Recently I asked about welded gears, and got a lot of feedback. I am going to go ahead and weld them up. I pretty much had my mind made up about what kind of axles I was going to run. Then I was looking around online and ran across a portal axle image. I have never seen one in person. And what I can figure they are hard to find. Upon researching those I seen a atomic axle. Right away I liked it. I seen a couple homemade ones. Am I the only one who thinks you can turn a factory ifs into type of atomic axle. And getting a second front ifs unit and do it the sameway and put it on the rear, and make it 4x4x4?

Do you have pics of said axle set-up? I was all ready to do an SAS then we welded up the front diff. It's ability to crawl locked front and rear was extremely impressive. Going to do the Toasty rear shock extension, I think that will be sufficient to get me where I need to go.

Aren't Atomic Axles a kind of locked in place TTB setup? I know they give better clearance but that's a lot of trouble for a little reward in my opinion. I do like how they still look like IFS a little.

Portals are worth the time and they are a less expensive option.

I guess I have a gen 1 raider.Its is completly stock , and it,s cranked all the way to the bump stops. Its doesn't flex well at all. And as soon as you bairly lift a tire it spins. I am tryng to build it as cheap as possible. Not really cheap built but I don't want to invest a [censored] pot into it either. Its just a a toy. I wouldn't know where to start looking portal axles but I am good with a welder. If it can be done with the raider ifs then im pretty sure i can do it. And then i might have wheel steering wich would be cool. And doing the work my self would make a lot cheaper than what I think the portal axles would cost and having to make them work also. But I'm asking for advice so I'm open to suggestions.

If'n you're really low-budget, and don't have the LSD in the back, weld it up. The front, I'm a proponent of that too! Look up tuffpans.com, plh on here sells manual hubs that will make it driveable on the street. That's the cheap way to do it. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/notooth.gif" alt="" />

A set of 404 portals will run you about $1500 another $250 for a pinion conversion from there it's the same ol SAS and since they come geared for 37"+ size tires with lockers you don't need to upgrade those parts.

The least expensive SAS is a Wagoneer Dana 44 setup, these can be done on the really cheap.



The cheapest most capable way to build is keeping the IFS, honestly you can make your truck more capable on stock axles for less money than probably any other vehicle. Flip through the builds here and get some ideas. The Montero guys here have collectively done some of the toughest trails on stock axles so take off the sway bar add lockers, gears, 35's and meet us for the Sierra Nevada Challenge in September.

Everything he ^^^^^^ said. Save your $$$$$$

I had to image search this, looks like it can be done on the cheap, maybe free if you have a pile of steel at home. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

Wow... how to add 500lbs to your front end... <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Yep.

John B.