Someone on here warned me about putting in a 2" lift with Gorilla's. He has not given permission to put his name in my post, so with respect to that, I will leave it up to him, to respond if he wants you to know who it is. He warned me about the combination, he tryed it and the rear CV's were so hot that you could not touch them. I already had a lift coming. I wanted to try it anyway. You know, just to see. He was right, after 2 miles I burned my fingertip on the inboard CV. Even that boot couldn't be touched for more than about 2-3 secs on the end closest to the CV. I took the lift out immediately, on the trail. I didn't even want to ride it back the 2 miles. At stock height I would guess that the temp then was near 150 degrees. This is about what he told me his was when he put his back. He actually measured both temps, he had something like 250, on the 2" lift. WOW! I though gorilla's could take the angle. I guess since the CV's are much more precise tolerances, thus stiffer to operate, thus higher friction, thus higher temp. I contacted Gorilla to investigate the temp issue. He told me to "HEAT CYCLE" them by running them in water to cool them every-so-often. I said that I put the quad back to stock. He said to run it a few times to break in the CV's then give it a try! I guess these must be more for the mud bogs, where short intervals of driving are the norm. Don't get me wrong I love mud boggin', but trail riding is my thing too. As for me and my experiences, Gorilla's are not worth the money. I got 2 bad front sets, they wouldn't even go into the hubs. I decided to "work" with the second set, to get them to go in. Then last weekend FITSofRAGE broke a Gorilla axle shaft. Not the CV, the actual shaft. It looked like a pretzel stick that you snap in half. He was on dry flat stuff. Call it a fluke if you want to, but I got a few reasons to think that they are not what they are all cracked up to be. My recap, Poor workmanship on 2 sets of front axles, rears not able to handle a 2" lift for trail riding when the website clearly states "SEVERE ANGLES", and FITSofRAGE rear shaft breaking.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-disgusted.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-confused.gif[/img]

Anybody want to buy a nice, gently used, 2" lift kit?[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

 

so i should get into the manufactering of high end axles

 

I'll be your testing ground and first customer[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

Instigater,

OK, although this is an area I know little about, I want to know more. So here are a couple sincere questions.

You list 28" Zilla's. Is this in addition to the 2" lift? Are the Zilla's adding in addition to the 2" lift and to the CV angle?

Is all your 2" lift from the 800 Rear shocks? Could it be that they are not just longer but stiffer than stock, thus adding even more to the CV angle? That is, not only are they 2" taller than stock, but don't squat down as much as the stockers when you are sitting on the quad?

The sway bar is removed. Will this help maintain the greater angle?

I just want to be sure that it's just the 2" lift causing the problem and not the other mod's.

I have a friend that's a CV expert. I'll talk to him about what's happening with the heat issue and let you know if he has something to add one way or the other.

 

I guess I'm the "phantom advisor" Instigator is referring to. He called me out of desperation when he was having so many issues with Gorilla front axle fitment. In the course of that conversation the 2" lift came up and I offered my experiences/results with it.

Here's the deal. No matter how you get there it's all about axle angle (degrees from horizontal). Lifts, shocks, sway bar mods all give you a clue to how the angle got there, and more aggressive tires will add stress to all drive train components but it all comes down to axle angle. For about $5 you can buy an "angle finder" at a hardware store. This is a round dial with two flat sides (square) with an indicator needle that always points up. Park your quad on a level surface, set one of the flat sides of the "finder" on the axle and read the degrees.

Gorilla states their axles are designed to operate at angles less than 45 degrees. In my experience, with my kind of riding, that's just not the case. The rear Gorilla axles in my '06 800 with a 2" lift were at 36 degrees without me sitting on it. A three mile trail ride would heat the inboard CV to as much as 275 degrees (measured with a laser thermometer I carry for R&D) while stock CVs in the same position on the same trail (1" lift) were running at between 115 and 120 degrees (average of stock CVs on three machines). It's even worse on my '05 Ranger XP with the Gorilla 6" lift. The inboard rear CVs get so hot the boots blow up like balloons until they explode grease all over the place requiring replacement. These axles are running at a 38 degree angle.

What does Gorilla have to say about this? I was told the problem with the Ranger was "known" and they were trying to solve it with better "high temp grease." (huh?) They sent me two new boots and two packets of this "special grease" that was in the exact same packaging as the original grease (can you say placebo?). The result? No difference. Right now I have a ripped boot on the left rear inner caused by overheating.

Maybe we need to examine what is meant by the words "operate or run" in their claim. Like Instigator said, if you're mud bogging and keep these CVs submerged a good part of the time they may stay cool enough. For many of us who love to play in mud but have to ride miles of trails to get from one playground to another that's just not possible.

My solution on the 800 was to take off the 2" lift and go back to the 1" lift that was on previously. Now my CVs are running around 150 degrees, still more than stock but that's to be expected because the Gorilla CVs are "stiffer." But the problem is the stock axles ran just fine with a 1" lift so at this point I have to agree with Instigator, while the Gorilla axles are stronger they're providing very little advantage for the extra expense. Although I don't plan to remove the Ranger's 6" lift I'm going to have to reduce the lift/axle angle on it too. Yes, I am disappointed with the product(s). They are not performing "as advertised."

 

When I worked at a Yamaha/Suzuki/ArticCat dealer we install quit a few gorilla axles. More often than not we found the axles run much hotter than OEM. On many they ran hot enough to liqidify the grease. The problem was sigificantly worse on machines with lift kits.

Instigator, it was like a bad nightmare coming back to me when I read the problems you were having installing the fronts. Been there and got the same advise from gorrilla. Dumb! I feel bad that I didn't warn you when you were first having problems, but I felt it was like a TRX450 owner saying his machine rode better than my sportsmans; nothing I can say to change his mind, but experiance will teach him.

Gorilla has done a great job marketing their product and lots of people believe in product. I don't. I will not/could not recommend these axles to my worst enemy. In the shop I run, I will not work on any machine with gorillas if there is drivetrain work to be done.

I know there are people who have used them with good success; my experiance tells me you are the exception, not the rule.

 

Ok, I see now. And just another raw deal for Instigater. I know how much you liked your 2" lift. Tuff deal to decide whether to go with stock axle and eat Gorilla $, or eat 2" lift mod. It would be something if they would take them back?

 

so basicly it sounds like the oem's are better if you even go w/ 1" lift or maybe bigger tires. i always suspected if you have too much angle something was going to give problems but im real surprised the aftermarket company wouldnt have already know this form their r&d on this product. hmmm.

 

new to forum but im still confused. i have a 05 sp 800 26"mudlite xtr 9"on the front with 1.5in spacers, had to manufacture fender extenders to keep the mud off of me, i was thinking of a 2 in lift and the mudzillas 28-8-12 on the front and 28-10-12on the back, and take off the spacers? or can i rum these tires with out the lift ?

 

If I wanted to do what you describe I'd get rid of the wheel spacers, mount the Zillas on aftermarket aluminum wheels and install one inch lifts fore and aft.