Agile Off Road Front Shaft

[Mountain4x4]

Ok, I know you guys wanted an update. I decided to start a new string as the failure string will go on forever. Installed the new unit today. Before turning the truck back over to my wife, I did some city/ highway runs. With the 1.5" lift and original shaft before it blew, I had bad harmonics between 58-68 MPH or so. Pretty noticeable and annoying. With the Agile shaft, much less under power. HOWEVER, between 58-70 De-accelerating you get it, with a little bit of noise. Not sure if you would notice it much with the radio on. I would say its a wash between 1.5" lift and exploding stock shaft and Agile shaft. However, knowing you will never blow this one up, be left stranded, stuck off road, flip your truck, catch on fire, destroy your t/case, destroy your wiring, destroy your very expensive ZF.............

How should I put it............... Until there is a resolution to this dangerous design flaw by Ineos, you MUST install one if you have a lift. If you don't have a lift, don't wait to be stranded as well, just get one. Because its not perfect, you must fill out a form or call first. They don't want a ton of expensive returns because people think they are getting a perfect solution. Sadly, the perfect solution does not exist, and will require way more then a new driveshaft.

 

[Tenac]

Awesome thanks for the upfront information. I'm going to keep an eye on mine hopefully I can catch it before it decides to not be apart of driveline any longer. The moment I see a crack, tear, or rip I'll park it up and order this. Do us all a favor please keep updates coming after you get more wheel time and feedback. Thanks

 

[Mountain4x4]

Awesome thanks for the upfront information. I'm going to keep an eye on mine hopefully I can catch it before it decides to not be apart of driveline any longer. The moment I see a crack, tear, or rip I'll park it up and order this. Do us all a favor please keep updates coming after you get more wheel time and feedback. Thanks

You wont, it will explode when not expecting it. I was checking the boot before every road trip, and did before mine failed. I hit a bump towing a trailer and 2,000' later I was on the side of the road barely dodging disaster. Once its pinched or tears, its over with. On the trail...sure, might get lucky at low speed. But most failures seem to be on road.

 

[outono]

Ok, I know you guys wanted an update. I decided to start a new string as the failure string will go on forever. Installed the new unit today. Before turning the truck back over to my wife, I did some city/ highway runs. With the 1.5" lift and original shaft before it blew, I had bad harmonics between 58-68 MPH or so. Pretty noticeable and annoying. With the Agile shaft, much less under power. HOWEVER, between 58-70 De-accelerating you get it, with a little bit of noise. Not sure if you would notice it much with the radio on. I would say its a wash between 1.5" lift and exploding stock shaft and Agile shaft. However, knowing you will never blow this one up, be left stranded, stuck off road, flip your truck, catch on fire, destroy your t/case, destroy your wiring, destroy your very expensive ZF.............

How should I put it............... Until there is a resolution to this dangerous design flaw by Ineos, you MUST install one if you have a lift. If you don't have a lift, don't wait to be stranded as well, just get one. Because its not perfect, you must fill out a form or call first. They don't want a ton of expensive returns because people think they are getting a perfect solution. Sadly, the perfect solution does not exist, and will require way more then a new driveshaft.

So just to be clear:

• You get some vibration under power with the Agile shaft, but much less than your broken shaft? Is it just above 50mph?
• During deceleration, what is the vibration like? Very light body vibes or enough to really shake your seat and steering wheel?

 

[Mountain4x4]

Yes, under power I would say a little less vibration then stock, or to be fair I had a terra high angle that seemed to not really be much different. The vibration on de-acceleration is very light, barely feel it. You hear it more. Might be a very slight rattle of the dash at times....but not terrible. You wont really feel it in the steering wheel or seat no.

 

[Zimm]

Does anyone else with a 1.5 lift get a vibration with the stock shaft? That seems odd. (The truck does have drone at 2000rpmish at highway speeds, but that’s not the shaft.)

 

[outono]

Does anyone else with a 1.5 lift get a vibration with the stock shaft? That seems odd. (The truck does have drone at 2000rpmish at highway speeds, but that’s not the shaft.)

I have a 1.5” lift and no vibes but I’m also on MTs so it’s not exactly a smooth ride anyway.

 

[Tom109]

Might be a very slight rattle of the dash at times....but not terrible. You wont really feel it in the steering wheel or seat no.

That seems pretty substantial.

 

[AFdude412]

I bought Agile’s rear shaft recently (that I still need to install) and I was on the fence about the front shaft due to vibrations, but what you said makes it seem tolerable.

Did they explain any alignment or lift height settings that are “in tolerance” for their front shaft?

 

[Mountain4x4]

John never mentioned, I did not think to ask. Obviously it works with the 1.5" lift. However, I believe they have a bigger lift. My guess is it would work with Owl lift.

 

[Mountain4x4]

Does anyone else with a 1.5 lift get a vibration with the stock shaft? That seems odd. (The truck does have drone at 2000rpmish at highway speeds, but that’s not the shaft.)

Could be it was the Terra high angle joint.

 

[Dokatd]

Does anyone else with a 1.5 lift get a vibration with the stock shaft? That seems odd. (The truck does have drone at 2000rpmish at highway speeds, but that’s not the shaft.)

I have I guess the 2" lift on Terra joint. Zero vibes and not much if any droning.

I did get buzzing vibes when my original joint was going out.

 

[C-Mack]

For what it’s worth keep a close eye on the Agile shafts as well. No doubt they will last longer and be stronger in slow speed off-road use, but if you are doing a lot of sustained high speed long distance traveling with the associated harmonics and vibrations that is not ideal. Due to the different flange angles each u-joint is dealing with they are not canceling each other out fully as the joints oscillate in different paths during each rotation (plenty of engineering explanations online of the physics involved). Essentially the joints are fighting each other and that puts added stress/vibration into each u-joint trunnion and needle bearing set.

Over time especially with repeated high speed running this will cause wear and eventual failure of the joint. Good chance it will outlast a stock Rzeppa with contamination due to a split boot and give a bit more advanced warning but those harmonics are your first sign the drive shaft is not happy in its running environment. Also, those harmonics and vibrations are being transferred into the components the drive shaft is bolted to at either end so watch for issues developing there as well over time.

Not an ideal situation either way but it is what it is until IA does a front axle redesign and tries to make the front end a bit less sensitive to higher running angles but that won’t be main reason they’d be making any changes but certainly a benefit.

 

[jvkintheusa]

Does anyone else with a 1.5 lift get a vibration with the stock shaft? That seems odd. (The truck does have drone at 2000rpmish at highway speeds, but that’s not the shaft.)

No real vibrations here with the Eibach lift. I believe mine is about 1.5 (bought mine used with the Eibach on it).

 

[parb]

I'm on HD springs, about 1.7" and 1.4" lift. No real vibrations for me either

 

[Dokatd]

The responses on this are not surprising as the stock shaft does not vibrate unless it's damaged. The lift height up to a point doesn't make a bit of difference to the shaft in terms of vibration.

But, a ragged out stock shaft absolutely will give you some vibes. So I would suggest if you have any vibes with the stock front shaft then you have toasted joints or some other damaged component somewhere. This is regardless of a lift or not, within reason of course.

 

[Zimm]

The responses on this are not surprising as the stock shaft does not vibrate unless it's damaged. The lift height up to a point doesn't make a bit of difference to the shaft in terms of vibration.

But, a ragged out stock shaft absolutely will give you some vibes. So I would suggest if you have any vibes with the stock front shaft then you have toasted joints or some other damaged component somewhere. This is regardless of a lift or not, within reason of course.

That is my opinion, so I asked in case for some reason I was wrong.

As such, I think anyone with a healthy front drive shaft, at any lift, ought to be forewarned they will get vibrations they don’t currently have with the agile shaft.

I’d be concerned what that’s doing to the tcase, but if you want a lift right now, I suppose you’re picking your poison.

 

[Dokatd]

Stock shaft or a stock shaft with a Tera joint generally lasts at least 7,000mi. Thats 14 joints over 100k miles. Thats 7hrs in labor and $2500 in joints over 100k miles.

Thats probably the best option in my opinion aside from a new custom joint or a properly sorted front axle.

Regardless, replacing the joint about every 7k miles or maybe more is the cheapest option out there.

 

[AFdude412]

Stock shaft or a stock shaft with a Tera joint generally lasts at least 7,000mi. Thats 14 joints over 100k miles. Thats 7hrs in labor and $2500 in joints over 100k miles.

Thats probably the best option in my opinion aside from a new custom joint or a properly sorted front axle.

Regardless, replacing the joint about every 7k miles or maybe more is the cheapest option out there.

Funny you mention that. My first CV grenaded at 8,500 miles. After that I went full steam ahead with trying to address some of the angular issues, Metal Cloak arms, lowered from 2.5" to 1.5, changed alignment settings, etc. Then I eventually crawled under a new one on the dealership floor and realized the angle was F'd no matter what. So I said screw it and went back to the 2.5" lift. And here I am at 15,000 miles now, on the 3" Metal Cloak shocks and springs while I have been taking a full extra shaft on my wheeling trips, knowing my CV's are on borrowed time. Luckily no grenaded CV yet...

It has become routine to check the CVs pretty often at this rate. Today I got under the Grenadier and noticed all of my CV boots, both front and rear shafts are showing some signs of drying out, like micro cracks. Otherwise they look normal. I know the JT and JL guys also get limited life out of the Rzeppa CV shafts as well. Overall, I think this is just going to become a maintenance item until there's a fix.

As for me, it's time to throw in the towel and just swap out to my new front shaft while I refurbish the other. That and swap out the rear shaft for my Agile (JE Reel) Rear Shaft (it's been sitting on the shelf since Black Friday). That should keep things going for a while.

Gotta love routine maintenance!