How many stock Dana 44z hav bent due to wheeling with larger tires an any info on sleeving the axles would b great and f u had urs sleeved how do u like it an f on the east coast who did it .

 

I haven't heard of any personally. Our local jeep club has been through some fairly foolish things. Dana 30's to 60's and I've never seen a bend.

 

I hav Jus read various articles that had spoke about how the axles are the jkz weakness especially when wheeling with bigger than stock tires.

 

On my dana 30 i just had C gussets and wheeled blues at RC running 38 inch tires. No problems. Now I do have a D44 that is waiting for me to install the gears that has been sleeved, C gussets and trussed. My opinion is if you are going to run 37s or bigger. Do the sleeves when you get your gears done. If your gears are done then I would do the external sleeve from RSE.

 

I sleeved and gusseted mine. A few months back I was at a local shop and they were replacing an axle housing that snapped. It now hangs on the wall and helps sell sleeves. They are fairly easy to install. I did mine myself. A local shop quoted $600 to install sleeves and gussets (plus parts).

Sleeves are available from many sources. Installing them requires removing the axles and carrier. You should combine the effort with a re-gear to save duplication of effort if the re-gear is in your future.

Larger tires has noting to do with it. Larger diameter tires require more power to lift your vehicle over obstacles and that places more load on your axles, gears, drive shaft and engine. Your axles might twist and snap due to the tires being too large, but the housing won't bend.

 

Thanks for all the info! I look a lot into preventive maintenance and need to regear and was Jus thinking about havn it done and needed some input