jeepwave

I'm starting to think of swapping out my front d30 for a d44. Reasons for this is that I want lockers and don't feel comfortable locking my d30 and want to step up from 35s to 37s...

I know everyone is going to tell me to save for a prorock44 and I am seriously giving it some thought but I'm wondering if this is a good alternative and if it's even actually going to save me any money....

A local shop has a brand new (I mean literally brand new) d44 front housing? Inner and outer axle shafts and ball joints. He wants $1600 for it

So here is my logic,

I can buy it...sleeve it, gusset the cs, put chromoly shafts on it to beef it up and run the 4.88 and arb air lockers I want to run.


Or I can continue to save up for a Prorock 44...

Keep in mind that whatever I do, I won't be doing my own labour so I would have to pay for that as well.

Thoughts? Opinion?

inspect-a-home

comparison of d30 to a 44 ring and pinion is big, I saved up for the pr44 and have no regrets. I literally plowed into a rock where all tires were spinning, and locked, and aired down, the impact was all on the axle housing, there was no structural damaged.

jeepwave

I kno the comparison is huge thanks for the input


What I'm wondering is if I should need up that $1600 d44 or save up for a pr44

But...I really do want the pr44 lol

Rob 12B1P

To me $1600 seems like too much for a factory housing. I would look for a used housing if your gonna go with a factory one to offset the cost of some of the other mods that need to be done. Especially if the ball joints and axles are the crappy factory ones.

v8zracer260z

Really depends on the type of wheeling you do. If you mainly drive trails and occasional rocks a D44 built will be ok. Just add up all the costs to build the D44 and then compare to the PR44 you won't find much difference. PR44 unlimited is around 2200 plus axles, locker, ect. Figure on replacing the factory ball joints in a year or two also depending on your use of course. Like the previous poster stated PR44 is tough with 1/2 axles and much beefier knuckles too along with improved caster (something you can't do on a D44). My PR44 took a head on collision at 70mph and only bent the pinion gear and barely tweeked a bracket or two. Very strong!