input on rear driveshaft needed for the crew cab-need MORE advice

[Tnsejed]

I'll mimic everyone else. Move a carrier bearing further rearward to shorten the rear section of shaft. But I would also move to a heavy wall shaft.

You're best bet is going to be both, because you'll still nail the shaft no matter what angle its at. Its just kind of the nature of the beast.

 

[sweetk30]

I was thinking hydraulic drive . then the drive motors hoses point straight up away from rocks.

 

[diesel4me]

You just need a nice thick skid plate...make the truck "drag" on it up & over obstacles, without letting them touch the shafts..

Our old ramp truck at the junkyard got a bent driveshaft more than once,it would get bent while backing it under a vehicle that went off the road or was in a ditch and you had to nearly high center the truck to get to the vehicle... did not notice it bent,till you drove off...after making bananas out of 2 or 3 shafts that costed 300+ to have made for it,the boss decided to take a large 3/8" thick flat steel plate in the scrap pile and cut and bolted it to the bottom of the frame rails,just far enough forward so the shaft could not touch it with the rear wheels off the ground..plate weighed over 200 lbs though,so the carrying capacity was lowered by that much...

 

[mrk5]

I'll mimic everyone else. Move a carrier bearing further rearward to shorten the rear section of shaft. But I would also move to a heavy wall shaft.

You're best bet is going to be both, because you'll still nail the shaft no matter what angle its at. Its just kind of the nature of the beast.

I'm kinda frustrated because I feel like a little heavier wall wouldn't have been damaged as much as it ended up being. Heavier wall will be a must for sure and I think it will need to be shortened in order to be a heavier wall. I even feel like if the shaft was 1/2" smaller diameter, some of the damage would have been avoided altogether.

I was thinking hydraulic drive . then the drive motors hoses point straight up away from rocks.

Or electric motors on each wheel....

 

[mrk5]

You just need a nice thick skid plate...make the truck "drag" on it up & over obstacles, without letting them touch the shafts..

Our old ramp truck at the junkyard got a bent driveshaft more than once,it would get bent while backing it under a vehicle that went off the road or was in a ditch and you had to nearly high center the truck to get to the vehicle... did not notice it bent,till you drove off...after making bananas out of 2 or 3 shafts that costed 300+ to have made for it,the boss decided to take a large 3/8" thick flat steel plate in the scrap pile and cut and bolted it to the bottom of the frame rails,just far enough forward so the shaft could not touch it with the rear wheels off the ground..plate weighed over 200 lbs though,so the carrying capacity was lowered by that much...

Yeah, I've thought a lot about some sort of skid protection but this is happening all the way down by the axle yoke which makes it hard.

 

[Bent77]

Yeah, I've thought a lot about some sort of skid protection but this is happening all the way down by the axle yoke which makes it hard.

Portals

 

[mrk5]

Remember that's how I killed mine at Chinamans. Got to trying stuff I shouldn't have and munched the shaft.

What it really tells me is you need 44s

We just need to stick together so we can remind each other not to get carried away.

Also to probably link it. That and 44s will solve your driveshaft issues

I can't talk the wife into 40's, let alone 44's.

 

[Bent77]

Make that secondary stock length and 1350s, so I don't have to carry THE spare!

 

[mrk5]

Portals

Would be cool, but I could buy a lot of driveshafts for the cost of portals.

 

[sreidmx]

trailing arms and coilovers would solve all the above issues.. then you can keep the long drive line, protect it some and use all available travel...

 

[ktmoutfront]

Links, air bags, bypasses and air bumps.

 

[sreidmx]

what he said...^

 

[mrk5]

 

[ktmoutfront]

I have about 3 days available before BB. We could get it done.

 

[Bent77]

 

[mrk5]

That would be doing it in true Blazer Bash fashion with the last minute build-a-thon!

 

[ktmoutfront]

Have you put that engine in yet?

 

[JoshHefnerX]

Moving the carrier back will cause some tube work. If you want to really make the clearance, you'd also want to put in a cv and angle the axle up. Be a job moving the perches and yeah the cv will cost, but you've already had to fix it 2xs.... And put a skid plate off the pinion carrier.

 

[mrk5]

Have you put that engine in yet?

Not yet. I'm on the board of trustees for our little town and I'm in charge of installing a $30,000 playground for our primary park. Plus we've been doing some house repairs so we can refinance this summer. So my weekends haven't been open and the house is sucking up cash for the motor (new gaskets, water pump, and starter). I still may try to squeeze in before Blazer Bash; depends on how close we get to Nicole's "no more major truck mods" date.

Moving the carrier back will cause some tube work. If you want to really make the clearance, you'd also want to put in a cv and angle the axle up. Be a job moving the perches and yeah the cv will cost, but you've already had to fix it 2xs.... And put a skid plate off the pinion carrier.

My wife was mentioning the pinion guard too.

 

[mrk5]

So the damage was worse than I thought:

Surprised it did as well as it did on the drive home. I'm also betting the evidence of slight leakage on the front of the diff is probably due to running it with the bent driveshaft last year and then again now.

I spoke with Jess @High Angle this afternoon. He pointed out that with my 6" of lift, moving the carrier bearing back might get me into vibration territory. I did some reading on driveshaft operating angles and it sounds like 15 degrees is about the max you want for static angle.

I took some measurements and it looks like I'm running about 11 degrees now. I can only move the carrier bearing back about 11" until I hit that 15 degree mark. I'm going to have to look at things a bit more and see if 11" is worth the trouble.

We talked about a CV joint as well. The big downside, as mentioned by JoshHef, is this will be expensive. I could almost replace the shaft 3 times for the cost of adding the CV. I'm done with the harder trails for a while so I'm reluctant to spend the money on a CV. So I'm probably going to have Jess build me a new shaft that's just 3" diameter with a heavier wall, at least .120.

I was hoping to keep the one I have now for a spare, but that doesn't seem like it's going to work given the damage. The price Jess quoted me is quite a bit less than the local guy charged me last year which I thought at the time was high.