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Post up all those that have portal axles


MogLite

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I'll stick with two portal trucks until spring, then the third gets built for a customer and No.4 for the wife, then dear boys and girls a new and more wonderful toy will emerge which will be blingy than a bling thing after thorough polish with a bling cloth

I can see the point about those that have and those that don't, rather than stick thier heads in the sand and hope the nasty portal people will go away the UK mob need to introduce a class system. To be honest if they won't let me play in the UK then its no big loss.

Top90 - are you getting scorpion to do the work?

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Come on then, who on here has got a pair of portal axles either under their truck, or under a tarp in the front garden ready to be fitted.

Lets hear about

  • Base vehicle
  • Portal make
  • Home built/ or built for you
  • When will it be on the road
  • Tyre size

Just interested to know how many nutters are out there :)

You showing off again Andy :lol::lol::lol:

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mog engine uprated to aprox 200 bhp

out of interest, why are you using a mog lump?

and while i've got a post on the go, I may as well have my ten pence worth... [rant mode ON]

I have the utmost respect for those people who have the time and considersble expertise to build their own vehicles/carry out their own R&D and modifications. However, I am starting to get a little tired of people constantly having a go at so-called "cheque book off-roaders". Some people are blessed with the time and expertise to go down the DIY route. However, the vast majority of 4x4 owners will not have the time, not have the skills or not have either. This SHOULD NOT mean that they cannot improve their truck in order to compete more competitively in a sport that they enjoy - if they do happen to have the funds (for which they've worked VERY hard) to commission someone else to do the work then good luck to them.

So, if you carry out all your own mods, then well done you, but dont deride those who get someone else to do theirs.

[rant mode OFF]

McS

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out of interest, why are you using a mog lump?

and while i've got a post on the go, I may as well have my ten pence worth... [rant mode ON]

I have the utmost respect for those people who have the time and considersble expertise to build their own vehicles/carry out their own R&D and modifications. However, I am starting to get a little tired of people constantly having a go at so-called "cheque book off-roaders". Some people are blessed with the time and expertise to go down the DIY route. However, the vast majority of 4x4 owners will not have the time, not have the skills or not have either. This SHOULD NOT mean that they cannot improve their truck in order to compete more competitively in a sport that they enjoy - if they do happen to have the funds (for which they've worked VERY hard) to commission someone else to do the work then good luck to them.

So, if you carry out all your own mods, then well done you, but dont deride those who get someone else to do theirs.

[rant mode OFF]

McS

Good rant McSporran... and one I agree with. Driving ability is far more important than whether you made your own winch bumper or not.

This really shows up on the big Winch Challenge eventss.. there are a lot of people out there with home-built cars that just cannot drive to save their lives. On the other hand, some of the very top teams out there are have cars with a serious amount of bought-in, bolt-on stuff.

So what's the difference?

Driver ability. (And, I like to think, Co-Driver ability too!)

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Before anyone gets the wrong end of the stick, i cant drive for toffee, dont have a kitted up truck and dont know one end of a portal axle from the other!

If you can , do, and do know...... fair play to you!

But i cant help wondering (after watching some old footage from the 50's) if these new "toys" we love so much, take some of the fun out of it?

Standard tyres........ simax?

Capstan winch...... 8274?

etc etc.....

It would be really interesting to hear stories from people who were around then , were the courses as extreme? how did their trucks perform? that sort of thing?

Not trying to start a row or knocking modern technology, or anything, just interested thats all and thought it might make an interesting topic to compare these things????????????

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This is all very well but i've already heard a rumour that one or more of the major competitions are banning portals and limiting tyre size to 34" next year. This coupled to a 3 ton weight limit will certainly curb the onward trend of bigger tyres, ground clearance and budget.

I think that this is a good thing for mere mortals.

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There's a distinction between those who haven't got the time / space / whatever to build a vehicle so have to pay someone else to do the work, and those who just throw a chequebook at one of the big companies and say "build me a challenge truck" without any great thought about the details. See also Brute Force And Ignorance.

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[rant mode ON]

I have the utmost respect for those people who have the time and considersble expertise to build their own vehicles/carry out their own R&D and modifications. However, I am starting to get a little tired of people constantly having a go at so-called "cheque book off-roaders". Some people are blessed with the time and expertise to go down the DIY route. However, the vast majority of 4x4 owners will not have the time, not have the skills or not have either. This SHOULD NOT mean that they cannot improve their truck in order to compete more competitively in a sport that they enjoy - if they do happen to have the funds (for which they've worked VERY hard) to commission someone else to do the work then good luck to them.

So, if you carry out all your own mods, then well done you, but dont deride those who get someone else to do theirs.

[rant mode OFF]

McS

I agree. If you are not too short of cash but generally quite short of time (like me) or just lazy (also like me) or not much good at building stuff (also like me) or rapidly run out of patience/temper on anything that takes longer than half an hour to finish (definitely like me) that shouldn't be a reason to not do stuff. I have the greatest respect for all the folks that build everything themselves from scratch but I couldn't do half that stuff if I tried to because I'm rubbish at it. Even if I can do something, I look at it and decide whether I would rather make it or pay somebody else to and have all the time I saved to enjoy using it. Quite often the second argument wins!

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For all you people determined to take my thread off of topic.

Chequebooks are fine, but just ticking the boxes and selecting from a catalogue without putting in any thought into it is not.

There are already tyre size limits for some comps. Who cares - there are others. Who say's I can't run small tyres. Even with 205's I'll have more ground clearance than any non-portal truck. It just so happens I'm picking up a a set of 16" rims on Sunday - diamonds anybody :P

It was better in the 50's with flatcaps and whippets running around the field - maybe, but I'm living in 2005.

Having portals won't make me win competitions, driving skill and teamwork and also luck come into it. I've never said I've got any of those. I'm not a trophy hunter.

I don't think portals per-se will stop people from competeing. There will be different classes. People will turn up to watch, they might even pay. There might be sponsorship and prize money. There is in the US/AUS and in many forms of motorsport in the UK, we can build some of the best track cars in the world, why do 4x4's have to be the poor relation ?

People are still talking about the Icelandic meeting at Swindon years ago. Who's to say half-a-dozen outside of the box trucks would provide a similar spectacle ?

MogLite is even finished yet, but several kind and clued up people have already mentioned sponsorship and magazine articles, so there is the interest.

Some people who haven't met me on this forum have me pencilled in as some kind of he "He who dies with the most toys wins" kind of person. Maybe, but I wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth. I'm up at 04:30 5 days a week, and do a 12+ hour day every day. Then I get home to play with my kids, converse with the wife, before beating on the grinder for a couple of hours. Toys don't come easy for me - I make them happen.

What has come out, and was the whole point of the thread, is that a fair few people are playing with portals, which wasn't the case 2 years ago.

I happen to know of four sets of portal axles in the hands off 4x4 enthusiats in Hampshire alone. That number will probably be up to seven sets by the end of the month.

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Andy - sorry to wander off topic

Personally I like the music of Frank Sinatra.

Rant 1

If you really want to achieve something badly enough you will find a way, whichever that way may be although I have more admiration for those that have struggled hard to realise thier goals.

Rant 2

Why is it against the grain of this country to support innovation?- Landies are far from perfect (burn the witch) so why not improve them? Should we ban these new fangled winch things? Ive heard storys of an axle the has the power to "lock" thats simply not fair....

Rant 3

As for the toys versus driver routine I know a 67 year old russian in a 20 year old standard UAZ that embarrasses mega money teams without breaking a sweat.

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Quite right Andy.

It's not the use of money that is annoying about the 'chequebook brigade' (God knows mine is going to cost the EARTH), it's the lack of imagination and innovation and the 'production-line' style churning-out of off-roader clones.

I'm not rich, but I have more money than time. I can understand someone wanting to have something built for them. Fair enough. It's just frankly boring when they they pay through the nose for the same thing that the last 12 customers bought. Great. Another one... z z z zzzz zzzzZZZZZ...

So, er anyway... Anyone else got portals?

Al.

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There are already tyre size limits for some comps. Who cares - there are others. Who say's I can't run small tyres. Even with 205's I'll have more ground clearance than any non-portal truck. It just so happens I'm picking up a a set of 16" rims on Sunday - diamonds anybody :P

That's a very interesting point Andy ... with 205R16s on what would the clearance under the diff be? it would really P off somebody who had just spent a million quid on a set of 36" Simex to have you cruise past them on 205R16 remoulds :lol:

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That's a very interesting point Andy ... with 205R16s on what would the clearance under the diff be? it would really P off somebody who had just spent a million quid on a set of 36" Simex to have you cruise past them on 205R16 remoulds :lol:

Assuming 205's are 29" tall I'll loose 4" of clearance over the 37's I've got on there at the moment.

I'll still have over 13" of clearance under the diff

A 90 on 35's is about 11.5" ISTR :lol:

Might make low range a little low though :blink:

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out of interest, why are you using a mog lump?

and while i've got a post on the go, I may as well have my ten pence worth... [rant mode ON]

I have the utmost respect for those people who have the time and considersble expertise to build their own vehicles/carry out their own R&D and modifications. However, I am starting to get a little tired of people constantly having a go at so-called "cheque book off-roaders". Some people are blessed with the time and expertise to go down the DIY route. However, the vast majority of 4x4 owners will not have the time, not have the skills or not have either. This SHOULD NOT mean that they cannot improve their truck in order to compete more competitively in a sport that they enjoy - if they do happen to have the funds (for which they've worked VERY hard) to commission someone else to do the work then good luck to them.

So, if you carry out all your own mods, then well done you, but dont deride those who get someone else to do theirs.

[rant mode OFF]

McS

I am using the mog lump because it bolts staight to the mog gearbox which is conected via torque tubes to the mog axles.

The pros of using the mog box is that first gear is 16:1 (lower than any bolt on crawler box) the mainshaft is about 4 times the diameter of a landy box, and the torque tubes bolt to it, giving stupidly stong stupidly simple suspesion.

The cons are it weighs over 200kgs and its huge and the gear selection is a bit wierd (its a cascade box)

The ground clearance on 205s is 12"

Right time for a rant,

I think all you morons that are compaining about the sport getting out of there reach should be looking at how much money putting mog axles on your truck could save you.

All of a sudden you don't have to buy diff lockers, hd shafts, diff guards, uprated cvs, strenthened steering bars, trick suspension and the list goes on

And what you've got to consider is that the checkbook moron behind you in his 50k 90 is having to waffle and winch over every tree stump and winch up ruts and is scared s**tless about using his front locker when he's got steering lock on. These problems are thing of the past on portals.

But yes i do think that there should be a class for portals, because they are in a class of there own.

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Nice to see you have a such good opinion of us all after 9 posts....:P:lol:

I don't know, if you ask me his rant balances nicely with the 'I can't be bothered to do any work on my own car, and if I can't have portals then no-one else should either' argument we saw earlier.

1 post or 1000 posts, his opinion makes a lot of sense to me. I paid about 600 quid for my Mog 416s - one of which is new. they are vastly superior to anything Land Rover axle-based. You can't even buy 2 ARBs for that, let alone upgrade the rest of the axle, and you'd still have carp clearance...

Al.

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Personally, I've been a big advocate of putting strong axles under LR's for some time now. Paul and I discussed at least 2 years ago sourcing some Toyota Land Cruiser axles (for example) and bunging them under an LR chassis.

It just makes sense... find a truck that's much heavier/beefier than a Landie, rip it's drivetrain out and install it. That way, you get stuff that's built for much heavier workload under a lighter car and won't (hopefully) break stuff.

I think Mog axles are for wimps - Dumper axles are what you really want! :P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P

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Superb thread!!!!

Bout time this brought up and addressed properly :P

After this weekend some organisers have mentioned banning portals and some modifactions fromt top flight competitions.......

AAAhhhhhhh! was my reply to these people (Who are aslo friends)

Keep the portals keep the mods and keep driving.....

Any set up is not with out it's faults and for that gained with portals, you lose in other areas,

So,

Let people develop and change, let them try something different, we all might just learn from it.

Competitions might get better, Cars might improve, Portals might be resigned the bin after one or two years,

landrover might build a strong axle (Not likely :rolleyes: )

might all take up GOlf :blink:

But my point is this, it does not matter what you run, the best will still be the best, people will still moan,

And those with well paid jobs will lust, and those with technical ability will make, and those haven't will want what we've all got.

So whats the problem?

I personally am looking forward to the challenge of portals, and can not wait for my first chance to drive againist them competivly, It should be fun.

It give me the chance to improve and change MY ideas

So bring it on :D:D

All the Best

Jim :) (I have small axles :P )

Ps: Steve (MCS) Love the truck, KEEP ON TRUCKING, See you at Tong :blink:

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Surely all that will happen is that a class system similar to the comp safari classes will evolve so everyone will be on a level playing field (equipment wise :blink: ) and you can still have an overall winner who may not be in the most specced class. (Who was it that mentioned driver ability :o )

If you don't allow innovation then the sport will stagnate and people will loose interest.

I'm just jealous I don't have the funds / facilities / abilities / talent / all of the above to create such wonders as Moglite and the Rogue Vogue (nice 3 link set up BTW). :P

I'd fit portals in a heartbeat.... and then learn to drive better to justify them!!

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and then learn to drive better to justify them!!

:lol::lol::lol:

By the time that happens everyone will be using space ships :D:blink:

My Coat why Thank You....let me finish

I have time, but no money, or skill, or facilities come to that.....but I do what I can with what i've got.

You need inovation to stop stagnation as Bish says, but still those of us on the bottom need a chance to reach some punches, otherwise you lose all but those with money and fabrication ability etc

proper class structure is what is required !

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proper class structure is what is required !

Totally agree.

(Without getting into the cheque book debate) I put my Discovery together for about 4k, including initial purchase of the base truck.

Even at a 'fun event' like the South Safari at Slindon that PaulW organises I can't compete at the same level as a tube-frame RR with poly-thingy body panels or even someone who trailers there vehicle to the event.

I don't have a problem with people building trucks like that, indeed I'd like to build something similar myself, but there should be 'room for all'.

Please note that all my toys are still in my pram and I'm not stood on any boxes of any description :)

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