Single (and Two) Piece Driveshaft = Vibes....BE GONE!!!

There is not enough ground clearance loss on the 1 piece too even be considered according too guys with the 1 piece.So who knows.

 

Are you guys removing the crossmember that supports the center bearing? Just curious if it is necessary for clearance.

 

Heard the guys with the 1 piece are cutting out only enough room that they need for clearance ,and are also KEEPING their old drive line if a 1 piece don't work out.

 

I've got this crazy vibe that I can't quite pinpoint. Would a one piece help? How are they offroad, increase or decrease clearance??

 

You busted up a two peice. A single would never have stood a chance. There's a story there I'm sure!

 

60 miles @ 70-75 mph logged this afternoon. Performed flawlessly and vibes are gone. Gonna crawl under and re-torque and hit the grease zerks. Ask any questions, I'll be glad to answer. One of my best mods to date, hands down. I'm happy

 

I may have to do this. We have the same year trucks, I have been chasing the vibe since last weekend. When I get tired of running in circles I'll give Tom a call.

 

IN MY OPINION....IN MY OPINION....ONCE AGAIN....IN...MY....OPINION, it was worth it to me. I'm very satisfied with the whole thing, from quality of the part, customer service, price and installation and most of all performance. Thank you

 

I hear ya. I just dumped 2 g's into my truck. I will get it right...thanks for all your info!!

 

Glad it worked for you @Fox2011PM !! What is the rest of your setup like? What lift, tire size and gearing do you have?

Here is my assertion as of this point...The single piece drive shaft with a double cardan input joint is indeed the silver bullet for those of you with a double cab 4x4 short bed that are lifted up to 3" and are on stock gearing. It 100% cures the vibes that plague most of you. Loss of ground clearance is VERY VERY minimal. You only need to cut the cross member if you plan on stuffing the rear wheels all the way up in the arches (off-roading, jumping, fill the bed to payload, etc).

HOWEVER...I re-geared my truck this week to 4.56 ratios and I'm back in vibration hell once again. The issue is how fast the more agressive diff gearing requires the drive shaft to spin. I get to about 50mph and it starts to vibrate. Gets worse the faster I go. This is more hitting the limits of physics than anything else. That being said, it still is very infuriating.

I put on the stock two piece shaft with the aftermarket carrier bearing and my start off vibrations are back but it's smooth at higher speeds (60mph) since the CB supports the middle of the shaft effectively making it two shorter shafts.

Here's a question for everyone....is it possible to weld on a double cardan input shaft to the OEM two piece drive shaft? Seems like that would be the best of both worlds. Smooths out the take off vibrations but good at higher speeds since it's supported in the middle. I'm still learning so anyone with killer advice or experience please chime in.

 

Yes I have stock gearing, I'm not planning to re-gear as of now. My lift setup is 5100s set at .85" with the 1.6" Eibach coils and the top plate spacer for right at 3" of lift and Light Racing UCA's up front. I have a 1.5" AAL in the rear with ride rite air bags with about 40 psi in them. I carry a constant weight of around 500#. My tires are 285/75/16 on SCS SR8 wheels. The one piece was definitely the right fix for my setup and my off road habits. I still have a very very faint hum, but that's from the tires. The "vmmmmm.....vmmmmm.....vmmmm....vmmmmm" that I was getting prior to the one piece install has disappeared. I couldn't be happier. That being said, I did not remove the carrier bearing support. I don't plan on stuffing the rear wheels and I have already cycled the suspension beyond what I will probably ever do and I still had plenty of clearance. I believe my ride rite air bags are helping keep it from even coming close to contacting the support crossmember that the carrier bearing bolted to. I will however monitor that just to make sure. If I feel the need to remove it I will. Aside from installing my ride rite air bags, this is by far the best functional mod I have done to date.

 

I talked to a local driveline shop in Detroit about building a shaft before ordering my tom woods. They specialize in racing and off-road drive shafts and said that the steel shafts aren't the best idea when they are this long because the weight throws it out of wack, especially with lower gearing. Might be a good idea if you took advantage of the return policy and see if they could get you an aluminum piece.

 

When does this start to show? I just drove almost 75 miles today going between 70-75 mph and never had a problem?

 

I would think a simple rebalance would correct it if you could stick weights to it. It should get worse slowly, if it does at all. When I had my Peterbilt I had a five ft steel tube and put over 400,000 miles on it. Never gave me a bit of trouble...

 

I'm not an expert on the subject - but critical speed is a function of length, diameter and weight/mass. A longer driveshaft will have a lower critical speed, while a larger diameter and/or lower mass will have a higher critical speed. If someone will pony up the money for carbon fiber and larger than stock, they will probably never find critical speed on the street.

Fox2011pm - it won't "start" at 70-75, unless it gets unbalanced somehow. Go fast enough, and eventually you'll find it.

Edit - I'll add wall thickness into the equation.... I probably wouldn't suggest CF for off road - it won't like taking hits from rocks.

 

Thanks for that. I probably won't find it then, as I never exceed 75mph. I'll keep monitoring and report any adverse findings

 

Yes, like I said, on stock gearing you'll likely be just fine. But with a regear it's spinning WAY faster which is the only reason I'm having to return mine. Let that be a lesson kids, everything is fine until you go screwing with stuff again!

 

I actually had one Toyota engineer at a car show in Vegas tell me he thought it was terrible how us Americans "ruin" our trucks with after market lifts. He went on and on about driveline angles, cv axles. I just laughed at him...

 

It's an 'American' thing now??