$3795 and shipping is $150, but my dad lives right next to Summit's warehouse. The site says it drop ships from Spicer, and not until at least the 22nd if I was to buy it today.

I bought the Mopar D44HD housing which has the J8 tubes which is the same as the Spicer offering.
Check out the moparoverstock the housing is priced out at $865. I built my D44HD for under $2500 with OX locker and 5.38 gears. I did my own work so you will have to ad labor if you pay someone to put it together.

So housing is $865 even though I couldn't find it on the site you referenced. Plus tax? shipping? Let's call it $900. Front Chromoly shafts for a Rubi are $715 from 4 wheel parts, gears are 200 if you don't need all the seals and bearings, 400 labor if we can't do that ourselves, HD cover is $100 or less, then we either have to use a non factory (but maybe stronger) locker that no longer works with our factory switch and rear locker, and I have no idea how much those are... or disassemble the factory pumpkin and rob those parts making our oem axle less valuable... am I making any errors here? $900 + 715 + 600 + locker and parts I may not be accounting for?

For those savvy enough to unbolt an axle and bolt a new one in, but not savvy enough to do everything above it seems to make sense to buy a UD44 and sell the factory D44 for a net cost of $1300 plus oil, no? A factory D44 complete sells for $2500 in my neck of the woods. Anyone know how much the harness is for the UD44 (sold separately)?

Not sure it was mentioned, but the Spicer comes with 1/4" thick brackets. Their marketing material says the pinion angle was optimized for lifted Jeeps. That implies they corrected the caster, but we've not been able to confirm that. Given that Dana is welding brackets on, that means they are assembling the housing separate from the J8 as they buy the tubes with the brackets already welded on. So, there would be no cost increase to correct the caster.

The tubes are 1/16" thicker than stock tubes. Wall thickness after 1/4" does very little to add strength. You will still want to truss the axle.

Has anyone heard of that ebay seller (bz0qd6) doing any more axles? Couldnt find anything on him.

My build was approx $2600 US with factory axles. If you have a bent D44 then this is a good move. Just move all your parts over from the factory Rubi D44. If you are building from scratch the Spicer unit may be for you IF you can get the locker and axle options you want.

Good point, depends on the situation. For someone like me that has stock everything with low miles and no bending, who wants maybe stronger axles, u-joints, and a gear change, it's a good price point to just swap the axle, if I had a buyer for my stock D44 lined up. I imagine I'd still have to gusset and maybe truss for BIG tires, but I could probably run the 35.5's I want. I am comfortable swapping an axle, but not regearing.

Lol, no recall is coming. I just meant enough of them had broken that FCA could have been ordered to recall them.

We were discussing the JK front housing issue yesterday and a consensus was somewhere along the way FCA must have made a material change to the tubes. You just don't read about the the prevalence of bent & broken tubes like we did with the early ones. On BFG KM2 35s (really 34s) the front housing on my '09 bent after one trip to Moab.

FYI: From a Dana Spicer engineer
 

I just got off the phone with a Dana Spicer engineer and this is what he said about the end forging/yolk/Inner-C and Ultimate Dana 44.

Me: “Just about everyone I talk to recommends welding on Inner-C gussets on Dana 44’s because they bend. And that the Ultimate Dana 44 looks to be the same”

Engineer: "Dana axle end forgings are not the parts that these guys are bending, it's the axle tube, specifically the long side. Anything short of a car wreck is not going to bend the end forgings. These Jeep forums and Internet blogs have been feed a lie from who knows where and are full of BS. Furthermore if you weld on the gussets they sell for the end forgings, your “Inner-C” you'll actually make it weaker because of the heat needed to weld them on changes the grain size, structure and flow imparted by the forging process, so don't do that!”

Me: “What about putting sleeves in mine?”

Engineer: “I’m not in sales and can’t tell you what to buy or do, if done properly installing sleeves will help but it’s a Band-Aid at best, a single thicker tube is far stronger. If you are going to run 35" or 37" tires and actually go off-roading with your JK I would recommend whether or not you buy the Ultimate Dana 44 from us you should upgrade your front axle. Myself and the other Dana Spicer engineer’s specifically designed the Ultimate Dana 44 to address the week axle tubes, brackets and axle shafts among other things on the JK for off-road use with 37” tires. I will tell you we did in fact strengthen the end forgings as well. Above 37” tires I would go with the Dana 60 or the like.”

So, guys and gals….. Whether or not you believe what this engineer told me, I will be buying the Ultimate Dana 44 with 4.88’s because I will not be running anything bigger than 37” tires, nor will I drive my Jeep like a Rock Bouncer!
:beer:

I will admit I followed along with the C-gusset hype. After Jtphoto's post i began to believe him. I have never seen or heard of a bent C. Plenty of higher camber numbers including mine which ended up being bad joints. I cant say whether he's correct or not talking about welding and weakening the metal. Does make sense though??

Wonder his thoughts on a truss :)