My dad has a 2010 2dr JK x with a 2.5in teraflex lift and 35in tires. He wants to get new gears and lockers. He is looking at 4.88 gears and is looking at running an E locker in the rear. If he keeps his d30 up front, can he lock it also? He wants selectable lockers and does not want to run ARB because he doesn't want to mess with on board air. Any suggestions on what type of locker he can run in the rear/front? Will he need to get C gussets and sleeves for his d30?

 

I went ahead and put sleeves and gussets & arb in my dana 30 and arb in rear 44.
Right or wrong will run till it breaks. Went to Moab for easter jeep safari and had a blast,this is my 4 year out their and first year with lockers works great.

 

Scroll down and read the Replies by Dynatrac

https://www.jk-forum.com/forums/show...28-best-locker

From a strength perspective, a d30 eaton elocker is stout. A d44 elocker, not so much. (will he have any issues running the d44 version? Who knows...)

There are a lot of views on the strength of the JK d30. Plan on the C gussets. Get inner and/or outer sleeves if you have the spare cash. And adding lca skids would not be a bad idea.
Your best bet is to reinforce it and not run a locker. Second best would be to reinforce and run a TruTrac. My last choice would be to reinforce and run a lunchbox, simply because there is no way in hell I would drop a grand into a selectable locker for a weak ass 30.



**That said, there are a lot of people that are having no issues at all running their 30's locked. Just depends on how and where you drive it, and how lucky you are.**

 

LOL!! i always find it so amusing to hear people so eager to talk about c gussets and sleeves when it comes to dana 30's. i find it even more amusing that they would be recommended over chromoly shafts especially being that we're talking about lockers here.

if you do lock up your front end, do yourself a favor and get a good set of chromoly shafts. even with them installed, there's a good chance you'll still break one and well before you can bend your housing or break it. trust me, on this one.

 

Different people will have different experiences, and not everyone will see the same problems/issues/breaks that you do.

I have seen over a dozen bent or broken jk housings, including my own, a handful of jk gear failures, including my own, and exactly zero axleshaft breaks. So yes, I recommend housing upgrades, or moving to a 44/60, over chromoly shafts that increase the chance of gear failures on those tiny 4.88-5.38 D30 gears. You have seen more shaft failures, so you recommend shafts first.

Different experiences doesn't make my opinion wrong. Just a different viewpoint...

 

you're absolutely right, different people will have different experiences. me, i sure have seen a lot of axle shaft breaks but only because unlike some people, i actually go wheeling with lots of people all the time. as far as housing breaks go, if i recall, you broke yours while driving on pavement and the others you've heard about were all on the internet. me, i've only seen and helped to fix/recover no less than 3 JK's with broken housing on trails like the rubicon and ALL were on dana 44 front axles. of course, they and the dozen or so that i too have heard of break on the internet DO NOT even account for a fraction of a percent of the thousands of JK's that exist today. but, i can see how your pavement break and the experience you've gained by reading thing on the internet would get you to recommend something like sleeves over chromoly axle shafts in a thread regarding lockers on a dana 30.

 

sleeves are good cheap insurance and if you read what i said carefully, you'd see that i never said not to get them. what i did say is that i find it amusing that sleeves would be recommended over chromoly shafts especially being that we're talking about lockers here. hell, they weren't even mentioned and never get recommended by the axle housing break fear mongers.

 

Thanks for all the feedback guys. I actually told him that there might be problems with the D30 if he locks the front and I suggested that he picks up a different axel, but he wants to keep the d30 and upgrade it. I'll probably try to figure out what it would cost to upgrade the D30 vs. buying a new axel. He's pretty stubborn, so if he breaks it I gues he'll just have to learn the hard way. I told him he should upgrade the front axel even if he keeps it open because he is running 35s. His jeep is mainly used off road.

 

I run 5.13s with my front d30 open and gussets, and I run a detroit in the rear 44..this is with 35s. No problems after some wheeling trips, but I dont plan shining up a turd that is the dana 30 more than I already have..I would leave your front open. Did break my rear driveshaft on the trail yesterday though!

 

you coming to the suds-n-grub this thursday? if not, you should and bring your dad along. i think you guys would have a great time and your dad can talk to lots of folks running similar setups.