Extremneon

In the process of deciding on building up my Dana 44's or just go all out and replace them?

2016 Jeep Unlimited Rubicon currently on 37's and Evo Coilovers. I have plans on later down the road to drop in a built 6.2 LS motor. For now I am looking at a Sprintex Supercharger for the little 3.6 to help with the power I am missing.

My original plan was to swap the 4.10 gears to 4.88's or something a little lower. Truss the front and rear, gusset the c's, swap the balljoints, install RCV axle shafts and HD diff covers. Those mod were around the 5k mark just to upgrade the Dana 44's front and rear. Also was looking at installing the Mopar big brake kit to help with stopping the Jeep.

Now... I having been toying with the ideal to swap the front to a Dana 60 from a Super Duty and rear to a 14 bolt or Sterlin 10.5. The draw back is obviously more money, I will need to have my New Adam's 1350 driveshafts cutted shorter. I will also have to dismount five ATX Slab beadlocks from my 37's then sell them and purchase new rims in the 8 x 170 lug pattern. So even more money spent...

Hopefully I will make a decision here in the next few days or so. I had almost dropped all the money on the Dana 44 upgrades, but holding out now to see what I can do with full out swap to 1 ton axles.

jedg

First is what do you plan to do with this rig? Rock crawl, mall crawl, overland, etc...

Next is to speak with Fusion4x4 if you want good info on 1-tons.

Extremneon

This will be a trail rig, with light road travel, not my dd.

Plan on speaking with them on Thursday.

ade

6.2 LS down the road says 1tons to me. If you can do the work yourself with a little help now and then 1tons can be done for $5k. You may if not already want to look at long arms at the same time.

ShutterBug

Hindsight is usually 20/20. You would have saved a lot of money by starting with a Sport. The premium you paid for the Rubicon would have paid for the tons.

Extremneon

This is how I am leaning too..

Yeah, I should have just got a sport and saved the cash. Seeing now I am just planning on swapping the axles too 1 tons within 6 months of purchasing the Jeep.

Hopefully I can sell the axles and make some of the difference for the swap is also my plan. I would imagine a set of Dana 44's with 4.10 gears and less than 500 miles on them should be worth $3000 to $3500 fully assembled with brakes, tierod and draglink. Only modification too them is Synergy front track bar and rear Evo trackbar which are both easily removed. I plus have a new set of Synergy ball joints and Posion Spyder Diff covers that are still in the boxes. The covers have been painted blue and black and clear coated with brand new Lube Locker gaskets to go with them.

Would lIke to keep the cost to around 8k for the axles all out... with the sell of the Dana 44 axles, it should put me close to what I was going to spend on the Dana 44 upgrades. Atleast this what I am shooting for. I know I will have some loss in the rims to sell them and purchase new 8 lug rims, hopefully marginal at that. As they are new ATX Slabs and I have still have the orginal boxes for them box them up and sell.

jedg

Doesn't necessarily mean you need complete 1-tons. Contact Fusion4x4 and speak with them. I've got a 6.0 L96 in mine that is modestly built. I rock crawl it occasionally and drive it on the road often. Their recommendation for me was a D60 up front (I think it was a 99-04) and then build the rear D44.

As a heads up (unless Fusion4x4 has figured out a solution) the Sterling 10.5 causes problems with clearance between it and the fuel tank. So the 14-bolt is usually a better solution. I know some folks were trying to use the 2-door fuel tank in place of the 4-door to get the clearance. Others said they made it work, though I've never seen any photos that show this.

Ultimately, I'd speak with Fusion as they have great amount of knowledge on this topic.

Good luck with the build. I'm envious!

Jonathan_JK

I say go with the 10.5 in the rear. I just broke my rear 44. For now it's going to get patched up. My ultimate goal is a 10.5 in the rear and an ultimate 60 up front.

Extremneon

Yeah, I seen they recommend a Dana 60 for the front and spacers for the Dana 44 in the rear to keep the cost around 5k for the upgrade. As the rear dana 44 is pretty underated axles for the Jeep. Then running a 5 on 5.5 pattern on the rims with a rear spacer to get it in line with the front.

Also seen the Sterling has a offset housing to the passanger side that can cause interfere with the gas tank. Seems most just move the tank or end up messaging the tank some to help with clearance with the axle. But, you are right, maybe the 14 bolt is a better option.

Will definitely keep everybody posted on which route I go and what I end up with.


Definitely how I am leaning.. want future proof with added horsepower to come.

Monte417

I cant believe this hasnt been asked yet but what is your end goal in terms of tire size? You say you are on 37s now so are you sticking with 37s long term? If it was me and im dropping tons in along with a big boy engine you better believe 40s are going under there. Just seems like kind of a waste to just run 37s on something so capable. If you are sticking with 37s I would run your 44s until/if it breaks. Im going on my 4th season with rubi axles and 37s and the housing is just fine. Obviously this hant been the case for everybody. My thing is slow speed crawling no fast shit. My mods are gears, chromoly shafts (ujoints), HD brackets and gussets. No truss and no sleeves. Stay away from pricey rcv shafts and just run regular sealed spicer ujoints on some chromoly shafts to make the ujoints your weak link. I went with 10 factory. Most people including myself dont wheel hard enough to warrant tons on 37s. If you break address going to a 60 then. The only repairs ive done on my axle is balljoints and brackets. My wheel bearing are still good with 125k on them believe it or not. Ujoints have 80k. Good luck with whatever you decide and I really would give fusion a call they seem to know their shit. I met Dan at rausch he seemed like a good guy

edit: That option with the 99-04 60 upfront with wheel adapters in the rear seems like a good plan. That is something I myself would definately consider when the time comes.