Ok guys start listing which parts are good or bad from trail-gear so others know what to buy and what to avoid.


Rock sliders (good)
Mine have held up for 2 years with some bad abuse due to a heavy pig of tacoma.

I just installed their magnum studs, and they seem solid. I chose them mainly because ARPs don't have the installation hex, and double-nut installing never seems to work for me.

Hopefully the drama llama will steer clear of this thread!

Good:
-Nice knobs! :grinpimp: (t-case shifter knobs, see pic below)
-Steering/pitman arms. Good price, seem to work. (edit- see issues Brian has seen a few posts down)


Bad:
-Trunion bearings. I've got two friends with multiple prematurely failed bearings from TG.
-Tie rod ends don't seem to last long compared to better quality versions. 2 of 4 have worn out in less than 2 years and fairly low miles. No grease fittings and they didn't appear to have any grease in them.
-Hydro assist rams. I've personally seen more than one failed on the trail and heard of plenty of others failed or with leaks. One thread here says that TG can't get seals for them either.


http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=366682&stc=1&d=1208901819

I've heard horror stories about their Hydro assist rams, but I am on my second ram on 2 trucks with no issues.

any experience with the hd standard tfer case mount???

about to order one...

any experience with the hd standard tfer case mount???

about to order one...

Just installed one on my 4 Runner and it is nice. No movement, nice and solid.

-Steering/pitman arms. Good price, seem to work.



seen a couple broken pitmans.

trunion pin varies considerably in length, changing bearing preload.

Haven't seen that yet myself. Good to know.

Heard the Dirty 30's held up well...Second hand though....

Good- Stickers
Bad- Everything else :blackflipoff:

Good- Stickers
Bad- Everything else :blackflipoff:

:eek::laughing:

on my second set of 4.7 gears in 2 yrs! if it was not for my buddy who is a dealer for TG i might not have received the "NO QUESTIONS ASKED" warranty! they were not great to deal with!

im running there flat pitman arm. so far its fine. mines pretty unique though so that scares me to hear that someone has seen one fail. how did it fail? just fracture? edit: what else comes to mind, im going to guess they were not running hydro assist?

ive had 3 friends blow up the steering stuff, pumps and rams. 1 ram the piston shot completely out.

I have their sliders and they are great. Nicely priced, and they havent bent or anything. They are even all rusted to hell and still hold up to a beating. The rust is my piss poor painting and prep, coupled with the high humidity and road salt here in shitcago.

408 jiggas ram and OOPs ram took a poop on the trail...3 people with DANGEROUS trunion bearing failures and a handful of threads on power steering pumps(kiyul4130 and others)...i buy hard parts from trail gear, like brackets, bushings, threaded adpters and johnny joints, nothing mechanical that could put me or others in danger. i havent personally had any failures, but have witnessed others with problems so i choose to shop accordingly. to their credit, the service is accurate and shipping is fast.

i have many parts from TG. havent had trunion bearing problems yet. i am having problems getting them to accept their own " no questions asked" warranties on one of the parts. the rear 5 inch springs didnt level out, the rear was 4 inches lower than the 5 inch lifted front. the high steer didnt work when the spring perch spacer pad was installed, i could only turn from driver side full lock to center before the tie rod contacted the springs. all of the spring and shackle bushings shredded by the 3rd hard trail run. the install instructions for the dual case has the shifter rail trimming part at the very end. i guess if i had read it all before hand then i wouldnt have had to take my case apart but still...... most of my zerk fittings on my greaseable shackles broke on the first greasing and when i called customer service just to get the size of the fittings the guy didnt know and i am still waiting for his call back (waiting 6 months now). i am not very fond of their customer service either- the icing on the cake-- i ordered an XL hoodie for my brother, they didnt have one is stock so they sent me a medium tshirt. i should probably keep this short for fear of putting you guys to sleep.

408 jiggas ram and OOPs ram took a poop on the trail...3 people with DANGEROUS trunion bearing failures and a handful of threads on power steering pumps(kiyul4130 and others)...i buy hard parts from trail gear, like brackets, bushings, threaded adpters and johnny joints, nothing mechanical that could put me or others in danger. i havent personally had any failures, but have witnessed others with problems so i choose to shop accordingly. to their credit, the service is accurate and shipping is fast.

Its hard to blame the trunion bearings when its the steering arm bolts that are loose or broken and/or not maintained. Seen plenty of NSK and high end trunion bearings shread when steering studs start breaking. Its just nature of the beast.

The ram I had take a poop was not a TG ram, it was from RedNeck Ram and it had quite a few hours on it and had been run dry more then once. I replaced it with a TG ram and it was working fine when I sold the whole RA set-up. It is still going strong. The trunion bearings that I broke were set-up right and all of the nuts were tight. Two ways I know they were tight, I had torqued them before the run and I trailered to the Dusy and two they were tight when I was making the repair.

As far as the TG products that I now run, I have not had any problems with them.

The ram I had take a poop was not a TG ram, it was from RedNeck Ram and it had quite a few hours on it and had been run dry more then once. I replaced it with a TG ram and it was working fine when I sold the whole RA set-up. It is still going strong. The trunion bearings that I broke were set-up right and all of the nuts were tight. Two ways I know they were tight, I had torqued them before the run and I trailered to the Dusy and two they were tight when I was making the repair.

As far as the TG products that I now run, I have not had any problems with them.

I wasn't referring to yours so much as Ken's last weekend. IMO, the TG Trunions are weaker than the NSK ones you get from Marlin and All-Pro. But, if maintained right, they should hold up okay.

The way I see it is that things break and wearable parts wear out. Some are better than others. Having installed numerous kits of all three companies, I can honestly say that there is zero difference in quality of the hard parts in each kit. That includes springs. Its the stuff like the bearings that I have noticed an inferior product only.

had a few things that seemed good and a few that didnt.
sliders=great
springs=bad:mad3:
i have ran a set of 4", HD 5", and 4" rears. rears started to sag(evenly) on the rear after one trip(what is that) then they just seemed to get lower and lower. Ran the 4" fronts hated them, same deal sagged alot right off the bat figured it was because of the v6, went to HD front springs oh wait same problem. I was told it was because they are not tempered? really?
I just got there dual x member so we will see...

i have many parts from TG. havent had trunion bearing problems yet. i am having problems getting them to accept their own " no questions asked" warranties on one of the parts. the rear 5 inch springs didnt level out, the rear was 4 inches lower than the 5 inch lifted front. the high steer didnt work when the spring perch spacer pad was installed, i could only turn from driver side full lock to center before the tie rod contacted the springs. all of the spring and shackle bushings shredded by the 3rd hard trail run. the install instructions for the dual case has the shifter rail trimming part at the very end. i guess if i had read it all before hand then i wouldnt have had to take my case apart but still...... most of my zerk fittings on my greaseable shackles broke on the first greasing and when i called customer service just to get the size of the fittings the guy didnt know and i am still waiting for his call back (waiting 6 months now). i am not very fond of their customer service either- the icing on the cake-- i ordered an XL hoodie for my brother, they didnt have one is stock so they sent me a medium tshirt. i should probably keep this short for fear of putting you guys to sleep.


With all of the problems that you have had, I am starting to think that you are not that mechanically inclined. I have used some of their products and know many people that have used their products that haven't had that many problems.

Good- Stickers
Bad- Everything else :blackflipoff:

I had one large sticker turn white after only a few months of use. It was in the summer though and faced the sun for the majority of the day. That's bound to happen with any sticker I guess :(

Sliders: Good

3" front springs: Beat the hell out of them and they are Good.

Winch plate: Good. Must have additional brackets welded on but no big deal at all.

Shift knobs: Good

Hard parts (ie. u-bolt flip, brackets, plates and gussets): Good.

Stickers: Bad. Maybe they have improved the new ones?

Spring bushings: So shitty I never used them and went with Energy instead.

Its hard to blame the trunion bearings when its the steering arm bolts that are loose or broken and/or not maintained. Seen plenty of NSK and high end trunion bearings shread when steering studs start breaking. Its just nature of the beast.

so true scotty

I have a pitman arm that has held up to a lot a stress, but the spline were cut 1/2 spline off. It lines up about 1 centimeter off to the left or right of dead center. I have never been happy about that but also not motivated enough to replace it.

i got those rock rings(thicker version of the felt covers for the knuckle ball)...they are nice!


i got a set of their rear springs second hand a few months ago for my double cab...i hope they hold up to the task and dont bend/kink/etc

Good- Stickers
Bad- Everything else :blackflipoff:
:confused:
I have experienced the exact opposite. Not one issue with any parts from them, but there stickers do suck a big one.

leaf springs seem to be hit or miss, when i had leafs in the back they were great, my front TG leafs however haven't ever really been level since i finally swapped em for 20+ year old RUF's :shaking:

running 8 creeper joints for my rear 4link, haven't had any problems and they've worked great (although I have heard of problems with over greasing them) also have a few of their brackets here and there...no problems.

flat pitman arm seems fine so far as well...like Booger said 'hard' parts are usually good, but I'm not totally sure about TG's drivetrain parts...I just threw in a set of TG 5.29's in my front axle and for the two trips they've been on they have been fine :laughing:

TG may have great warranties, but is it really worth it to install a poorly engineered part to watch it fail? (ex. hydraulic assist like others have stated)

one tg product i like is the bolt kit for the differential mounting on the axle. they never loosen up and use a 13mm instead of 12mm. my toyota studs were so old and beat up. everything just feels tighter when you mount your third member back up.

i have a tg dual case adapter (21 spline); going strong for 3 years and i wheel alot. over 30 trips on that thing.

i also just put in their trunion bearings cause mine were shot earlier this season. i hope they hold up(knock on wood). i would have bought marlins but they were out when i needed them, should've called fror. the marlins i had before held up for 2 1/2 years and i beat the piss out of my truck; and i have 2.5bs wheels 37's and the sky widening kit. thats alot of pressure on those bearings. before that i ran the old ass stock ones in my axle for 4 years and never broke. i love old toyota oem stuff, it's the stuff dreams are made of :D

STAY FAR AWAY - really bad tg product is that long-spline driveshaft, what a joke. after a season and a half the splines loosen up a whole bunch. about 1/8 inch play, i run a square tube again.

Their gears are excellent quality gears. They are just Yukon Gears in a plain white box. Even share Yukon part numbers.I set up a lot of 3rd each year. At least 50-75 a year, and every gear set is a quality gear.

I hear a lot of guys complain about their springs, but I really have to wonder about user error. How many guys are actually using bump stops correctly, and not abusing them letting them go inverted. Most of the guys that complain aren't running bump stops. We used to have the same issue at All-Pro. Can't tell you how many of those phone calls I had to field.

I have installed at least 25 of their front and rear kits. I have sold at least 100 around the country, and I have only had to warranty one spring. That is it.

I can tell you that I have had more complaints about Alcan springs than TG springs.

oh what comes to mind that i guess can be contributed....my friend has bent 2 creeper joints at the shank but it was during a rock race which is very hard on stuff so thats kinda iffy. they lasted 10 months before that on hammers/rubicon/fordyce trips. ill let you decide good or bad.....

he also blew out a marlin 4.7 gear, teeth, imput, etc and the TG adapter coupler was perfectly fine.

I hear a lot of guys complain about their springs, but I really have to wonder about user error. How many guys are actually using bump stops correctly, and not abusing them letting them go inverted. Most of the guys that complain aren't running bump stops. We used to have the same issue at All-Pro. Can't tell you how many of those phone calls I had to field.

I have installed at least 25 of their front and rear kits. I have sold at least 100 around the country, and I have only had to warranty one spring. That is it.

I can tell you that I have had more complaints about Alcan springs than TG springs.

The problems I had were still apparent and I have always run bump stops! :flipoff2:

good to hear about the gears though, I hope they last as long as the Yukons that were in previously.

I have the tg dual case x member and its Its super beefy!! As stated before, the shift knobs are :smokin: !

Good:

Pitman Arm is good so far.
Knuckle Rock rings and seals
SAS X- Member some Misc Bracketry

Bad:

Wheel Spacers. Ordered them in for a customer, and had only 1/8" of shoulder for the tapered wheel nut to snug up against, and a 5/8" hole for a 12mm stud. Sent them back, asked supplier if mine were an oddball ... "No thats how they all are..."

As the whole point of the thread states, some of it is good stuff, some needs some work.

-Wheel spacers. Lug nuts are only threaded on half way. No failures so far and they torque to spec, but its a little scary.

Found out this axle had some aftermarket wheel studs (looks like dorman 610-264 that I use on my 44's) that weren't pressed in all the way. I pressed them in fully and now the wheel spacer lug nuts have much more thread holding now. They're still a couple of threads shy of full engagement, but I think they're fine. I removed them from my "bad" list above.

Dual adapter Ive been running it a year or 2 no failures
4.7s 3 years no failures ive broken front and rear outputs and the case in half but the 4.7s are good
dirty 30s only been running them a few trips but seem to hold up well on 39.5s
TG chromo hub gears seem good no failures so far
5.29s seem the same as yukons i broke mine but i broke every other set of 5.29s i ran too
shifter knobs are cool and there twin stick deal works well
wheel spacers i had 1 stud turn in the back were it presses into the spacer so i couldn't put the lug nut on