I have a four-door 3 1/2 inch lift sitting on 35's.

In the near future I'm swapping to 488 gears and locking the rear, should I sleeve and gusset the front Dana 30 or should I try to find a used Dana 44 ?? What have all of you done and what are the pros and cons that you guys have found out?
I live in Florida so a lot of what we do is water, sand, mud, with little rock crawling however, when I travel up to Tennessee I still want to be able to do some light rock crawling without anything exploding and I'm not heavy on the right pedal.
Thank you in advance..

 

The rubi44 has better internals. The housing is basically the same as the d30, and will need the same strength upgrades you are already considering. There are plenty of threads going over both sides of the argument on whether to upgrade or replace, and after all these years, there is absolutely no concensus. Do a side-by-side price comparison and see what makes sense to you, for your needs, and your budget, and your driving style, and your location, and...


This compares a d30 upgrade to a PR44, but you could easily make the same chart based on buying a used rubi44 and upgrading it.
https://www.jk-forum.com/forums/modi...-build-274896/

 

It really does come down to money, and how I wheel.
The new crate Dana's for 4400 in the front doesn't seem bad, direct bolt in.

 

That sounds like a good price to you? My suggestion - spend some more time and actually research your options...



That 4400 crate d44 will still need to be regeared, and as noted, will still need to have all of the strength mods you wanted for the d30 added to it. So you are at what, 4700ish after shipping, 800ish to regear it, and 500-600ish for sleeves/gussets + welding? Why would you even consider this instead of a built PR/Tera 44?

You can find new/crate front rubi housings for under $2800. (try Mopar Parts Discounted - Genuine OEM Mopar Parts Discounted up to 35%, Largest selection, delivered to your door)

Or there is a guy on ebay custom building them for under 2k. (there have been several threads on it, should be easy enough to find).

But it's your money. If you are happy paying retail instead of spending a little time on research ...