I have 35s and a Dana 30 that has been regeared to 4.88, has chromo axles, and has a truss on it. My question has nothing to do with a Dana 44 or upgradeing the complete axle. I want to know if I put in an Aussie locker am I running more or less risk breaking the ring and pinion? Will it cause me any unneeded stress since it's my DD. I understand that it will click and not be good in snow that doesn't bother me.

 

Any ideas?

 

With an open diff, the tire with the least traction will begin to slip (unless something breaks first), taking stress off the ring and pinion. With a locked axle under the same conditions, neither tire will slip until both tires break traction (unless something breaks first). This puts more stress on the axle, making it easier to snap the gears or whatever happens to be the weak link, like axle shafts or u-joints.

 

However with less slippage and tyre spin because your using your lockers the risk of shock loading drive train components drops significantly making breakage far less likely.

 

As a daily driver, you should be fine.
The question is....how rough are you when you're offroad? That will be the make-or-break of a locker with 35s.

I ran an Aussie on my '07 X for two years, with 33" tires, without any problems. Mild offroading, daily driving, even in the snow, and it was fine.

 

ive got a aussie on my 12 jku dana 30 sleeved and gusset and it a hell of a diffrence ,but it does make alot of noise but you get used to it not bad for under 300$

 

I second this - ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I have an Aussie (or the related Lokka) in my D30. I'm running 4.88s, sleeved and gusseted, on stock shafts. I crawl up ANYTHING I try.

I think the thing you need to be most aware of is how you wheel. I rarely use the throttle when I'm crawling unless there is a ledge or area that I have to "bump" up. But sitting and spinning, or using too much throttle - I don't do that.

Today I swapped in a Rubicon transfer case, and added a 2-low shift sector to it. I can now crawl on the trails in 4:1 while just powering the rear wheels. I tell my buddies that it is a poor mans selectable locker.

Oh, and my Jeep is a DD. I've put over 15k miles on it in the last 13 months. I would do it all over again the same way if I had the choice.

 

2 low that's a great idea. I'm really wanting to pull the trigger on this plan.

 

I went through this dilemma myself and ended up with a TrueTrac instead to be installed tomorrow. $370 plus installation. I could install it myself but am also getting an Artec armor kit and new ball joints at the same time.

 

There have been a few posts indicating that the weak spot is the spiders, not the r&p. So adding a traction device that replaces them may actually increase strength inside the pumpkin, while also doing more to limit wheel spin and help prevent snapped shafts or gear implosions.

Maybe one of the gear guru's will see this thread and chime in.