Drop Differentials

[Marlin]

Unfortunately, there is no rhyme or reason that we can tell right now.

Some crank 'em & tear them, some don't.

If you're lifted & start tearing boots - they'll keep tearing (no matter what brand of boots you replace them with) until you do one of two things: diff drops or replacement half shafts.

BTW, you should be OK with 1.5 in lift. Troubles seem to start at 2-3 in lifts.

Tom,you forgot me!! LOL.
I never tore my OEM boots, went ahead and put the super $$$ mecatechs on while doing locker install. Tore those boots in just a few months.
Now that I dropped the diff, no problems. I was somewhere in the 3" lift I suppose.
VT, bigger tires doesn't mean anything, and has ZERO effect on the CV angles. Only when you get into cranking the Tbars does it matter.
Another bonus for diff drop, your CVs are almost dead level, which means the force is more evenly distributed to all the balls in the cup and in the outer joint as well. That cannot be a bad thing. Otherwise, that force is concentrated on two or three balls at a time, and that cannot be good. I would suspect far less CV wear and tear with the diff dropped.
(Tom, I know this is a repeat of what I told you via PM, just wanted to post my thoughts so others could read it as well)

There is one disadvantage. If you lower the front back down (which I have now done), it puts the CVs at a negative angle(in reference to the normal lifted angle), and they DEFINITELY don't like that. They weren't meant to ever sit like that. So, I have to compromise and lift the front back up a bit to relevel the CVs. I found that the offroad performance was much better lowered, and I had no problem with the 34s fitting. Did some cutting and pounding, but my rig is more for offroad now than anything else. It looks kind of goofy, the rear sitting much higher than the front, but I will take the performance over the cosmetics...as you all know

[vt_maverick]

BTW, you should be OK with 1.5 in lift. Troubles seem to start at 2-3 in lifts.

Only when you get into cranking the Tbars does it matter.

I read in one of rickshaw's threads that although the Daystar spacers claim 1.5", they only actually raised his rig 1". So hopefully not a lot of cranking is required.

Tom - Since you've seen/installed my Kilby plates first hand, would a diff drop interfere with them? Seems very likely to me...

[tom4bren]

Tom - Since you've seen/installed my Kilby plates first hand, would a diff drop interfere with them? Seems very likely to me...

IIRC we've been doing a drop of 2" which does require you to relocate the crossmember. That crossmember is what the Kilby's bolt to at the first seam (front to back).

I don't remember how much clearance there is before dropping but I'm thinking that if you only drop the diff 1" then it might work.

Don't nobody run out & measure the clearance on an unmodified VX though. He has the Kilby plates which comes with a replacement crossmember.

If you do decide that it's necessary to drop the differential though, I'm sure that if we only go for the 1" and the pumpkin hits the crossmember, we can modify it to still work with the Kilby's. In your application, the crossmember is only something to bolt to. The plates themselves are far stronger than the crossmember.

[BigSwede]

I read in one of rickshaw's threads that although the Daystar spacers claim 1.5", they only actually raised his rig 1". So hopefully not a lot of cranking is required.

The Daystar spacers in question are designed for the IFS of a Dodge pickup...because of the placement on the control arm the spacers achieve 1.5" due to the radius of the control arms, in that application. Whereas for a straight up, solid axle application like ours it is a 1" spacer.