Skippman

I've added probably close to 500lbs gross vehicle weight between my LoD Signature Mid-Width front bumper, my winch, my LoD Destroyer rear bumper and tire carrier, my 35's, my Teraflex ST2 lift, and my Teraflex big rotor conversion kit. As many of you have experienced the JK's feeling a bit sluggish and I'm planning on regearing to 4.88's or 4.65's.

This isn't about the gear ratio.

I know there's a million threads on that topic. Instead this is about beefing up the axle while I have it all apart. My wheeling habits tend to mid-range trails. I'm not into hardcore rock crawling, but I recognize that things don't always go according to plan and as such it's better to plan ahead for failure than figure out how to get back home off the trail. At the very least I'm going to get C gussets as that seems to be the biggest point of failure. I was considering having the axles sleeved while they have the shafts out for the regear. I was also considering a truss but have read of many clearance issues, particularly with the more popular Artec trusses.

Do you think the sleeves would be enough (I'm not sold on a particular brand yet) or should I bite the bullet and get the truss while I'm at it? Ideally I'd like to keep the cost down as much as possible so if the truss is more "bling factor" than necessary for mid grade trails I can skip that.

resharp001

Unless you are doing all the welding yourself, I just don’t think a truss is worthwhile. It’s sure not worth several hundred in labor alone to pay someone to weld it up for you. If it’s more paying $130 or so for parts, and just a fun welding project for yourself, sure, why not, but it really does feel like a false sense of security on the factory axles. Most don’t get good welds at the pumpkin either. Sleeves will get varying opinions. The only time they’ve seemed like a worthwhile idea to me is few pictures, one recently, of completely broken axle tube where sleeve might help limp you along off a trail, but I’d bet your odds of being attacked by a bear might be greater than breaking your axle tube. Gussets on the other hand, are a good idea, cheap insurance IMO. If you don’t already have some, might add some LCA skids. I had built up a previous axle and replaced the LCA and shock mounts with nice ¼” Artec brackets. They were nice, but kinda of pain to get the old ones off and then weld in tight quarters to get the new ones on. Also, with gussets in place, couldn’t outboard the shock mounts near as much as I had wanted. I had bent a factory shock mount which was the impetus to upgrading those. I didn’t have any clearance issue with my Artec truss, but I was already running 3” bump stop for DL flip.

I recall from older threads, that regears in your area seemed to run higher than in most parts of the country. I’m sure you’ll appreciate that mod though.

BoraBora

I would agree with resharp ^

If I had to pay for the labor of installing my truss, I would've probably skipped it and put it towards a Prorock 44 or Currie housing and just swapped the guts of my 44 over.

However, I have heard some shops near me only charge $300 an axle to truss. That's not too bad either. Shop around and see if it fits the bill. I think sleeves are a waste of time. A proper truss is significantly stronger. As resharp mentioned, make sure whoever welds it on for you knows how to properly weld the cast section.

karls10jk

You've got to see and understand the axle breaks to see what you think will help. I've seen them locally and on the other side of the country. The first one is usually the tube snapping. Your sleeve might help out to (as Russ noted) get you off the trail. The other seems to be the tube deflecting at the housing, which has been read as bent C's- I think it was Dirtman who cleared it up a while back, but I can't swear to it. A truss could help there but (as Bora noted) you've got to make sure it's stuck to the center section really well.

I'm heavy, I'm daily, I live less than an hour from a park. Given those circumstances, I did LCA skids and c gussets (albeit years ago). I also put a bead on the axle tube at the differential so it cannot shimmy out of place. I know that it isn't fused to the center section but that wasn't my goal. I know the weak link is the axle tube right under the control arm mount on the passenger side. I've also upgraded shock mounts because I wasn't running adequate bumpstop or limit straps.

If you've got someone welding on the front axle, it might not be a bad time to have them put some extra beads on the rears. It seems folks with traction adders had been twisting tubes at the center section on the rear axle for a while. There as one where the pinion pointed up to the shift console.

resharp001

Saw this very thing happen to a buddy's UD60 recently even. Talk about a sucky situation.

Skippman

Yeah, I was wondering if this was a "false sense of security" type thing. In terms of price/performance it sounds like the labor costs make it not worth it. Personally, I'd rather spend the money on skid plates than a truss. I only mentioned the sleeves as they have to pull the axles to do the regear and figured if I was ever going to do it, now would be the time.

So the quick consensus is LCA skids and C gussets are the major parts to beef up. I knew the C gussets but not the LCA's so that's good to know. I'll probably do the Artec gussets and LCA skids unless there's another brand people love.

resharp001

The LCA skids primarily cuz they are inexpensive, quick to slap on, and some of the lowest hanging fruit up front if you ever get in the rocks, and cuz those brackets aren't very beefy. They're not a make or break thing by any means. I've not looked at gussets much in a long time. The Artec gussets do interfere slightly with the front spring as it sits on the perch. You might just research around and see if there's some that might be a little better these days. It's not a big deal, but I think there are probably more offerings on the market these days than there used to be.

nthinuf

I wouldn't call sleeves a 'false sense of security', more of a 'is it worth the cost to you?'

There is a huge decade-old thread covering incidents of front housing breakage (where the tube shatters at the passenger side control arm mounts). It has been happening since the JK was released, but compared to the overall number on the road, these breaks are a very small percentage. One thing that does seem relatively clear, though, is that internal sleeves do in fact help in this scenario. They do not prevent the break, but they keep the housing together long enough to get to a better location for retrieval or repair.

I have not seen any after-action reports of hammer-in vs welded sleeves in these situations, but , if you are still on the fence about upgrades, might be worth mentioning to your shop to see what they say. (personally, I scrapped my d30 rather than straightening /strengthening /regearing /adding traction /etc, and called dynatrac. Just a PSA to look over all of your options before deciding...)

Skippman

You make some good points. FWIW despite the 3.73's I am running Dana 44's front and rear. I half considered pulling the front axle and replacing it with a Dana Ultimate 44 as regearing here in St. Louis is... expensive. The average quote here seems to be around $2300 for parts and labor. I just don't think there's a ton of aftermarket interest in my used Dana 44 w/ 3.73's and 70K on them.

resharp001

I bet you could get some decent bites on that. Assuming that you're selling the full axle, it would be an easy plug and play for someone with 3.73 gears already to pick up a locker in the front. Don't forget also that some people just need replacements for something that was tweaked in an accident.

If you've never sold an axle, Fastenal 3rd party shipping really opens up options as you can ship things to most of the country for a reasonable amount. Want to say an axle on a pallet is ~$120.....it's been a long time and can't recall exactly, but it's fairly reasonable. Requires a leap of faith by both the buyer and seller, but I've both bought and sold axles on the forums before. Just saying....the market is larger than you think, outside your local area.