Matt Harper

So I’m sure one of the top questions on this forum is about axle swaps. I know I’m not the only one who has ever inquired about this but I’m kind of a noob. So I hope a few of you kind of oblige me with some of your time and help me out.

I’m currently looking at buying a Jeep. Found a 2016 with 43k miles. It’s a sport S. My goals with the Jeep is to run 37s maybe 13.5” wide. My dream is to install the Evo pro long arm with coil overs and king shocks. I don’t want a mall crawler. My goal is to be able to do the Rubicon. Moab is only a state away but I also realize I don’t want to do the most extreme climbs. If I can complete the Rubicon I’ll be happy. I know people make it through with 35s, maybe even smaller tires. I want a 3.5” lift with 37s.

so I know that required something more than the D30s. However, I’ve searched a lot of YouTube and forums. Saw a few videos of people doing swaps but only on front axles. Or they want to go junk yard route. That’s not really this build.

So my question is do I need to swap both axles? I don’t have unlimited funds. That’s why I am getting a 16 sport. However, I do want to do this right from the beginning. First off what is needed from d44 swap? Swap front and rear? Is d44 ok in the rear? D44s with C Gusset and it’s strong enough? If I have a shop install Them what kind of cost am I looking at. I’ve been eyeing Dynatrack but to build out axles and everything it’s a bunch of into that’s currently over my head.

Sv_dude

If you want to do wheeling that requires 37’s, you’re also gonna need lockers. That means more money since the sport doesn’t have them. I would really consider a rubicon that comes with the d44 front end, lower gear transfer case, and lockers.

If you truss the front axle, upgrade the axle shafts and some better ball joints, you can run 37’s on that axle.

Since you don’t have unlimited funds (most of us don’t), then you’ll be better off in the long run if you get the rubicon. Otherwise, a d44 axle will be a grand or so from a rubicon (or a lot more for a pro rock housing), then a couple grand for decent lockers and install (unless you can do it yourself). You also don’t need a crazy suspension with coilovers to run the rubicon. I think most of us here will recommend the metalcloak lifts. Their 3.5” lift will give you good clearance for 37’s and is a fraction of the cost of the evo kits.

nthinuf

Yep, taking the money for the long-arm/coilovers/fancy shocks/etc and putting it somewhere else might not be a bad call. Metalcloak is definitely a shortarm setup to put some thought into!

And as an alternate opinion on the axles, Rubi axles 'are' an upgrade, but even with a bunch of money dumped into them, they don't compare to aftermarket. (You are paying labor for gears/lockers/welding/etc, right? Not doing it yourself?)
Personally I would start with a base Sport in your situation, and go for aftermarket axles instead. Doesn't hurt to look into all three scenarios - Start a spreadsheet listing out the prices for buying a Rubicon (with a regear/shafts/welding/whatever), buying a sport and then swapping to rubi axles (with a regear/shafts/welding/whatever), and starting with a sport and going to aftermarket axles (with no regear, no upgraded insternals, no welding on the housing...). The results might be insightful.

Remember that you don't need the most expensive Dynatrac 60/70/80, the aftermarket 44's should be plenty stout for what you describe. And you should check out the axles at Fusion 4x4 also.

Matt Harper

So I’m not sure if I’m going about this the right way but my thought process was kind of along the same as yours here. Rubicons from what I understand anyways are better than sport seals but will still have me wanting more long term. I’ve looked into the Serious Performance ProRock 44/60 Axle-Set for Jeep JK also the Trail Leader Axle Package 44/44 Axle set. Leaning towards the ProRock 44/60. My feeling is one and done and not constantly upgrading. You will end up spending more in the long run.

the biggest tire I will ever consider running is a 38” but honestly I think I’ll be 37s for life. My wife is already yelling at me for going more than 35s.

as for the lift I’m open to suggestions and I will look into metal cloak but I know for a fact I want a long arm suspension. my brother-in-law has 35s and a bds lift with fox 2 shocks. It’s not for me.... I know evo makes good products. Are they worth it....? Idk. This is where I don’t have any real experience.

I know it’s a chunk of cash right up front but.... doubt I’ll regret it....?

chiapeteater

Not trying to bust your bubble, but to run 37' and do it "right" you're gonna need a lot of money, Also this is a good starting point:
https://www.jk-forum.com/forums/modi...-lifts-288269/

https://www.jk-forum.com/forums/modi...-about-353604/

karls10jk

If you're looking at long arm and 37's then scrap the whole jeep idea and go buggy. You don't need a long arm, it's pointless for what you describe. 37's too. It sounds like you're hell bent on them but for what you're describing, 35's and good lines are fine.

For a Metalcloak lift, you're looking at a couple thousand. For a long arm you'll be looking at a few thousand plus installation. Your off the shelf long arm kits don't necessarily yield much more than a standard lift. If you really want it to function at 100% then you're looking at custom fab work and in that case you should consider doubling the cost.

What's been hinted at so far but not explicitly mentioned is that with 13.5's or 38's, you'll really want to evaluate things and consider going to wider axles. Otherwise you'll be double dipping with wheel spacers plus a low backspace wheel.

The other thing, based on your budget and what you're thinking in upgrades, have you considered pushing your budget and looking at one that's already built? It doesn't take long before you're drowning in parts by looking at long arms and 13.5's or 38's. It can be done for relatively cheap, and it'll work, you just won't have it where it "should" be. Case in point- I've got a friend that built his 2015 manual Rubi with Metalcloak 4.5" (after running and discarding a Rock Krawler 3.5") with 37x13.5's on stock axles. We did truss the front axle and he did have an aftermarket front driveshaft, obviously beadlocks and wheel spacers as well. It worked, but there was definitely more that should have been done.
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resharp001

Here's the real rub IMO, and I don't mean for you to take this in a bad way. You don't seem like the person that is going to be installing and fabbing everything up yourself. There is no perfect long arm kit out there. The kind of build you are talking about is going to be a ton more work than you think, and going to cost a ton more money than you think, on top of all the other things you really need to do to really run 37+ tires. Outside of driving out to Reno and letting TheDirtman build that rig for you, you are going to be hard-pressed to find a shop that you can really rely on to build something like that correctly. Not saying you can't find good shops around, but most of them operate under a veil of "professional knowledge" when it comes to thing more in-depth than throwing on simple lifts that anyone can do in their own garage.

Everyone has an opinion, and I agree with everything above. Here's something to think about in regard to rubi axle swaps. Those lockers are what they are. Once you start adding large tires you're adding a lot more stress. The rubi lockers are prone to failure, and it sucks. When they go, either than actuator magnet with crap out and it will stop locking (you can replace that part for a few hundred bucks in part and decent bit of labor costs) or the wave spring will stop separating the dog clutch when trying to disengage the locker and the whole unit will just need to be replaced. The real rub here is that you've probably upgraded to 32-spline chromoly shafts at this point, and the only 32-spline locker you can replace with is going to be another crap 2-pin rubi locker. Everything else is actually going to be a 35-spline locker, which will then require new chromoly shafts. At the end of the day your weak point will be the axle shaft flanges (even flanges on the chromoly shafts will bend under enough stress). If you go the 44 route, the non-rubi rears are actually better to just regear while adding a good quality 35-spline locker vs. a rubi rear.

I'd rather take that money you had planned for a long arm, coilover suspension and get an aftermarket front axle, paired with non-rubi rear, or if you can afford it, full-width axles so you get full-float rear 60 vs. semi-float. If you spend money on axles, think of them as a commodity that you could sell later on if you needed to. Either way, it's going to cost a s-load more than you expect as you're re-doing just about everything underneath the jeep, and you'd better know how to work on it in case you break anything while out on the trail.

Matt Harper

soni reaches out to Northridge4x4 and asked them to put a quote together for next I think I am headed down the route of d44/d60. Going to still keep with a long arm but probably looking at Teraflex. He suggested Rock Crawler but I don’t know much about them. He talked me out of coil overs because he said they squeak and make a lot of noise. So we will see where the quote comes back. With an axle swap I should have new lockers which hopefully will hold up vs going the Rubi route.

I don’t think I’ll go full d60 front and back. I feel like that’s overkill for what I’ll be using it for. However I’ve had a lot of people with long arms so it’s a night and difference change over a short arm kit.

resharp001

Definitely take a loot at the Fusion 4x4 axles mentioned above. Just about everyone will tell you to avoid RK kits.

You might sort through the modified sub-forum and look at the long arm threads. You'll find a lot of nuggets in there. I find the search feature to be really cumbersome and often just use google to search for things with strings like "jk-forum.com TheDirtman long arm" with will return results like this -

https://bit.ly/3fUgJAs

Lot of stuff to sort through, but reading as much as you can will help.