Strange Full Floating Axle Kit

[Dubstep Shep]

I've been mulling over the idea of doing full floating axles on my car for a while now. It would give me the ability to run as much power as I want, launch hard, use fixed calipers in the rear, and corner hard.

Unfortunately, all the floating axle kits I've found are EXPENSIVE and mostly for the Ford 9" housing. No big deal as you could still make it work, but still really expensive.

Then, Strange released this: http://www.strangeengineering.net/website/strange-pro-touring-floater-kit
http://www.strangeengineering.net/high-performance-street/floater-kits-components/pro-touring-floater-kit-axles-brake-kits/pro-touring-floater-kit-with-wrench-axles-and-brakes-sold-separately.html

At $1,100, It's not all that steeply priced, especially considering I can use it with my factory axle. It seems like the installation is only as complicated as putting 9" ends on. That, and Strange has already put one on a S197, and all their installation pictures and video are of that car, which makes life easy.

What are y'all's thoughts?

 

[csamsh]

cool, but why? seems like this would be far down the list, and have a divergent price/performance return.

That being said, sounds cool.

 

[Dubstep Shep]

cool, but why? seems like this would be far down the list, and have a divergent price/performance return.

That being said, sounds cool.

Well, I'm doing the DOB R-Spec kit and going full race car over this next year. Once I get my next motor built, I'll be attempting to push some limits with the 3.4L Whipple. That's A LOT of power. For that, no expense will be spared.

The full floater seemed the way to go over the C-Clip axle and the Eliminator axle ends. As far a design goes, it's superior in every way except cost.

I would say it is indeed lower on the list than a few other things, but my current axle setup is second on my list because of the differential. If I'm going to pull my axle to redo a differential and gears, I might as well beef it up while I'm in there.

Also, apparently Baer has a kit that I saw on Kenny Browns site. More expensive than the Strange kit though.

 

[dontlifttoshift]

I haven't heard anyone say the baer setup was awesome.

I have no experience with the strange setup.

I have used GMR floaters on a handful of cars. 35 spline axles and driveplates seem to meet your horwepower requirements. Larger bearings than Strange I _think_.

The cool kids have been using ends machined like a C6 corvette spindle. ZR1 hubs then bolt on and strange makes the custome axles. Brake kits and parts are corvette plentiful. Mark Stielow is currently running >900 ft/lbs of torque through that setup.....on street tires, though. Huge plus side to this setup is maintenence, like there isn't any.

GMR also has C6 ends to weld on to any housing.

 

[Dubstep Shep]

I haven't heard anyone say the baer setup was awesome.

I have no experience with the strange setup.

I have used GMR floaters on a handful of cars. 35 spline axles and driveplates seem to meet your horwepower requirements. Larger bearings than Strange I _think_.

The cool kids have been using ends machined like a C6 corvette spindle. ZR1 hubs then bolt on and strange makes the custome axles. Brake kits and parts are corvette plentiful. Mark Stielow is currently running >900 ft/lbs of torque through that setup.....on street tires, though. Huge plus side to this setup is maintenence, like there isn't any.

GMR also has C6 ends to weld on to any housing.

I'm not aware of anyone with either the Baer or the Strange setup. From what I know the Strange is new, like released within the last couple months. Not sure on the Baer.

It says on the GMR website that the c6 setup isn't actually a full floater setup...

 

[dontlifttoshift]

The C6 stuff is not technically a full floating hub. Jason and I talked at length about the C6 parts. Basically it's pretty damn good, light years ahead of the A20 tapered bearing for the 9" and definitely better than c clips but it will never be as strong or rigid as a full floating hub. With the GMR hub you have two tapered bearings that are each the size of the A20 set.

The 2 issues I have with any floating hub are the maintenance and keeping gear oil out of the hub. If the gear oil gets in the hub it washes the grease away which isn't a big deal if packing bearing is part of the pre race routine, every race. The gear oil is fine as a lubricant, but you don't know how much is there and for how long.

 

[Dubstep Shep]

The C6 stuff is not technically a full floating hub. Jason and I talked at length about the C6 parts. Basically it's pretty damn good, light years ahead of the A20 tapered bearing for the 9" and definitely better than c clips but it will never be as strong or rigid as a full floating hub. With the GMR hub you have two tapered bearings that are each the size of the A20 set.

The 2 issues I have with any floating hub are the maintenance and keeping gear oil out of the hub. If the gear oil gets in the hub it washes the grease away which isn't a big deal if packing bearing is part of the pre race routine, every race. The gear oil is fine as a lubricant, but you don't know how much is there and for how long.

These are issues I'm not familiar with, which is why I made this thread lol.

I can't imagine the gear oil is any less likely to seep out with a conventional c-clip axle than with a full floater. In fact I would think the FF would leak less fluid because the axle shaft isn't moving back and forth. I can see where the fluid washing the grease away would be an issue though. Perhaps there are some bearing that come with a zerk fitting?

 

[BMR Tech]

Fischer Motorsports is currently working on a full floater 9" conversion.

He is primarily targeting the large power drag and standing mile cars.

This set-up looks pretty nice. I love me some full floating axle set-ups.

 

[Dubstep Shep]

Fischer Motorsports is currently working on a full floater 9" conversion.

He is primarily targeting the large power drag and standing mile cars.

This set-up looks pretty nice. I love me some full floating axle set-ups.

I'll be competing in some standing mile type events at some point, so this is good to hear.

Any other info on the setup? I can't find any information about it.

 

[BMR Tech]

I would call Fischer up and talk to him. His name is Shawn.

I am not sure if the info was supposed to be made public....but just call him up and tell him you heard Kelly @ BMR saying something about it.

 

[BMR Tech]

http://www.fischermotorsports.com/index2.html

 

[zeroescape]

I've been mulling over the idea of doing full floating axles on my car for a while now. It would give me the ability to run as much power as I want, launch hard, use fixed calipers in the rear, and corner hard.

Unfortunately, all the floating axle kits I've found are EXPENSIVE and mostly for the Ford 9" housing. No big deal as you could still make it work, but still really expensive.

Then, Strange released this: http://www.strangeengineering.net/website/strange-pro-touring-floater-kit
http://www.strangeengineering.net/high-performance-street/floater-kits-components/pro-touring-floater-kit-axles-brake-kits/pro-touring-floater-kit-with-wrench-axles-and-brakes-sold-separately.html

At $1,100, It's not all that steeply priced, especially considering I can use it with my factory axle. It seems like the installation is only as complicated as putting 9" ends on. That, and Strange has already put one on a S197, and all their installation pictures and video are of that car, which makes life easy.

What are y'all's thoughts?

The only way id do it is if i can pull a bunch of weight out of the axle assembly too, meaning fab a new housing. Going with drum parking brake is not going to help with the weight department either.

 

[Dubstep Shep]

The only way id do it is if i can pull a bunch of weight out of the axle assembly too, meaning fab a new housing. Going with drum parking brake is not going to help with the weight department either.

I believe the drum parking brake is a feature of the brakes, not the floating axle.

It is nice though because between runs you can set your parking brake and not have to worry about cracking a rotor.

Still, I agree that has to be heavy.

 

[Dubstep Shep]

I would call Fischer up and talk to him. His name is Shawn.

I am not sure if the info was supposed to be made public....but just call him up and tell him you heard Kelly @ BMR saying something about it.

Haha I'll definitley do that. Thanks!

 

[csamsh]

What class are you racing in where a 3.4L blower is legal??? AIX? TTU? SU? GTA unlimited?

 

[Dubstep Shep]

What class are you racing in where a 3.4L blower is legal??? AIX? TTU? SU? GTA unlimited?

Whatever the fuck I want hahaha.

Right now I'm not terribly worried about fitting into a specific class. Mostly I just want track time in a variety of situations. Probably a lot of open track events.

 

[Department Of Boost]

Here is one more thing to think about if going FF. Camber. All the cool kids do it.

 

[zeroescape]

I believe the drum parking brake is a feature of the brakes, not the floating axle.

It is nice though because between runs you can set your parking brake and not have to worry about cracking a rotor.

Still, I agree that has to be heavy.

Figured it was part of the kit or engineered for it.

You can always use wheel chocks. Lol

 

[Dubstep Shep]

Here is one more thing to think about if going FF. Camber. All the cool kids do it.

You can put camber in the housings, but yea, it's better with a FF axle.

 

[Dubstep Shep]

Figured it was part of the kit or engineered for it.

You can always use wheel chocks. Lol

Yea that's the truth.

I bed that brake kit is still lighter than the stock setup though.