Rcv IWE eliminator kit

[Mluis11]

My passenger side IWE let go at the start of a 1000 mile road trip. I pulled the vacuum line and finished the trip. After reading every thread on the IWE, I’m disappointed that ford handicapped the Raptor with this terrible system. I think I’ll be going the RCV elimination route. Should the truck drive any different than it does now with the vacuum lines disconnected? I was running at 90mph for brief periods on I-10 and didn’t experience any driveline vibes or additional noise. My truck is a 2013 with 35k, so extra wear isn’t a huge concern.

The only thing that has changed is your axles are now spinning. Driveline will remain disengaged until you shift into 4wd. You’ll experience more wear on your front diff fluid and slight loss in mpgs in the long run as with the eliminator rings.


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[Uzzirider]

Also more cycles on your CVs, but more importantly your CV boots. I have had the RCV IWE eliminators for a year now and they certainly eliminate the failure hassles of the factory IWE system. I am currently upgrading to the new style RCV axles (no orange circle boots) and will update once I have some miles on them.

 

[Snowsled]

My passenger side wouldn't hold vacuum. I did the same as you, disabled the vacuum system. I have been running it several hundred miles this way now. I also have had it up to 90 on the highway with no ill effect.

I wonder if there is any advantage of running the eliminator kit over doing what we both have already done? Hubs are engaged, 4wd is pretty much instant now, I like it! This is how millions of trucks have been built, with the hubs permanently engaged. Not until the fuel economy push on light trucks did they start with these stupid ways to try and save fuel at the expense of reliability and simplicity. My former Power Wagon had a manual shifter for the t-case but the clowns fitted a front axle disconnect that used a sleeve on the long side front axle. Made selecting 4wd a waiting game, not a long wait ever but not like hitting the lever with the hubs already connected like those trucks used to be.

I am happy to leave mine disabled unless someone knows of a good reason not to.

 

[Deezel]

My passenger side wouldn't hold vacuum. I did the same as you, disabled the vacuum system. I have been running it several hundred miles this way now. I also have had it up to 90 on the highway with no ill effect.

I wonder if there is any advantage of running the eliminator kit over doing what we both have already done? Hubs are engaged, 4wd is pretty much instant now, I like it! This is how millions of trucks have been built, with the hubs permanently engaged. Not until the fuel economy push on light trucks did they start with these stupid ways to try and save fuel at the expense of reliability and simplicity. My former Power Wagon had a manual shifter for the t-case but the clowns fitted a front axle disconnect that used a sleeve on the long side front axle. Made selecting 4wd a waiting game, not a long wait ever but not like hitting the lever with the hubs already connected like those trucks used to be.

I am happy to leave mine disabled unless someone knows of a good reason not to.

The main advantage of the RCVs over just disengaging vacuum would be strength. There is A LOT more shear area on the RCV splines when compared to the stock IWE hub and I would be willing to bet the material is much stronger (nearly everything they make is out of 300M lol.)

The downside to this, and this is just a theory is that if this is no longer the weakest part of the assembly, what fails next? I believe part of the theory with the IWE was to fuse the front driveline and save the other more expensive pieces of hardware in the driveling.

Also, that silly plastic piece is no longer there to fail (which is probably the root cause of the stock IWE failures in the first place).. Even if your splines are good on the IWE, when the plastic piece breaks the stock hub splines can float back and forth. This is why you hear the intermittent grinding and popping.

I've had the RCV kit on for ~60k miles now with no issues. Oddly, I haven't even noticed a hit to my gas mileage.

 

[m3dragon]

Has anyone tried the RCV IWE fix ring? Not an eliminator but the ring replacement to make a better connection for the IWE? RPG was selling them.