wanna upgrade to 35's or 36's and needs some advice

ok here's what i have rt now. i have a 96 with RE 4.5" winch bumper, rear rock bumper, sliders, and 32 bfg ko's, on a d35 limited slip and chromoly axels, d30 front with an aussie locker, both 4.56 gears.

ok, so i learned the hard way what it is like to have an auto locker on a dana 30.... run it through some ga clay/mud and have to do a rebuild. so i at least gotta redo my front diff anyway.....

now the plot thickens....... I wanna go bigger to say 35's or 36's.... i have been wanting to go long arm ever since i put the short arm on (duh). i REALLY want to end up with lock out hubs too, at the end of this deal. And on top of that, i want to also have a pretty streetable vehicle as well (if your gonna wish, wish for it all, right) not typically a crazy kind of driver but have been known to get myself in deeper than i should have...lol i wanna be able to drive to go play a few hrs away and feel like i'll probably be able to drive back home when the fun is over. maybe even head in the westerly direction and get to check out some of the promise land some day .....

soooo..... here's what i have confused myself with already. 8" LA (not decided which manufacturer and ride quality is more important than flex if i have to choose) 35's or 36's. i have found a guy that will redo a pair of waggy d44's with detroits, 4.88's for about 3500 (steering woes not included) i do have an extra d30 and chrysler 8.25 laying around that could be utilized..... and I am going to need a sye, rear driveshaft, front driveshaft??, drop pitman arm??

anyway, this is way too much for A)my puny mind to totally wrap around B) try to accomplish without some advice from people who are way smarter than me

thanks in advance.....

i've been wanting to go to 35's, but im not going to go over 6 inches. my goal is to trim the hell out of my fenders and keep 4.5 lift on drop on 35's.

I say use a front D44 and build an 8.25 with a full case locker and some alloy shafts. 35+ is pushing it for a D30 but a properly built D44 should handle it and the 8.25 will be fine with alloys and a full case locker.

Thanks for the input.... trying to figure which d44 front is gonna be the easiest to use

here is what i have found so far ....
1 quadratrac wide track axle - $75
1 front axle - dana 44 / 3.54 gears / flat top knuckles / complete with steering components - $225
1 front axle- dana 44 / 3.54 gears / reg. knuckles / complete with steering components - 200 obo


set of J10 axles - 3. 54 gears /, flat top knuckles / complete with steering - $300 for the set

not sure which are going to be the easiest to get the steering worked out on

$3500 to beef up some Waggy 44s seems very high! There was a guy on here that sold his HP44/9" geared/locked ready to bolt into a XJ for $1500 which was a absolute steal! I would have gotten them & put them under my 98' 2 dr eventhough I'm trying to sell it, thats just awesome price!

Id say to get those junk yard waggy 44s and build them with 5.38s & spools and invest in a do it yourself hydro assist system. With the hydro assist you will have not have lots of trouble turning on the trail, the traction and cost can't be beat...and you can drive it on the street because you can unlock the manual hubs. Can't beat a Waggy 44 junkyard special! The HP44/9" from a late 70s Ford are better axles, but wider & most guys narrow their HP44 to Waggy width so they can run easy to obtain Waggy shafts.
With the waggys you will have 6 on 5.5 so the Toyota/Chevy guys will b your friends...with the HP44/9" you will have 5 on 5.5 so the CJ/Scout/Ford guys will be your friend for spare tires/rims if you break! :laugh:

$3500 is lots of $ for lock/loading some Waggy 44s thats almost custom Currie/Dynatrac range for 44s or even into their dana 60s! :confused1
Troy

jeeperjohn said:

I say use a front D44 and build an 8.25 with a full case locker and some alloy shafts. 35+ is pushing it for a D30 but a properly built D44 should handle it and the 8.25 will be fine with alloys and a full case locker.

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The 97'-01' 29 spline 8.25 isn't a bad axle, but that's a lot of $ to put into 1. When considering you want to go to a 44 in the front, why not get Waggy 44s or HP44/9" out of a late 70s Ford? The only 5 on 4.5 rear axle worth putting $ into probably is a rare XJ rear dana 44 or a 95'-01'? Ford 8.8 out of a Explorer, but those are more in line with keeping the dana 30 up front, then if you have a 8.25 not too bad to beef it up a bit too.
Just when you get into spending thousands, try to make sure you have something worth spending the $ on. In that case I'd lean towards a Ford 9" in the back because that's the Chevy 350 of modifiable axles!!! :confused1

If the 3500 includes front and rear with brackets,shafts, ready to bolt in minus the steering. Thats not a bad price at all. I have almost 2500 just in my front 44.

thx for the responses..... btw.... Sweet Friggin' rigs guys!!!! that's about where i wanna be... eventually. what lifts are u running and how streetable are your toys??

If you want streetable, keep it to 5-6" not 8". You'll be able to fit 35s easily at 5-6" with trimming and bumpstopping. An old buddy from on here had his XJ at 5" with fenders cut for Bush whackers and 35s, looked great!

ok, i'm not too schooled in the differences/advantages/disadvantages of the

front axle - dana 44 / flat top knuckles / complete with steering components
front axle- dana 44 / reg. knuckles / complete with steering components

from what i am gathering here, steering seems to be the biggest issue other than having the bracketry set up properly. which of these 2 should i consider IYHO....

btw.... thx again

Search under flat top knuckles, they're usually what you want from what I've read of other people's d44 builds. Search for Dana 44 builds in here. There's a lot of good info.

Go with the flat top knuckles so you can run high steer. One of the many benefits of going to a dana44.

if you want to keep it streetable

stick to radial 35" tires


don't get me wrong i have daily driven 36 and 37" bias ply tires before and its doable

but the 35" km2's are SO MUCH NICER on the street

I still do all the same trails and obstacles i did on the larger "tougher" tires too

Darky said:

If you want streetable, keep it to 5-6" not 8". You'll be able to fit 35s easily at 5-6" with trimming and bumpstopping. An old buddy from on here had his XJ at 5" with fenders cut for Bush whackers and 35s, looked great!

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Nice upside down bumper:confused1

not to be a prick, but the sweet black jeep says "33's" in its description...

60anny said:

not to be a prick, but the sweet black jeep says "33's" in its description...

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If you read the post, you'll see it also says it's my buddy's Jeep, not mine.

wow deja vu I just did this exact thing not less than a year ago... I went full width with a hp 44 out of a 77 ford and picked up a 44 rear out of a 2wd ford (75-79 but it must e 2wd otherwise all they offered was a 9" for the 4wd)... My cost was 2700 complete which got me alloys all the way around a truss for running a 3 link for the front(already had that)... 3500 seems just a bit much but not by alot trust me I hunted for all my stuff and got deals on EVERYTHING the only thing I paid anywere near full price was the alloys for the front and the rear... I didn't do high steer due to contact issues at full stuff(do some research on this) and it was too much money at the time...

My suggestion is decide now because 35's are good on the 44's but in serious rocks like we have in AZ 36's(which will lead to 37's) will cause you trouble in the rocks with 44's and you really should consider a 9 or 60 or 609 for strength and durability... Oh and if your going to flex it up at all run at least 6" of lift no less it can be done but if you can't stuff the tire then you can seriously limit yourself Im at 6.5(or so) and can fully stuff my 35's but I pretty much don't have fenders anymore( I cut the hell outta them)...

themud

Do alot more reading before you commit to anything I looked around for at least 6 months of research before I made my first move and to put it frankly you sound like a rookie about to just plunk down cash no insult intended at all just trying to help ya so you can spend your benjamins better...