Portal axles

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Your fuel economy will go down because the truck is taller. No way around that.
I expect that... A stock Rebel has worse fuel economy than a standard truck. All the offroad trucks have worse fuel economy. That is nothing new. I know that my fuel economy will take a hit.
I just wanted to know if there was anything else.

Overall, just to get a 4" or whatever lift, portals are a terrible way to accomplish it. They have a distinct benefit, but for the 20G you're looking at spending, you can build one bitch of a rig.
It is certain that portals are definitely a more expensive option over a standard lift kit. But with a lift kit, it would be hard if you want to retain your stock truck payload and towing rating - which is something that I would like as well.
Based on my own research... For an IFS truck, anything beyond a 4" lift is asking for trouble.
It seems to me that getting the 4" conventionally, puts will strain components if not done properly. Sure with the same budget of a portal kit, you would be able to do it properly.
A 2" lift will is a good daily streetable ride, but even with that, you need to change quite a few components to make sure that the suspension works properly. And I'm not talking about polyurethane spacers on the shocks. I'm talking about (in front) replacement coilovers, upper control arms, lower control arms to make sure that there are no issues with camber and geometry... i.e., you want the wheels remaining properly vertical during its full range of motion. Even then I have been told that CV joints in the axles are still under load.
With a 4" lift, it is much of the same, but to alleviate further strain on the axles, the diff is dropped. But that sort of defeats the purpose of a lift. However I have been told that the lift comes not from the suspension, but being able to run larger tires.
 

AssBurns

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Portals will change how your vehicle drives. The anti-dive and anti-squat will change quite a bit. 4” inch portal lift would be the same as running 8” taller tires. If your truck is leaf sprung you would want an anti-wrap bar for sure. I think the rams are linked in the rear these days? The stock bushings would be under a lot of load, both front and rear compared to stock.
 
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Portals will change how your vehicle drives. The anti-dive and anti-squat will change quite a bit.
So portals affect how the vehicle reacts on hard acceleration and braking? How does that work when nothing is changed?

At best my idea was to have something like this...


Not the whole touring setup, but more like the what kind of lift and height.
 
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Dang... how the heck to I get a grey-market Land Cruiser in the US? That thing is way cooler than the LC200.
We have them here. They are really spartan trucks. No infotainment, not even comfortable seats. For long journeys, a LC200 is a better bet. However 79 series trucks are still rugged, built old school tough with solid axles, etc.
To get them into livable states, they need a bit of work on the interior.. Fortunately, there are a number of kits available for them.
The one with the portals was impressive to me.



 

Stairgod

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So portals affect how the vehicle reacts on hard acceleration and braking? How does that work when nothing is changed?

At best my idea was to have something like this...


Not the whole touring setup, but more like the what kind of lift and height.
Portals will not work for what you want to do. Just put a regular lift on it.
Your towing capacity would drop with portals.
Without beefing up the LCAs it would not be long before the extra leverage of the portals had them twisted.
For the rear, if you have leafs, you will have to add at least a torque arm on each side to combat axle wrap. If you have coils, plan on new links and redoing the axle mounts also.
I know a guy that runs portals in his '79 Bronco.
He has remade his link mounts multiple times. He actually has an onboard welder because of how often he has had to repair things to limp it back to the trailer.
So.....forget portals.1
 

Arcticelf

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IMG_20200409_082923257.jpgIMG_20200409_082906451.jpg
Until you have an instinctual understanding of what's going on in those pictures "I'll just put portal hubs on my truck" is probably a road to ruin.

Replacing OEM hubs with portals will require you to replace basically everything else except possibly your rear axle housing and front coilovers. Possibly including the frame of the truck, depending on how much has to be added to the OEM frame to make the mount points strong enough to handle the new links.
 

Arcticelf

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Portals will not work for what you want to do. Just put a regular lift on it.
Your towing capacity would drop with portals.
Without beefing up the LCAs it would not be long before the extra leverage of the portals had them twisted.
For the rear, if you have leafs, you will have to add at least a torque arm on each side to combat axle wrap. If you have coils, plan on new links and redoing the axle mounts also.
I know a guy that runs portals in his '79 Bronco.
He has remade his link mounts multiple times. He actually has an onboard welder because of how often he has had to repair things to limp it back to the trailer.
So.....forget portals.1
When @Stairgod is the voice of reason it's probably a bad idea.
 

Arcticelf

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IMG_20200409_083659709.jpg

P, the hight of your portal hub, is a multiplier to forces X and Y acting on your axle centerline, and therefore suspension, to make x' and y'.

I charge 250/hr if you want me to do the actual suspension math and figure out how much stronger it actually has to be.

Or send me several bottles of good scotch and reengage on a Friday night :)
 

Slim-Whitey

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I say do the math and see what needs doing.

None of us NEED what we do to our vehicles. We could all drive cheaper shit.

So if you want portals, and you can make it happen, do it.
 

4runner DOA

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I say do the math and see what needs doing.

None of us NEED what we do to our vehicles. We could all drive cheaper shit.

So if you want portals, and you can make it happen, do it.

We all drive expensive vehicles, you're the only we see on a regular basis with "cheap" shit.
 

Arcticelf

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I say do the math and see what needs doing.

None of us NEED what we do to our vehicles. We could all drive cheaper shit.

So if you want portals, and you can make it happen, do it.


You'll eventually come to the conclusion that portals mean either a) buying a MOG type truck or b) designing one form the ground up.
 
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You'll eventually come to the conclusion that portals mean either a) buying a MOG type truck or b) designing one form the ground up.
Agreed and either option would point to the biggest reason why portals aren't a common place in 4x4 modifications - Cost.
However if we took cost out of the question, what are the other pros or cons of portals?
I was just reading a couple of forum threads about portal axles... And one of the complaints was that there was no real information. Whenever someone mentions portals, the common responses are,
  • "Too expensive. Not necessary. Just do a lift."
  • "Just get a Unimog"
Reading those threads, there was some information where they were even referencing some portal axle manufacturers like Axletech, Tibus, Marks4wd, 74weld.com, etc. But for the most part, there were just snarky comments about costs and referencing that the person buy a mog or a pinzgauer or even a Humvee H1. It was actually quite annoying reading those because rather than having a proper technical discussion on the pros and cons, especially in layman's terms, we're forced to listen to the opinions of someone who doesn't think they're a good idea simply because he can't afford them and therefore no one else should either.
@Arcticelf, @Slim-Whitey - thank you for making this a proper discussion with some really good information.

Trying to get more information, I found this article online - How portal axles work
 
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