Modifying your vehicle can be like tipping over a billion dominoes. You change one thing, then you need to change another, then another, and the next thing you know you’ve spent way too much money and the damn thing still ain’t right. This phenomenon can be cranked to the nth degree when you want to lift your off-road rig.
A suspension lift can make a proper alignment a thing of the past unless you also install an upper control arm with more caster. Lifts can also add extreme angles to your axles, so get ready for upgraded CVs to handle all the stress and they do nothing to lift your differential. You could make a simple mod with intentions of making it more capable and before you know it, you’ve made it so much worse.
Or, you could just get portal axles.
74Weld has been designing, engineering, and meticulously manufacturing them for nearly 20 years. They build axles for rock-crawling greats like Jason Scherer, Loren Healy, Cassie Currie, and Vaughn Gittin Jr, as well as supplying portals for desert racing Trophy Truck builders like Geiser Brothers and Brenthal Industries. And while those might not be household names to those not in the off-road racing industry, trust me when I tell you every name mentioned in this paragraph is the absolute real deal.
And now 74Weld is offering portals for your everyday wheeler—as long as you have race-team money.
What Exactly Does a Portal Axle Do?
I’m glad you asked! A portal axle can give your vehicle a serious gear reduction, more underbody ground clearance, and room for larger tires all in one component and without the need to beef up your axles, camber, or shock package. Essentially, the axle goes from the stock differential to the portal where a set of gears provides the reduction. The portal is then connected to your wheel through a stub shaft. Because the first set of gears is located higher than the stub shaft, the entire vehicle is raised, including the differential. Therefore, axles lay at the correct angle and there is no need for a new suspension setup.
74Weld makes portals for the 2003-2023 Toyota Tacoma, 4Runner and FJ Cruiser as well as the newest Toyota Tacoma, Land Cruiser, Sequoia, and Tundra models. The 2003-2023 Lexus GX is also a candidate. Jeep JT, JL, and JK owners can get in the game as well, as can drivers of current generation Ford Ranger Raptors and Broncos.
After the bolt-on install—you just need to move the upper and lower control arms, tie rod, and axle—you’ll get a 1.22:1 gear reduction and nearly four inches of extra ground clearance. That means you have the space and the turning power to run way bigger tires. Y’all, I’m talking Jeeps on 39s, a Ranger Raptor on 38s, or a Tacoma on 37s. A mid-size truck….on 37-inch tires!
Of course, your final drive will depend on what’s in your stock rear end. If you’re adding portals to a Rubicon with 4.10s, the portals from 74Weld will put you at 5.00:1. If you have a hybrid Tacoma with the eight-speed automatic and the 3.583:1 rear end, you’ll end up with 4.37s. Remember: The higher the number, the lower the gearing. With lower gear ratios, you have more low-end torque to move bigger tires and clamber up and over obstacles.
You’ll Faint at the Price
How much does all this goodness cost? My friends, it is $20,000. I haven’t put that much money into my own race car and I’ve got a full cage, supercharger, fuel cell, five-point harnesses, Recaro seats, Fox shocks, and a bunch of custom fabrication. However, 74Weld owner Quinn Pultz recognizes that the cost is far from budget:
“We’re trying to make the highest quality product possible and we get that it’s expensive for a lot of people. But we get some guys who buy a Wrangler 392 and to them, an extra $20,000 on a $100,000 vehicle is nothing.”
Who are these guys and why am I not dating them?
Of course, you could just do a suspension lift for much, much less, but Pultz has strong opinions on that, gleaned from his years of working with the factory Bronco teams in the stock class at King of the Hammers.
“Those vehicles are fast,” Pultz explains. “They can do 65 miles per hour through the whoops because their stock suspension is so well-tuned,” he says. “The OEs have put in tens of millions if not hundreds of millions of dollars into their suspension development, so why would you rip that out? And with the new vehicles having active suspension, at some point, you’re not even going to be able to alter the setup without the dash lighting up like a Christmas tree. In the future portals might just be your only option.”
While I don’t envision ever having the kind of scratch to spend on portal axles, I can’t deny the cool factor of throwing a set on a mid-size truck or SUV. The stance is pretty remarkable and you’d certainly stand out in a crowd. Plus you have the security of knowing your CVs are safe, your differential is tucked up out of the way and your camber hasn’t gone all cattywampus. On second thought, $20,000 sounds like a pretty good deal.