Hey guys not sure witch way to head.I have a 09 4 door sahara unlimited. I have a 4 to 5 thousand to put into the jeep. I am not a great mechanic but have a friend who has a shop. I help install parts so he gives me a little of a deal so keep in mind i have installation costs. I want to get the jeep ready for Utah mohab.I am thinking 35s or 37s, re-gear,roof rack,ARB compresor and locker in rear, I am worried about the dana 30 not doing so well with gears and tiers. Any help of what has worked for you guys and what hasent will be greatly appreciated. Here is a list of what i have so far already on my jeep As always i would like to stretch this money as far as possible and get things that will rilly help me get on the trails. Thanks for the help
ALREADY HAVE LIST
JBA Headers
exhaust
flash-pac
rubicon bb
rubicon shocks
rubicon coil springs
rubicon disconects
smitty built bumpers
westin winch
AEV snorkel
Drop in KN filter
GPS

Thanks for the help guys

 

$4500 for a PR44. $500 to regear the rear. Buy him a case of beer and a pizza for the labor to swap the D30 outers onto the PR and install it.

 

i have seriously been thinking of going this route, but man that ties up alot of money. Is there any thing i can do to tuffin up my dana 30 until i save up some more money ?

 

you can sleave and gusset the d30, and cross your fingers!!

 

I've seen sahara's with the D30 do some impressive things. I'd skip the exhaust and headers. Get yourself in a TeraFlex 2.5" coil lift with shocks or get the kit with shock extensions and get your hands on some rubi take off shocks. A set of 35" rubber (or 33's if you wanna go easier on your D30 and gears).

If you wanna spend the extra cash and go with 35's you should get a bumper/tire carrier. Since your interested in a rack but possibly spent the extra cash on the 35's and bumper/tire carrier you could opt for the LOD rear bumper/tire carrier and drop an extra $190 for the cargo carrier that mounts on the tire carrier and even the gerry can mounts that attach to the tire carrier for another $190.

Now if you chose to go with a set of 33" rubber you wouldn't need the rear bumper/tire carrier cause the stock tire carrier handles a 33 just fine. In this case you would save approx $500 by goin with the smaller tires and about a $1000 on the bumper/tire carrier and more if you didn't get the cargo add ons I mentioned above. you could drop some coin and get a Gobi roof rack. Very nice rack.

I would throw some skids on your lower control arms and add some EVO C gussetts. As mentioned by another member you could also add some sleeves to your D30. Another commonly overlooked add on would be a front and rear JKS trac bar mount brace. These are beefy add ons that reinforce the weak factory trac bar mounts and help keep them from tearing off.

Now, back to the TF 2.5" lift. I have this lift and added a front adjustable trac bar and will be adding front lower adjustable control arms to help rid flighty steering.

I would also opt for a Superchips flashpak.

So to break it down I run most of what I mentioned above. I live in Canada so EVERYTHING costs more. I got the TF 2.5" coil lift with shock extensions and rubi shocks for about $600. A set of five 33" Goodyear Duratracs for about $1400. I added my Evo Gussetts, lower control arms skids, JKS trac bar braces front and rear and a front adjustable trac bar for about another $600. I managed to get a Gobi roof rack shipped up here for about another $1800 and I picked up a Superchips for $350. So all totaled I dropped about $4750 not including some labor and taxes. Since my initial build I've dropped about another 5K but I was very happy with what I was able to do with the initial 5K.

I recently scored a set of 35" Duratracs and will be putting them on this week but up to this point I have been very happy with my 33's. Here's some pics of my rig with the lift, rack and 33's before I added the rest of the mods.

Hope this helps.

Wayne

 

Of course:

C Gussets
Inner Sleeves
Outer Sleeves
Truss
Allow shafts / RCV's
Thicker mounts
CA Skids
Thicker knuckles
Better Ball Joints
etc...


This is probably the 6th thread in the last 2 or 3 days asking this same question, along with about a bazillion threads before that. Read enough of them, and you will get plenty of opinions and advice for and against dumping money into stock axles. But at the end of the day, after you dump the entire 5 grand into your 30, guess what? It's still a 30. That means you have a ton of high cost alloy and thicker brackets and thicker tubes and ... --> a D30 sized ring & pinion. And then you want to regear, right? Just how small do you figure that r&p gets when you go from your stock ratio down to 5.13? And then you slap a set of 37's on?? You just beefed up the entire axle, so where is your weak link?

But, it's your money, start adding up the component costs and check into the labor rates your buddy will charge.


If you already had a rubi, the answer would likely be different, as a lot of the components could swap straight over into a PR housing. But nothing you buy for your 30 will transfer, so it is wasted money...

 

Check out a sprint booster, heard lots of great things about them frome everyone who has one installed. Don't think they would drive without one. I think Northridge 4x4 is running a trial period on em.

 

Thanks for the intel guys.Have a good one

Josh

 

I'll cry if mine ever stops working