Anybody ever built drive shaft's out of square tube? I am going to fab some long travel driveshafts and all I can find around is class 3 pto shaft the crap is HUGE anybody have any exp with these? I intend to put a grease fitting on either part of the tube to keep it all lubed. Any ideas?

Anybody ever built drive shaft's out of square tube? I am going to fab some long travel driveshafts and all I can find around is class 3 pto shaft the crap is HUGE anybody have any exp with these? I intend to put a grease fitting on either part of the tube to keep it all lubed. Any ideas?

I just built a spare square shaft. I used the slip yoke from a stock shaft and drilled holes so I could extend or shorten it. If you just get cheap tubing there is a lot of slop and you won't make it much over 30 mph.

Anybody ever built drive shaft's out of square tube? I am going to fab some long travel driveshafts and all I can find around is class 3 pto shaft the crap is HUGE anybody have any exp with these? I intend to put a grease fitting on either part of the tube to keep it all lubed. Any ideas?

Why?

You can find Spicer 12" slip spine. Do you need more movement then that?

Why?

You can find Spicer 12" slip spine. Do you need more movement then that?

Cost. You can build a square shaft for $20 and it will be way stronger than round. Perfect for a rock rig, but like I said, it seems to start to vibrate around 30mph.

Do it right, or don't do it.

last time i checked, a square driveshaft wouldnt balance right..causing vibration. all of my buddies run them on the front of their yotas but they arent awd like rangies. just what i was thinking....if im wrong and a square shaft will balance fine, then the hell with getting my stock shafts extended, ill just make my own.

My cousin is an engineer at CAT and we think it can be balanced on a metal lathe by removing media from the tube you can actualy add weights on vital spots to even out the jitters but we fear they will just tear off all the time and have to be added back over and over. You can use a vertical end to end balance and it will tell you the amount of out of balance you have. But he thinks that if you simply make a straight cut on the tube and put a very clean weld on it will be golden. You just have to make sure you balance it at its ON ROAD DRIVING point. Off road it doesnt matter what the balance is or what position its in because you arent going fast.

Two main issues I see:

The balance one. This is being discussed but on rigs with 2WD or trailer queens, the point is moot. Put it on the front and unlock the hubs, good to go.

On the balancing, it kinda sounds like by the time you get it right, you coulda saved the time and got a nice driveshaft built that was tubular. The shop three counties over will take your core, build it to correct length (new tube), new joints (spicers, not some knockoff), and a new slip joint for 120. Of course it'll be balanced and of extreme craftsmanship.

The next issue is the welds required to attach the tube to the cardon joint. Every one I've seen break, this is where they break. If you are gonna have an issue, this is where its gonna be. I think if you do it right, then it *shouldn't* be a problem. But that is the weak area.

I always hear the idiots say, "The tubing didn't break! The welds did! The square tube driveshaft works!!" It still broke, dumbass :shaking: . But like I said before, I am sure if you take your time and get the joint-area done right, you won't have any problems.

Well as for the part about putting it on the front and unlocking your hubs...well scince we are talking about land rovers here, what front axle has locking hubs? =/ and say you had like d44s with manual hubs up front like what im swapping under mine, if you unlocked the front hubs the drive shaft would still be spinning and wouldnt u feel the vibration still? or mabey it wouldnt be so bad scince it wouldnt be under load....i dont know, you tell me =]

Well as for the part about putting it on the front and unlocking your hubs...well scince we are talking about land rovers here, what front axle has locking hubs? =/ and say you had like d44s with manual hubs up front like what im swapping under mine, if you unlocked the front hubs the drive shaft would still be spinning and wouldnt u feel the vibration still? or mabey it wouldnt be so bad scince it wouldnt be under load....i dont know, you tell me =]

My Rover came stock with a free wheeling transfer case and has dealer installed hubs.:flipoff2:

The whole point was cost I thought I could simply fab some VERY strong square tube shafts but I can get a custom made set on the cheap in maryville. I did some research and the square isnt very good for Daily driver duty. And the welds dont hold up because it distributes the load unevenly across the surface of the weld. The round is better Ill just have to save and cough it up. I drive to all the trails I take on so I cant rely on an unproven method. oh well! ill keep researching and post if I figure out anything worthwile.:confused:

My Rover came stock with a free wheeling transfer case and has dealer installed hubs.:flipoff2:

lucky bastard :D

A square shaft has to be much bigger to transmit as much torque as a round splined shaft.

Two reasons, one is the square shaft only has four corners to turn the tube with, a splined shaft has what, 20?
The other is a round shaft is much more compact for the torque capacity. The corners of a square shaft are pretty much wasted space.

As for vibration, standard pto speed is about 540rpm. In top gear your propshafts are doing roughly engine speed so 3-4000rpm isn't unreasonable.

Running a shaft at 8 times the design speed sounds rather wrong.

I think rednecks do it because they think they have found a way to beat the system while reinventing the wheel.

every trailer hitch I've used has some slop in it, I don't want that in my driveshaft. If you can't afford to do it right you need to find a new hobby. Driveshaft costs are minute in comparison.