I have been thinking about something like this for years, or even a deflector bolted to the side of the trans that would absorb all of the force from the broken propshaft.

 

it should have been thought of a long time ago, that's for sure. They put loops in range rovers and in freelanders. If you had presented this problem to a race car builder he would have come up with this design immediately. Its funny that the model land rover that needs it the most doesn't have it! This isn't something "odd" or unusual, its common in vehicles that need them. If you Google "drive shaft loop" you'll see plenty of them. this one has a specific mount for disco 2

 

For any of you guys local to san Diego when i have a problem with my disco 2 i take it to the British garage in Miramar. The mechanic there is Andy from England. Hes a master mechanic and worked for land rover. Last time i was there i had my head gasket done. He saw the loop and thought it was cool. He studied it for a good few minutes. Hes the one that told me about the range rover and freelander loops.Andy of the British garage in miramar. He gave it 2 thumbs up! That's a great place to take ur rover. Very cool people.

 

Water from ac condensation has nothing to do with u joint failure, first off the ac is only run in the summer, second while driving its being blown back, third it is nothing compared to rain water coming off the road, fourth the bearings are sealed and surrounded by grease, keep grease in them and water will never touch them. We don't need a hundred dollar reason to neglect maintainence, regardless of weather or not it destroys the trans you don't want to have a driveshaft fail. It's still bad and will cost unwanted repairs.

 

Condensation drip is merely a contributing factor, not the factor.
The main reason is sealed u-joints right next to the cat. The cat bakes the grease.

Loop or no loop u-joints there that can't be greased will lead to failure.

If the u-joints are greased, and greased correctly, then failure is remote, unless the propshaft is overloaded when off-roading. That's where the HD propshafts that use 1310 series u-joints come in, which aren't overpriced if you've ever looked in to having a 1310 series DC propshaft built with a greaseable center head.

I'm not saying the loop is a bad idea, just that you have misleading information in your listing.

 

I'm not trying to make the case to purchase my loop by making up the fact, the fact, that condensation does break down the grease. It does. Whether your driving or not, the condensation will hit the u-joint directly because the shaft is tucked under away from the air flow. But thats fine. I'll go along with you. thats fine. Lets imagine it doesn't. The loop enables you to easily attach a heat shield to it thus preventing the heat from baking the u-joint. I'll go ahead and design a heat shield for it. It will kill 2 birds with one stone. The heat shield will also deflect the condensation.

 

Heat from the cat is the #1 cause. But coupled with the water is a deadly combination. Imagine you have a grease pan sitting on your kitchen counter and the grease is dry. Try rinsing that under the faucet and see how easily the grease comes off. You need an instrument of some sort to get it off the pan.

Now imagine you have a pan with hot grease on it that just came out of the over. Put that under the faucet and see how much grease goes down your drain. Even warm grease. Grease doesn't need to get very hot in order to weaken and run off the metal.

As far as rainy weather is concerned, with rain comes cooler weather and the cold. The cat is going to be less of a concern to a driveshaft. The grease isn't going to weaken as easily and wash off as quickly. Plus rain doesn't constantly bombard the joint with heavy droplets as in the condensation.

Thats the best way i can describe the situation. So the people most susceptible to drive shaft failure are those in warmer climates. Warm air, and AC use. Which is why i saw so many bad joints here in california while i was re-selling these vehicles.

The sealed u-joint is a better joint because you are 100% safe for 50,000 miles or more. I've seen original shafts in rovers with over 100k on them. Driving conditions affect the shaft. The worst case is stop and go traffic where the shaft cooks while it sits idyl. Freeway miles and when the shaft spins it stays cooler and lasts longer. Ya, if you are aware of the shaft issue with your rover, zerks are the way to go. But the thousands and thousands of people currently driving rovers who have no idea are much better off with a sealed u-joint.

Thats the best way i can again, try, to convey the damage caused by the condensation. Nevermind the confirmation I have gotten from diff shops.

 

lol dude your a real freaking rocket scientist. "with rain comes cooler weather" I lol'd.
OK dude your cat is like 1000 degrees idling, making an ambient temp difference from 100f to 0f a whopping 10% factor. Somehow I doubt if it was -200f you could put your hand 1" away from a 1000 degree cat for long.

lol... If the grease is out of the bearings, its not doing anything anyway, mayswell let the ac drains keep the outside of the shaft clean right? its like a free german propshaft washing machine at no extra charge! the driveshaft loop is a cool idea, I like it, but in all actuality, in the last 11 years of working on pretty much nothing but rovers, I have seen 1 car damaged from a prop shaft, and that was a 98 p38 range rover.

HERES THE REAL REASON WHY THE UNIVERSALS GO BAD!

When the universals are heated the grease expands, when they cool, the grease shrinks causing a vacuum and replacing the grease that got squished out previously with!---- air.
Now do that x4 years and you have replaced all your grease with air. The only way to fix that is to put a breather in. (thats why your diffs and tranny and t-box have a breather) since you cant put a breather on your universals, the only fix is to keep greasing them to keep pushing the accumulated air out.

LOL'd at last statement also. whats the difference between not servicing a non serviceable part and not servicing a serviceable part? are you going to get more miles out of the EXACT SAME UNIVERSAL on the base that it doesn't have a zerk fitting in it?

wow dude that's such a great idea, why didn't i think of that? Instead of replacing non serviceable parts with graseable universals - - -
I'm going to start re-routing ac drains and smearing grease on the outside of my customers sealed driveshafts so that the universals don't explode from lack of lubrication! I'll save my customers hundreds of dollars!!!

 

Then you won't have to buy a driveshaft loop!

I'd seriously consider those shops that gave "confirmation" that the drip is the source of the failing driveshaft. That's so laughable. Oh! and then to suggest a frying pan with grease is a comparable example is even better. I think you ought to stop trying to support such a ludicrous claim, and focus on the product. Hell, all you have to do is tally up the number of posts by Disco Mike warning people to address the front D2 driveshaft and use that as proof why your product is useful.

 

To be accurate, there is a difference between sealed and serviceable u-joints.

For two groups of people sealed are a better option. People who don't service their cars and people who keep meaning to get to it but don't. A serviceable u-joint must be greased, otherwise it won't last as long as a sealed one.
The problem is that even a sealed one is not a good application in that location. I've spoken with u-joint engineers and they confirmed that a serviceable one, correctly greased, is best in that location.

Correct greasing is covered in my rebuild post.