stock diffs + 33" tyres / will they die

[mrRocky]

have a set of 33" simex jungle trekkers and will be going s4 rockhoppers, with lokkas my only concern is will the diffs die quickly or will i get some sort of reasonable life out of them. I expect to change the odd snapped axle, and would rather not upgrade to hilux diffs- ideas ? solutions ?

[foolsp33d]

why settle for 33"s? lol..
http://www.izook.com/features/ratrod/ratrod.htm

[moose]

i,ll be the 1st to say , you will do front CV,s (with the locker involved)
but if driven correctly , you will have very little problems !!!

every1 has heard it before , .....................
I,ve been using 33 swampers for about 6-7 years , never had an issue !!!(no front locker thou !! YET !!!)
other than wearing sh!t out !!!

[lay80n]

My driveline has lasted pretty well, running 32 swampers with 5.14 gears in the t-case, detroit rear and for a while welded front. The odd CV and a front CW&P is all i have broken. I usually drive on rocks, so its always high traction surface.

Layto.....

[Gwagensteve]

Depends very much on your driving style and the terrain you are dealing with. As moose pointed out, you will do CV's, but with teh front open this shoudln't be too much of a problem. I don't like auto locking diffs and think that in the front they put a lot of load onto the CV's and axles.

I guess the question is how much money are you willing to put into your sierra diffs? How many CV's are you prepared to change before you get sick of it?

Parts are available to get around most of the problems - Double tough CV's (Trail tough), Cromo rear axles (Calmini) and a decent diff shop can set the pinion up with a solid spacer instead of a crush sleeve.

A few of us here in Vic are running (or building to run) around 35" tyres with suzuki diffs and trying and improve strength as much as possible. At the end of the day, I think what we are working with will be superior than hilux diffs, but we enjoy the process of building something different in any case.

We have broken the odd CV and recently a rear axle.

PS - the trend to Hilux diffs has come out of the states because that's all they have. They are about the worst possible choice for a sierra due to rear offset and steering issues. If you need to go to bigger axles, look to MQ patrol, but you will loose some capability due to ground clearance lost.

Steve.

[ronoor]

i,m driving the otways in vic. front, rear locker 32'' nothing bustard yet but drivig dirt sand mud very little rock .cheers ron

[Trav83yo]

i like what im hearing so basically you keep ypour standard diff but you beef it up when you break cv or rear axle maintain your factory gear wont have these massive diffs hanging out where you have to put on silly looking flares to cover your tyres although would be necessary cause 33'' s are mainly wide

maybe tractor tyres??????????/

[suzuki boy]

I have front and rear lockrites and used to do wheel bearing all the time but i solved that little thing by driving it in the more harder stuff!

Have heard lots people say they run 33's wityh no problam but it's the turning that kills me when it's in 4wd and doing low speed stuff you can hardley turn the thing!

[Gwagensteve]

i like what im hearing so basically you keep ypour standard diff but you beef it up when you break cv or rear axle maintain your factory gear wont have these massive diffs hanging out where you have to put on silly looking flares to cover your tyres although would be necessary cause 33'' s are mainly wide

maybe tractor tyres??????????/

Yes, you are right. there are some proviso's though, and this is where the hilux diff camp win support:

Let's say you have a NT and you want a SPOA and 33's.

WT diffs - $500-$1000
airlockers - $3000
R&P - $1000? $600?
solid sleeve conversion - $200
Doubletoughs - $800 landed?
Full float kit - $????
Axles - $275 each for EN26
extra pair of front hubs for the rear $??

Then you still have slightly underwidth axles for full steering and articulation with 33" tyres, likely custom offset rims, etc. If you then break something, everything is custom and maybe a PITA to replace or further improve.

For me, If I wanted hilux axles and a SPOA I would drive a hilux, the elegance of suzukis is their small and light nature, and the clearance they provide.

A wrecked hilux and a highsteer kit is all it looks like you need to have all the strength in the world.

In regard to 33's - I hate 33 12.5's - they have a very square footprint that only seems to work in vic in summer.

I currently run 34X9 swampers, but there are some 10.5" wide 33's.

even some of the taller mine service type 7.50s are as tall as most 33 12,5's.

A few of us run and lurve Q78's, as these are the tallest tyre you can get at 10.5ish wide (run on a 6.5" rim nicely)

You are spot on though, the wider tyres really load everything up and make the excess width difficult to work with.

Steve.

[Dozoor]

AS said , you can keep them together , and having custom stuff could be a pain ,

The worst part about questionable strength is having to think about it all the time , it makes what should be fun a chore .

Im with steve on the lunch box lockers , if you take notice of a car fitted with these doing a hard bit the axles are ratcheting and throwing shock loads every where ,

I ran 35s on mine , but the cars where built for bog hole events,
spooled front ,open rear ,with fiddle brakes , never broke in these comps.

On the rocks you could spit bits of metal at will

[Gwagensteve]

maybe tractor tyres??????????/

Tractor tyres are a PITA. tHey are stiff, have whacky rim sizes, and you are just asking for a canary. It's pretty hard to get out of it when the tyres have "not for highway service" written on them

IMHO, they don;t even work properly on a car as cars aren't heavy enought to make them bite in the way they were intended (tractors are stupidly heavy) and they aren't designed to work with wheelspeed.

Yes, I know that mudracers use them, but that is a very one dimensional kind of application (and they use rice field tyres which are quite different again)

Plus, you could only ever use them on private property.

Steve.

[Aerenandmel]

I have f & R cig locked with 31x10.5, a 1L Tcase & 5.12 vit gears, which have a smaller pinion making the prone to break with abuse.

Ill be the first to admit that I abuse my car on & off road,in the good old days (not in the last 6 months) a good clutch dump can get a real good skid going in second gear (strong 4k engine). I have not busted a single part ( since i upgraded from 1L to 1.3 WT diffs )

I have been suprised to find how stong even 1L diffs are, I have a second zook with a 4AGE and 1L diffs , I thought id be busten stuff everywere so i aquired some 1.3L NT diffs to put in it when the 1L diff goes POP. I have on the ocasion given it a little curry, I just Love the look on a P platers face when a Sierra out runs there ricer. Still no POP, maybe im not trying hard enough though

However I am carefull not to bunny hop or give it too much omph with the wheels turned (cv's) when offroad.

So id imagine open 1.3L diffs with 33's and enough caution from the driver youd be just dandy. Ive wanted to put my 33's on for a long time but I cant be bothered choppen all my gaurds up to fit them. 31's are a nice fit without chopping anything.

Ive got some MQ diffs ill put in one day & run 35's, just waiting for some cheap MQ high stear to come along.

[mrRocky]

cheers guys, think i will stick with standard diffs i dont mind swapping the odd cv or axle, just wanted to make sure i wasnt going to be doin it every w/end. tyres will be coming of my other car which will be retired to family runaround and 4x4 for the mrs

how much lift will i need? will 2' springs, 2" body 2" extended shackles do it. i assume i will have to bash drivers side firewall a bit

[Trav83yo]

2 inch springs 2 inch shackles and 2 inch body i alot of lift and might attract some attention some good some bad just cut up your wheel arches

though myself would run smaller tyres

[lay80n]

As for lift etc needed, search is your friend

Layto....

[foolsp33d]

wheres all ya search pics gone Layto!!??? we are all missing your amusing visual thoughts!!!


go 35's... and play with a grinder...
off Izook, so you probably all seen it before...

[Aerenandmel]

wheres all ya search pics gone Layto!!??? we are all missing your amusing visual thoughts!!!


go 35's... and play with a grinder...
off Izook, so you probably all seen it before...

Dont think he needed to do much grinding, the tyre just knocked a bit more of the rust out of the rear gaurd or maybe he just used a spud wheel off an old tractor to roll the gaurd out


still zook diffs by the looks too!

[Guy]

Hope is isnt driving it to far with only a couple of wheel nuts holding them rims on.