stock jk with 37's
JK Freak
Joined: Nov 2007
Posts: 575
Likes: 0
From: Everett, WA
A D30 is not a bad axle. Is a D44 better? Yes. Can a D30 handle 37's with moderate to mild trail use and be daily driven? Absolutely. A lot of people act like the D30 is made of glass. It is highly capable and will last most jeepers the life of their vehicle. A lot of trail carnage is caused by driver error leading to breakage, not a faulty or weak part. And let's be honest here, 85% of people on this forum gather their knowledge from this exact forum, and I'd say 5-10% actually have trail or "real world" experience to give a trust worthy opinion on this subject or any other thats posted.
JK Enthusiast
Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 211
Likes: 0
From: Hazzard County, GA
Hahaha, I love it!! Go big, brotha! Keep us up to date if anything happens. Oh yeah, and one more thing, Good Luck!!
We want pics!
JK Enthusiast
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 189
Likes: 0
From: SPRING, TX
I strongly disagree with the statement that the factory steering cant handle the stress of 37's. Or that you need to gusset everything on a D44. My last jeep I ran 37's had a D44 with 5.13 gears, wheeled the piss out of it and never had a problem. On my 2012 Im going to the same setup.
JK Super Freak
Joined: May 2012
Posts: 1,385
Likes: 0
From: Grant Florida
I have a buddy I wheel with he has 37s with 5:13 gears on a D-30. It is not gusseted, sleeved with stock axles. And he wheels the piss out of it. He's hoping it will break so he can throw an D-80 under it. He has about ran the rubber off his 37s. And is talking about throwing some 40s on it. I say throw them on run it to it breaks and than replace it if needed. If you sold your D-30 you wouldn't get much for it anyway.
JK Super Freak
Joined: Oct 2010
Posts: 1,114
Likes: 2
From: North Hampton, NH
sorry but i have to strongly disagree.this is not hype but fact.we own 2 jks,one 2 door on 35s and my fully custom built 2wd conversion unlimited on 37s.i built both rigs myself and wheel the crap out of both of them practically every other week.i have had every piece of d30s 44s and 60s in my hands,i have also seen a lot of breakage,even on less difficult stuff,i have seen 44s break on 33s,for starters,the steering is far from strong enough even for street use and its only a matter of time before your sector shaft shears or box breaks all together,dont believe me,look under your rig and have someone turn your steering wheel back and forth and watch your steering box flex.the ball joints on jks internals are made of plastic,they go out extremely fast.most people have wheel shimmy problems even stock not ever knowing its there ball joints until its too late and they come apart.i have seen the front axle housing actually break in half and even if you could get shafts that could handle them your u joints are still way too weak and even if they could take the stress then your ring gear would go,in the rear your tubes will bend over time and your shafts flanges will bend extremely easy. unfortunatly jeep made the fender wells to where you can fit large tires with ease but did not engineer any part of the drive train to handle the stress imposed by those tires
Maybe I don't wheel as hard as you do or maybe I've just been lucky, but the fact remains that so far so good. I will replace/upgrade components as needed but not before. Like I said, I also know 2 other JKs on 37s with stock everything and they are fine, but admittedly they don't wheel anywhere near as often or as hard as I do.
Again, respect, but just saying...
