RCV's, worth the money?

[kellerexpress]

Wanted to have a discussion about axle shafts. I know that everyone loves RCV's and I understand the benefits of the cv joints vs standard u-joints, but are they really worth money over a normal chromoly shaft? The price difference is huge. Would love some opinions.

 

[mesha]

They are more expensive, but not that much more expensive. Essentially when you buy RCV shafts you get shafts and super joints too. So you have to add in the cost of super joints to make a price comparison.

Now on to the real question. Are they worth it?

They have some things they do better than standard chromoly shafts.......everything. Most people I know have no problems with standard 4340 or even 1541 shafts for that matter. I don't run RCVs in my rigs because I have a full set of 4340 on the shelf but still haven't broken the stock shafts. If I break those I will put in the chrome-moly. If I break those I will put in RCVs.

In my JK I will just skip to the RCVs since Yukon doesn't make a standard 4340 shaft for a rubicon.

 

[STAG]

Gotta love a lifetime "you break it we replace it no questions asked" policy.

 

[Gravy]

It depends on what you are doing with the rig.
On mine, it would be worth every cent. I plan on changing stuff to turn sharper.
Once you figure machining from Branik to turn 50* (45* on a D60 RCV), the cost is the same.

 

[Xiled1]

The one rumor I've seen going around the interweb is that the bells stretch. And that RCV will only warranty them a time or two. Who knows if that is for everyone or just the buggy crew.

 

[Gravy]

You were running 42"s with a 5.3 v8 and a low geared atlas on d44 sized rcv bells?
I'm not surprised they stretched.
That would destroy d44 ujoints almost immediately.

 

[ChestonScout]

DO NOT buy the 16 spline rockwell RCVs. They break installing them


They are coming out with a 47 spline rockwell shaft that is SUPPOSED to be what they claimed the 16 spline to be.....indestructible.


After looking at the bells stretched, cracked, broke, there is no way I would ever consider running RCVs. Even with the warranty.


Ya ya.....your all saying well Im not running rockwells so this guy has no worthy opinion. BUT the bells that were on the 16 splines were the same bells used on their D60 shafts. Food for thought.


I know there are tons of people that swear by them. And maybe they had a bad run or something. But just like N8RB8R said....thats a ton of money to "not have any problems"

 

[Gravy]

Oh sorry N8RB8R.
you meant in your JKU. Still 37's and 4:1 on a Jeep that I would guess weighs close to 5600lbs is a lot of vehicle on anything d44 sized... anyways I almost certain that the Rubi D44 RCV (35 spline is the same) is the same size as the unit bearing D30 bell

http://www.rcvperformance.com/product-details-axles.aspx?sku=CVJ44-JK-35

3:1 (1st trans assuming the 5speed auto) X 4:1 tcase x 5.38:1 (axle) =
64.56:1 low range

So essentially you're running 35 spline shafts with a D30 RCV bell with 37"s and 64:1 low + gear reduction from the auto in a (my guess) a 5600lb rig.
It makes sense that the bell is the weak point.

That royally sucks though. I'm sorry man. I'm sure that front axle setup was not cheap.

 

[mesha]

I don't have a lot of time to go into detail at the moment, but I went to St. George over the weekend and have extremely built axles and run the 35 spline rcvs in my front axle. I do not feel I was hard on the rig at all and managed to stretch the drivers front out making lots of crunching noise. I have to now pull my brand new shaft and ship it back for a week for them to rebuild them so jeep is down. Not cool for the money spent to "not have any problems". I am going to pull the front Tera 44 and rear CRD60 and go to some real one ton diffs.

Edit: this was also the very first trip out on the brand new shafts.

Maybe I won't be putting RCVs in my rubi. Sounds like my stock shafts held up better :-/. I wheeled with you one of the days and you were not hard on the axles at all.

 

[UFAB]

Always nice to run selectable hubs up front.
Less daily driving wear on the shaft assemblies.

 

[zukijames]

Always nice to run selectable hubs up front.
Less daily driving wear on the shaft assemblies.

I just got my long fields(made by rcv) and they are not recommended for daily driving for vehicles that don't have selectable hubs.

I wonder why the rcvs for other axles seem to fail more than the ones they make for toyota