Gen 3 GDP Portal Gear Lifts are here, and they’re filled to the brim with new design features and options that make them better for everybody. Options are what Gen 3 portals are all about. We wanted to make a portal that fits everybody’s riding style by giving you new gear reduction choices and housing material options. Plus, we made them stronger and better overall.
But enough gabbing—here’s everything you need to know about SuperATV’s Gen 3 portals.
The most profound difference between Gen 2 and Gen 3 portals are your gear reduction options. Let’s break it down:
Basically, we added our smallest gear reduction of 15% on 4” portals, and added a smaller 30% reduction on 6” portals. This rounds out the options for you guys so you can tune your portal to your specific riding style.
We do a ton of trail riding around here. A lot of people find that 32″ tires are the sweet spot for the kind of terrain we have—lots of creeks and hills with plenty of easy areas for flat-out speed. A 4″ portal with a 15% gear reduction is perfect for 32″ tires on that terrain. We get the big tires we want, we get our torque back with the 15% gear reduction, and we keep our top speed. The extra clearance from the lift and larger tires is the icing on the cake and makes our style of narrow, rocky, and steep creeks easy to ride on.
While this option is great for Indiana trail riding, the Midwest isn’t the only place you’ll make good use of these portals. We’ve found that our 15% gear reduction hits the sweet spot for all sorts of riders that aren’t trying to go as big as possible. They’re great in the dunes, where the extra torque makes climbing big hills easier and coming down from them faster, and they’re awesome in the desert where there’s plenty of space to go fast and lots of technical rocks and hills to navigate through. In fact, you can make use of our 15% portal gear reduction in just about any application that doesn’t involve getting huge tires.
Go a little bigger with a 30% gear reduction and 4″ lift—it’s where portals started for a reason. It gives you more clearance and plenty of torque for a huge variety of terrain. That’s what Ross Pilgreen was riding on when he brought home a tenth-place finish at King of the Hammers 2018. The versatility of 4″ portals with a 30% gear reduction can’t be overstated.
A 30% gear reduction is perfect for riders who want to take advantage of that extra lift by running bigger tires, but don’t want to miss out on that much-needed power. This reduction gives you the torque you need without putting additional stress on your drivetrain or sacrificing a ton of speed. No matter what kind of off-roading you prefer, you can count on GDP’s 4” portals with a 30% gear reduction to get you through it without a hitch.
More options for 6″ portals mean more versatility, as well. We’ve still got 45% gear reductions for those of you who like to gear way down and go big, but now we also offer a 30% gear reduction for those who want smaller tires (like a modest 38″) and lots of lift.
The new 30% gear reduction option on our 6” portals is designed for riders who want the extra lift but don’t necessarily need to take advantage of all that extra tire room. With a closer-to-stock tire size, you’re not losing a ton of power, so the extra gear reduction isn’t totally necessary. A 30% reduction balances your horsepower and your torque, even with the extra 6” of lift, so you can tackle rocks, trails, and creek crossings with ease.
Let’s say you do plan on going with the biggest tire size possible. In that case, our 45% gear reduction option is for you. The bigger the tire, the more power you’re going to lose, which leads to needing a larger reduction. This option gives you back the torque you may have lost from going bigger, so you can cut through deep mud and cross over rougher terrain with no problem.
“No new gear reductions for the 8″ portals?” asked no one ever. Seriously, if you’re going that big with your portals, you’re going big with everything else. You need a 45% gear reduction.
In fact, we had to make our 8″ portals extra beefy right from the start. We started by sealing the 8″ housing with an O-ring style rubber seal to prevent leaks, and then added some other new features to increase strength and dependability. From the gears to the housings to the drive gear, our 8” portals (and the 4” and 6”, too) come equipped with all sorts of new Gen 3 upgrades.
Not only do the gears come in different reductions, but they’ve also been totally overhauled structurally. We’ve updated the material to 9310 steel alloy. You could even say it’s billet. For reference, 9310 is the same material used on many aircraft engine gears. It’s very tough.
We also redesigned our drive gear for the 4” and 6” portals to match our design on the 8” portals. For the 98% of you that don’t know what that means, the drive gear now seals against the housing instead of your axle shaft. Because of this, you can fill your portal with oil and it won’t leak, even without an axle installed.
With Gen 2 and earlier models, we counted on a good sealing surface between the gear and the axle shaft to keep oil in. That was great… except for those of you who ran well-loved axles. Now your axle condition is a nonissue. The oil stays in whether your axle is brand new out of the box or an antique rusted thing discovered in the ruins of an ancient Ford factory.
The flashiest update to Gen 3 is the option to get billet aluminum housings. Billet housings have increased strength and feature a consistency of material better than cast. Cast aluminum can contain a small number of microscopic air pockets or impurities. Manufacturing with billet ensures the purity of the material, hence the strength increase.
Also, they look rad. Nobody looks at billet aluminum without feeling impressed. We know they’re going to get covered in mud, dirt, and dust right away, but that just makes spraying them off that much more satisfying.
We made a couple smaller changes as well, to improve your overall portal experience. We changed our idler bearing from a ball bearing to a roller-bearing style. This is the bearing that carries the middle gear, also known as the “idler” gear. Changing up the style boosts strength and longevity, making your portals even more bulletproof.
The last change we’ll mention is that our fill-and-drain plugs are now sealed with a rubber O-ring and are no longer NPT. They’re much easier to get sealed since you won’t have to break out the plumber’s tape.
Put everything together and you get the best, most versatile portal gear lift on the market. It was already the premier portal gear lift on the market, but with Gen 3, it’s now stronger and better performing than ever before. Now portals are perfect for anybody’s riding style. We’re always changing and always improving. We’ll continue to make our products better and better. Keep your eyes on SuperATV, because you never know what we’ve got coming just over the horizon.
2 Comments
I have 4″ gdp gen 3 fill plug is seized ,others had o rings good shape..this one is stuck ,stuck.. any suggestions? Just aquired bike . don’t want to put heat on sealed gear box..help.
Hey Tom, thanks for reading! Our best advice would be to let some PB Blaster soak on it and see if that helps. If not, heat will more than likely be your only other option. If you have any questions or concerns, we have a dedicated portal support team. Just call us at 855-743-3427 and we’ll be happy to help.