Topic: longfield 30 splines vs. tg dirty 30's

[87pickup]

Stock birfs were elimanated
Stock hub gear and or flanges eliminated with long flanges
Stock hub studs upgraded to arps
Knuckle studs swapped with arps, soon to be bobbys 5th stud
Trunion bearings upgraded to 25mm
Ditched the 4cyl diff for a fj80
Ditched the prone to bending stock housing

Id consider those elimanated considering i cant do much more to a mini truck axle.

 Everything has a breaking point but i dont get the thought process behind building something and leaving a weak link to break on purpose. Thats like building a 60 but using 30 spline outers cause you want those to break before anything else. Why not build something to strengthen its weak points not just leave them to break. I prefer to wheel when i am on the trail not make repairs because i was too cheap to buy strong reliable parts.

[46&2]

WOW! Thats my new favorite rant.   

Definitely.


I try and avoid non USA-made products no matter where I go or what I buy. Its hard to cut Chinese crap out of your life completely, but anywhere a USA citizen can continue to spend money on USA companies and USA made products, its a start.

[peacesells]

WOW! Thats my new favorite rant.   

I knew you'd approve 

[Steve_925]

to me its more like having fully built 1 tons and leaving a stock u joint at the drive shaft. u-joints are easy to replace so why risk braking somthing internally

[blackdiamond]

I try and avoid non USA-made products no matter where I go or what I buy. Its hard to cut Chinese crap out of your life completely, but anywhere a USA citizen can continue to spend money on USA companies and USA made products, its a start.

I was in St. Lucia a few days ago on vacation and even the Rosta dude selling things on the beach was proudly telling us how to distingquish between the real deal and the stuff made in China.

[woodfella]

to me its more like having fully built 1 tons and leaving a stock u joint at the drive shaft. u-joints are easy to replace so why risk braking somthing internally

werd

[Dingman.]

I rock longs.   Thomas rocks longs.  His wife has em in her truck.  They are the way to go for sure.   I've seen kasey break one.  But he was backing up a rock face  at full crank and started hopping.   He got that one birf warrantied And was on the trail the next weekend.   I am now running that same set.  

I called trail gear and asked about their warranty and they won't do unless you are the original purchaser with the original invoice.  What's the point of a "no questions asked warranty" when the first thing they do is ask you questions and then will refuse to replace it when it breaks.  Not if it will break but WHEN it breaks.  I have trail gear parts on my truck and won't ever buy another wearable or breakAble part from them.  I made that decision when my springs wore out, when all my tre's were shot after 4 months and when they wouldn't warranty my bent tie rod link.    Which brings me to another point....   Their "no questions asked warranty" did not apply to my bent tie rod because I did not buy directly from them but from one of their dealers.  Since then I've replaced the springs with all pro's and it rides and flexes sooooo much better.  I've replaced All the tre's with two marlins and two allpro's and they have lasted much longer than those pos tg ones.    You get what you pay for.  And when you try to save some money by going the cheaper route they end up breaking or wearing out Nd you have to replace them, costing you more money in the long run  than if you just purchased the better part to begin with.  

I run longfields and will proudly do so. Even IF I somehow manage to break them I know that without a doubt that they will be replaced.  It sure is nice to be able to get it at full lock turn and not have a doubt they will hold up.  If I was rocking dirty 30s I'd be paranoid about breaking them and if they would be replaced.  

[P-DiseToy24]

BAM!!!

I was only testing them... by the way these longs had 4 1/2 years of hard abuse.  They lived through 44's 39' bogger, 28 tsl sx, and finally died when like mike said they were at full turn backing up a rock face and hopping... they didnt even break then they broke a mile down the road when the front end hopped up in the air over a ledge.





And this ones for Mike.... Thanks guy

[peacesells]

Even a broken longfield looks better than a turdy 30 

[46&2]

turdy 30 

[KidGyver]

After breaking an output shaft on Cadillac fathers day weekend and having the tg sales manager "help" me I will never buy from them and will go to my grave telling people to stay away from them and there crap. His only intrest was moving me out of his way so he could continue down the hill. This included causing me more damage. When a friend of mine got there to help and made a comment to tg about a part he purchased and tried to return with no luck the tg guy argued then left, which was a good thing. I found Marlins truck at the springs asking for help and Marlins employee offered to go out and get the part and help repair my truck. tg is CRAP AND SUCKS BIG POO-POO. Be American and buy American

[TacoRunner]

    I didn't have to say anything at all. 

[boggerunner]

my buddy has ldirty 30's in his rig, and they suck, i had to put my full weight on them after 2 trips out wheeling to align them straight so we could pull the 3rd out.
my longs have 4+ hard yrs on them, and ive never had that problem.

on another note, he also broke a set of thier chromoly rear axle shafts a few weeks ago too.

[46&2]

   I didn't have to say anything at all. 

The proof is in the pudding...

[blackdiamond]

my buddy has ldirty 30's in his rig, and they suck, i had to put my full weight on them after 2 trips out wheeling to align them straight so we could pull the 3rd out.

I have not pulled my front end apart before, likely because I have Longs and only run 35's, but I'm not sure I understand what you're saying is wrong with the Dirty 30's.  If they installed originally without problem, what changed after 2 trips?

[kneedownnate]

Poor wear-in of the splines   

[boggerunner]

something in the bell part with the balls galling up in the bell.

[Rocksurfer]

full turn
backing up
rocks
hopping
hopped up in the air over a ledge.

I bet it was all of the above and the airborne hop just finished them off.

[P-DiseToy24]

Yep... Like I said I was testing them out.  I was with alot of people in an easy spot to drive home from and figured why not... haha

I dont like driving anything easy.  Especially my wheelers.  I would never waste my time money and effort for anything less than a longfield.  I am in the process of building another rig which will soon have a set of the LONG. 
Wheeling is NOT cheap so if your looking to save money find another hobby or plan on walking home working on your junk on the trail or being stranded cause I've learned the hard way and have done all of the above.

[boomtacoma01]

After reading all of this, So glad I went with my Longs. Should be installing them this weekend along with their Chromo hub gears.

[TacoRunner]

Stock birfs were elimanated
Stock hub gear and or flanges eliminated with long flanges
Stock hub studs upgraded to arps
Knuckle studs swapped with arps, soon to be bobbys 5th stud
Trunion bearings upgraded to 25mm
Ditched the 4cyl diff for a fj80
Ditched the prone to bending stock housing

Id consider those elimanated considering i cant do much more to a mini truck axle.

 Everything has a breaking point but i dont get the thought process behind building something and leaving a weak link to break on purpose. Thats like building a 60 but using 30 spline outers cause you want those to break before anything else. Why not build something to strengthen its weak points not just leave them to break. I prefer to wheel when i am on the trail not make repairs because i was too cheap to buy strong reliable parts.

Everything has a breaking point, by upgrading different parts of the truck you move the weak spot to another location or part, many people believe that after you do all that to Toy Axles the weak spot becomes the diff. Which is expensive to fix and time consuming, at least when you compare it to a drive flange. So if the drive flange is $40 and the diff is $900, some would say let the $40 part break first even if it breaks twice as often. It's kinda like, if your axle is too strong the next thing to break is Rear Output shaft, or maybe the trannies output. In the end all that torque finds the weakest link. 

[blackdiamond]

My goal has always been to build my rig so that it is stronger than it needs to be for how I drive it.  I have Longs, Hub Gears and ARP hub and knuckle studs so I expect my differential is likely the weak link.  The result is that I'm not at all worried about breaking a differential.  I've had my current rig in Moab for two weeks on the rock and a trip through the Rubicon and my previous rig, that wasn't as built, visited Moab at least three times and so far I have not broken anything that was due to a defect.  It'll happen at some point, I'm sure, but it won't be a result of my equipment or driving.  I tend to be fairly easy on my rig, but still manage to go anywhere I want.

[87pickup]

I agree that there will always be a weak link but like mentioned above i feel i have moved the weak link far enough up the ladder that i am pretty safe given my driving style. I think my next breakage will be either Driveline, rear r&p or t-case gears. i like to upgrade before something breaks not wait until it breaks. ut thats just me.