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Who's who for axle shafts?

Lil'John

Lil'John

Former #278
Joined
May 20, 2020
Member Number
488
Messages
1,048
Loc
Walking to the Rubicon
Title kind of states it. I'd like to talk who makes axle shafts, quality, turn around time, and warranty.

In my specific case, I have a narrowed Dodge kingpin d60(-7" off long side) I have a local shop that can shorten my stock Spicer. But I'm going over other options. Rig is "s10ish sized" big block cady with 35" tires. Rig will hit Rubicon for technically done wheeling.

Yukon makes a 4340 shaft that seems to be reasonably priced... except for no-custom length. Also have a limited lifetime warranty... not sure how good it is.

Branic does a forged 4340 shaft that seems to be reasonably price. They also have Legacy Billet that look nice but are into the range of RCVs. They claim "limited lifetime warranty with the use of chromoly ujoints". Not sure definition of chromoly ujoint nor how good the warranty is.

Moser does "aircraft quality 4140 American Made Metals". Price feels a bit high and unsure what type of warranty if any exists.

Dutchman does 4340 shaft that "breaks the bank". I'm not sure what makes them worth 50% more than other shafts and unsure what type of warranty if any exists.

RCV does a big birfield with a big price:flipoff2: They claim "No Questions Asked" limited lifetime warranty. Not sure how this works out in the real world though.

Anyone have input on the above? Or have someone I missed?
 
Have them respline the stocker. 35s won’t break a 60 inner unless you’re being a full retard. Do a cheap set of 35spl outers. The stock 30spl outers will be your weak link.
 
I’m running Dutchman 4340 domestic shafts in both my rigs where the axles have been narrowed. Quick turn around.

branik is allergic to my money. Never returned emails and calls. Another member on here waited a year for a set of shafts from them. Buggy sat waiting for shafts for months.

I just bought some really odd custom 300m shafts from Mark Williams. They were expensive but are beautiful. Their turn around time was exactly what they said 3 weeks. Highly recommend.
 
Byro said:
Have them respline the stocker. 35s won’t break a 60 inner unless you’re being a full retard. Do a cheap set of 35spl outers. The stock 30spl outers will be your weak link.
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35spl outers were on the plate along with Yukon lockouts.

Rangerrod said:
I’m running Dutchman 4340 domestic shafts in both my rigs where the axles have been narrowed. Quick turn around.

branik is allergic to my money. Never returned emails and calls. Another member on here waited a year for a set of shafts from them. Buggy sat waiting for shafts for months.

I just bought some really odd custom 300m shafts from Mark Williams. They were expensive but are beautiful. Their turn around time was exactly what they said 3 weeks. Highly recommend.
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Thanks for the input. I didn't go to the other site but I recall there was on company that was overly slow.
 
Branik is allergic to everyone's business, I'm not impressed with their stuff at all
 
So Branik is slow as fuck huh? Glad I found out now, I was considering their shafts.
 
branik cut me some custom shafts(2012) and one of them they measured to the end of the yoke instead of the center of the u joint :homer: they had to make me a new shaft and the new shaft they forgot to polish the seal surface so it pukes oil :shaking:

then i bought some custom rcv shafts(2016) and they didnt put any seal surfaces on the inners so they had to make me new ones(their fault not mine) :homer:
 
I've had good luck with who ever makes shafts with foote stamped into the ears. I want to say east coast gear supply sells them.
 
I got a set of yukon shafts on the lake bed for a killer price. No way I would pay retail for yukon shit. Except their hubs are nice.

Do not use chromo u joints for what you want. I hate how the yukon joints are greased and they recommend doing it every trip.

If you're stock shafts are non neck down, I'd just have it resplined and machined for full circle clips, then run 35 spline outers and Spicer ujoints.
 
YotaAtieToo said:
I got a set of yukon shafts on the lake bed for a killer price. No way I would pay retail for yukon shit. Except their hubs are nice.

Do not use chromo u joints for what you want. I hate how the yukon joints are greased and they recommend doing it every trip.

If you're stock shafts are non neck down, I'd just have it resplined and machined for full circle clips, then run 35 spline outers and Spicer ujoints.
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I like the Yukon hubs with the "default to lock" feature. The only bitch was they are not compatible with the "ratcheting" hub nuts.

I'm not sure what I'd be looking for in the neck down vs non-neck down.:homer:

*edit* Figured out neck down vs "straight". Mine are straight.
 
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94toytruck said:
So Branik is slow as fuck huh? Glad I found out now, I was considering their shafts.
Click to expand...

I think you'd actually have to answer the phone and take an order to be considered "slow"
 
I've had nothing but great service from Branik. It's been like 3 years, but I got everything I needed for my custom length rear 9" from them.
Custom shafts, drive flange, 5 on 5.5 Timken wheel hubs.
They also clearanced my front shafts for 45* steering in a separate order.

They are a machine shop, and you have to call, their website sucked.
 
Opiebennett said:
I've had nothing but great service from Branik. It's been like 3 years, but I got everything I needed for my custom length rear 9" from them.
Custom shafts, drive flange, 5 on 5.5 Timken wheel hubs.
They also clearanced my front shafts for 45* steering in a separate order.

They are a machine shop, and you have to call, their website sucked.
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Are you by chance a racer? Or in the industry?

The average joe they don’t want your money. Like I had a pretty simple double splined shaft and wouldn’t return multiple emails and voicemails.

The member I referenced above waited almost a year for shafts. Yes semi custom stuff but since he wasn’t a racer got out on the back burner.
 
Rangerrod said:
Are you by chance a racer? Or in the industry?
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I paid full price, and while I do compete in WERock, I hadn't at the time, and I doubt the guy on the phone recognized my name.

I didn't attempt a sponsorship deal, because I don't like to owe people anything.

Pretty much as average as it gets, dude with a credit card. Another local friend not in the industry, also ordered shafts from him, front and rear, probably in 2019, got them all in reasonable time. He messed up the length of one rear shaft when ordering, and had to make a 2nd order for a longer one. That order also went well.

KOH gets in the way this time of year.

I guess whilewe're talking axle shafts:

I run Ten Factory front shafts (not sure if they exist anymore).

In the past, in my D44, I've run Superior, Yukon, Warn and Nitro. The Yukon sucked, but that was before Yukon bought Warns axle line.

My friends have had good luck with Dutchman and Moser as well. For a rear full float flanged shaft, a friend had 2ea with a custom hole pattern in the flange from Moser, in a very reasonable time line.
 
I ordered a custom set of inner axle shafts from Branik, which were manufactured for my front 14 bolt. My driver side shaft is quite long and required the use of the longer Yukon blank, but the price was not affected or increased due to this design constraint.

I ordered the set of shafts in August 2020 and I received my shafts 9 days after I placed my order (this also includes 4 days for shipping). I’m also a very average person with no links to the racing circuit.

I had quality phone conversations with Stan and Brandon, while also receiving prompt email replies to my technical inquiries prior to placing my order.

The products I received were quality machined parts, and the critical measurements were all within the specification limits to the values I provided.

photo40228.jpg


photo40230.jpg


photo40229.jpg
 
YotaAtieToo said:
I got a set of yukon shafts on the lake bed for a killer price. No way I would pay retail for yukon shit.
Click to expand...

Opiebennett said:
In the past, in my D44, I've run Superior, Yukon, Warn and Nitro. The Yukon sucked, but that was before Yukon bought Warns axle line.
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I'll bite on this. What is the good/bad with Yukon?

From my quick/dirty search in 2021, they came in as the "best" price for 4340(chromo) shafts.
 
Lil'John said:
I'll bite on this. What is the good/bad with Yukon?
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My experience was like 2009/2010, and everyone had bad things to say. They later bought Warn's axle shaft line, and sold them as Yukon Hardcore shafts for a bit. Somewhere along the way, I think they dumped their old line, and upped quality.

I've heard good things from competitors running them in WERock more recently, but haven't tried them. I would buy them if I needed shafts, but I'd have to buy blanks and machine them for custom length and steering angle. I'd probably buy them from Branik, because they sell them and could do all that stuff.

I have one in my dodge tow rig, because I bent the ears removing the worn out u-joint, and it was available on Amazon prime for next day for that application.
 
I’ve had 4 custom length shafts made from Branik. (35 spline rear steer shafts) And I’m an extremely average person. I called, told him the length, and had shafts within two weeks. No issues.

That was two separate orders fwiw.
 
Lil'John said:
I'll bite on this. What is the good/bad with Yukon?

From my quick/dirty search in 2021, they came in as the "best" price for 4340(chromo) shafts.
Click to expand...

I just don't feel like yukon makes quality shit. They're definitely all over the place. Their hubs are bad ass, and the ujoints seem nice. But the shafts looked meh and I've heard their gears are just reboxed China stuff. I don't think they should be in the same conversation as any of the brands like rcv, Moser or Dutchman, ect.

They set I have is $1500 on summit, I paid less than 1/3rd of that. :laughing: they have crazy markup on their shit, or are willing to loose a lot to support people?
 
The old Yukon shafts are a good bit thicker than my new ones in the yoke area. The old ones you used to have to flap the edges of the yoke to get through the knuckle where the new version are really thin there. Somewhere I have a picture of a pile of clearanced D60 shafts next to each other, I'll see if I can dig it up.

Edit: found the picture. Alloy USA Outer and inner, OG Yukons, New Yukon. You can see the Yukons are all a bit thinner than the Alloy USA yokes and the new Yukons are much thinner.
101941593_2984468131668736_9214621238557671424_o.jpg
 
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I've only got good things to say about Branik, they did plenty of work for me and usually custom shit. Price was very fair and they were super nice people.

You just have to understand they are a little machine shop and not some kind of big company with a sales team waiting by the phone.

I'm sure for the few times I had them do "normal stuff" I could have found someone a bit cheaper but they support the sport and that's important to me.


That said, for OPs use, any of the options he mentioned in his first post would do the trick. Personally I'd go RCV because I love the CV over the U-Joint type axles, but that's purely personal preference and completely overkill.
 
Rhodes Diffs, Travis Rhodes can help you with whatever you're trying to do. Definitely making a name for himself in the axle world.

816-589-1716 that's his personal number on his business site and he'd probably answer right now if you needed him.
 
Mr Stubs said:
Spidertrax?
Click to expand...

Probably the nicest units I've laid my hands on.
I've heard amazing stuff about Cone Industries but haven't been fortunate enough to ever see a set from them.
 
Bringing this back up with a question about stock Spicers. Is it possible and/or advisable to grind/machine them for full c-clips for the ujoints?

I've got a set of Spicer SPL55-3X that I'm going to use with stock Spicer shafts for now. Previous reading said full c-clips are much better than the 3/4 that come stock.
 
I'm sure it's possible to machine them but I'm not sure if it's worth it. I ran Spicers outers and joints a long time ago but I tacked the caps in on those.
 
I'm running RCV front shafts, birfields and hub gears in my 85 toy axles under my Samurai on 37s. Almost a year on them and no issues at all. I have bound them up at full lock several times and no problems. They're also a smaller company than most people think. My shafts arrived about 3 days after ordering, but obviously not custom or anything. No feedback on the warranty but I'm not really expecting to need it. I expect to get several more years out of them before needing to throw a rebuild kit at them.
 
Have you talked to Bill at all.

I know he does some shaft work. I had asked him about shafts at one point and he mentioned 10 factory.

Upon looking around it seems off but he might know a bit more.
 
Lil said:
Have you talked to Bill at all.

I know he does some shaft work. I had asked him about shafts at one point and he mentioned 10 factory.

Upon looking around it seems off but he might know a bit more.
Click to expand...

I "wasted" his time with a few other questions when I stopped by Saturday:homer:
 
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