SVT_Aaron
Full Access Member
Im curious how these will work out too. The problem I see with basically sleeving the axle to the hub is first off, gas mileage will suffer. And depending on how much you drive, the front driveshaft is spinning all the time. While this may not seem like a big deal, the fleet I work at has a lot of Dodge trucks that use a similar system. The front diff & driveline are always engaged and shifting to 4wd is done at the Transfer case alone. We had one front driveline come apart at the u joint while driving down the highway and it was ugly. It totaled the truck! And the Dodge (Ram) front driveshaft U joint has a needle grease zerk, Raptors dont. And few of us mechanics even knew about it. In fairness, we only had 1 come apart, but you can bet they had a campaign to get them all inspected & greased.
It may not be an issue at all, the U joint may hold up fine. But no doubt your gas mileage will drop. Please post a follow up when you have run these for a while. I would personally rather see a better, stronger version of the IWE made. I seem to recall one of the vendors that post here was working on a better IWE. Any word on that ?
I read in the thread about how people were fine with it and haven't had any issues, so I figured I might as well give it a try. I've had nothing but issues with mine and had them replaced not too long ago. after getting them replaced I had taken a trip to a lake near by about a month later and when I tried to get out of some really soft sand the IWE's failed on me again and I had to be pulled out. so reading what everyone wrote and recommended I bought them. the only issue for me now is just finding a great mechanic to do the job.
I will make sure to follow up and post pics if possible! as for the question you asked, im not too sure I tried to get a hold of Joe (HaynesOffroad) but no luck.