SXS Gear Lift Review

Before our annual big July ride I switched to 32" Roctanes and added a SXS Gear lift.

SXS Gear review: We rode for about ten days and countless miles on every type of terrain.

First impressions: Fit, finish, & quality are top notch. Everything is very well made and seems very beefy. Kit comes with billet housings, HD mounting brackets, brake rotor/hubs, & all required pieces parts.

Installation: Installation was fairly straight forward and easy but the instructions are not the best. The driver side brake gets swapped to the passenger side and a new longer line installed on the passenger side. The front calipers get swapped because they get relocated to the back side of the hub. If they are not swapped it puts the bleeder on the bottom of the caliper and bleeding the brakes would be impossible. The instruction left out these details put it was not hard to figure out. The rear axle needs to have ~1/2 cut off the threads in order for the cover to be installed. This was a little disconcerting to me because it's means a stock length axle can not be easy swapped in if one breaks on the trail. I run Rhino axle but I cut a stocker down to carry as a spare.

Driving impressions: I noticed right off the belt engagement seemed much sooner (perceived because of lower ratio). Even in high it has no problem roasting the 32s. I had to get use to being much easier on the throttle to avoid tire spin. It was very apparent on gravel roads, running 30-40mph it would spin the tires with a slight blip of the throttle. Out on the trail I can run in high where I only would use low before. In low with good throttle control the thing will creep along and maintain momentum over the biggest rockiest terrain. On down hill descents the compression braking is absolutely incredible. I can crawl down the steepest hills as slow as I want to go and never use the brakes.

At higher speeds you can hear the gears roaring some. At first it was a concern but after many many miles and talking with Chris (the owner) this is normal as the gears are not helical cut. I checked the gear oil and no metal flakes so we'll wait and see.

The added ground clearance makes things much easier. The best part is the ground clearance is not just under the center but the a-arms are also raised ~5" giving the clearance where needed. I took out ~2" of preload from the springs to get the ride height at an acceptable level. This softened the suspension a bit so I added a few clicks to the shocks to stiffen it out. It rides vey well over the harshest terrain.

Width: It's WIDE, but nothing I' not already use to If you are not use to a wide machine then there will be a steep learning curve. IMO the wider the better.

Overall impressions: Very positive and the ability to crawl boulders and steep stuff is amazing. Much easier on the machine (belts, transmission, axles, etc..) I ran in 2wd where most everyone else had to use 4wd. It made semi-tough crawling look stupid easy. Is it worth the worth the money (~$3k)? To me yes but that's up to the buyer I suppose.

So if you are looking at these I can honestly say that I would highly recommend SXS Gear.

well maybe not completely worthless but pics would be great

Oh he forgot to mention that it is hard on tie rod end bolts.... LOL Poke Poke

blu-knight wrote:

Oh he forgot to mention that it is hard on tie rod end bolts.... LOL   Poke Poke

That was my dumbass fault

cool looking setup for sure and looks expensive too

Ok, now that you got her machine ready, when you building your own?????????

Wow! Portal axles for IFS, who da thunk it? So how much gear reduction is there? Any plans for Chris to manufacture with helical gears in the future? Are there any other cons besides those you mentioned? Added stress to any component, like ball joints?

Gimpy wrote:

Ok, now that you got her machine ready, when you building your own?????????  

And I can't even get here to drive the dang thing

njcraddock wrote:

Wow! Portal axles for IFS, who da thunk it? So how much gear reduction is there?  Any plans for Chris to manufacture with helical gears in the future? Are there any other cons besides those you mentioned? Added stress to any component, like ball joints?

It reduces the ratio by about 30%. This style gear box has been used in AG & military applications for years. It reduces the stress on the drivetrain )axles, diff, tranny, clutch) considerably by putting the reduction at the wheel. I can't say yet if it adds stress to the ball joints but I would think it adds some based on the leverage angles and the fact that that are fairly heavy.

Overall though it seems badass and I'm happy so far.....

And the cost for this set up is.......

Any up dates Joe? Is it holding up?

Big-R wrote:

Any up dates Joe?  Is it holding up?

Rode with him plenty and still holding up. He just can't make it under a lot of the trees like I can.

I recently looked at them seriously for the 800s. Seem pretty solid if you get the ones Joe has. I was told you get 4" lift and 3" wider. In addition a repair guy told me that I would break anymore axles because the angle of the axle will be the same as factory. Joe said because you still break axles.
Joe seems to be very happy with them.