Why We Built the TOY60 (Or: How Many 8-Inch Diffs Does It Take?)

Field Report No. 1 — from the shop.

Here's a fun game: run 37s on a stock Toyota 8″ front diff, send it up a rock face, and count how many trail days you get before you're picking ring-gear shrapnel out of the dirt. We played that game for years. We lost every time.

The problem nobody was solving

Toyota guys doing solid-axle swaps have always had two bad options: keep breaking the 8″ stuff and carry spares like a parts store, or swap to a one-ton Dana 60 and lose everything that makes a Toyota a Toyota — the 6-lug wheels, the brakes, the steering feel, the width that actually fits between the trees.

We wanted the third option. Nobody made it right. So we made it.

What the TOY60 actually is

A high-pinion Dana 60 center section — that's a ~10″ ring gear, nearly two inches more tooth than the 8″ — welded into 3.5″ × .375″-wall DOM tube. That's the same tube spec comp buggies run, because we'd rather over-build it than warranty it. On the ends: 4130 chromoly FJ80 knuckle balls, so you keep Toyota steering geometry and bolt up FJ80 spindles, hubs, and calipers. Your wheels stay. Your brakes stay. Your birfield upgrades carry over to 30-spline Dana inners.

Dana 60 guts. Toyota DNA. Overkill, on purpose.

The details that matter

• WMS options from 63″ to 72″ — FJ80-width for the trail-tight builds, wider for stability under 40s.
• Diff location your way — passenger drop, driver drop, centered, or rear-steer configs.
• Regular or TIG welds — the TIG option is for the folks who want the axle prettier than their paint.
• Bare housing — you weld your own perches and link mounts, because your suspension is your business.

Every housing is built to order in our shop. That's not a supply-chain excuse — it's the only way each one leaves here matched to the rig it's going under.

Get one

The full spec sheet, width options, and pricing live on the TOY60 product page. Not sure which WMS or diff location your build needs? Ask a gearhead — we answer fitment questions all day, and we'd rather talk you out of the wrong config than sell it to you.