Let's talk about portal axles, has it ever been done?

[lashidalgo]

Hello knowledgeable forum members. The other day I had the luck to see a unimog 404 parked right by my e350, the clearance in that thing was not big but massive, no words to describe how high the pumpkin was compared to the e350 (not to mention the huge 40 something tires)....

That got me thinking...
After a quick search I realized there's a few options for dana 60s:
https://emeraldwest.com/motorsports/...n-portal-kits/
https://www.axletech.com/es/products...rtal-wheel-end

SO here are my questions for you all:
- Do you know if this has ever been done to an econoline?
- Do you have pictures of what clearance is like?
- Does anyone has experience to tell if they affect on road handling?

[mgmetalworks]

-Likely never done on an Econoline. I've had my eyes on the Eseries 4x4 game pretty intensely since 2013 and haven't seen one nor heard of any anecdotal evidence of an Eseries on Portals. Doesn't mean there isn't one out there...I'm often surprised what pops up on social media from time to time.
-If you haven't seen 74Weld and their portals for the Jeeps (and other applications), you should take a look. They have a video on their instagram of their jeep driving over 5 gallon buckets with room to spare... https://www.instagram.com/reel/CZ7O4..._web_copy_link

The thing that will be difficult to deal with on an Econoline is the extra width. Definitely some fender work to sort out.

-Never driven a portal axle rig but considering that the Mercedes G-class has portal axle options and most of those are not exactly full time off-roaders, I'd say that on-road characteristics are probably more than livable. 74Weld is going hard after the portal game for a number of rigs so I'm sure it can't affect things too much in a bad way if their target is a list of pretty mainstream vehicles.

I've inquired about built axles with portals through Emerald West (not more than a couple hours from me) and 1) They were horribly unresponsive to even basic questions over email....not to mention they never fully answered my no-so-basic questions 2) Never returned my calls. Left multiple messages and never got any call backs.

[Lilnuts2]

Seems like another plummet in fuel economy.
A E350 will never be a crawler.
I would think if anybody had done this mod, it's those crazy cats that live and play on the ice sheets.



https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl...MygLegUIARCSAg

[Orv]

They can be noisy, depending on the type of gearing used. Early VW Buses used portal axles for the additional gear reduction needed to move a cargo van with a Beetle engine, and the way the square-cut gears howled on the highway was pretty legendary.