35s to Rubicon or not
- Thread starter JibCrane
- Start date
Better pinion angle vs caster. Plus, it will be stronger, running on the drive side of the ring vs the coast side. I think the HPD30 is nearly as strong as the LP Dana 44, and it has more clearance to boot. The Dana 44 from Jeep in the TJ flavor is really a Dana 30/Dana 44 hybrid. Dana 44 center section, but everything else is Dana 30, so you don’t really gain anything, compared to the HPD30. I’ve seriously thought about selling my Dana 44 and building a HP30 for my rubicon, but if I ever sell, I don’t want to try to explain to the general masses that my axle selection is actually better
Now, you want Spend some coin and put JK rubicon axles in, that’s a swap. HP Dana 44 up front
Sorry wrong link.
https://wranglertjforum.com/threads/noises-in-4-lo.14668/
Not that I want to get into this anymore than I already have. This is what I’m referring to. Whenever the tcase is under load and you let out the clutch or general crawling (with no feet on the pedals) and going over small
obstacles.. I hear this noise in the tcase.
Again this is MY experience, which my differ front others.
I wanted a clean southern as stock as possible LJ.
Rubicon or not, whatever I could find locally in good shape I'd jump on it.
Found a pretty solid 04 and jumped. Would a Rubicon be easier and more cost effective? Probably and would be nice to have OEM setup for lockers, etc..
That said I had ARB's and 5.13's put on both ends and RCV's in the Dana 30 up front. I'm sticking with 33's (for now) so for my needs it was to make it the beefiest setup to run 33's as possible. I'd have no issues running 35's on my setup but would prefer to have a 44 up front in all honesty.
Rubicon or not, whatever I could find locally in good shape I'd jump on it.
Found a pretty solid 04 and jumped. Would a Rubicon be easier and more cost effective? Probably and would be nice to have OEM setup for lockers, etc..
That said I had ARB's and 5.13's put on both ends and RCV's in the Dana 30 up front. I'm sticking with 33's (for now) so for my needs it was to make it the beefiest setup to run 33's as possible. I'd have no issues running 35's on my setup but would prefer to have a 44 up front in all honesty.
Rubicon lockers are much weaker than arb's,and there are no new parts to fix them with. You have a better setup
I'd upgrade the 44's too
You asked if a rubicon was cost effective as a starting point.the answer is no. They cost more up front and then you upgrade the internals anyway.
RubiconRic
TJ Enthusiast
Whichever rig you end up buying/building, two things to keep in mind for mudding in Florida with our Jeeps:
1) Pay attention to the weight of wheel/tire combo. Lighter is better. Similarly, since our Jeeps are relatively underpowered, in my experience, a narrower tire is better, and since your rig won't be a DD I'd recommend a tire intended for the mud. When I did a lot of mudding in the past I ran the Interco LTB 34x10.5x15 and loved them. The right tires in mud can overcome a lot.
2) Water/mud in a manual can introduce problems compared to an automatic. Best practice is to avoid shifting if the transmission is submerged. Expect clutch chatter because crud gets up in there. Spray water into the bellhousing to try to clean it out afterwards.
Also, not sure your overall experience driving through water/mud, but in general with water you want to enter slowly and maintain a bow wake. The deepest I've gone in my manual was halfway up the headlamps with no issues. Mud can be a different story depending on how deep it is and whether there is water... for the most part, if there is no deep water, it's just heavy on the skinny pedal and the LTBs are awesome in this scenario.
1) Pay attention to the weight of wheel/tire combo. Lighter is better. Similarly, since our Jeeps are relatively underpowered, in my experience, a narrower tire is better, and since your rig won't be a DD I'd recommend a tire intended for the mud. When I did a lot of mudding in the past I ran the Interco LTB 34x10.5x15 and loved them. The right tires in mud can overcome a lot.
2) Water/mud in a manual can introduce problems compared to an automatic. Best practice is to avoid shifting if the transmission is submerged. Expect clutch chatter because crud gets up in there. Spray water into the bellhousing to try to clean it out afterwards.
Also, not sure your overall experience driving through water/mud, but in general with water you want to enter slowly and maintain a bow wake. The deepest I've gone in my manual was halfway up the headlamps with no issues. Mud can be a different story depending on how deep it is and whether there is water... for the most part, if there is no deep water, it's just heavy on the skinny pedal and the LTBs are awesome in this scenario.
This bears repeating, don't shift gears/push the clutch in while you're in deep muddy water which will allow the mud to flow in between the pressure plate, flywheel, and clutch disk.
Before planning a trip that might call for that, make sure you have done the procedure in the owner's manual to allow the engine to be started without stepping on the clutch. You may need to restart the engine if you get bogged down in the mud and you don't want to have to step on the clutch pedal to do so. You can shift into 1st gear if you're not already in it without the engine running, then use the starter motor to either start the engine which immediately start you moving, or to move you forward and out of the mud even if the engine won't start.
Unless it died from being hydrolocked. In which case that starter isn't gonna do much!