Anybody considering getting one of these?



| TeraFlex Suspensions

I personally think it's an intriguing option. I've been running 35's on my Dana 30 for several years now. I regeared to 4.88 a while back with the assumption that my dana 30 would blow up eventually and I'd upgrade to a ProRock. I've been pleasantly surprised at how the Dana 30 has held up since the regear. I haven't done sleeves/gussets so this might be a great option to swap all my components to if I do break/bend something on the stock housing. I'd be curious to see what TeraFlex has to say about what this housing can handle.

 

The problem isn't the D30 housing, but the size of the ring and pinion gear. It is small. You can beef up the housing all day long, but nothing can be done about the size and strength of the r&p. That being said, it may very well hold up for many users, if you aren't beating it to death. I does look nice.

 

The 5.13 ring and pinion is quite small, but the 4.88 is a little more manageable. Of course the nice thing about being geared properly is that it allows you to crawl obstacles instead of having to floor-it. That should cut down on R&P failure. Also, you'll find plenty of people on this forum that say the tubes and C's are more likely to bend/fail before the ring and pinion. I guess it just depends on who you talk to.

 

Even with stock gear ratios, the diameter of the gears are small. The difference with lower gear ratios is the fact that there are more teeth, meaning they are finer due to less material. While staying with a higher gear ratio in a D30 will help, it is far from durable due to the size.

 

Why not just sleeve and gusset your 30 now?

 

The biggest reason being that I don't weld. I've had some pretty crazy quotes from local shops for welding sleeves and gussets. Like $800+ crazy. For that kind of money, why not pony up another grand and get a whole new housing?

 

These are from different models but it gives you a pretty good idea of how small the pinion is

 

Good chart. It's easy to see why the D30 falls short in the strength department.

 

That's insane. You can get gussets for under $100 and depending if you know anybody, labor should be less than that.

 

Also of importance is the D30 is a reverse cut gear so when in drive, power goes to the "drive" side of the gear. This adds strength unlike some of the low pinion d30s found in the ZJ, WJ, and in some XLs and even in some TJs I think.

4.56 was doable with 32" tires on a LP D30. 4.88 was pushing it. 4.88 on a HP D30 always proved to hold up quite well. 5.13 should be similar in strength to 4.88 in a LP D30.

I personally ran 4.56 in a LP 30 behind a V8 with zero issues.

I'd imagine this will translate to 5.13 in an HP 30 with a weak v6.