Custom rear axle

I'm trying to figure out what route I want to go with getting a full float rear axle. I've wanted all wheel disc brakes for a long time and I also need to re-gear and while I have it apart I want to utilize my arb compressor and put a locker in.

I've read a few articles where people had custom axles but what little inquiring I've done with shops, it's going to be 4500-5k minimum. I'm trying to not spend that much but there are almost zero pictures or write ups regarding my 06 tundra.

I've seen exactly 2 well done first gens with custom axles. One was made by front range off road and the other was ECGS. They have builder kits which I'm not opposed to but they also have conversion kits to make our oem axle a full floater. One issue is I want something bigger than our 8.4 rear. Front range has 9.5" setups which I'd really like but is there a much more cost effective way to full float convert with disc brakes and truss our axle? Anyone got pics and details with the total cost of project?

I go off road a fair bit but it's my daily and I've never broken anything but our small rear always makes me be cautious. Especially since I'm usually 2k miles from home when wheeling. If I could have a super tough diff built and truss my oem and do a full float conversion for under 3k then I might go that route, but if it's more than that I may just have a full custom one made and cry once. I'm wanting to pair this rear with an archive garage hd bolt flipped leaf setup also since even with AAL's and lift blocks I still look a tiny bit squatted with all that gets carried in my bed (camper shell, bed vault loaded, brute force rear bumper w/tire swing out and cans).

 

Killer build. Sorry, I don't have much input for your axle. I am wondering about the shackle flip kit. I thought Archive ditched that years ago. I wasn't sure anyone makes a shackle flip for these first gens. If someone does, let us know. I need new rear springs and would like to get rid of the 4" blocks that are part of the RCD kit.

 

Thanks, it's going to be a work in progress for a while because the list of mods aren't going to be done cheaply because I hate doing something twice so I'm trying to get the absolute best option the first time and sometimes I have to save up for a little longer than I would like to . I'm doing about a $4,000 front end rebuild and customization right now on my suspension but that's got a lot of replacing OEM Parts as well as upgrading a lot of my stuff. I would like to use a solo Motorsports lower control arm kit but I can't decide if I want to do new travel or do their stock length and just have my ball joint pushed forward one inch which would definitely help me get 35 inch tires on but I'm not 100% sure that I want to run 35 inch tires because I think even if I ran 35 then I would still rub in a flex . I just don't really want to start messing with my fenders unless I just have to if I do go to a mid-length travel control arm . But I just bought some high angle CVJ CV axles and those were not cheap so I definitely want to get my money's worth out of them before I start putting Parts on that require longer axles . Right now I think I'm just going to focus on getting the rear end how I want it but when I install it after it's regeared to 4.58 like I am planning on doing at the moment then I'll have to do the front at the same time. There's a small chance I might do 4.88 but at the moment that seems a little bit too low for me. As far as I know they still make it. They have What's called the ultimate kit that was on their website earlier this year when I was shopping around. And when I was looking at it I saw the shackle flip kit for our trucks. They may have ditched it for a while and then brought it back, who knows. But unless it's something they've removed from their line of products in the last 3-4 months then they still have it.

 

Got it. I'm fairly certain there's no shackle flip kit. Years ago, they worked with Sean Pistol on making one for his build, but I believe it got shelved quite some time ago. Their Hammer Hangers, which come with their rear 12" travel kit are just HD shackle hangers, they don't flip the shackle. I'd love to be wrong because I'd love to shackle flip my Tundra, but I'm not seeing a kit to be had.

 

Here's the link for it...

https://archivegarage.com/products/...gen-tacoma-2005-2021-1st-gen-tundra-2000-2006


Edit: I just noticed I think you were talking about the shackle and I'm talking about the ubolts...

 

Oh, no. That's a u bolt flip, not a shackle flip. We're talking about two different things. Again, killer build. I love seeing people building these first gens.

 

Yeah I realize we were talking about two different things right after I posted that. I edited my previous post right after I posted it but I will still be looking for any way to get more flexibility out of my truck without getting into full-blown race truck mode

 

I realize that in my original post I misspoke So I went back and edited it.

 

I'm with you on that. I'd love to see someone develop a shackle flip kit. It would be nice to hear from Archive to know why they stopped producing theirs. Do they know something we don't?

 

Camburg makes full floater rear ends
You are asking for a "cheap" full floater, gusseted, with disc brakes, then you say you "think" you can build yours for like $3000ish. You left out the rear discs on yours, plus the master cylinder and proportioning valve ect that you will need to give you the correct line pressure to effectively make the rear discs work.
AND, honestly, if you wanted a rear floater with discs and wanted to build it yourself, you would be better off scabbing a sequoia rear axle and building it out of that, and swapping the master cylinder from the sequoia. The rear line pressure for Disc setup, is totally different than the line pressure on a drum setup. I dont remember the exact number, its been 20 years ago since i did a correct rear disc swap but i recall the rear drums are like 400-500psi and rear discs are like 1300-1500psi line pressure.
The sequoia rear axle being the wider one, like what your truck has anyway, with OEM discs, would be a better way to start plus it has the link bar mounts already welded up. It saves you a lotta work, just cut the spring perches off and gusset it and go to town.

$220 + shipping (questionable) 3.73 ratio - https://www.ebay.com/itm/126610921695
$652 shipped 4.10 ratio - https://www.ebay.com/itm/196437886209
$702 shipped 4.10 ratio - https://www.ebay.com/itm/305753260272
$874 shipped 4.10 ratio - https://www.ebay.com/itm/156391381886

 

There is nothing wrong with the rear drums.

A custom rear is going to be way more than 4-5k.

If you are that concerned, I’d truss the factory housing and carry a spare 3rd and axle shafts. All the Tacoma threads and Tundra threads I’ve read it seems like for the most part the ring and pinion gears fail first.

Also, I think Currie offers a 9” 2nd gen Tacoma an option.

 

Currie is not full floating. Here’s a link to a guy that put one in his Tacoma. If you want a heavy duty floater might look for one out of a Hino Dyna or early HiAce truck (not van).

 

I’ve had a few axles custom built. I had Currie build me front and rear (semi-floating) Ford 9” axles for my Jeep CJ7. Eventually i bought a full floating kit from Warn. It came with all the parts needed to build myself a 9” full floater. Then i had a rear Terra Flex HP 60 built. I’ve had Dutchman build me front and rear axle shafts for other Dana 44 and D70 axles as well. The toyota 8.4 rear axle is pretty darn reliable. I have stripped out the spider gears inside the carrier though. I think that’s the only problem that i’ve hear of. Swapping out the stock carrier for either a locker or a LSD would fix that weakness. If you plan on carrying a couple tons in the bed while bumping around on actual 4wd trails (and not simple gravel BDR forest service roads), then i would truss the existing axle housing.

No one snaps 8.4 axle shafts unless you have big tires and are rock crawing (think Pritchett Canyon)…over land is NOT rock crawling. No need for a full floater unless you just want to spend $$$$ and have someone unique. If you still just got to have a full floating axle, what about a junkyard D60? Swap in a 6 lug spindle and disc brakes.

Since your truck is a 2000, does it have the optional ABS? If not, then it would be super simple to swap in whatever axle you wanted…D60, 9”, ect.

I think i’d be 100% confident in the stock 8.4 axle. If you aren’t, then what about just having a spare 3rd member built and all boxed up in your garage, ready to ship wherever you’re located? It would sure cost less than building a $5000 custom axle.

Your 2006 DC looks pretty rad. No doubt you will make your 2000 AC cool too. Fitting 35” tires are one thing. Fitting 35” tires and not have them rub when pulling into starbucks is a waaaay different thing. I won’t even go into fitting 35” tires and not having them rub when articulating offroad. You’d have to tub the front fender wells and cab. The stock CV axles are pretty durable. We don’t hear of them snapping. RCVs are pretty darn nice. Definitely overkill. I’m spitballing dollars in my head, and sounds like you’d be spending around $15000 for semi-fancy front suspension and CVs, decently rear suspension, a custom rear axle, and a set of 35” tires…and that’s with you doing all the install labor yourself. At that point i’d think real hard about a solid axle swap front end and a junkyard axles to match.

Option B: I don’t know where all your driving, but a stock VW Jetta can travers 90% of the BDR and forest roads in America. A stock tundra would be able to make it the other 9%. 32” and a 2” Bilstein lift would get you past the last 1%. It definitely doesn’t have the cool factor as the experience parts, but you would still have a very reliable truck.

No doubt building up a rig to go offroad is a lot of fun, so i pass no judgement if you want to build something cool in order to have something cool. I think all of us has been there. I know i have multiple times.

 

I can tell this guy slept at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

 

we don't do hotels. That's 139 bucks I could buy parts with.

 

Well the 2000 is getting straight axeled, I'm mainly talking about the 06. I've got rcv front CVs and stock lcas but I just threw some siberians in until I can figure out if I want to do a solo stock length tmand get the 1" forward or some kind of mid travel. I've heavily considered getting a sequoia rear-end and truss it but I want to have full float for axle swap ease. I carry a whole lotta crap on road trips and the truck gets heavy and I ignore that when I head off the road. We like to spend a lot of time I. Colorado and Utah and I'm not trying to hit the metal masher but I go down the absolute max my truck can physically make it down. I'm just always nervous I'll break something and the current rear would t be something to just slide a new shaft into.

 

I've heavily considered a sequoia rear to get disc's. I've had nothing but trouble to get my drums to stay working. I'm just gonna regear to 4.58 minimum and lock it. And if I can get a floater conversion then that might be what I wind up doing unless I can find a 60 somewhere which is what I wanted. I just carry a whole Lotta weight with my truck...and when it's not loaded down on a cross county trip then it's towing my skid steer or excavator for work. Both are around 12k with the trailer. So with all the weight I carry and never keeping that in mind when I get off the beaten path, my axles always are in the back of my mind. I have rcv cvs and need to regear a ways and have been pretty unhappy with my drums. Considering everything I'm just looking for a change in the rear. In Colorado/Utah for a couple weeks last year I went down some stuff that would have been real nice to have better rear brakes and I went up some stuff that would have been better to have a better rear end.

 

Later FJ80 axles are full float 9.5" with discs, idk what it would take to swap one of those in with the first gen ABS.

I know its narrower though and offset diff. Just run a 3" wheel spacer on one side and offset the spring perches. You'd be into it a few hundred bucks.

 

It is thought provoking. I have the stuff to swap to t100 master and booster. So I'm trying to improve my overall brakes. Gonna ditch the proportion valve for a willwood adjustable valve. Hopefully I can keep the abs working though.

 

I was doing some searching afterwards, the consensus seemed to be the tundra axle is stronger than the fj80 axle...so thats probably a bad option.

GM makes a semi float 6 lug 9.5 axle. They used them for decades, but I think a lot of their newer higher payload 1500s have them. I'd imagine they probably have discs too

 

I wouldn’t worry too much about the axle shafts, they hold up pretty well, the 3rds on the other hand are the issue.

I’d hit up Currie and try for a 9” semi with Tundra Outers and custom shafts. I’m assuming it would be very similar to what they offer for the Tacomas. Some of the 06’s have a similar stability/ traction control system as the 2nd Gen Tacomas.

 

Dynatrac Prorock low pinion Dana 60 is your answer that you’re wanting to hear. Custom floating axles will cost you a bit more for that axle though. I’m guessing it will add somewheres around another $1500 additional to their base axle assembly?

 

Yea I've been eyeballing the 60 option which was originally what I had looked at. I figured if there was a way to save some money and make oem better then I would, but if I couldn't then it is what it is. Front range off road makes a full float conversion and I've already braked with them a little. It'd be nice to see someone's setup (60 or beefed up factory converted to FF). My main issue with preferring full float is that if I ever did break something that I can probably still drive it out and not worry about my wheel falling off. Some of the trails we go down sometimes take couple days to get down and when it's me and the wife and three kids I'd rather not be stranded in the middle of nowhere with zero cell service and a wheel trying to walk its way out. I'm re-gearing and putting a locker in anyways so the third member is getting rebuilt whenever all this happens. I'm not really ever planning to put 35s on my 06 but if I do a mid travel front end and I think it would give me more clearance without doing too much trimming than I might consider it but right now it's 33s. Last year I went down some pretty rough stuff and just put it in four low and cross my fingers and crawled everywhere and had my tires down to about 15lbs and there was no where that I couldn't go and a lot of places really surprised me how well I could go down on 33s. I had the truck on three wheels multiple times but it was the times where I was climbing something super steep and a ton of weight was getting put on one of my back corners and I was trying to be careful to not gas on it too much with all the weight that I had in the bed of the truck.

 

I've search all over market place and found several Dana 60 axles for sale that I could start with as a base. Does anyone know a make and model that the axle came out of that will work best in order to be the right width? Some of the axles I've found come with the front axles too which would be nice to keep for when I straight axle my 2000.

 

Rear dana 60s were mostly used by Dodge. I think some of the gas ram 2500s had them.

 

I think i’d pass on a Dodge axle. It might be too wide? I think they’re closer to 67” wide? I many early 1st gen Dodge 2500’s had a Dana 70, so make sure whatever you find is a 60. The 2nd gen Dodge 2500 all came with D70’s as well, unless the truck was a manual transmission with either a V10 or a Cummins, then it would have a D80.

I don’t know how wide our Tundra 8.4 axle is?…i’ve heard it’s a 66 WMS? A mid to late 70’s ford D60 is about 65” wide. Swapping out the brake drums for disc rotors might make it a pinch wider? The Ford axle should have 30 spline axles…and so does the toyota 8.4. You can install a 35 spline locker in the D60, get custom 35 spline axles to match, then slap on the 35 spline lockout hubs (or drive slugs if you don’t want lockable hubs in the rear).

You can take a peek at the Dutchman website here.
https://dutchmanaxles.com/images/ordering/defined-only_d60.pdf


I still think you’re waaaay over concerned about breaking the 8.4. If your axles were fully locked at both ends, 37” plus wide tires, 400+HP LS swap, crawl box, super low ring and pinion ratio (5.13 and lower), 100:1 overall gear ratio, manual transmission, AND flogging it offroad with frequency, then i’d be looking at something more stout. But 33”~35” tires with 2000lbs of concrete (or whatever) in the bed isn’t ever going to snap an axle shaft…even when climbing off camber. Especially with 3 of the tires still making contact. There’s absolutely zero concern there. I wouldn’t even be concerned with just 1 rear tire on the ground (well, i wouldn’t be concerned about the axle shaft, tipping the truck over backwards, possibly yes).

I’d take all that $$$$ that you want to spend on a custom axle, and use it towards making the 8.4 more reliable, which would be swapping out the stock R&P carrier for stronger unit (Arb or E locker). I know you have your mind set on spending big bucks on a big axle, but i think all the over lander magazines and forums make it sound like any truck with a portable heater, sleeping bag, and cast iron cookware needs to spend thousand$ in upgrades in order to pull off the side of the road to camp at a state park.

Lastly, keep in mind that you’ll lose a decent amount of ground clearance with a D60 axle housing. You can go old school and shave the bottom of it and weld in a flat plate and modify the diff cover to fit.

 

I had several Mopar muscle cars with Dana 60 back in the day.

1970-1974 E-Body Track width (hub face to hub face) 60.7", Spring pad center to center is 46.0"

1971-1976 B-Body Track Width is 62.0" and Spring Pad width is 47.3"

1962-1970 B-Body Track Width is 59.2" and Spring Pad width is 44.0"

 

Wasn't it just the 426 Hemi that had the 60, or did the 440 six-pack come with one as well? A family friend stored his Hemi powered 71 Challenger SE (4 speed with the pistol grip shifter!) in our barn for many years. He let me drive once back when i was teenager. I didn't drive it fast, but i was happy to be able to drive a piece of muscle car history.

 

I'm mostly gun shy of givin her too much petal. Granted it was tuned up but in my dad's 07 f350 I've broken 3 axles, 2 Trans, and one transfer case just from different situation I got in with a lot of weight behind me. When pur tons are busy which is rather often, I also tow our mini ex and skid steer with my truck for work and the places we work are most of the time off on farms and here in east tn it's hilly and I keep it in 4 low a lot while towing that stuff up and down hills when off the roads where ever we're working. Lots of big farms that we do work on that give me constant opportunities to tow 12-14k in rough ish places. I know its way more than our trucks were made for but it happens anywho.

Honestly I hate the term overlanding. It's too cliche for me.ever since it became a thing it's just been a huge marketing ploy to make pavement princess' feel the need to carry cans and traction skids if they think they'll ever drive down a gravel road . I know its probably over kill and if I can either make my rear axle full float with a kit which I think front range makes, but more importantly disc brakes which I desperately need then I'd be a medium amout of happy face. I can truss up my axle which I fear I consistently overload and if I can convert to full float then it would help get the weight off certain areas. On front ranges' website it originally shows 2000-06 tundras as a category but when you click on it there seems to really only be options for up to 04. Is there a difference in 04 axles? If so why couldn't I just pick up an 04 axle for cheap? It's getting regeared with lockers regardless so all the guts are coming out plus the archive garage ultimate leaf hd kit and ubolt flip is going on. Front range sells diamond axles a d I've seen a few write ups where people made a 60 axle out of that but even with their setup I thought I needed it more than they did with what I saw and read about their uses but that's just my opinion. I'm not wanting to spend the money but I figured if I needed to regear then why spend a bunch on my 8.4 and then eventually spend it all again on a 60 I'm open to suggestions and options though.

 

Yep, the 2nd gen Ram 2500s had the Dana 60 rear. The gas ones anyway.