Well, 1st... i am running 35's with an aussie locker. Around tax time I am going to gear the axle and possibly buy a full case locker. I dont want to have to worry about the housing twisting or deforming under high load and stress. I want to add the truss for strength and also for the looks. Basically its for peace of mind, but that doesnt matter. Its what i want, so thats why im building one.
ps No i dont want a front 44. and plz post more pics =]
and yes, i have broke a housing in half, between the uca mount and the C. It sucked, and i dont want to have to deal with that again.
I agree. I broke both ujoints(260's) on my 30, running an aussie with 3.55's with 35's. I dont plan on 4.88's, maybe 4.56's but i wont have the money for that for a while.
so you haven't even geared it yet... you are still planning to.
seriously!
I have a 30, a lunchbox locker, diff cover, and a HD tierod. I have steel, and I am going to truss it. period.
If you dont agree, then dont post, please. Thank you.
I dont care if you built a 44. I dont care if you blew up your 30 with stock tires and an open carrier.
Can we plz stay on topic?? Is that really too much to ask?
You can sell the lunchbox locker, diff cover, and HD tie rod easily. Very easily.
You have currently a 30 that is stock in every single expensive-to-upgrade way (shafts, gears, trussing), with only expensive bolt-on garage upgrades you can easily dispose of for nearly what you paid for them.
I already have too much money in it to even consider starting again on a 44 or 60.
Thinking this way is known as "throwing good money after bad."
Plus I dont want to be part of the crowd.
You are going to become part of a different crowd... the crowd that has blown up several 30s.
All I want is ideas of how I should do it. I am doing it my way, AFTER considering all of everyones advice. I have my reasons why, and I have already stated them.
Thanks to everyone that has actually been helpful.
You've got your ideas, most of them were "truss it on the top or get a better axle", and you are going to truss it on the bottom for rock crawling? This is known as "don't confuse me with facts, I have made up my mind" as I said before.
And I guess I shoulda specified this before hand. im trussing the axle to keep the center section rigid.
You would be better served by a truss on the front of the housing than a truss on the top or bottom for this. The way the housing deflects is the open front of the center chunk flexes open wider as the pinion pushes the carrier away from it. A truss somehow constructed across the front (magically without making the cover impossible to remove) would help a lot more than one on the top or the bottom. It also wouldn't reduce your ground clearance. I have a couple ideas in mind for how one could be constructed.
pumpkin, knuckles, inner c's, LCA mounts- all compromise ground clearance
my truss wont hang much lower, maybe a 1/2 in at most.
I'm sorry but a truss that hangs 1/2" lower is not a truss. It is a little bit of plating that will do very little except reduce your ground clearance slightly. Remember also that doing this will effectively make your 35s into 34s ground clearance wise... and 33s are only slightly below that, and a 30 with 33s on it will last all day every day, built inexpensively.
I really wonder why I'm even bothering, every bit of this thread so far indicates that you are still going to take your $100 axle that somehow you've spent too much money on already, spend a lot more money gearing it and polishing it, instead of buying a 44 at the junkyard for 100 and replacing all the same parts on it for approximately the same amount. Do as you will, it's your money, this thread makes my head hurt.
EDIT: as far as not wanting to follow the crowd... look into the dana 50 axle. Most people ignore em, they're about the size of a dana 60 with dana 44 equivalent strength gears. Can be found with 4.10 and 4.56 gears stock iirc, some are TTB (don't want this) and some aren't. I wouldn't be surprised if you can get a damn good price on one somewhere or other simply because most people don't buy them.
