Stronger Dana 30 differential cover?

I have a Poison Spider cover up front and run the XJ steering linkage upgrade without any problems.
Although they tend to run on the pricey side. Cover is very durable in the rocks.
 
I like my Poison Spyder cover. Although I fully admit that *personal* cosmetic preference was a heavily weighed factor.
Without any issues, it fits the XJ steering upgrade as well as the Ultimate Savvy/Currie Correctlync steering (which I love having, and wish I bought sooner. Self-alignment alone was so easy).

I haven't banged it hard yet, so I cannot attest if it lives up to their advertised "bombproof" strength. But I got to do some arts and craft painting on it, which made me happy, lol.

Full disclosure: some of my personal cosmetic preferences may encroach in the "douchey/arrogant" area to some people, lol.
I don't like stickers or most brand advertisements, but apparently I'm fine with the Poison Spyder emboss/cutout as well as a skull on my rear diff (Ballistic). But you typically have to bend down to look for them specifically...

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The lower-half covers bend in pretty easily in my experience. I had to pull mine off to get to the plug.

That's still better than the rancho front axle skid that loses you .75" clearance at the pumpkin and folds up when you hit a rock so that you have to cut the lip off of it if you ever want to remove the cover.
 
My cover shipped today. I won't be back to see it until the week after next unfortunately. @mrblaine , what exactly do you want to know about it? Is the suspicion that it is actually some sort of iron and not stamped steel? I have all sorts of equipment available to me at school to figure out material composition if needed. I also have my ~30 mechanical engineer friends if it comes to that :ROFLMAO:
 
jodomcfrodo said:
My cover shipped today. I won't be back to see it until the week after next unfortunately. @mrblaine , what exactly do you want to know about it? Is the suspicion that it is actually some sort of iron and not stamped steel? I have all sorts of equipment available to me at school to figure out material composition if needed. I also have my ~30 mechanical engineer friends if it comes to that :ROFLMAO:
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You need equipment to tell stamped steel from cast? I think you are missing an important part of this discussion.
 
pagrey said:
You need equipment to tell stamped steel from cast? I think you are missing an important part of this discussion.
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I was simply saying I have plenty of equipment if needed to tell any difference. I have access to things most people could only dream of. You are clearly missing the entire point of my post.
 
jodomcfrodo said:
My cover shipped today. I won't be back to see it until the week after next unfortunately. @mrblaine , what exactly do you want to know about it? Is the suspicion that it is actually some sort of iron and not stamped steel? I have all sorts of equipment available to me at school to figure out material composition if needed. I also have my ~30 mechanical engineer friends if it comes to that :ROFLMAO:
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Stamped steel is easy to identify. That is the one I need and if they are shippping those, I'll buy some. If not then the composition of the casting alloy would be neat to know. My casting engineer did that for the OEM knuckles. We tested it, increased the overall strength by a very large margin without affecting ductility and went with that. His words were the iron alloy in the stock knuckles is basically junk.

I'd be astounded if they were in fact steel.
 
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mrblaine said:
Stamped steel is easy to identify. That is the one I need and if they are shippping those, I'll buy some. If not then the composition of the casting alloy would be neat to know. My casting engineer did that for the OEM knuckles. We tested it, increased the overall strength by a very large margin without affecting ductility and went with that. His words were the iron alloy in the stock knuckles is basically junk.

I'd be astounded if they were in fact steel.
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The stamped steel part is easy. I'll let you know if it is. If it isn't, I'll grab some of my mech engineer friends and head to the lab. Maybe that will give some interesting results, maybe not.
 
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bobthetj03 said:
For about half the cost you can get the same protection.

https://ruggedridge.com/differential-skid-plate-for-dana-30-16597-30.html
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I had one of these in my cart on Ebay for a couple days. Then out of the blue, the seller offered to sell it for a few bucks less than his asking price. I went ahead & pulled the trigger on it.

Like matkal mentioned, it does seem like a good place to store some mud. Thought about filling the space with something.... maybe Great Stuff? Or caulk?
 
Airjunky said:
I had one of these in my cart on Ebay for a couple days. Then out of the blue, the seller offered to sell it for a few bucks less than his asking price. I went ahead & pulled the trigger on it.

Like matkal mentioned, it does seem like a good place to store some mud. Thought about filling the space with something.... maybe Great Stuff? Or caulk?
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I've never had a problem with mud or debris collecting. the cut outs at the bottom of the cover make it easy to hose anything out that might collect in there. Wouldn't worry about it.
 
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And done. Using the stock bolts, which were the same length as the allen bolts that came with it. No problems get a socket or box end wrench on them.

The front diff was the last oil change I had not done since buying the Jeep like 10 months ago. It was full and looked fine. Didn't find a locker or anything out of the ordinary either..... dammit.

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I am not a metallurgist so I am not sure...I'll take a look at mine this evening and see if I can spot any of those holes
 
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