Solid axle swap underway.
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Post by ES_97Sport on Jan 1, 2016 18:01:45 GMT -5
Okay thanks man! I was planning on using something that was easy to find, fix, and be solid for offroad use and DD. What was wrong with the mentioned setup? No, nothing wrong, but there are GM, Ford and Chrysler D44 outers. All of them use different brakes. More specifically, different brake calipers. Depending on what you choose for an axle, you may need a different brake caliper/BMC choice. Edward
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Post by bdmontero on Jul 28, 2016 12:04:30 GMT -5
Okay so my wife asked me a question and I thought it was a good one. She asked why I couldn't do a IFS lift with the 4.90's and if I didn't like it sell it and do the SAS. Seemed like a viable question. Let's assume money is not a problem. I am honestly wanting an expedition vehicle. I thought it was a good question
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Post by jkdv8 on Jul 28, 2016 20:14:52 GMT -5
Do it but don't sell it. You give her that one and get you another. Trail buddies.
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Post by bdmontero on Jul 28, 2016 20:51:48 GMT -5
^thats awesome. Literally I might man. I probably should do the SAS and eventually I will I think. But now I just wanted to be prepared for either. Its a lot to think about. I know DC did his and loved it. I know once the cutting torch comes out there's no going back. I found a different lift than the one BTV was selling also.
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Post by ES_97Sport on Jul 28, 2016 21:45:42 GMT -5
Okay so my wife asked me a question and I thought it was a good one. She asked why I couldn't do a IFS lift with the 4.90's and if I didn't like it sell it and do the SAS. Seemed like a viable question. Let's assume money is not a problem. I am honestly wanting an expedition vehicle. I thought it was a good question It is a very good question. The first three things you need answers to ... #1 - What is the purpose of the vehicle, and ... #2 - What level - or in this situation what capabilities - do I need/want, and ... #3 - What is the best solution to the problem(s). You've basically answered #1. By specifying 'an expedition' vehicle, that assumes some basic requirements ... Comfortable to drive/ride in over long distances, large cargo capacity, large fuel capacity and/or very efficient, public roadway/off-road capable over very diverse terrain, ultra-reliable, easy and inexpensive to maintain, maintainable and repairable in the field, appropriate dimensions for the terrain. Now you need to look at #2. How long is 'long distances'? When you answer that you will know how to address 'large fuel capacity...'. 'public roadway' means it has to be street legal. KIM, that means street legal wherever you are going to go so .... 'diverse terrain' obviously needs to be narrowed down. Think long and hard about this and consider not just what you want to do NOW, but what you may want to do 10-15 years from now. And also consider ' what you might HAVE to do'. An 'expedition vehicle' has to be built not just to do the expected, but to also get you out of the unexpected. The vehicle needs to be capable of getting you back out of stuff you may unexpectedly encounter in the middle of nowhere with no additional support. Washed out roads. Flooding. Mud. Deep sand. Unstable terrain. Rock slides. Snow. Extreme heat/cold. Like the odds of getting into an accident, the odds of encountering an 'Act of God' go way up as the number of miles traveled increases. Then there is "ultra-reliable, easy and inexpensive to maintain, maintainable and repairable in the field". You can not depend on someone else bailing you out of the back side of BFE if something goes wrong. Because of the extended distances, remoteness and types of terrain typical of 'expedition' travel, personal risk - the chance someone could die - goes WAY up. Brakes that fail going down a 60 degree incline - see Lions Back in Moab or Webster Pass in CO -, ball joint or tie rod end failure going around a corner along a 800 ft drop, or a busted CV joint leaving you stranded without 4WD 100 miles from the nearest paved road in 100F+ degree temperatures. The extended miles traveled requires 'easy and inexpensive'. Trust me, you do not want to be rebuilding your vehicle before every trip. It gets expensive and exhausting and a PITA and eventually you won't want to go anywhere because getting ready is just a giant flaming PITA which leads to 'marital discord'. Besides which, most people are not independently wealthy - replacing CV joints, TREs, ball joints, springs, etc. once a year is EXPENSIVE. And then you have 'repairable in the field'. Something is going to break, some day, somewhere. That is a guarantee. The one thing that you can be assured of is it will be the worst time, in the most inconvenient location, and it will be stupid and life threatening and ruin your vacation. And it will be horridly expensive to have someone bail you out. Everything should be either non-essential or repairable with tools and parts you can keep on hand, or be major parts like the differential carriers, transmission, transfer case and engine that should be carefully inspected before each trip and religiously maintained. You need to go through all of this and really think it through, like I said. And now #3 ... Yes. You can make an 'expedition vehicle' out of an IFS SUV. And put a lift on it. And a body lift. And tires. And a bumper. And whatever. And depending on what you consider 'expedition travel' or the level thereof, it could be - probably would be - just peachy fine. But, a three day camping trip in an adjacent state IS NOT 'EXPEDITION TRAVEL'. Nor is hauling your family to Yellowstone. Or wheeling the local trails 100 miles from your house with your buddies. 'Expedition travel' is hauling your butt several (many) hundreds of miles somewhere, followed by many more hundreds or thousands of miles tooling around the back side of nowhere with a lot of unknowns and no support, and then getting yourself and your passengers back (more hundreds of miles) safe. Putting on 2-3000 miles of 'expedition travel' is like putting on an entire year of city/hwy travel (30K-40K miles) in a couple of weeks. A vehicle has to be designed for and built to take this. You can't just 'patch' something together. I question whether what you really need is a heavy duty extended camping vehicle - which is well within the scope of a virtually stock Sport - or a real expedition vehicle, which is not. Assuming you really want and need an expedition vehicle to do expedition travel, part of the answer to your wife's question is, "Its not about what you 'like', its about what you need." In fact, to a large extent its not even about what you want. Its about what works and what does not. IFS is neither simple, durable, easy to maintain, cheap, or easy to fix and there are a lot of points of failure. I guarantee that the first time you have to spend an entire day (or two) somewhere replacing a CV joint, that will be the LAST time that truck goes anywhere with her in it and you will never hear the end of 'the trip, when that thing happened, that totally ruined the family vacation, ...' And that's the BEST that could happen. If you KNOW you need a true expedition vehicle, then messing around trying to put a couple band-aids on something is a waste of time and money AND ITS DANGEROUS. There are just some things that you NEED. I didn't do a SAS on my Sport just for the sake of having a SAS. I wanted it because it got me the things that I had to have, like cargo weight capacity, simplicity, durability, ease of maintenance and repair, and cheap maintenance and repair. And simply the capabilities to get to the places I want (and don't know I want yet) to go - like much larger tires, ground clearance, articulation, locking front and rear axles, and massively decreased turning radius. And the other thing is strengthening critical parts to withstand the stresses caused by OTHER things you'll need to do. 35" tires and lockers put a lot of stress on parts depending on the terrain. Carrying enough gear + passengers for a week or two or three trip IS A LOT OF WEIGHT. Even if you micro-miniaturize everything. Wife, two/three kids + gear + food + fuel + water for a week/two weeks can push 1000+ lbs. That kind of load, off road, over long distances and rough terrain, is going to BREAK things like springs, arms, joints, brackets, axle shafts, etc. if you don't build for it. And there are things that you really need to make all the other things work together as a complete unit. Like much deeper transfer case ratio(s) to be able to manage a 7000 lb vehicle off road without breaking things. Axle gearing falls into different categories. You need it for fuel efficiency, comfort or driveability which could be the same or two different things, relieving stress on the drive train (everything between the engine and diffs), off road capabilities which includes both managing wheeling a 7000 lb loaded vehicle and being able to do haul 7000 lbs up a 50 degree incline with a tiny engine. Its for the most part impossible to get deep enough Mitsu gearing - 4.90s isn't enough so you can scrap that idea right now. I have already worked this out for the '99. On 35"s, you NEED 5.13s or more likely 5.29s and a BIG A/T cooler or you're going to be changing transmissions like you change your socks. This is another thing where what you want is irrelevant - you need to do it this way or it doesn't work. I'm not at all sure what you really think you're going to do with your Sport. I'm making assumptions based on your saying 'expedition vehicle' but I realize that most people think 'expedition driving' means a road trip to Disney Land and they got lost in St. Louis on the way. What I do, to most people, is about 2 steps below crossing the Sahara on a camel. Edward
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Post by bdmontero on Jul 28, 2016 22:34:55 GMT -5
Absolutely I believe you've been where most people don't go. Lol. But yes I mean expedition in the terms of local national parks. I wanted to take a road trip to Washington state but like you said there's things to consider. I think why she asked is because I explained the SAS process to her and she got a crazy look on her face. Lol but as an "expedition vehicle I mean nothing worse than national park terrain here and fire roads. But you have also struck some pretty good points about durability. Did DC have any problems with his? I think mainly what she was saying is change the vehicle when your wheeling changes. I guess if I keep having horrible problems with the IFS to step up and do the SAS. Its hard convincing cutting off the factory parts and replacing with different parts is safer. I know it is but convincing her is a different story. Lol
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Post by bdmontero on Jul 29, 2016 12:38:07 GMT -5
Okay update today. Ive got her convinced that spending 6000 once is better than spending it over and over. So I will keep looking for a Dana 44 HP. Plus I was talking to my buddy here and he said we would stop wheeling with me if I did the IFS lift. Lol
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Post by pinstryper on Jul 29, 2016 16:18:36 GMT -5
The man speaks from experience
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Post by ES_97Sport on Jul 29, 2016 18:41:06 GMT -5
Once is definitely better. And you need to add in all the maintenance that will be incurred, too, before you do the SAS. As you know, I'm not one to slam on Mitsu quality, but you really do pay for what you get. That was a big point in my decision back when. My grandparents started taking me on multi-hundred mile week+ trips where we'd spend probably 1/3 of that off road when I was three years old, so I grew up around the maintenance, cost, issues, and everything else involved with doing that. Just maintenance, repair and parts costs will start to approach the actual cost of a SAS in a relatively short time. You can spend a $1000 in parts alone replacing just the steering components and CV shafts on a Mitsu. All four TREs and two u-joints - the equivalent on my setup - is about $300 and I replace stuff a lot less frequently. lol! I don't think you'd be particularly unhappy with the IFS lift itself. The issue is that it maintains almost all the OEM parts - which is the actual issue a SAS addresses. I never thought of it, but I should have took a comparison pic of an OEM Mitsu TREs, the 1/2-3/4 ton 2022/23 GM TREs and the 1-ton 2441/42 GM TREs I'm running now. The OEM TREs are small compared to the 2022/23, but their tiny compared to the 2441/42. The drag link for those joints is 1.5"x.25" wall DOM - the shank is 1" in diameter. Its kind of the same thing with the radius arms on a SAS. You replace eight small rubber bushings with four much larger bushings (in poly) - which get less wear due to the design than the control arm bushings. Four TREs, idler arm and Pittman arm with four MUCH more massive TREs. Four CV joints with two equivalent u-joints. Four stamped control arms with two much more durable radius arms. When you really break various setups down into their individual components, it doesn't take long to see where costs, maintenance, repairs, etc. will start to add up. I'm spoiled 'cause I have a SAS'd vehicle. I already know what its like. From you're wife's viewpoint, this has got to sound completely insane. But, done right, its not that big a deal. Vehicles had solid axles LONG before IFS/IRS. Honestly, I don't care to drive a stock Sport anymore. Even my x and the kids preferred riding in my Sport rather than our '99 Limited. Its actually more comfortable than either the Gen 1 or Gen 2 - softer than the Gen 1 and less wishy-washy soft than the Gen 2. AND I especially like the steering on my SAS over the OEM steering on either the Gen 1 or Gen 2. Its not Corvette fast, but its faster than the OEM steering and I have a turning radius that would embarrass the crud out of most compact cars. I think you're biggest worry would be whether you'll get it all done and loose your vehicle and have to start over on another one so you'll have something to drive. lol!! I know it sounds stupid given how they look and people really don't expect it, but once the SAS is done they're nimble as hell. Whoever invented the radius arm suspension was a genius! ... But yes I mean expedition in the terms of local national parks. I wanted to take a road trip to Washington state but like you said there's things to consider. ... but as an "expedition vehicle I mean nothing worse than national park terrain here and fire roads. But you have also struck some pretty good points about durability. Ok. Yea, there's a significant difference if you're plans are to keep more on the beaten path. But, yes, durability doesn't really change. I don't know how it is in the NW, but the NPs here and in UT can be pretty desolate. And it still doesn't change having a vehicle capable of dealing with the unexpected. You can't always be sure even in relatively populous areas that something won't happen that turns a through road into a dead end or makes a normally passable road impassable. Some years ago my parents went camping in the early fall above Glenwood Springs here in CO. Just plain camping in the NF off a maintained, two lane wide gravel county road. It had been cloudless and in the mid 70Fs for weeks. Nothing forecast in the weather. They went to bed around 9 PM and woke up to 2.5' of snow. Freak snowstorm that just came in out of the blue. Same thing happened to my dad and I while up hunting only we were a lot further into the back country. 7-8 years ago I was southwest of Denver doing a little wheeling. The highway is quite long and follows the front range from Denver to Colorado Springs. Either you go to Denver or you go to Co Springs or you start heading west for a long ways into the mountains. On the way back home on the same road I'd traveled down that afternoon, I ran into a rock slide across the road. It was 11PM at night and I didn't have enough fuel to get 80-90+ miles to the nearest station. I had to cross the slide of big 3-4' rocks in order to get home. A couple years ago NP personnel had to rescue a couple tour Suburbans full of tourists on White Rim because 8-10 miles from the end of the trail there had been a rock slide earlier that day and they didn't have enough fuel to make the entire almost 100 mile trip twice and the vehicles weren't outfitted to do more than travel what borders on being a paved road. I've been caught in rain storms that have turned ROADS - not trails - impassible to even my Sport. Most recently Long Canyon last August. I've had to turn around and drive back 100+ miles due to highway closures because of forest fires. I've gotten accidentally stuck driving trails where by the time I realized I was on a trail and not a road that the maps said it was, it was too late to turn around. Lockhart Basin is the poster child there. (Lesson here? Take multiple maps! ) I could go on for several pages of all the unexpected and potentiality life threatening things that I've run across over the years and a lot of them really didn't happen in any serious out of the way locations and I sure as hell don't go looking for them! I think I understand pretty much what you're planning on doing with the vehicle, but don't assume because you'll be keeping to county roads and National Parks and National Forests that you'll be safe. Like I said before, the more distance you travel the more likely it will be you'll have to deal with something. Being prepared to deal with it is really the thing. And you're family will appreciate it if only from the standpoint that whatever comes up doesn't ruin your vacation. Which is a point of view your wife would understand. "Unexpected events" make for family stories and entertaining vacations that are remembered for a lifetime. The trick is to make sure they end well. Not that I'm aware of. At least not with the lift itself. AFAIK it was just replacing steering and CV joints. Yep. That's because she's never been in a situation where something nasty could have been prevented. Unfortunately, that's usually what it takes to educate someone with zero knowledge. My X was like that. It took several 'incidents' (not us, thankfully) for her to understand the consequences. They don't have to understand anything else, just the consequences. That usually does it. And after a couple uneventful trips with the SAS where you point out the dead Nissan beside the road and why its dead, she'll be plenty happy. Edward
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Post by bdmontero on Jul 29, 2016 22:08:14 GMT -5
Okay I just shot an email to independent 4x. Well see what they say.
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Post by bdmontero on Jul 30, 2016 17:39:41 GMT -5
Would this work for the rear Ed? Obviously I still need a locker but I need a LWB axle right?
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Post by bdmontero on Jul 30, 2016 17:40:02 GMT -5
Once is definitely better. And you need to add in all the maintenance that will be incurred, too, before you do the SAS. As you know, I'm not one to slam on Mitsu quality, but you really do pay for what you get. That was a big point in my decision back when. My grandparents started taking me on multi-hundred mile week+ trips where we'd spend probably 1/3 of that off road when I was three years old, so I grew up around the maintenance, cost, issues, and everything else involved with doing that. Just maintenance, repair and parts costs will start to approach the actual cost of a SAS in a relatively short time. You can spend a $1000 in parts alone replacing just the steering components and CV shafts on a Mitsu. All four TREs and two u-joints - the equivalent on my setup - is about $300 and I replace stuff a lot less frequently. lol! I don't think you'd be particularly unhappy with the IFS lift itself. The issue is that it maintains almost all the OEM parts - which is the actual issue a SAS addresses. I never thought of it, but I should have took a comparison pic of an OEM Mitsu TREs, the 1/2-3/4 ton 2022/23 GM TREs and the 1-ton 2441/42 GM TREs I'm running now. The OEM TREs are small compared to the 2022/23, but their tiny compared to the 2441/42. The drag link for those joints is 1.5"x.25" wall DOM - the shank is 1" in diameter. Its kind of the same thing with the radius arms on a SAS. You replace eight small rubber bushings with four much larger bushings (in poly) - which get less wear due to the design than the control arm bushings. Four TREs, idler arm and Pittman arm with four MUCH more massive TREs. Four CV joints with two equivalent u-joints. Four stamped control arms with two much more durable radius arms. When you really break various setups down into their individual components, it doesn't take long to see where costs, maintenance, repairs, etc. will start to add up. I'm spoiled 'cause I have a SAS'd vehicle. I already know what its like. From you're wife's viewpoint, this has got to sound completely insane. But, done right, its not that big a deal. Vehicles had solid axles LONG before IFS/IRS. Honestly, I don't care to drive a stock Sport anymore. Even my x and the kids preferred riding in my Sport rather than our '99 Limited. Its actually more comfortable than either the Gen 1 or Gen 2 - softer than the Gen 1 and less wishy-washy soft than the Gen 2. AND I especially like the steering on my SAS over the OEM steering on either the Gen 1 or Gen 2. Its not Corvette fast, but its faster than the OEM steering and I have a turning radius that would embarrass the crud out of most compact cars. I think you're biggest worry would be whether you'll get it all done and loose your vehicle and have to start over on another one so you'll have something to drive. lol!! I know it sounds stupid given how they look and people really don't expect it, but once the SAS is done they're nimble as hell. Whoever invented the radius arm suspension was a genius! ... But yes I mean expedition in the terms of local national parks. I wanted to take a road trip to Washington state but like you said there's things to consider. ... but as an "expedition vehicle I mean nothing worse than national park terrain here and fire roads. But you have also struck some pretty good points about durability. Ok. Yea, there's a significant difference if you're plans are to keep more on the beaten path. But, yes, durability doesn't really change. I don't know how it is in the NW, but the NPs here and in UT can be pretty desolate. And it still doesn't change having a vehicle capable of dealing with the unexpected. You can't always be sure even in relatively populous areas that something won't happen that turns a through road into a dead end or makes a normally passable road impassable. Some years ago my parents went camping in the early fall above Glenwood Springs here in CO. Just plain camping in the NF off a maintained, two lane wide gravel county road. It had been cloudless and in the mid 70Fs for weeks. Nothing forecast in the weather. They went to bed around 9 PM and woke up to 2.5' of snow. Freak snowstorm that just came in out of the blue. Same thing happened to my dad and I while up hunting only we were a lot further into the back country. 7-8 years ago I was southwest of Denver doing a little wheeling. The highway is quite long and follows the front range from Denver to Colorado Springs. Either you go to Denver or you go to Co Springs or you start heading west for a long ways into the mountains. On the way back home on the same road I'd traveled down that afternoon, I ran into a rock slide across the road. It was 11PM at night and I didn't have enough fuel to get 80-90+ miles to the nearest station. I had to cross the slide of big 3-4' rocks in order to get home. A couple years ago NP personnel had to rescue a couple tour Suburbans full of tourists on White Rim because 8-10 miles from the end of the trail there had been a rock slide earlier that day and they didn't have enough fuel to make the entire almost 100 mile trip twice and the vehicles weren't outfitted to do more than travel what borders on being a paved road. I've been caught in rain storms that have turned ROADS - not trails - impassible to even my Sport. Most recently Long Canyon last August. I've had to turn around and drive back 100+ miles due to highway closures because of forest fires. I've gotten accidentally stuck driving trails where by the time I realized I was on a trail and not a road that the maps said it was, it was too late to turn around. Lockhart Basin is the poster child there. (Lesson here? Take multiple maps! ) I could go on for several pages of all the unexpected and potentiality life threatening things that I've run across over the years and a lot of them really didn't happen in any serious out of the way locations and I sure as hell don't go looking for them! I think I understand pretty much what you're planning on doing with the vehicle, but don't assume because you'll be keeping to county roads and National Parks and National Forests that you'll be safe. Like I said before, the more distance you travel the more likely it will be you'll have to deal with something. Being prepared to deal with it is really the thing. And you're family will appreciate it if only from the standpoint that whatever comes up doesn't ruin your vacation. Which is a point of view your wife would understand. "Unexpected events" make for family stories and entertaining vacations that are remembered for a lifetime. The trick is to make sure they end well. Not that I'm aware of. At least not with the lift itself. AFAIK it was just replacing steering and CV joints. Yep. That's because she's never been in a situation where something nasty could have been prevented. Unfortunately, that's usually what it takes to educate someone with zero knowledge. My X was like that. It took several 'incidents' (not us, thankfully) for her to understand the consequences. They don't have to understand anything else, just the consequences. That usually does it. And after a couple uneventful trips with the SAS where you point out the dead Nissan beside the road and why its dead, she'll be plenty happy. Edward Would this work for the rear Ed? Obviously I still need a locker but I need a LWB axle right?
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Post by bdmontero on Jul 31, 2016 22:21:16 GMT -5
What's the possibility of having an axle built ready for a swap shipped here? Cost?
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Post by ES_97Sport on Aug 1, 2016 14:07:37 GMT -5
What's the possibility of having an axle built ready for a swap shipped here? Its not a possibility, AFAIK every company that sells axles builds them to your spec and then will ship them to wherever you like. Dynatrac, Currie are just two. There are a LOT more. Some will do ground up custom builds like Dynatrac, where NOTHING is OEM. Everything is new and their design. The ProRock 44 JK replaced the Currie 44 in the rear of the big Sport. Give them the dimensions, brake setup, gear ratio (if you like and I recommend), whether you want a locker or not and what kind and it'll show up at your door ready to bolt in except pads. Currie will do the same thing. There are also companies that will build OEM alxes with all new HD CroMo parts, slap in the gears and locker you want and ship it out. Bare if you want or with brakes. Some will shorten or lengthen the tubes, too. I don't like these as much as, say, Dynatrac, because they're still OEM tubes and housings. I'm biased and that's probably just a bit hypocritical since I've never had a problem with either D44 and except for cromo shafts, they're OEM. Well, except for spinning the PS tube in the housing - but that's something you can request to have fixed when you order. Mostly no one sends out housings without the tubes welded anymore, but .... THAT is the question. More then $250, I can tell you that for sure. The question is whether the cost is worth it. Dynatrac, for example, will ship a complete axle to your spec. I mean COMPLETE. You supply lug nuts, arm brackets/spring pads, brake pads, brake lines and gear oil. You weld on the spring perches for leafs or perches and brackets for coils, bolt the axle in, attach brake lines, install pads, fill it up with gear oil, bleed the brakes and bolt up the drive shaft. What you save with this solution is labor and time. You can't just get an axle out of the junk yard and bolt it in. You will need to completely strip the axle, cut all the brackets off, bead blast it, repaint, replace what needs replaced, install the locker and re-setup the gears, and put it all back together. Plus you will need to get cromo shafts if you want them - which will be impossible for most non-Dana axles. What you get with a junk yard axle is the ability to trade your time for dollars. If you have lots of personal time, then this is a way to go. If you have no time like me but dollar bills, then you can just by an axle ready to go. One thing that you get with a pre-built to spec axle is really important to me is the ability to spec it completely out. Trying to make something fit is time consuming - i.e. costly - and you never end up with exactly what you want. You always have to compromise 'cause stuff just doesn't quite fit right. If you are having someone do this who hasn't done your particular vehicle before, a pre-built will save them a LOT of headaches and time. In the case of Dynatrac (and others), if you get both axles from the same place, you can have them built with the same brakes front and rear. In other words, you won't have GM on one end and Ford on the other end requiring wierd tuning to get them to play together, or like in my case, 1/2" lugs on one end and 7/16" lugs on the other. You can order drum/disk, disk/disk or whatever and it'll all be the same. The Dynatrac JK axles can come with all JK brakes, which means that all you have to supply is the correct bore BMC and you're done. You can also have them done in different lug patterns if necessary. The downside is cost. pre-built will run anywhere from $3000-8000 per axle. It depends on who you go with and how much 'bling' you order it with. My axles will run about $7000-8000 each, but these are loaded ProRock axles. The D44 I have now was about $6000. My original D44s in '02 were about $5500 each. Again, they were all loaded to the hilt. IMHO, if I were going to do this and I was only going to do one, and I wanted the easiest and cheapest to maintain, simplest, bulletproof setup, and I wanted the simplest setup to install, I'd go pre-built. Hands down. I talked to one of the guys at the shop a few months ago about axles. Just window shopping mostly. He brought up some headaches over the years that I've had to deal with that are on the verge of having no solutions because of age - both the age of the parts, availability and lack of people who know anything about said stuff anymore. His viewpoint was if he were going to do a SAS, rather than piece it together as we did originally, just to buy FR/RR axles pre-built where everything matched and used the latest generation technology and parts. He pointed out the one drawback - its expensive up front. It'll pay for itself down the road because axles like the ProRock are built to take way more abuse then we'd ever subject them to but that doesn't change the fact of a large initial cash outlay. You'll really have to do a lot of surfing. There are a lot of places and prices vary pretty widely. As I said, I'm a ProRock snob so I don't keep up with the other manufacturers too closely. Edward
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Post by ES_97Sport on Aug 1, 2016 14:09:42 GMT -5
Would this work for the rear Ed? Obviously I still need a locker but I need a LWB axle right? Not sure. I just ran across the WMF dimensions a couple days ago but I wasn't paying attention. I have the fan controlers coming in today and Wed so I'll be installing those this weekend. I'll pull the wheels and measure the axle widths before I start the fans and post those up. Edward
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