Dana 30 and 35" tires.

My question being this:

I have a Nine inch rear axle 60" wide and built for an MJ I wnat to keep that and use the dana 30 would it hold up with the one piece shafts with 297 u-joints and a quick-loc? I don't have much experience of the D 30 please help.

Simon

I have been running 35 BFG all terrains on my D30 for about 3 months now, and Im definatley not getting easier on the trottle!!

I have been running the 30 for the last 3 years with 35" bfgs and an ARB. I've got stock axles and 297 joints. No problems yet with tons of wheeling, but I know when to let off. I think a truss or a 44 is in the future. I do feel that I would definitely drive the jeep harder if I wasn't cautious about the front axle. I did have to put on stronger lower control arm mounts because high speed and washouts mean bad news with the stock ones.

Lot's of ways to make the D30 live with 35's, but being careful sure helps. The weak link is still the axle u-joints, so be sure to use 297/760x joints, and either use snap rings instead of the c-clips or tack weld the caps to the yokes. Superior now makes chromemoly axles for the D30, which helps the axle joints live longer because of less distortion in the yokes, plus the axle splines are much stronger. The Warn hub kits are good, with chrmo axles for both the 5 on 4.5 and 5 on 5.5 kit (both are strong), but the money for the hub kit could go towards a D44 unless you've already spent the money for gears and lockers on the D30. The tubes on the D30 can bend if used real hard over time, or if you jump the rig.

Make sure you have large u-joint shafts, snap ring them, run the 35's, and be careful. If you run rocks, carry spare shafts because they can break. I've seen D30's last with amazing abuse, I've seen axles twist with 33's, and I've seen snap ringed u-joints break with 33's, so like anything else there are no guarentees.

Thankyou all very much for your advise. I think what I will do is for now run the d30 and then if it gives me any problems I will switch the shafts in the 9" for 5 on 5.5" and put a d44 in the front. But for now I want to get wheeling and this seems to be the fastest way. Since the MJ is a 2wd at the moment I will take 2wd axle out and use it to mock up the d44 over a period of time. Thanks again.

Simon