Installed an Axle Inc 2 Speed Rear End
 

Well, I finally pulled the trigger and bought a 2 speed axle from Axle Inc (formally Imaginative Manufacturing). These axles are switchable from a low range gear of 20:1 to a high range gear of 10:1. Cost was a little over $1500 with shipping. Shipping was 2 days and I had to pick it up at the local FedEx Freight office, this can also be delivered to a business address.

Since Axle Inc manufactures axles for all kinds of electric vehicle manufacturers like mining equipment and airport tugs they do not need or have a web site so for more information about this axle look at Renegade 4WD Plus who are the retailers for this axle and they also make a 4 wheel drive conversion that uses an output shaft on the Axle Inc axle to turn a driveshaft to the front axle. I'm going to run the rear axle for a while and see if I want to go all the way to 4wd later which is about a $2500 upgrade.

More to come
Rob

Re: Installed an Axle Inc 2 Speed Rear End
 

Installation is pretty straight forward, out with the old and in with the new.

Re: Installed an Axle Inc 2 Speed Rear End
 

I did take care of a couple of issues I have been putting off. Since this axle is complete with everything including new brakes I thought it would be a good time to put in new brake cables and my old medium duty 3 leaf springs had seen there better days so a new set of 4 leaf heavy duty springs went in, at least until I do my 4 link rear suspension which is one step closer since the axle was out I went ahead and welded on the lower mounting tabs for the lower control arms which line up with the front mounting tabs I had welded on last year when I had the body off.

Re: Installed an Axle Inc 2 Speed Rear End
 

I have always thought it would be nice to move the rear axle back a little bit for better fender clearance so this was the perfect time to try it. Since the welded on lift block was 1" shorter than my original lift block I took a piece of 1" x 2" square tube and put a bolt on the bottom in the center of it to act as the locating pin to the lift block then drilled a hole on the top of the block 1" forward and drilled a hole 1" forward on the top plate and this is where I set the locating pin on the springs which sets the axle back 1".

I Like It :mrgreen:

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Re: Installed an Axle Inc 2 Speed Rear End
 

Here is the breakdown of the speeds I am seeing in MPH.

__ Gear: Stock
_______ 12.44:1 ____ 10:1 ___ 20:1
Motor:
Low- ____ 22 ________ 24 _____ 14

High- ____ 27 _______ 30 ______ 17


One thing I was looking to improve was the occasional stalling on the worst trails so to test this out I put my tow rope around a tree and with the motor in low and the axle in low, I pressed the throttle and dug 2 nice holes in the hard packed trail without any trouble. Now with the motor in high and the axle still in low hit full throttle and the front end came off the ground about a foot and a half. The best part about this axle is it is so beefy that I am not afraid of breaking anything, at least in the axle!

Put the axle in high and found that both the motors speeds were equivalent in performance with the stock axle but I gained about 3 MPH each

What do you have for motor ?

Sent from my N9130 using Tapatalk

Re: Installed an Axle Inc 2 Speed Rear End
 

I have an EMP 2 speed limo motor that is almost 12" long so I had to grind of some of the top spring plate on the left to make it fit.

Re: Installed an Axle Inc 2 Speed Rear End
 

Too cool! Paired with the EMP switchable redesign that has to be sick!

Re: Installed an Axle Inc 2 Speed Rear End
 

Just had to so some "testing" this weekend :mrgreen:

I am very happy with the performance :thumbup:

Re: Installed an Axle Inc 2 Speed Rear End
 

:thumbup: