Best crate axles to upgrade from my Dana 30 / 35

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slundsk

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I got bit by the bug and want to dive into upgrading my axles. I am set on getting crate axles from one of the big suppliers (currie, ecgs, teraflex, G2, etc)

I currently am running 33s on my 30/35 set up.

During my upgrade I want selectable lockers, disc brakes, and RCV's. ECGS Dana 489's are my leading candidates with OX lockers. Currie is tempting but I'm not sure I want to go up to a 60 in the back when I'll only be doing 35's. I'm trying to avoid getting too much wider, or having to cut/stretch anything.

I'd love to hear your recommendations/preferences!

Cheers.
 
slundsk said:
I got bit by the bug and want to dive into upgrading my axles. I am set on getting crate axles from one of the big suppliers (currie, ecgs, teraflex, G2, etc)

I currently am running 33s on my 30/35 set up.

During my upgrade I want selectable lockers, disc brakes, and RCV's. ECGS Dana 489's are my leading candidates with OX lockers. Currie is tempting but I'm not sure I want to go up to a 60 in the back when I'll only be doing 35's. I'm trying to avoid getting too much wider, or having to cut/stretch anything.

I'd love to hear your recommendations/preferences!

Cheers.
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The best advice is to just upgrade your current axles to 30 spline (super kits front and rear), save thousands of dollars, and go have fun. I wheeled my rig really hard on super 30/35 setup for a long time on 35s. I broke a 27 spline inner up front but have been fine ever since going to 30 spline inners. The super 35 never failed nor have I ever heard of one failing.

But… if you are dead set on the crate axle plan I’ve got a couple recs. Don’t get ox lockers or you will have to convert your Jeep to a tube chassis to clear those god awfully large diff covers….. Okay, the tube chassis is a complete joke from another thread about ox lockers and I couldn’t resist. The god awfully large diff covers is serious. You’ll have clearance issues to contend with on those covers, especially up front with the trackbar. I’d recommend going with ARB or Eaton E lockers.

My next recommendation is that if you are going to spend all that money on crate axles, you might as well get high pinion axles to get your driveshafts out of the rocks.
 
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starkey480 said:
The best advice is to just upgrade your current axles to 30 spline (super kits front and rear), save thousands of dollars, and go have fun. I wheeled my rig really hard on super 30/35 setup for a long time on 35s. I broke a 27 spline inner up front but have been fine ever since going to 30 spline inners. The super 35 never failed nor have I ever heard of one failing.

But… if you are dead set on the crate axle plan I’ve got a couple recs. Don’t get ox lockers or you will have to convert your Jeep to a tube chassis to clear those god awfully large diff covers….. Okay, the tube chassis is a complete joke from another thread about ox lockers and I couldn’t resist. The god awfully large diff covers is serious. You’ll have clearance issues to contend with on those covers, especially up front with the trackbar. I’d recommend going with ARB or Eaton E lockers.

My next recommendation is that if you are going to spend all that money on crate axles, you might as well get high pinion axles to get your driveshafts out of the rocks. I am a fan of the HP30 for rock crawling on 35s. That’s what I run. My reason for that is the gears are strong enough, have more ground clearance than the 44, and are easier to package under the Jeep. But that is for slow rock crawling stuff, I’m not rock bouncin it. If you’re gonna be playing with lots of wheel speed, then a HP44 may be the way to go for you. For the rear, I don’t know of any HP44s so that leaves you with the HP60 in the rear from Currie
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slundsk said:
Do you have a locker in it?
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yes, a locker is actually required if I'm not mistaken. I have an ARB, but they have others available, e-lockers are popular these days. Less expensive is the Detroit automatic locker, all depends on what you're looking for. There are a TON of threads on here about the S35 with 35 inch tires. Before pulling the trigger on a radically more expensive swap such as crate axles, check out the threads...
 
Interesting perspective and good info thanks for that.
I do mostly rocky trails and slow speed rock crawling. Not bouncing with any buggies. At least not normally sometimes I get skinny pedal happy 😬. I wasn’t super excited about putting the HP60 in the back on 35s due to clearance issues I’ve read about. I’ll have to look into beefing up my 30 I have in the front. I really wanted to incorporate lockers into both axles.
 
slundsk said:
Interesting perspective and good info thanks for that.
I do mostly rocky trails and slow speed rock crawling. Not bouncing with any buggies. At least not normally sometimes I get skinny pedal happy 😬. I wasn’t super excited about putting the HP60 in the back on 35s due to clearance issues I’ve read about. I’ll have to look into beefing up my 30 I have in the front. I really wanted to incorporate lockers into both axles.
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I think you’d be really happy with some super kits. Look up Revolution. I believe they make a super 30 kit for up front and a super 35 kit for the rear and you select which locker you want. If you don’t know what a super kit is, it is just upgrading the inner axles from 27 spline to 30 spline. Both ARB air lockers and Eaton E lockers are great.
 
slundsk said:
Interesting perspective and good info thanks for that.
I do mostly rocky trails and slow speed rock crawling. Not bouncing with any buggies. At least not normally sometimes I get skinny pedal happy 😬. I wasn’t super excited about putting the HP60 in the back on 35s due to clearance issues I’ve read about. I’ll have to look into beefing up my 30 I have in the front. I really wanted to incorporate lockers into both axles.
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the pile of money pictured below has a super-30 up front and a super-35 in the rear, on 33's. I tossed those things in after wheeling it once with stock axles. Then proceeded to wheel it bigly for the 3 years. Then proceeded to turn it back into a street queen. Soooo, it's now a pile of money that only serves to remind me that I'm poorer for the exercise, though I won't deny having some side-splitting piss myself fun for those years, just lost the love, it happens, to some, me included. All the more reason to avoid dumping 3x as much as I did, lest you end up another, me

It's like walking around with a pretty girl on your arm that you're tired of fuck'n

IMG_2579.jpg
 
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Many knowledgeable folks here have said the S35 (which does require a locker) is more than up to 35s. As said above, the clearance is better and another possible advantage is lower weight. I currently run a Super 35 w/ an e-locker on 33s.
 
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I concur with the recommendations to upgrade your existing Dana 30/35 axles. I've been running the Revolution Super 35 with an e-locker on 35" tires for a couple years now without issue. It's a tried and tested solution for 35s. Anyone telling you that you have to ditch the Dana 35 because even if you upgrade the shafts, it will fail on 35s, doesn't know what they are talking about.

I'm still running the stock open Dana 30 up front, but once I finish my belly up, I'll be upgrading the shafts and adding an e-locker up there too.

Keep in mind that a Dana 35 with 30 spline 1541 shafts has the same spline count, same axle shaft diameter, and same axle housing tubes as a stock Dana 44, but the 1541 alloy is considerably stronger than the carbon steel shafts on that stock Dana 44. The super 35 would be less likely to fail than a stock Dana 44.
 
slundsk said:
I got bit by the bug and want to dive into upgrading my axles. I am set on getting crate axles from one of the big suppliers (currie, ecgs, teraflex, G2, etc)

I currently am running 33s on my 30/35 set up.

During my upgrade I want selectable lockers, disc brakes, and RCV's. ECGS Dana 489's are my leading candidates with OX lockers. Currie is tempting but I'm not sure I want to go up to a 60 in the back when I'll only be doing 35's. I'm trying to avoid getting too much wider, or having to cut/stretch anything.

I'd love to hear your recommendations/preferences!

Cheers.
Click to expand...

where you at in Oklahoma?
 
Driving style and the type of wheeling I do is most likely a factor, but I have found that a Dana 44 (rear) with chromoly shafts is not adequate for 35s. I was constantly breaking shafts, breaking e-lockers, and replacing bearings and seals. So if others are saying that a Dana 35 with shafts is equivalent to a Dana 44 with shafts and are going to do any serious wheeling, I recommend going with the Currie Dana 60. With the currie, it is basically stock width, you don't have to stretch, and with the Currie you lose minimal clearance between diff and ground.

For the front, I am still running my Dana 44. The stock rubi locker went on me and I also had issues with breaking ujoints and ears (on chromoly shafts), but since I upgraded to an elocker and RCVs I haven't had any issues with the front on 35s. So if you upgrade your Dana 30 to 30 spline shafts like Starkey recommended you will probably be OK.

Again, my recommend is based on my driving style and the wheeling I do, my Jeep is a toy to me and is in the rocks much more than on the roads. I don't know what type of wheeling you do, so my recommend may not apply.
 
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