Portal Axles

[balakachai]

Anyone does these for the Jeep Gladiator? Or Jeeps? Or any other vehicles? Scant resources online about this, at least here in the US. Any directions would be appreciated.

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[LostWoods]

If you really want to do this and understand what's involved, your best bet is going to be to just roll with some D60 axles and go with the available kits.

I hope you're prepared to spend what you paid for your truck.

 

[Rahkmalla]

Portal axles are purpose built crawler territory. Like, tow your jeep to the crawl site. They aren't meant to endure the speeds of driving on a highway due to heat. Also I believe you'd have to reverse gear the transfer case? (someone correct me here?)

As such, you're unlikely to ever see portal axles in a JT. Probably not even a JLU. Most likely not even a JL for a while. With the kind of rebuild you're talking about, it just makes more sense to grab a cheap piece of crap old wrangler and build it from the ground up. Pick up a salvage title for pennies and never road register it style.

 

[bailer]

https://www.thedrive.com/new-cars/3...the-ludicrous-g550-4x4-rock-crawler-stateside

I saw one of these at my local Mercedes dealer back in ‘17 I think.
The first thing I noticed were the dropboxes. Amazing ground clearance. Reminded me of our self propelled swathers!

 

[DailyMoparGuy]

https://www.thedrive.com/new-cars/3...the-ludicrous-g550-4x4-rock-crawler-stateside

I saw one of these at my local Mercedes dealer back in ‘17 I think.
The first thing I noticed were the dropboxes. Amazing ground clearance. Reminded me of our self propelled swathers!

I saw one too way back in 2017 or 2018. I spoke to the owner too. Let’s just say that thing never saw dirt. Nice guy though.

Even more random than this 4x4^2, I saw a 6x6^2 back in Morgantown, WV when I was in college lol.

 

[jac04]

Anyone does these for the Jeep Gladiator? Or Jeeps? Or any other vehicles? Scant resources online about this, at least here in the US. Any directions would be appreciated.

Here you go. Bolt-on portals available for JK, JL, JT:
https://motorsports.74weld.com/jeepportal/

Dynatrac used to show portal axles on the web site, but I don't see anything now. I think they were meant for the JK. However, you could contact them to see what they can do for you. Or contact Northridge 4x4 to see what they know, since they regularly work with Dynatrac.

 

[LordEnzo]

I saw there was a company on fb advertising for jl/jt... when I investigated, looking at $11k... thats just the portals on all 4 corners! ?? just to gain 3" and the gearing I think would allow for up to 37" tires. This info is from what I remember, so I don't claim 100% accuracy on it, but is pretty close.

Edit: here's a link gor more info
https://motorsports.74weld.com/jeepportal/

 

[Aberk]

DSTrac has them on their site for the JT. https://www.dstracaxles.com/collections/jeep-jt

 

[HooliganActual]

They aren't meant to endure the speeds of driving on a highway due to heat.

I struggle with this statement. There were guys running KOH this year on portals and they are running faster speeds and worse terrain than most (not all) highways. Granted, those are race cars and I’m not a portal axle expert, but I think that statement may be a little further from the truth than reality.

EDIT: it’s worth noting that, like anything, there is an evolution in portal axles. The ones that they put on hummers did have overheating concerns but there are portals being made now that are being used on Ultra 4 cars and trophy trucks that are designed to perform for those applications, ie high speeds through desert terrain AND rock crawling.

 

[Rahkmalla]

I struggle with this statement. There were guys running KOH this year on portals and they are running faster speeds and worse terrain than most (not all) highways. Granted, those are race cars and I’m not a portal axle expert, but I think that statement may be a little further from the truth than reality.

EDIT: it’s worth noting that, like anything, there is an evolution in portal axles. The ones that they put on hummers did have overheating concerns but there are portals being made now that are being used on Ultra 4 cars and trophy trucks that are designed to perform for those applications, ie high speeds through desert terrain AND rock crawling.

Well, in all fairness you are correct I may be speaking from knowledge of the past that is no longer applicable. But like you said some things that work on race cars don't work on non-race cars because of the maintenance involved. The extreme and hyperbolic example is always nitro burning funny cars. They have their entire engines rebuilt after every quarter mile run, and even so only expect to complete (from memory here, don't crucify me if the number isn't spot on) about 70% of their runs.

KoH runners go a lot longer than 1/4 mile, it would not surprise me in the least if i were to find out their portal axles are rebuilt, or at least torn down for inspection, after each run.

As for the terrain being worse than highways, the heat is a function of adding more gears to a system, not movement with the terrain. Gears make heat. Some more than others (for example no one really worries about the internals of a manual overheating, and Offroad Pages+ doesn't even tell you the trans temp on a manual) but they still generate heat.

 

[HooliganActual]

Gears make heat. Some more than others (for example no one really worries about the internals of a manual overheating, and Offroad Pages+ doesn't even tell you the trans temp on a manual) but they still generate heat.

You are correct and that’s exactly what the ones on the Ultra 4 cars & Trophy Trucks have; they are a 2 gear set up versus 4 gears. I guess the upside here is that like most automotive things, racing spurs innovation and eventually innovation comes to us. I’m not ready to drop $12 large (or so) on portals today but there may be a time in the near future where portals could be a viable option to axle swaps. Another neat thing about them is that you can buy them with the right gearing setup to offset the need to re-gear the main diffs when moving to a larger tire. So in the big scheme of things, at least you wouldn’t have to pay for a re-gear…lol.

Cheers!

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