Full floater reviews from those who have run them

[srh3trinity]

I have looked around at most of the threads on full floaters. Many of these are a few years old. I am interested to hear some updates on those running floaters. I have an 8.5 10 bolt that I have done the math on re-building and as with everything else on the car, you come to the point where you start thinking about the next step up. I haven't found much price difference between building up a regular 9 inch as opposed to a floater, so if I go 9 inch, I would likely go floater. Some of this is prompted by the fact that I have fixed calipers and I would hate to build a 10 bolt and then eventually have to fight knockback issues.

[Schwartz Performance]

We offer them as standard on all of our chassis we sell, and have so since 2005.
All of our shop cars have a 9" floater too and have put many street and track miles on them. They are a great simple setup, there are few drawbacks.
-There isn't an off the shelf bolt on brake kit available since the brackets need to be welded on, unless you go with a Baer Tracker setup which has the brackets attached to the snout ends that weld on to the axle tubes.
-The only cost friendly emergency brake option is a spot-caliper from Wilwood which is only intended for parking, not emergency stops.
-They aren't too friendly with WaveTrac diffs so there's a little modification required to the end caps.
-inner axle seals are required if you'll have track time
-Most off the shelf wheels usually don't have a large 3" center bore to accommodate the floater drive plate so some machining, grinding, a spacer, or a custom wheel is usually required.

In our experience, the pros outweigh the cons which is why we use them so often :)

-Dale

[srh3trinity]

Have you guys ever tried a pinion brake? I believe there are a few options that have a smaller drive plate around 2.5 inches. I have a set of wilwood sl-4 calipers that are radial mount that I would have to mount a bracket for and would likely run an off the shelf 12.25 inch rotor. I would love to run a 13 inch rotor, but my calipers are 1.25 inch and nobody makes that diameter for the standard 8 bolt pattern hubs.

[dontlifttoshift]

All of what Dale said but I will add that the GMR floater has a 2.5" snout so wheels are no problem on that.

Radial mount calipers are pretty easy to set up on a floater as they require a shorter bracket than the typical lug mount caliper.

Wilwood has a rotor for that, just a matter of getting the rotor to hub adapter right.

[cluxford]

I have a floaters...love em

[TheJDMan]

I have over 5000 street miles on my Moser 9" floater without a single problem. As you said the difference in price between a new conventional axle 9" and a new 9" full floater is virtually nill. I would also mention that some folks will say internal axle seals are necessary. I can tell you from first hand experience that I have been running without inner axle seals with no problems. Due to the natural movement of gear oil within the rear end housing, the oil works it's way out to the wheel hub bearings where it both cools and lubricates the bearings. Inner axle seals were developed for certain racing applications where the vehicle spends a large percent of time turning such as a circle track racecar.

[Nativefx]

I have about 5000 street miles on my Moser 9" floater without a single problem. As you said the difference in price between a new conventional axle 9" and a new full floater is virtually nill.

Hey Steve, sent you a PM regarding your 9" floater set-up. I need to replace my rear end and have been trying to read as much as possible to figure out what would be the best option. I already received my new wheels, so I'll need to start fitting for measurement on a shortened rear, so I was hoping to get some info.

thanks

[srh3trinity]

I wound up buying a Moser from Ron Sutton. It is being built now.

[no go nova]

Baer has a new floater setup that works with there internal parking brakes and calipers and standard wheels.

[David Pozzi]

I have a currie fab 9 housing with brand new Baer Tracker floater for sale. No axles or center section. The housing is new too. I went with a Morrison IRS, so selling it. PM me if interested. Stock first gen Camaro width, no brackets.
It's in Los Angeles.