JeepLiam

USA standard gear came out with basically a truetrac for the dana 30 a year or so ago. The price is around 300-400 usd. All the reviews seem to be good and the materials are said to be top notch just like Eaton. The company is known for their lunchbox locker for the dana 30 and other axle related stuff. If you're looking so save some money(which everyone is when it comes to the dana 30).

Spartan Helical LSD Worm Gear Limited Slip Differential, Dana 30 Front 27 Spline

newt_man1

My dad and I were talking about this the other night. I'm in the process of getting ready to start stocking parts to finish my axle builds. Originally, the plan was to go with 4.88 and Yukon Zip locker however, my plan is to run a 38 inch tire so it had me rethinking if I should jump to 5.13 instead. But, having heard that the pinion gear is smaller its not a good idea on a D30. Well, just so happens my dad runs a MAC tool truck in the Dallas area and he knows some guys from the DFW mudders who also have a shop that does gears. He asked them their thoughts and they actually recommend it this for the front. They told him that they have ran all of them and recommend this for the dual purpose rig however, it does take some getting use too. He said that when one tire is in the air, you have to apply the brake and gas at the same time to lock it up.

I'm still on the fence on what direction I am going to go in. Even though mine is dual purpose, I do a lot of rocks and need that instant lock up.

JeepLiam

It seems most people say to not run a locker on a dana 30. The great thing about a gear driven lsd is that it prevents 1 tire fires which cause wheel hop without being as aggressive as a locker. If youre going to run a heavy 37/38 on a dana 30 with heavy rims, you can buy dana 44 housings for like 1k from mopar and then build that with a little more insurance. A lot of people run 37s on the dana 30 without issues if youre not a mad man! I plan to regear to 4.88 and run this in the front with some light 37s in a year or two when my 35s wear out. I have a rubicon rear axle, so im already locked in the rear. From what ive gathered(limited experience with 4wds), is if you keep your rig fairly light and dont go crazy on the thottle you can get away more when it comes to tire size; most defiantly you can get away with a smaller axle and larger tires if your tire/rim combo is on the lighter side.

newt_man1

Considering all of the options, realistically Rubicon axles in my area are heavily abused and worth their weight in gold, causing them to be rebuilt. When factoring that you can either go back to a factory e-locker or a the ARB Rubicon locker (because of the housing), you are already into it a 7-8 grand, about the same price of Dynatrac pro-rock. Yes, it is true to go with the J8 however, that is essentially the same as the beef'ed up Rubicon axle limited to the same locker combination. Although the up graded locker would be a better option, they also have a different spline count requiring RCV's axle shafts if I remember correctly. Which adds another couple of thousand to the build. The Ultimate Dana axles are another option at a lower cost but, once again limited to a specific e-locker. Even though the e-locker is a good option, for me I am entirely sold on it, simple because of how it locks up.

But, when considering that there are people running 40's on those axles, I do not see why a built D30 could not run light weight 38's, as long as you understand limits. And purposely build in a weak link like factory axles, driveshaft or both, allowing these to fail before exploding the ring and pinion. There is nothing wrong pulling cable/rope to winch out, thats why we got them.