Unimog Axles

[Astro_Al]

Jules, sorry, more of a Mog man myself, but google is your friend!

I just googled and found out that the above mentioned website volvoc303ukwhatever was selling pairs of high ratio C303 axles for 2250 last year. Don't know about recently, but that's a start. Why not give him a call.

Portal axles are a bit ethereal. You have to kind of decide you want them and then keep asking & searching. They're out there - somewhere!

I got a new Mog 416 rear for 300 squids in the end...

BUT I STILL NEED ANOTHER FRONT 404 IF ANYONE HAS ONE !!!

(See what I mean...?!)

Al.

[dirtydiesel]

As Al said. No one will find them and deliver them for free.

but

no one apart from red90 now will tell me were to look either

Come on mate do you need a map drawing.

You could do some legwork yourself!

straight forward supplies

portal-tek

Or have a good read through pirate or outerlimits, you'll find all the inspiration you need.

Allthough the thought of leaving the "herd" allready seems to have put you off.

[freeagent]

if a pair of axles costs £2,250, but a complete vehicle costs around £3,500 i reckon i'd spend £4-5k on a realy nice one, put a cage on it and a pair of winches.... and have a nice and totally different challenge truck for about £8k........

[bill van snorkle]

These cost are getting me confused

No one has yet said how much a Volvo Axle costs ball park figure.

So I don't have the time to trapes round the eastern block looking for a old volvo so I think I'm wasting my time I think I will stay with the normal axles.

What speed can a portal do on the road as I drive everywhere at 90 would the truck axles shake themselve apart at anyting over 50mph

Jules, with respect I dont think portals are for you ! Maybe a couple of other members have gleaned some useful information from this thread to assist them in making their decision, but I do not think you ''NEED'' them enough.

Bill.

[geoffbeaumont]

I just googled and found out that the above mentioned website volvoc303ukwhatever was selling pairs of high ratio C303 axles for 2250 last year. Don't know about recently, but that's a start. Why not give him a call.

Says on the website that he isn't doing axles by themselves any more - too much hassle for a paying hobby.

[Mark90]

But if he's in the 303 business he may know where you could look for a pair of axles, worth a call

[LR90]

Not Unimog but what about these?

Hurth Axles

Might be a bit heavy duty (might suit Jez though) but both steer, looks like hydrosteer is fitted as standard.

[reads90]

Jules, with respect I dont think portals are for you ! Maybe a couple of other members have gleaned some useful information from this thread to assist them in making their decision, but I do not think you ''NEED'' them enough.

Bill.

I do have to agree. Jules you have been places that others have not , with your truck as is. Remeber it is not all down to the cheque book but driver , and as we have always said you have the more of the later.

Still be able to beat many a cheque book off roader. And there is quite a few about.

Also remeber 13 years ago while alot of people competing and on here were running around in serias and astras you were off roading in Wales on a set of 750 Firestone SAT's (which at the time were considered the mutts nuts). Doing all the most famous tracks (most of which you can't do today). In a seris 2, on our own , with no winch, no heater, soft top and no hi lift , and in the middle of december. So remeber that experiance is worth alot and you learn tricks for getting grip which prove really usefull when you do them on a Simex .

So get the tomcat Built with the axels you have. Maybe get better shafts , as i if i remeber right your rear ones are twisting,

Then once done it will be lighter than the 90 and give it a kicking and find out what it can do . Then look and decided at a later date to get portals.. if you really think you need them.

[jules]

I do have to agree. Jules you have been places that others have not , with your truck as is. Remeber it is not all down to the cheque book but driver , and as we have always said you have the more of the later.

Still be able to beat many a cheque book off roader. And there is quite a few about.

Also remeber 13 years ago while alot of people competing and on here were running around in serias and astras you were off roading in Wales on a set of 750 Firestone SAT's (which at the time were considered the mutts nuts). Doing all the most famous tracks (most of which you can't do today). In a seris 2, on our own , with no winch, no heater, soft top and no hi lift , and in the middle of december. So remeber that experiance is worth alot and you learn tricks for getting grip which prove really usefull when you do them on a Simex .

So get the tomcat Built with the axels you have. Maybe get better shafts , as i if i remeber right your rear ones are twisting,

Then once done it will be lighter than the 90 and give it a kicking and find out what it can do . Then look and decided at a later date to get portals.. if you really think you need them.

Voice of reason..

I will still pop in as see Jez on sat If I can remeber were is yard is

with the aim of modding the chassie ready for the future but not get any axles just yet.

Also I did the Gap, The steps and most of the other good tracks on a set of 750 range marsters and they were very past there best and you forgot to say without any backup and it was in the deep snow.....

[MogLite]

So reading between the lines - what you are saying is anyone who has portals, has them because they can't drive for toffee ?

Didn't get much sleep last night - so I'm looking for a fight

Bring it awn !!

[reads90]

Voice of reason..

I will still pop in as see Jez on sat If I can remeber were is yard is

with the aim of modding the chassie ready for the future but not get any axles just yet.

Also I did the Gap, The steps and most of the other good tracks on a set of 750 range marsters and they were very past there best and you forgot to say without any backup and it was in the deep snow.....

Yeah forgot i thought it was sat's but it was a set of range master

[reads90]

So reading between the lines - what you are saying is anyone who has portals, has them because they can't drive for toffee ?

if thats the way you read it then mmm

Nah you know what i think of cheque book off roaders Andy

I just think that jules will be better of with out portals at the moment and it will not harm his chances at competitions.

[dollythelw]

Im confused, what defines a cheque off-roader?

[reads90]

Im confused, what defines a cheque off-roader?

all the gear no idea

or get a cheque book and throw it at the car again and again

[Mark90]

I looked up cheque book off roader in the dictionary and it simply said "Will Warne"

I can't fab my own stuff, but my cheque book isn't big enough to be a proper cheque book off roader either

[dollythelw]

whats a cheque book?

Mark90, everyone does what they can do, if you dont have the facilities its tricky but begging/blagging etc can work wonders - I pay my workshop rent in dead rabbits/fixed tractors/sercurity etc, if you dont have the skills then my suggestion is go to night school and gain a skill for life (got my codings from nightschool) - I think as long as people try thier best and put in the effort whatever they produce or modify or assemble should be recognised as cool

[Tonk]

all the gear no idea

or get a cheque book and throw it at the car again and again

and u get this

[Jon White]

Im confused, what defines a cheque off-roader?

Will Warne!

[reads90]

Will Warne!

must be can't be tony's as it is not white

[SOA 93]

To put the maxidrive prices into context Jules

Base option Portal Tek Generation 3 axle set, (any width you like, Ford or Toy Diff but no reason why you couldnt have Rover), to include Halfshafts, housings, portal boxes, high steer indexed arms, floating disc brakes, 4 pot calipers etc etc $8900 (£4800), or you can go mental and have full CroMo units with 300M halfshafts, longfield CVs and 44Kgs less weight for a bit more. Unlike maxidrive these are guaranteed to cope with 500+ hp and 44+" tyres, big pennies but in terms of axles they dont get any better

If you look at what what people are using to keep their LR axles in one piece then cost of Portel Tek's is a relative bargain. Many challenge competitors have have over the years gradually updated there axles as the latest parts have come on to the market, eg shafts, ARB's, R&P's, better shafts , drive flanges, diff pegging and now CV's. However if you look at the price of doing that in one hit then, using Ashcroft's website your looking at £3300, and if you price in a crawler box instead of R&P's then your lookig at £4600!! I think many if not most would certainly look around at other options before lashing out their wonga to get a set of axles strong enough for 35" tyres, and as for 500+ and 44" tyres

Looking at Portel Teks gallery, their drop box's look very compact and they also mount up to a flange(at least on the rear anyhow), now what if they did a kit that just bolted to standard LR axle? Maybe a flange conversion for the front axle to bolt straight on, standard LR brake components would be nice too .

So no fabricating mounts etc, mainly a bolt on exercise. How many would see that as just the next progression?

I don't know what the drop gear ratio is on these axles but lets say there is some reduction, maybe enough to to run 35"/ to 40" with the standard 3.54 R&P. This not only saves the cost of a 4.1 or 4.75(better) but now gives you a lot less high/low overlap (needs a change in transfer ratio), maybe low enough to make crawler boxes unnecessary? And would it increases the relative strength of the LR shafts and diff? If it became a bolt on exercise, reusing your existing brakes, what would the price drop to? Between £2000 and £3000? Your likely to need new wheels similar to Volvo's to keep the width down aswell, how many people would be interested?

The very trick space frame buggy that was at Billing, pictures on here a few weeks ago, alledgedly costing £40,000 to build, on LR axles , Why?. With that kind of budget I'd have been Knocking on Portel Teks door.

Opinions please.

Andy

[Mark90]

Mark90, everyone does what they can do, if you dont have the facilities its tricky but begging/blagging etc can work wonders - I pay my workshop rent in dead rabbits/fixed tractors/sercurity etc, if you dont have the skills then my suggestion is go to night school and gain a skill for life (got my codings from nightschool) - I think as long as people try thier best and put in the effort whatever they produce or modify or assemble should be recognised as cool

Thats a fair point, I keep thinking about learning to weld, I just need some more of those roundtoit's. As I have a couple of mates who do small welding jobs for me it takes some of the impetus off learning myself, I know I'm just lazy Thing is my old man is a welder by trade and all the time I lived at home I never had a need or interest in learning to weld and now I live a 10 hr round trip away.

Workshops, ah well we did have one for a short while, if you can call a small farm shed with dirt floor and now power/lighting a workshop, but that didn't work out for various reasons. We've been looking for something else but round this way they are in short supply and when they do come up you have to have known the farmer for 20yrs and be going out with his cousin to get one, and even then the rent is steep, although we split that a few ways. We keep looking though

People do what they can and the skills/time/facilities that people have vary greatly.

Maybe it'd be easier to buy some orange stuff to bolt on

[reads90]

If you look at what what people are using to keep their LR axles in one piece then cost of Portel Tek's is a relative bargain. Many challenge competitors have have over the years gradually updated there axles as the latest parts have come on to the market, eg shafts, ARB's, R&P's, better shafts , drive flanges, diff pegging and now CV's. However if you look at the price of doing that in one hit then, using Ashcroft's website your looking at £3300, and if you price in a crawler box instead of R&P's then your lookig at £4600!! I think many if not most would certainly look around at other options before lashing out their wonga to get a set of axles strong enough for 35" tyres, and as for 500+ and 44" tyres

Looking at Portel Teks gallery, their drop box's look very compact and they also mount up to a flange(at least on the rear anyhow), now what if they did a kit that just bolted to standard LR axle? Maybe a flange conversion for the front axle to bolt straight on, standard LR brake components would be nice too .

So no fabricating mounts etc, mainly a bolt on exercise. How many would see that as just the next progression?

I don't know what the drop gear ratio is on these axles but lets say there is some reduction, maybe enough to to run 35"/ to 40" with the standard 3.54 R&P. This not only saves the cost of a 4.1 or 4.75(better) but now gives you a lot less high/low overlap (needs a change in transfer ratio), maybe low enough to make crawler boxes unnecessary? And would it increases the relative strength of the LR shafts and diff? If it became a bolt on exercise, reusing your existing brakes, what would the price drop to? Between £2000 and £3000? Your likely to need new wheels similar to Volvo's to keep the width down aswell, how many people would be interested?

The very trick space frame buggy that was at Billing, pictures on here a few weeks ago, alledgedly costing £40,000 to build, on LR axles , Why?. With that kind of budget I'd have been Knocking on Portel Teks door.

Opinions please.

Andy

The thing is you can build up your landy axels over time (which is how i did it). But you have to pay in one chunk for the portals. which make them seam even more expensive than up rating the landy axels

[dollythelw]

so dragging it painfully back OT, mogs can be made to fit, its a lot of fabbing and for expert guidance speak sweetly to DirtyDiesel, Volvos are easier to fit. All portals will stress a Rover PAS box, their capacity to swing "proper" sized tyres will further push the box to beyond its limits.

Whatever you fit and for whatever reason you do it think it through first, do your homework and anything is possible after that, its only metal and as such can be chopped, shaped and messed about with. My suggestion is start with the end point - work out what you want the car to do and design backwards from there (always saves time).

Do not underestimate the commitment and amount of work it requires to put portals under a car, doing it well takes even more of both. If you cant fab your own stuff then be prepared for a substantial bill although if you take the time to source all the parts and prep them as required by whoever is fitting them for you ultimately it will save you cash. For those that put the hard yards in themselves there are willing folks to help, encourage and hand hold you through the process.

if you do it then driving is a totally different experience, they will handle differently but they will also recalibrate what terrain is passable - ask anyone (all bar 1) who has portals "was it worth it?" and they all come back with the same response " oh yes "

[dollythelw]

We've been looking for something else but round this way they are in short supply and when they do come up you have to have known the farmer for 20yrs

a good wheeze to get to know people is go beating - the shooting season starts soon

get yourself to nightschool - it will be the best thing you do

[Zed0]

there is alway the Scrapiron option Jules, they just put the axles on that nice Orange defender.........

looks cool (maybe not orange thou )