rigs.

nathan
 

Gravy

Ant Anstead of Dirtbikes
Supporting Member
problem with portal tek stuff was the portal gear reduction. you really need to run a 3:1 ring and pinion (or numerically lower) to have a usable final drive ratio. There are only a few axles (one of them being a 9") that you can order gears that (numerically) low gears for.
 

driver920

Active Member
Location
West Valley
chrysler is developping a portal the had it in moab this year on a retro concept vehicle not sure if to could order them or not yet but they where dana 60 centers with bolt on portals i found the story on you tube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NX-kvTCEXoU while i was looking at ejs stuff they had some very cool retro builds down there ............ just re watched this 44 base front 60 basded rear
 
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Tacoma

Et incurventur ante non
Location
far enough away
Portal-Tek is done. Torq did buy out their stuff, but they are focused pretty heavily on the Super14 and an upcoming alternative :D. No portals for a good while. In my opinion, there is no really good way to make a portal axle cost less, and they are generally unhappy at speed. Figure starting out with all custom stuff, and then added a lot more to each end. And then you get to think about things like scrub radius and kingpin inclination on the steering ends, and how it affects your suspension. :D

Torq may be producing new and improved Portals at some point, but not now. For Rondo: due to all the BS w/Portal-Tek, Torq has adopted a philosophy of not taking money unless they've got product. You can drive over and see them, and touch actual parts. Not at all like Portal Tek. I do not involve myself with scammers or con-men. ;)
 

rondo

rondo
Location
Boise Idaho
Interesting stuff: filthy motorsports and polyperformance carry them and maybe others-supposedly you can get them now. Not for hwy use is what the mag article said. Would probably best be used on a stock D60 with 3.xx something gear ratio.
 

jeep-N-montero

Formerly black_ZJ
Location
Bountiful
Hey Ron, I am friends with one of the engineers who worked for Portal Tek and he also designed the Super14 axle, I can put you in touch with him if you wish.
 

thenag

Registered User
Location
Kearns
problem with portal tek stuff was the portal gear reduction. you really need to run a 3:1 ring and pinion (or numerically lower) to have a usable final drive ratio. There are only a few axles (one of them being a 9") that you can order gears that (numerically) low gears for.

That is one of the reasons I think a Ford 9 center would be the way to go. Someone could build housings, Driver drop, Pass drop, and rear, sell it with axle shafts, portals, everything designed around it and sell it without a third member. As a company you could actually have a quality product that could be profitable, and priced where people will buy it, you don't have to deal with the differential at all, but still make a re-enforced housing, and you could use something other than d-60 king pins (I am sure there is some big rig king pin that would be stronger...) Plus the ground clearance from a custom for 9 housing and portals, that would be sweet...

I have too much money into my d60 to ever do portals anyway

nathan
 

Chevycrew

Well-Known Member
Location
WVC, UT
From talks in moab at ejs, these are going to be a factory installed option on the jks. The axle-tec portals will bolt onto a narrowed kingpin 60.

so portals, no lift, 40s, from the dealer....
 

petesoffroad

Registered User
There is an article in the new Peterson I got the other day about Portals in a maroon JK they test drove and were able to get up to 70 MPH on the highway and said it felt smooth and controlled. They said it drove just as good jeep wrangler on 40's they have drove before. The 23,500 dollar price tag for bolt in JK Portal axles seemed a little pricey though/
 

Bart

Registered User
Location
Arm Utah
Pretty sure every portal in a Jeep is produced from Dynatrac, and most have a 44 pumpkin. Saw the first ones built in the green JK 3 years ago at EJS.
 

spencurai

Vanilla Gorilla
Location
WVC,UT
Pretty sure every portal in a Jeep is produced from Dynatrac, and most have a 44 pumpkin. Saw the first ones built in the green JK 3 years ago at EJS.


The axles on the FC concept were obviously dynatrac with a Jeep sticker on them

suspension-detail-FC.jpg
 

rondo

rondo
Location
Boise Idaho
The axles are produced by dynatrac, but not the portals. they are put on the dynatrac axles later. I think that's why the price is so high...it's a dynatrac axle, mod to fit a JK, with portal ends= rediculous price.
Eric: would be interesting if the engineer came on here and talked about them to see if they are for real and would really be marketed to the public. I don't want to necessarily talk to him. But i would be interested to know if these are for real or not.
 

Tacoma

Et incurventur ante non
Location
far enough away
You're talking about Axle Tech's bolt on deals, which have nothing to do w/Portal Tek or Torq. They're a real product.

For that price you could get converted Unimog stuff. I am assuming you don't want to do that for some reason. :D
If you have any Torq questions, get in touch. ;)
 
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