460 miles and leaking front diff
- Thread starter 2TR
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An issue like mine would crop up really quick, basically as soon as it runs low on fluid, whether you're offroading or not. At this point it seems like I should go buy a powerball ticket with my luck
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I commend all of you early adopters for breaking in this truck for the rest of us.
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I’m almost Positive, That front differential is in several of their 4x4 products. It appears it ran out of fluid,and then failed. But I do not like it being aluminum! I think it was all about their weight upfront issue, The hood is aluminum, And Front fenders fiberglass. I hope they get it repaired for you as quick as possible. (The rear DIFF I believe was built and designed for the TRX).
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I have never seen aluminum differential housing work off-road in the real world. It was a weak link on Jeeps for a short period of time. I can't believe RAM would put an aluminum axle housing in front of a 702 HP cast iron block.
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Not saying I disagree, but does anyone even make a cast iron diff for IFS?
Olivia, the Corn Capital!
Great question and I hope someone has a better answer than I do!
OEM - no great options that I am aware of - but happy to be wrong!
- Nissan does make an iron differential in the Australian/International Y62 Patrol (the U.S. version, the Armada, doesn't use this though) but I think it is an 8.00~8.25 inch ring gear and there are not many ratios available. I don't have the dimensions but given the ring gear size and limited availability of parts I wouldn't try going down that route.
- AAM made a 7.6 inch IFS differential used in the Hummer H3 alpha (not sure if it was used in anything else). Against, with the ring gear size and difficulty finding parts, I don't think that's a great route.
Aftermarket - no easty to fit off the shelf options advertised yet - try reaching out to Fusion4x4?
- Dynatrac (XD60), Spidertrax (9-inch), and Currie (Ford 9 inch based) make iron IFS centers, but they are not set up for an offset configuration like a street truck (only centered for a buggy/KoH rig/Trophy truck etc). Dynatrac showed off an iron offset D60 that would work in a street truck for a few media builds, but when I called to buy one for an old project they said it never made it into production (at least as of 2019).
- I tried to get ECGS interested in this awhile back for another project, and same thing - not enough demand at the time.
- If we get a critical mass of interested people I would hit up the crew at Fusion4x4. They build some awesome axles for Jeeps (including a few that will be under rigs at the King of The Hammers this week) and seem like they would be willing to take on a fun challenge.
The only other thing I would toss out - unlocked, and or with Torsen centers, people have bashed aluminum Ford F150 and Toyota Tundra/Land Cruiser IFS centers around in the desert with anywhere from 380 to 600+ hp for a long time. When they are set up correctly they seem to hold up okay.
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Nice bit of research there. Thank you.
I was not thinking about IFS (although I should have), and then Dynatrac XD60 was the first thing that came to mind. I tried looking up Dana/Spicer IFS OEM axles and it appears that the aluminum casing is an upgrade from standard, but it was unclear what the standard is.
I will say Toyota's have a great reputation for taking abuse, but I think OEM they are not putting out more than 405HP, except back when you could get the dealer installed supercharger that bumped it to 500 or 525HP. That is still a far cry from 702 and a truck that is 1,000lbs heavier and larger diameter tires that the TRX has.
All said, as someone previously stated, hopefully this was just an issue with running it out of oil and then it having the breakage. I am sure RAM will figure it out and make it right.
Most welcome and happy to put a few options out for someone to look at if the decide to go big - or just do something different because they can!
On the Dana/Spicer IFS axles, I hadn't come across anything about aluminum centers being an upgrade, but I didn't look that hard as none of the shops or builders I reached out to event mentioned that as an option (including ECGS who seem to know both the OEM and aftermarket space pretty well). But maybe they do make an iron IFS center section for a commercial application. Does anyone have more info on the potential of an iron IFS differential from Dana floating around?
As for the Toyota's, yes, from the factory you're looking at 385 hp, 32 inch tires, and a boatload less weight. Definitely apples to oranges. There are a few guys who have run the TRD or Magnuson Supercharged Tundras on 35's, and beat on them pretty hard though, so maybe that would be at least an apples to tangerines type of comparison and give us a little extra comfort while getting after it
?Like you and others said though, hopefully this was a one off with either a bad casting that slipped through QC or a differential that wasn't filled all the way.
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Hello @2TR -
We sincerely regret to see that you are facing this concern with your new TRX, much less so soon. Our team would certainly like to assist alongside your dealer in exhausting all available resources to have the concern addressed and resolved. Please follow up with us in a private message to provide your full name and VIN. From there we will be happy to connect you and your dealer to a specialist to investigate this further on your behalf, thank you!
Kathryn
Ram Cares
My 2017 Raptor had the same failure (huge crack in the front diff) last year, and if you look on the Raptor forums it has happened to many people, so it's not an issue specific to Ram. Still unacceptable, but other OEMs have the same problems...
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