[RCR46and2]

I was reading on pirate4x4 today that some guy in Russia, I think, made some home made portal hubs. That god me thinking about how awesome it would be to make a kind of portal hub setup for the outback in which the stock axle would go in to the top of the hub and have like a 1.5 reduction gear, so it would give the car better gearing and a possibility to run a big tire since the portal hub would make the wheel sit a good bit lower so the overall ground clearance would drastically improve. That way if something broke in the hub you could just put the stock hubs back on.Now I don't want a bunch of people telling me that it would cost a fortune and it's not worth, I just want inputs on this and if there is any reason/ way this would absolutely not work. If its possible I might see what I could less what I can do with some of my friends that own a metal shop. So everybody give me your thoughts, advice and anything you have to say about this

 

[Dajeepman]

Buddy that i know in my jeep club installed some portal axles in his jeep... Thing has some major ground clearance. Portals not really design for extended high speed and they can be really loud, but if you do a lot of off roading they are really nice

 

[RCR46and2]

Yeah I honestly don't see a need to go over 85mph and that's still fast for open roads, so I don't see why it would be hard to make a portal hub that's good for basic everyday driving.

 

[CNY_Dave]

If the goal was gearing only, a locking planetary assembly could be used.

 

[RCR46and2]

Gearing would only be another benefit, the main goal is a lift of 4inches or more without having to drop anything, so basically just adding more clearance from the differentials. Since the safe amount of lift is only about 2 inches before the cv axles start getting dangerous. I don't know if there is another is another way to get more than 4 inches with out dropping or using portal hubs. Any more thoughts about the portal hubs or any other ideas?

 

[Dajeepman]

If u can fab anything is possible or find some one who can copy the hummer h1 portal axles since it is ifs and irs

Do little google searching and found this link with the above picture that was adapted for a toyota irs and ifs

 

[RCR46and2]

Any other way to get around 4 inches of lift without dropping anything? Im still researching alot on the portal hubs and how one could get it to work with our cars. Any more ideas?

 

[Boxxerace]

Any other way to get around 4 inches of lift without dropping anything? Im still researching alot on the portal hubs and how one could get it to work with our cars. Any more ideas?

Is your finished goal to have 4" of lift or 4" additional ground clearance at the diff's? (I know, I know, just bear with the question so we can go to round two)

One note on portals, from everything I've read about Volvo axles, Unimog and Hummer, I believe in all cases the portal gearing acts as a gear reduction. This is usually a good thing as most offroad guys run much larger tires than stock. In the case of the H1's, the stock tires are about 37" tall which is pretty good all and all. Additionally, the wheel offset is usually different than stock to accommodate the junk that has to fit inside the wheel, the gears and brakes and such. Many of the portal swaps (SAS) use a central driveline brake instead of brakes at the hub from what I have gathered.

 

[RCR46and2]

How about a portal box that the stock axle goes into and the buttom hooks up to the stock hub and just lengthen the lower control arms?

 

[Boxxerace]

How about a portal box that the stock axle goes into and the buttom hooks up to the stock hub and just lengthen the lower control arms?

It's not a bad idea, but I think there are some challenges to it. As it is now, there's not much room between the brakes and the wheel. Add 6" of portal (or more) and you are looking at needing to have wheels that sit further outboard.

I'd look at brand new arms that are shorter, not made of tin-can material (trust me, I know first hand. JDM aluminum forged arms just installed) and shorter custom CV joints to match. Then figure out the brakes and portal box and maintain the proper alignment / pivot point for the front wheels.

Or, consider moving the front suspension forward a few inches, cut the pee out of the fenders and run some 32" tires?

 

[rasterman]

I'm a little out of date on portal hub technology, so a few questions-

Where do you correct for reverse? I know you can flip the ring gear in some diffs to normalize this, but I didn't think there was room in the Subaru housings. Or is there?

Are you sure you can handle the gear reduction and associated noise? A 1.5x reduction means that the car would rev limit at about 86mph (speedo would read 130mph) 1st gear would be a stump puller, and that might be nice. You could probably do normal starts in 3rd!

The last car I drove with portals was LOUD as the hub gears are straight cut for strength. Anything over 50mph and they were screaming.

 

[Boxxerace]

Rasterman, think "four gears" and not just two. Two of the four are small. with me?

 

[Boxxerace]

Here is one diagram I found that seems to illustrate a two gear setup.

 

[Boxxerace]

Woah! Look at what I just found. Bolt on portals (for dana 60's) that could be adapted to a Subaru. No reverse issue either.
http://www.motorsports.axletech.com/portal.asp

 

[rasterman]

4 gears to distribute the load across more bearings? You only need 3 to "unreverse" so I'm guessing they did a 4-gear for durability...

I bet that makes them heavy. Tire size could normalize the gear ratio problem. It sounds like the biggest problem remaining to solve is making a set of control arms strong enough to handle the additional mass of the hubs and giant tires, and maybe shoring up the subframe they connect to.

 

[RCR46and2]

I wonder if one could make an adapter for our ej axles to the 35 spline inputs. After that it is just getting the shocks and control arms, steering and all that stuff able to connect to the hub. Seems like a possibility.

 

[Dajeepman]

Woah! Look at what I just found. Bolt on portals (for dana 60's) that could be adapted to a Subaru. No reverse issue either.
Welcome - AxleTech International Motorsports

They are over 3k a peice.. yea jeep has a prototype portal axle.. well now its suppose to be finalized.
http://www.allpar.com/mopar/suspensions/portal-axles.html

12K for the front Portal Axle

11K for the Rear Axle.

Like i said they are stupid expensive

http://www.quadratec.com/products/52451_0010.htm

 

[RCR46and2]

The axle tech ones are about 3000 per axle and 6500 for the front and rear. That's almost the price I paid for my car.

 

[Junior73]

How about swaping in some unimog axles, would have to build a sub frame to suport coilovers, or leaf springs... would be cool with a 4bt cummins in it... ok ok monster Sub out of the picture. :17:

 

[Dajeepman]

The axle tech ones are about 3000 per axle and 6500 for the front and rear. That's almost the price I paid for my car.

I think 3K for each side.. not per axle..6k per axle.