I'm going to be upgrading to a D44 front here in a couple weeks. I was hoping to also invest in a t-case gearing solution at the same time. I can drop $2000 on a solution.
Current solutions seem to be:
- NP231J Rubicon 4:1 Case
- Underdrive + D300 Flip
- Atlas II
- 231 + D300 Double Case
- 231 + Tera Low
Some thoughts on the above:
- Due to the lower horsepower of the 4.0, the fact that I have a light foot, I don't know if going for an Atlas makes sense. If I could save money by getting an NP241J, the end effect would be the same .. lower gearing, 2 settings (hi/lo), etc.
- There's something attractive about going with the underdrive or dual t-case setups in that you get 2 different lows and a high. Having a standard 1:1 on the highway, but being able to get yourself reasonably low for trail riding and then really low for rock crawling is very cool.
- The 231 + Tera Low has overall horrible feedback from everyone. Noisy, weak, price is close to many of the above options by the time you factory in wanting to beef up the 231 with better input/output shafts and chains, etc.
It seems that a dual case setup would be the best bang for buck from what I've seen. Underdrives run $1500, a D300 a couple hundred dollars, and labor/machine work would seem to bring it to around $2k. That would be the same as going with my 231, getting one of the adapters on Pirate for $500 and then mating it to a Dana 300.
Here's the problem:
- I don't have the tools or experience to pull that off. Brake jobs, tune-ups, bolt on suspensions, etc are the easy stuff. When it gets to this level, I want help. I've called a half-dozen shops around here and no one had a clue what I was talking about.
Which means, if I can't get a doubler setup because I can't find anyone who can help, then I'll need to go with a 241J, even if it isn't my dream solution, because it's something I or any shop can figure out.