JkHauler

Ehh 10K is going balls deep on something that can be easily built in stages rather than all at once up front. I went the Artec setup just like many of the others. I even followed Dirty's build on the other forum board that he admins. Our builds went hand in hand for most if not the majority of my build but I decided to get the project function-able and decide what's more necessary later on down the road than all up front. I came in for the entire swap around $6000. That also included Method 101 beadlocks and 37" rubbers. Marcus was my Go-To guy the entire build and I give credit to him for knowing what I needed and respecting how fast I needed the parts. Going UD60's or building your own all depends on your knowledge and experience in this type of work and quite frankly just how much you want to get your hands dirty building your machine.

I did the entire swap in 2 months with over 300+ shop hours logged. A offroad shop would easily charge you $5000-$8000 in labor for such a job. Want plug and play? Buy the UD60's and enjoy the jeep days later. But you're still going to be spending upwards of $13,000-$15,000 for axles, driveshafts, misc parts, labor, tires, possibly wheels. There's a lot of factors that go into play with a 1ton swap. Sounds like it's time for you to research the process the same way we all did and do the math. In the end, the only thing the equation doesn't take into consideration is your need to have it done now, versus learning how to do the work yourself. Having someone install the hardware for your doesn't teach you how to pack bearings, bleed brakes, setup pinion angles, measure caster, break down 1ton calipers, install driveshafts, change diff fluid, removing 1ton axle shafts, working on a full float 14b. So while that investment for UD60's sounds great, you may very well be paying people to do maintenance on them for years to come or taking the time to learn how to do all of the same work required to do a 1ton axle swap with a D60/14b setup. The stealership charges $135 a differential to change fluid.. Installing axle seals is another $200.

The biggest perk for me on the swap is all of my parts are located at the nearest Autozone/Napa/Advance Auto. I can find axle shafts and parts in just about every Pull-A-Part from east to west coast. My brake calipers for my D60 were $25 a piece

JkHauler

My opinion exactly. I put a $200 spartan in the front on an axle with manual locking hubs. My carrier was at the ratio break (4.11) so to regear I was going to not only have to buy $300 R&P, but a $200 carrier and all the other crap to boot. So I didn't regear, I pulled the carrier, redid the axle seals, checked the gear setup to confirm spec and reinstalled. The same for the rear. I paid $250 for a 2003 14b with a locker in the rear. Had just been pulled from a 2500HD due to a bad seal. F350 D60's are becoming harder to come by, so I found a 97 F350 D60 in North Dakota, zero rust for $750. Had to pay $250 to have it freighted to my door.

There's really only one thing to have to consider in this entire discussion, do you want it done now or can it be a project that sits in the garage a few weeks while you spend time doing the work, drinking beer and jamming out to some music? My neighbors hate me yes, but the end result is nothing short of beautiful. It's mine, I did the work and when someone looks underneath to see the 1tons, I'm able to have a full discussion as to how I did the swap, why I did particular things, answer questions from others looking to do the same and then go wheel the hell out of it. This is the shit they don't tell you at the dealership about "Jeep Life"..

Jasoncinpean

To the guys that built tons how did you work around the wheel speed sensor abs stuff? Thanks

TweakJK

Go with Artec, but due to their design, you have to be sure you use the correct 14 bolt (if you are going 14 bolt). Believe it or not, not all 14 bolts are the same. You can not use the super beef unicorn awesome 14 bolt that I used with thick tubes and thick casting. They went with over the hub rotors instead of the tried and true press on type that works with every single 14 bolt I have ever seen. They say they did it to make it easy to replace rotors, how often are you really going to need to replace a 1/2 ton front rotor being used in the rear of a jeep? Basically my hubs have a .5" spacer built in, the WMS is wider, but the inboard surface where the studs sit is the same width. They say exactly what you need on their website.

I ended up going with VKS rings because my hubs were strange and wouldnt work with artec. I installed 2 sensors on each rear tone ring. Works fine but I dont drive it on the street.

JkHauler

JKTweak had a different 14b that I did. If you are just starting your research, you need to give his thread a follow and read it thoroughly. I used his thread to get an idea of the headaches I was going to encounter and without a doubt one of the best help 1ton swap threads out there. Tweak, Dirty, Marcus at RCO, and several others helped pave the way to make this swap possible. Several abandoned the accomplishment for UD60's but their work and information will continue being a massive resource for current and future JK owners who like the concept of doing all the work themselves and learning stuff that they may have never had the opportunity to learn.

Tweak provided you the pictures from his older 14b. I was fortunate to have the converted 14b that came factory with disk brakes. This was a double edge sword honestly. Tweaks work is based on the earlier 14b and it wasn't until later in the game after waiting for the release of the Artec swap hardware, that he realized he wasted valuable time on something that wasn't going to work. So before you dig deep into it, make the experience better by getting the correct 14b so that you don't accidentally become a test case in the matter lol.

To answer your question, we ran the wheel speed sensors to the rear 14b. Artec makes the mounts that actually bolt up allowing you to run dual sensors on the rear tone ring. Very easily accomplished. Just make sure to get good clean connections and make sure the sensor is index correctly. If the sensor is too far away from the tone ring, the system throws codes. I soldered up about 20ft of 16ga wire and wrapped it in heat shield down the passenger side of the jeep. I left plenty of extra to make sure I could run it safely to the sensors and give enough length for articulation to prevent breaking a connection.

rb1boxer_3

I just started my 1 ton build after 3 months of reading and seeing what was best. I got a 14 bolt from a 03 Chevy and d60 from a 05. Ill be doing all the work myself and my friend will do the gears. In all That I have put in shopping carts I look to spend about 7500 or so. I'm in no rush and I plan on being done by next year better than having to save 13k for axles to spend at once I can just do a lil here at there. Since you won't be doing your own work. It makes no point in doing it. You'll end up spending more than just buying.