Extended travel, high articulation CV from O’Reillys?

Hi all, I just got an email from O’Reilly, they’re doing a 15% off 4th of July sale. So I was poking around, and I came across these..

A CV from Import Direct, but its about twice as much as the other options, so I looked at it a bit closer, the shaft seems to be way beefier, and in the description it states that is -
“Extended Travel: High articulation for lifted or stock suspensions, On or Off road”

Pretty interesting. Has anyone used these specific CVs? I’m going to be romping around on 37s and wondering if I should get these while they’re 15% off.. lifetime warranty as well. My CVs are fine right now, but if these are sort of purpose built and people have had good experiences I might splurge...

https://www.oreillyauto.com/detail/...aft/to8043et/6576791/2003/toyota/tacoma?pos=1

 

Here is a picture of the Extended travel version vs the regular

 

Apparently out of stock but still curious if anyone has experience with them.

 

Just saw some 3rd gen 4Runner guys talking about these. I’m interested even though they won’t fit my trucks because of locking hubs.

 

Hmmmm, wish there was someone who could give a bit of a review. @04Pre_Runner what were they saying about them, did they have them or just know about them?

I’m still super tempted, but x2 is $350 out of funding RCVs lol

 

One guy runs them who goes by t4r.offroad on Instagram. Said they're solid. Not sure how hard he goes wheeling so that would be the question. Everyone else is just mentioning how they exist and are a bit pricey.

 

I like the idea of them a lot and I could see them being a good choice if you have to swap out anyways, the lifetime warranty is a big draw.. my concern would be getting that warranty met if one broke, doesn’t seem like they’re heavily stocked.

 

Hu I wonder as well .. I also wonder if I can use my +2 TC axles with these CVs I just bought the RCVs fo 2g but there on B/O for a month and I’m going to 37s this weekend. I think I’ll but one for shit and giggles and see what happens. How many people have broken a 3rd gen CV? Or is it the stock axle that gives out ? I’m going to the rubicon in 3 weeks on 37s. Marlin crawler boy was on stock cvs on 40s I’m going to call them tomorrow and ask how worried I should be. Hummm this thread is intriguing.

 

Speaking from a lot personal experience with lots of "lifetime warranty" parts store CV's. Just get the RCV's. It's buy once, cry once and they will not fail.

If you get one take it apart though. I'm curious to see the actual components. They shortened the inner and outer cups. That means it won't plunge like it should. The only way I can see that happening is if that larger shaft is actually a slip shaft. I've never seen that design on CVs for our rigs and am pretty curious about it. I wouldn't buy them to find out but some one will.

 

I'm definitely one of those buy once kind of guys and opt only for the best.

In this case though, the CVs at 180 are super cheap cause weren't OEM remans going for 400? At least 250 if you turned in a core?

If the RCVs for our trucks cost anything like they do for Jeeps, you're talking a hell of a lot more money.

That and I'd rather break an axle on the trail than have a strong axle and bust my diff instead.

A lot of this comes from what I've seen from my own friends, no personal experience so take it with a grain of salt. I know you wheel pretty heavily so I always look forward to what you've got to post.

 

Yeah, this (bolded).

Every drive train has a weak point. You want that weak point to be the thing that is either cheap or easy to fix. CV's are pretty easy to fix on the trail, and aren't a deal breaker. A broken diff is kind of a deal breaker.

I have extended travel Kings, and at least so far, I've been doing just fine with my original OEM CVs.

If I get to the point where I'm breaking CVs all the time, I'm going SAS.

 

A few years ago I was also in the CV as a fusible link camp. After swapping out 11 CV's I started to reconsider my position. It was the same time I found out RCV was going to start producing CVs for my rig again. After talking to them I bit the bullet and decided to order a pair. Other then their test group I was one of the first guys to get them.

The reason I decided to do it was the lack of true data about how much force the rest of the front drive train could take. I'm ARB up front so I knew the spider gears and carrier would be fine. ARB has tested them against chromoly shafts and the shaft breaks every time.

That leaves the gear set, Nitro 5.29's in my case, and the ADD system. I called Nitro and talked to them about the myths of "weaker" lower gearing and about potential failure in my rig. They have actually never tested a R&P to failure so I couldn't get any data for the true strength of the gear set. I did ask them about how often they warranty 5.29's and got an answer. That answer was not often. So I was pretty sure the gears would hold up. That left the ADD system.

I had only seen 2 ADD stub shafts fail that I could find. After talking with a few of my wheeling buddies we all agreed the stub shaft would be the most logical weak link. I got back on the phone with RCV. I asked them if they could make a chromoly stub and they said yes. They just needed one to reproduce. I let them know if I broke one, which I thought for sure I would, I'd have them tool up for it. That has not happened so far and I'm on 18 months of wheeling with the RCV's under me.

Last year I did was doing the Dusy with my buddy @tetten who has a 2nd gen LT with RCV's. At the base of Thompson Hill he had a catastrophic failure of his ADD shaft and tube. That was an impressive thing to see. We got his rig to a suitable spot and pulled his front diff so he could drive out in 2wd. The total time for recovering him and pulling his diff was less then 1.5 hours.

Here's the link to his take on what happened. It's worth the 10 minutes to read it.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...nt-drive-train-and-ruin-2-group-trips.657249/

So, yes, it can happen that you push the failure point further down the system. With that said, I would never run a weaker CV at this point. As long as you wheel smart and don't shock load the system I believe the system is strong enough to handle the HP and torque these motors produce. Keep in mind I'm also dual cased which throws even more torque into the equation. It also means I never hop a tire and shock load the system.

My experience with RCV CV's is all real world with some very hard long trails under them. It's not anecdotal arm chair warrior fluff. Everyone will do what they need to for their rig and wheeling style. If you wheel hard and wheel smart they are a perfect choice, IMO.

 

I do recall that thread, read through it already

Fuck....now you got me adding more stuff to my list.

Won't deviate this thread further; all yours OP

 

Old thread but bringing it up because I went wheeling last weekend and figured, I'd buy a pair of CV's for 'just in case'

Current CV's are good, no torn boots, but I plan on doing some more technical stuff and would love to see how these O'Reilly CV's hold up so I ordered 2 of them yesterday.

Will post pics once they arrive.

 

If they made them for locking hubs I would test them out as well. Makes me wonder if swapping the hub side of the shaft out with one from a manual hub set of import directs would be possible.

 

Someone talked about that but not sure if they ever went through with it.

Funny thing is I had all the manual hub parts to swap into my Taco only to end up with an ADD 4R.

 

Might pick one up and try it. Worst case scenario I give it to an ADD guy for cheap.

 

@Speedytech7

I'll compare them to stock once I swap them out.

My extra CV axles are taken apart so nothing to compare at the moment.

 

It's the inner one that's curious. Cause it's a CV rather than a tulip joint. Very interesting

 

Priorities for the remainder of the year have shifted, so I'll just get parts installed and will get some wheeling in beginning next year.

Curious to see how these will hold up.