Semi floater,full floating rear axel.
What are these new heavy towing and hauling half tons using for a rear axel. I have always considered the full floaters the most capable especially the ones with 35 splines and above. If you break...
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My current Van and E-350 built in Aug 2001 came with a Semi-Float Dana 60 which really surprised me since even my 1978 E-250 had a full-float Dana 44. Talking to other E-350 owners it appeared Ford changed from using full floats on their E-350s earlier in the 2001 production year. I attended a Ford-Diesel.com ralley in 2002 where FOMCO sent a bunch of reps from various departments and engineering groups to hold seminars, etc. I attended one on Suspensions and Drivetrains and asked the question of why in the world Ford would go from a Full-Float axle to a Semi-Float axles and brought up the strength and loosing the wheel issues. The reply from the engineering rep from the Ford Suspension/Drivetrain area said detailed failure analysis had shown there were no significant differences in reliability between the two and failures of the actual axles that could result in loosing a wheel in a semi-float axle were SO RARE as to basically be a non issue and the change was made to reduce the complexity, repair costs, and actually improve the overall axle reliability from things like bearing failures, fluid loss, etc.
Now almost 14 years later and close to 90K miles with over 60% of that towing at a GCW of 16K+ with those towing miles at within 100 to 300lbs of the max GAWR on the rear axle of my van my Dana 60 semi-float is holding up just fine and I have stopped worrying about this perceived issue.
Larry
Now almost 14 years later and close to 90K miles with over 60% of that towing at a GCW of 16K+ with those towing miles at within 100 to 300lbs of the max GAWR on the rear axle of my van my Dana 60 semi-float is holding up just fine and I have stopped worrying about this perceived issue.
Larry
