Hi everyone,

I have a couple questions about axle strengthening. My jk is my daily driver, however i wheel very often. I have been told i should get c gussets for my axles. When i went on Northridge4x4 i see that they have axle sleeves and knuckle gussets too, (upper and lower) are these all things i should do? money is not an issue for me. I just want to be well protected when off-roading.

Thanks so much,

Sean

 

YES I DID IT TO MY DD I HAVE 35s WITH 4IN LIFT...DO IT ...

 

All of the aforementioned things are good, just make sure you save up enough cash to pay for spare axle shafts, your U-joints will be the weak point.

 

yes C gussets are worth the added protection. I have the Evo inner sleeves and Evo C gussets. when u say knuckle gussets, are you referring to C gussets or is that something else? if the $$$ is not an issue, then yes I would def get the sleeves and gussets. any added security and peace of mind won't hurt plus the strengthening that it can do for the axle tube and ends

Also if you can weld well, then you can do the work yourself. If not you can like I did, do all the prep work for the sleeves and hopefully you have a buddy with a welder and have him do the welds. If not, it will probably cost a lot for a shop to do this. The Evo sleeves require 20 plus holes to be drilled in your axle tube, which is a pain. The axle shafts have to pulled out and a lot of parts disconnected to be able to drill the holes, but I like working on my own rig.

 

"C" gussets, Sleeves, and if money isnt an issue you can look into an axle truss too..

If you wheel it a lot look into chromoly shafts or even RCV Shafts. Anything you can do to beef up the D30 is good..

 

Upper C Gussets
Lower C Gussets
Inner Sleeves (will interfere with 35sp shafts)
Outer Sleeves
CA Skids
Heavy Duty mounts

Alloy Shafts or RCV's
Upgraded Balljoints
Reid Knuckles

And you just made that tiny little D30 R&P the weak link.


So why are you building up a 'throw-away' D30? Add up all of the costs, then compare it to the price of a new PR44.

 

I'm thinking about this too. Anyone have a break down of what is needed to fill the PR44 housing and what it would cost to complete for someone with a d30 where a lot of the internals cannot be transferred.

 

$4200 (ish) before shipping.
30sp alloy inners, ARB or Detroit (or locker of your choice), gears of your choice, factory bj's, thicker tubes and caster/pinion correction built in.
You will re-use your stock 32sp outers, brakes, knuckles.

RCV's and ProSteers would add a grand.
And then there is the option of D60 outers which gets you manual hubs!!

 

The upper gussets are required (IMO) with the larger tires. If you look at the upper axle "C" you can easily see it is very tall, thin, and weak. Once you add a larger tire you have more leverage (and mass) to bend this weak spot. If the "C" does bend you have a very large headache. The lower gussets are not critical but as long as you are there why not??

If you do a search you will see many pics of broken axle tubes on the long side. Just this week a guy posted pics where he hit a curb in an auto accident and broke his. So the axle tube reinforces this weak point. The shorter side?? Well, just like the gussets, as long as your there.....

Both of these are done relatively cheap and are good insurance IMO.

 

where are you getting this pricing from? is there someone who already has the internals for a package or something? the way I'm seeing it is way over your amount. I'm not doubting you, but I really must be missing something here.

even prosteers and rcv would be aboiut 1,500