I thought the lockers were part of the tru-loc package. I thought the biggest difference was the gearing in the t-case. What are the other differences? sorry for the noob question.

 

If I had to do it over again I'd buy the Rubicon. Like yourself I thought building a Sport with aftermarket parts would have made a superior JK. That changed quick, the front axle alone pushed $4,000. plus, plus, plus. I under estimated Labor cost by a very large margin also. Again, just buying the Rubicon first would have saved me a ton of time and it all would be under the Factory warranty.

 

a rubi has lockers front and rear the rear on both sport and rubi are the same but for the locker and gear ratio if you paid someone to install gears and a locker you could almost buy a complete takeoff axle and put it in yourself , if your a decent backyard wrench u could do it easily

 

Stufarmer: What kind of front axle did you get?

carolinajk: I think I could handle it. I've done water pumps, fuel pumps and filters, starters, shocks (not coils) and a radiator on my own. Do you think that would suffice to do it?

 

You can easily do it cheaper if you don't rush and plan it out right

First decide if you are ever going to regear because if you do then do it while you got it all open if not then you saved some money

Transfer case is really all up to you if you want it , is it needed while you have to figure that out for what you are going to do with it

So first off a Dana 44 front axle complete
Lockers front and rear

Options
Regear if needed
Rubi trans case

 

Very good point. I may just run it with the 35's on the stock everything and see how long it lasts...Just have everything planned out for if/when it breaks, or I decide its not enough for what I do.

 

im sure you could , you would need basic tools and some good heavy duty jackstands , swapping axles is pretty straightforward, the tcase is easy as well . it would help greatly to have a buddy to give you a hand . you could take pics before you start and remember to torque everything back to spec . not only could you do it but you would get really familar with your jeep .......... quality time

 

just saw a guy selling take off rubi axles with 1k miles on em for 4k. they will mount right up. they still need to be beefed up with sleeve and gussets. buy a pr44 up front for 5k with gears, rcv's, and arb. rear arb + gears in your stock sport 44 will be about 1500 plus 300-500 labor. front axle swap is about 300 labor. fyi i priced a new pr44 up front fully built and a rear dynatrac trail series 60 with prorock housing upgrade fully built with rcv's all around and dynatrac balljoints with arb's for 9500. 5k for the front and 4300 for rear 60. that is a sick setup. makes the stock rubi look like a joke. add front/rear drive shafts for about 900. if u really think u need a lower t-case ratio u can get a rubi crawler.

if u are really thinking about it u need to decide on the end result. how built do you want it? that will tell u if u should buy a sport or a rubi. my buddy just bought a 2 door sport last night for this reason. gonna try to lock down my dynatracs at the offroad expo this weekend.

 

I vote wheel it like it's stolen so get a X swap the axles for ProRocks. You don't have to worry about doing the gears as they will come already installed from dynatrac.

Go for a 44 in the front and a 60 in the rear. 60 up front is way more than you need. If you feel like you still need lower gearing swap in an atlas but I run the above setup with 5.38's on 37's and a stock X t-case and I wheel everything-hard and without issues. Throw the superchips crawl tune in and go.

I will move up to a atlas but mostly for front and rear digg, not necessarily for lower gearing.

You can do an axle swap in your garage, just take your time and be safe!!

Just my 2 cents. Please before commenting on 5.38's in a Dana 44 reference at least one person who actually experienced a pinion failure in a Dana 44.

 

you know, you can get a rubi with manual locks, windows, soft top only, and a standard radio. It will cut costs considerably and a rubi with the 3.6 on 35's will do everything you need it to with little breakage. You really don't need much to run 35's on the rubi 44's besides some c-gussets. And the 4.10's, lockers and 4:1 t-case are well worth it. I'm very happy with my rubi.