You're going to need engine upgrades. The 3.8 doesn't cut it. Fender flares for sure, and 5.38 gears would be helpful.

 

you want to do this with a dana 30?? hell, i don't even recommend it with a 44. really, you can forget about gussetting, trussing and sleeves because none of that's going to matter when you blow your front axle shafts even if you upgrade to chromo. also, a 5.13 pinion on a dana 30 is super tiny as it is and i wouldn't even trust it with a 37. even if you only hope to do light wheeling, you really want to upgrade to something like a prorock 44 up front. if you hope to wheel harder even if just in the mud, you really want to be looking at 60's. again, this is more for axle shaft strength and side of your r&p than anything. you can still drive with a bent housing and beefing it up should be an afterthought to shafts.

 

honestly, i simply do not understand why everyone always looks to gussetting and sleeving and completely gloss over AXLE SHAFTS. gussets and sleeves are nice to have but far from being as important as shafts - they are after all what will break and will put an end to your day.

i wheel with super big and heavy 40" toyo mt's and with the 3.8L - seems to have worked fine for me

 

Yeah 60's are the preferred way to go..... but our 44's seem to be holding up just fine for our 40's..... especially with all the mud and crawling we've done over the last year......

 

Agreed..... we have the 3.8l as well..... would we like a HEMi... Absolutely! But the 3.8l gets the job done for us.

 

Madre de Dios, I need to go wheeling with you.

 

Ok. So No mudding, reinforced axle and upgraded shatfs and D44 in the front? D60 when affordable. Thank you for the feedback! Keep all the comments coming, it is very interesting and useful!

I certainly want to have time to wheel and not spend most of the time with a rental and my JK at the shop.

Great advice you all

 

Your wife did that, right?

 

Okay, so let me ask this: if you upgrade the shafts, wouldn't the weak link be the ring and pinion? I can change a shaft on the trail, but the ring goes that is a major pull out the gears and done for the day.

You and Planman run 40s and seem to have no issues, but run different axles. Shafts you think are a must first?

 

it all depends on what ratio you are running. the higher the ratio, the smaller the pinion gets and then yeah, it would become the weak link. in a dana 30, a 5.13 is really really small. in a dana 44, a 5.38 is really really small and, it's been a weak link for me.

no issues? well, if trashing a factory dana 44 front and rear axle is no issues, then yeah, i haven't had any. i can't speak for planman but, you have to also understand that more times than not, i'm on the trail at least twice a month and in the summer time, playing really hard maybe as much as twice a week. of course, when we go to moab, we're playing hard everyday for the entire week.

with anything bigger than 33" tires, you really need to gusset up your axle c's or else they will bend but otherwise, yeah, shaft are a must way before i would consider sleeves and if for no other reason than the fact that chromo shafts come with full circle clips. the number one reason why people break their factory front shafts is due to u-joint failure and every single one i have seen is caused by the c-clips coming off. sure, there have been a handful of housing that have broken and i have personally seen 2 break in person BUT, compared to the thousands of JK's that are out there, the total number of breaks isn't even in the .001%. hell, i ran my front 44 front axle without any sleeves as hard as i could and the most i could do is break a chromo front axle shaft and locker. am i saying that you won't break a housing? no. am i saying that sleeves are bad or something you shouldn't do? no. what i'm saying is that all the hype (and that is what it is - HYPE) over sleeves is silly to me especially when people look to them as the solution to running bigger tires.