What did you run in the rear, an ARB? I assume when in 4wheel drive the front would pull, but the ARB did all the work.I know you wheel rediculous, but did it work well?

 

I dont have the 5k to put into a PR
I paid 1000 for gears and gussets and 600 for the labor to put everything in
so the 1600 invested will hopefully last untill I can go to stage 2 and get the PR when my 35s wear out.

 

Been reading this thread and want to ask another question that was mentioned earlier. I've got the non-Rubi and want to upgrade wheels and tires. Id like to lock my 44 and run 35s. Never bigger. Issue I see is gears. I'd like to see 513s, but putting that money into the d30 seems silly because my r&p would be weak. Plus if your opening the diff anyway, makes sense to put a locker in......but now we are right back to the beginning!

Is anyone running stock gears (pretty sure I've got 412s) with 35s and a locked rear? This set up with some gussets on the d30 could be done fairly cheap and give time to ride the 30 till it breaks or the piggy bank is full of the next round of mod money......

 

???????? how?

 

Your gears are 4:10s. Great question. I imagine running those gears with OD off is close to 5:13 with OD on. If that is the case, keeping the 4:10s would be beneficial as the ring/pinion would be stronger.

Has anyone added lockers to the stock gears, non-Rubicon, and had success?

 

Well what about this. Most people want lockers front and rear. But like most people they are scared that the Dana 30 up front wont hold to a 4.88 or 5.13 in fear of breaking an axle shaft or what not up front with a locker. Its not a locker but what about installing a limited slip differential. Such as a powertrax, or a Detroit truetrac. That way you still have some type of traction controled system up front but u still have the limted slip to where your not putting as much stress on your R&P, axle shafts or what not.

Just something else to consider also. But I still want to here some opinions on it?

 

I've recently installed the truetrac's FR & RR and what a difference! Only about a thousand miles on them w/ mostly snow trail runs...so far soo good!

I think Dynatrac can comment and give more info but from what i've read the truetrac is a great idea for added traction for the D30 w/minimal stress compared to selectables.

 

After reading up alot on this forum and looking at what and how I wheel this is the way I think I'll end up doing my JK now.
nthinuf has shared a lot of great stuff on here and I know I've read bits from him before about his take on the Truetracs. He was in this post earlier, may see this and offer up some more for us.

 

With that said I'm my opinion, unless You got money, I would keep the Dana 30 for now, throw some gears in there, a trutrac, and upgrade to chromoly axle shafts and leave ujoints at stock. That way when or if anything has to much stress on it those ujoints on your axle shafts will be what brakes. I would much rather have a ujoint on the axle shaft break then take the chance of snapping an axle shaft, shearing a set of R&P and take the chance of cracking the housing when that happens when either one of those happens.

 

I definitely recommend the Truetracs. They aren't a locker but they're still very good. They won't be as harsh on your 30 components as a locker, but depending on how you use your rig, they may or may not cause more damage. Confusing huh?

If how and where you wheel doesn't really require a locker you'll be fine. But if most places you wheel really require a locker, and you have a TT, you may have to work your rig much harder which increases your chance of damage. I hope that made sense

As for the axle shafts vs u-joints:
With all but the best axle shafts, much of the time when you break a u-joint you usually do damage to the shaft yokes (ears). If you're going to try and use the u-joint as a fuse, be sure get a good DOMESTIC (no import) 4340 shaft. More money? Sure but you have a much better chance of having the axle survive a u-joint failure.