Your in the same place I was about two months ago...

Pulling the trigger on two custom built axles and forking over $ on the low end of 5 figures for just two really heavy metal tubes and other bits and pieces can keep you up at night!

[

They came in one big pine box weighing a little over 700 pounds, on a FedEx freight truck with no lift!




Matthew

 

WOW.

How the heck did they unload that box?! Just trying to move my 500 lb safe with two of my biggest strongest buddies was a friggin pain.

 

I have no idea, I wasn't there but I'm having shoulder surgery soon so i wouldn't have been much help

I heard that the driver really helped out

It could have been worse, they almost shipped it to the billing address, which is my house!

I'm impressed that just two or three of them held each axle up enough to get it bolted in

Matthew

 

Can you point me/us in the right direction as to how this can be done? I seriously DO NOT want to drop $5K-$10K or more if I don't have to!

Thanks!

 

i'd love to know too!

i did a lot of research and most of the less expensive options seemed to almost always either require you hunting down the elusive "rubicon axle take-offs" or a lot of gussets, sleeves and welding!

i certainly didn't run out and see how much cash i could blow

matthew

 

Perhaps I could buy the Dynatrac or even a Teraflex Tera44 housing only for around $2100-$2200... Let it sit in my garage for a while until I'm ready to take to a shop for install and regear/upgraded axle shafts... Hold off on lockers, Reid knuckles, drive shaft etc. until I'm ready and just use the stock steering components for now?

I figure it would be a slightly easier way to slowly build up a decent axle on a budget?

 

If you're going to get the gears set-up, you are best to do the locker at the same time. Otherwise, you have to pay all the labor a second time when you do the locker (and around here, it is about $600 for the labor).

 

I think you would wind up paying a bunch more...

I talked to the owner of my local 4x4 shop, he is a Dynatrac dealer and has built axles/differentials etc

He looked at the stats for the Northridge pro rock special unlimited package and he told me the parts in that package would cost him a bunch more just for the parts with no labor

He told me that I should grab the pro rock 44 and the d60 package

Call Northridge and get a quote on the d44 special unlimited plus the d60 as a package deal, you save a bunch when you are able to get both as a package deal

For most people I would say stick with your factory d44 and maybe just upgrade the axles and get the pro rock d44 for the front end

Honestly, I was all set to just do the above, and I found out I had a financial annuity that I cashed in and that paid for more than half the package deal price from Northridge

But your still going to be pushing your luck with 37's

I was aiming at 35's until a bunch of people told me that with both dynatrac's 37's would be a piece of cake

Matthew

 

Yes. I forgot to even get into lockers and regearing...

One or two actually, more reason to do as much as you can afford at the same time

I totally understand that completely replacing both at one time is not doable for most people

Just trying to give a real world picture of going to 37's

I had a 3 or 4 month old Ace front mid width front bumper that I had to replace with an Ace stubby front bumper, because the mid width bumper was going to need to be trimmed with a saws all for clearance!

The good news is that you can recoup a little bit if $ if you find the right buyer for things like your factory d.30/44 axles, assuming they are in good shape

You'd do even better if you had a rubicon

And even if I had started with a rubicon, I'd still be looking to regear to 5:13 or something close to that

Matthew

 

End price will be dependent on you (i.e. how much work do you want to put into this?).

Pick up a set of junk yard one ton axles.
Clean them up, set them up.
Install your goodies.
Wheel like you stole it!

The axles can be had for about a grand. When I built mine, I used axles from a late model Super Duty (10.5/d60), but there are other, more popular options like the 14b/d60. I suppose you could run anything, depending on how much time and money you wanted to spend... Rockwells? Never the less, there is a lot of info out there on how to buy these. I suggest looking for a thread by DR DIRTY on his 14b upgrade... surely there are more, but I'm new here and don't know. PBB is another good place to find this kind of info, but rarely JK specific. At this price point, your rear will be FF (~1500 upgrade at Dynatrac, no?).

Cleaning and setting up the axles should be fairly painless (late model SD axles are an exception to the easy rule, but are 100% worth the effort when you are done). Likely part of the setup is not going to be done by most home mechanics, so figure on labor cost here if you are doing your own work (locker/gear install cost ~700. The rest of the project should be pretty easy for most people that can change a light bulb.).

Install your goodies.... shafts, joints, etc..

So.... you have a low and high end and plenty of space in the middle.

Low end would be using all the items in the junk yard axles... gears, lockers, shafts, etc.. Figure 1500-2000 for axles and JK specific brackets.

High end would be just that... all the cool kid shit. Mine are pretty beef and ran me about 8k to complete, not much more could have been done with them.

A rear from Dynatrac speced like mine would cost around 3/4s the cost of my total package. They give you new shiny shit, a warranty (?), and some piece of mind that someone that knew what they were doing put together your axle (which I am sure isn't always the case, just look at Currie for a prime example of complete incompetence in building axles). I am not trying to talk you out of an axle like Dynatrac's, they are nice.... but nice costs a lot of money. This is just another option that puts your time and effort to good use, with a less expensive, stronger end state.

I guess it's your call... do you have more time or money?

My assumption is WOG ran Dynatrac and that is why we see blind brand loyalty to Northridge and Dynatrac. Nothing is wrong with those two companies... but they aren't playing in a lonely field.




Final thought.... in the end, no matter what is what. Building your own axles gives you the benefit of knowing how they went together. Important knowledge in a sport that constant breakage is the norm.