Biginboca

Reading between the lines of what Dynatrac has posted I come away with this...

"We don't want disappointed customers and stand behind our product, but we also don't want to have to back in writing a warranty to a customer who abuses our products with expectations too high."

Dynatrac, can you at least help us have accurate expectations? Is it reasonable to use these shafts in a D44 with 35's? 37's?

TheDirtman

I am with investment on this. People that want to abuse a product and expect it to be warrantied when they break it are unreasonable. If you are bending flanges your rig is too heavy for a semi float axle, if you are breaking shafts you are running too big a tire or are bouncing/spinning the tires. If you are breaking u joints on the driveshaft because you won't run proper gearing in the axles, it is on you for not properly setting it up. Warrantees are to protect the custom and the manufacture from manufacturing defects.

Dana 44's recommended max tire size is 35" but people routinely run bigger and are constantly looking for "upgrades" to bulletproof their axles so they can run big tires on the cheap. People running tires larger then 35" should expect to break stuff and should not cry about it after the fact when its not warranted.

Dynatrac

Great, direct question Biginboca. The new Dynatrac rear 35-spline shaft upgrade is intended for 35 to 37-inch tires which are typical in JK builds. We do not recommend 39, 40, 42 and larger tires with a Dana 44 rear axle. We have seen many posts on forums by users who will run 39-inch and larger tires no matter what we say. I’m sure many of you know somebody like that too. Some will get away with it, and others will have routine failures. Dynatrac cannot verify what tire size, how they use the vehicle, or modifications folks have on their rigs. We simply must take their word for it.

The larger diameter and spline count on our shaft provides up to a 45% improvement in torque transmission capability. Flange bending resistance is also improved in the head of the Dynatrac axleshafts. Quality of the steel and the way it is processed is critical to shaft performance. We do NOT see that level of consistent material and process control in the vast majority of imported parts. All rear shafts for JK 44 rears are going to be somewhat limited by the mating conditions of the stock JK housing and the rear brake assembly.

Our JK44 shafts will require a diff change to 35-spline. This product is intended to help the guy who cannot afford to do an entire axle upgrade, is simply a more casual off-roader, does not try to jump his Jeep or needs performance improvement with quality components at an affordable price.

Our shaft kit also includes our billet retainers and billet tone rings. No other kits offer this, and it is important. If you’ve worked on a few JKs you will find that the studs in stock retainers spin after being removed only one or two times. This makes future work a real problem, especially if you’re in the field. Guess where you are most likely to perform this work if you have stock 30-spline (non-Rubicon) or 32-spline (Rubicon) rear shafts?

The axleshafts come with with seals, bearings, and studs, and are ready to slide in to your stock housing.

As I stated earlier Dynatrac will warranty these shafts as we do with all our other products. They are US-made and we have complete confidence in them. They are very similar to the shafts we have been shipping in our ProRock 60’s for 25+ years.

Biginboca

Thank you dynatrac, that's great info!

SoK66

Some guys can run a 44 and never break / bend a shaft, some guys can run a FF60 and break routinely. The simple conclusion, build to your extremes of needs & available funds, beating in mind the closer you are to the lower end of the scale means you need to be prepared for the inevitable fail. As we learned in our drag racing days "Play if you must, Pay if you bust!"