Recently we had a chance to visit the shop of J.E.Reel Drivelines. J.E. Reel Drivelines is a custom driveline shop located in Pomona, Ca. Jim Reel has owned and operated the shop for 20 years. They make custom drivelines for everything! From boats to buses, RV's and even heavy duty equipment. Although they do drivelines for a wide range of vehicles Jim enjoys doing business with the off-road industry. While still a small business, J.E. Reel is seeing growth. They have become involved in the extreme sport of Rock Crawling and have begun sponsoring teams such as, Team Red Bull, Team Purple, Jeff Hillsman, Extreme Image and many more. We have talked with many of the teams running J.E. Reel drivelines and have found that they would not buy any other drivelines! On top of sponsoring our Rock Crawling heroes, he also sponsors other sports such as, stock cars and desert racers. J.E. Reel makes strong drivelines and is a great source for Spicer, Atlas, Outback, C.T.M, and slip yoke eliminator kits.

While there, Scott Thrung, who has been working with J.E. Reel for more than 10 years, allowed us the opportunity to follow along as he built a custom Reel driveshaft. He first begun with the proper tube size and then grabbed all the Spicer parts needed for the driveshaft. They first heat the tube with a torch to allow the yoke to fit easily. Once the tube has expanded due to the heat, the yoke is placed in the tube and is then leveled. Once both sides have been placed in the tube and carefully leveled, the drive shaft is taken over to a large lathe to get pre-balanced. As the shaft is clamped in, Scott uses a dial indicator and a hammer to get the driveshaft as balanced as humanly possible on the lathe. Once he is happy with the dial indicator measurements, he tacks the yoke to the tube and does the same to the other side. Once both sides are measured and tacked, he then welds the entire circumference of the shaft. The shaft is then cooled so they can then take it over to the machine that will balance the driveshaft. The driveshaft is clamped into place and is then spun at high speeds to see where possible vibrations are coming from. The balance machine tells them where to place additional weight. A lot of time is focused on getting the driveshaft perfectly leveled so there is no vibration in your vehicle! Once finished, the driveshaft is then painted and ready to ship to your house.

We picked up a set of drive shafts from Jim while we were there. We have installed them on our Project TJ and can't even tell that they are under there! So if you are looking for some serious drive shafts for your weekend toy at some competitive prices and excellent service, contact J.E. Reel Drivelines and let them know that C4x4 sent you!