DiffGears started in the late 1990’s as a group of buddies who liked to spend at least one weekend a month visiting off-the-beaten-path trails of Washington State in our 4WD vehicles. We mostly drove stock Jeeps and Toyotas, but there was also a full-size Chevy or Ford (or both) that tagged along every once in a while. Our favorite places to visit were in the lowlands, highlands, and general vicinity of the Cascade Ranges of Western and Eastern (or Central) Washington. We photographed trails and did trip reports that occasionally got posted to various club websites as well as Off-Road.com. Sometimes parts would break and we would limp our vehicles home, but as we modified our vehicles more and more with lifts and tires and lockers, we began to break more serious things such as spider gears or shear teeth from ring and pinion gears. That’s when we began learning and sharing information about the drivetrains on our vehicles, specifically the differentials. By the year 2000 we had started a website and were selling differential parts as well as other 4WD parts and also tinkering with our own axles and doing axle swaps in the meantime. We didn’t pave any paths, but we were definitely one of the pioneers as far as selling 4WD parts on the internet. As time went on, more and more groups of buddies began doing what we were doing and it became increasingly more difficult to turn a profit with all the competition out there. Nowadays, DiffGears exists as a platform for sharing differential information as well as aggregating products available from the many stores on Amazon. We hope to present enough information here to guide you on your differential journey whether it be replacing some axle seals or doing a complete ring and pinion gear setup.
