Boyce Equipment 2.5T Chromolly Shafts review

_Auzzy_

Current Rig: 12W Boots
Location
Richfield Utah
So I've been running these shafts now and have been giving them a good thrashing I feel under my easily 5500+lb rig and finally broke one so I am posting up my review on them, my thoughts on what lead up to them failing, and comparing them to the new gen2 style they just got in.

First off, big thanks to the Boyce crew, guys like Dallas and others for tipping me off on these and getting me them for a hell of a price! Seriously if you need anything military vehicle related they are your #1 source in Utah. They replaced the broken shaft, which yes they do come with a no question lifetime warranty and even upgraded from the gen1 style to the Gen 2 style. I'll have pictures in a sec to show the differences.

Now on to what it took to break it. First it was the short side shaft, less length to twist on plus I was leaned on to that tire allot during my thrash fest at Thursday night KOH backdoor party. What failed was a mixture between the shafts machining, the ujoint itself, and the splines being twisted. Personally I feel as if the splines being twisted happened first and if hadn't been for the ujoint failing I probably would have kept running them unbeknownst to me there was any damages.

To clarify when I say there was a fault in machining it was 100% nothing on the Boyce crews doing. Their supplier had simply ground down the outside of the ears to the point the full circle clips didnt have much of a lip to hold them in and was a concern to begin with. This is where I feel caused a lot of the issue when it came to the joint snapping. My theory is with there being little to no meat where the clip resides on the top of cap it simply got shoved out, pushing the cap out binding the joint and then snapped. Course when that happened it also took out other stuff such as the axle seal and the bronze bushing in the spindle which the guys at Boyce got me hooked up with so she was 100% again!

Anywho here's the pics and some explanations of the differences between the the two sets.

First here is the Gen 1 set that I broke. Note the C's are machined off for a more smooth round appearance that took away metal from where the full clips reside on the outside of the cap.

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Here you can see how the C's are a lot thicker around the clip area and the C in general has allot more girth to it but still allows for the same amount of steering which I am extremely sorry I didn't get the maximum allowed functional angle from them before I installed them but once I am home from work I will measure my gen1 long side.

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And of course here's an upclose of the extended damage of the twisted splines. It twisted both the differential and the flange side of the shaft assembly. Quite surprised the drive flange was damage free and slid right back on to the new shafts nice and tight, had to lightly tap them on to it both sides.

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But now I have the new gen2 style with look even more promising than the first set which I had full trust in before but for research purposes I made sure to draw a twist line down these shafts on both sides, log, short and stubs to see if there is any twist in if they are ever to fail again (highly doubt it but hey, I like to party sometimes)

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So all in all, for what they cost and how well they have held up way beyond my expectations! Plus the support of the crew at Boyce has made the whole thing a home run. If you need anything definitely call them and see what they can for you!

List of what I'm running in my setup from them :

Chromolly Shafts
Spindle nut kit
RH Wheel Studs
RH Lugnut

I would list the wobble axle seal with the billet retainers but they are a call to buy now till they get them listed on the site.
 
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AaronPaige

Well-Known Member
Location
Price ut
I have broke the other guys( great shaft just no warranty) cromo shafts and have been curious about Boyce for some time, next set I buy will be from them, props again to a great Utah company. Love to see another Rockwell guy breaking stuff!!!
 

AaronPaige

Well-Known Member
Location
Price ut
Boyce over night shipped me a “poor boy” shaft to Moab to save my Jeep safari week a few years back when none were available from anywhere else, I can’t say enough about how good those guys are...
 

_Auzzy_

Current Rig: 12W Boots
Location
Richfield Utah
I have broke the other guys( great shaft just no warranty) cromo shafts and have been curious about Boyce for some time, next set I buy will be from them, props again to a great Utah company. Love to see another Rockwell guy breaking stuff!!!

Boyce over night shipped me a “poor boy” shaft to Moab to save my Jeep safari week a few years back when none were available from anywhere else, I can’t say enough about how good those guys are...

Definitely hit them up! They've been awesome the whole way through my build
 
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