Things you need to know and consider when upgrading axles?

[FuriousDz]

Sorry if these are dumb questions....

So when upgrading your axles what are the essentials to know and consider, such as what parts are most likely to break first?
Obviously how and where you wheel will affect this as well what your build is. Im more or less looking for some good starting points.

Ill be upgrading the front this spring and was just wondering what parts I can stay average with and what parts are worth spending the extra $$.
Also by choosing different parts what other things may I need to change?

If I decided to go with a 1350 yoke does this force me to upgrade the DS to 1350 as well?
Other things would be knuckles, ball joints and cv vs rcv shafts

Sorry for the long post.
Thanks

 

[wayoflife]

Sorry if these are dumb questions....

Not dumb questions at all.

So when upgrading your axles what are the essentials to know and consider, such as what parts are most likely to break first? Obviously how and where you wheel will affect this as well what your build is. Im more or less looking for some good starting points.

Ill be upgrading the front this spring and was just wondering what parts I can stay average with and what parts are worth spending the extra $$. Also by choosing different parts what other things may I need to change?

If you run anything bigger than stock tires, your axle C's WILL bend. Reinforcing them with gussets should be a must.

If you are 100x more likely to break a front axle shaft at the u-joint than you are to break a housing. Sleeves are cheap insurance to have but you should be more concerned with upgrading your axle shafts to a set of chromoly with full circle clips. Fancy CV joints are totally unnecessary and if anything, way too strong. I would rather have my u-joint fail than to have a shaft break deep inside the housing or blow a ring & pinion. If you can only afford to get one shaft, get the driver side as you are more likely to break it than a passenger side shaft.

If I decided to go with a 1350 yoke does this force me to upgrade the DS to 1350 as well?

A 1350 yoke requires that you run a 1350 u-joint and that will only come on a 1350 shaft.

Other things would be knuckles, ball joints and cv vs rcv shafts

I personally wouldn't waste any money on high clearance knuckles as they will only give your tie-rod about an inch of additional clearnace and I can assure you that you will still hit your tie-rod sooner than later. I would instead use your money to buy an HD tie-rod like the kind that Currie makes as it can take a hit after hit after hit.

Rather than buying expensive RCV shafts that are nice, but totally unnecessary and in my opinion, have joints that are way too strong. I would instead buy a more affordable set of good chromoly shafts with full circle clips (most factory shafts fail at the u-joint due to the loss of c-clips) and then use the money you save and buy a set of Dynatrac ProSteer ball joints. These are expensive but, they will most likely be the last set of ball joints you will ever need. Totally worth every penny.

Of course, that's just me.

 

[FuriousDz]

Not dumb questions at all.



If you run anything bigger than stock tires, your axle C's WILL bend. Reinforcing them with gussets should be a must.

If you are 100x more likely to break a front axle shaft at the u-joint than you are to break a housing. Sleeves are cheap insurance to have but you should be more concerned with upgrading your axle shafts to a set of chromoly with full circle clips. Fancy CV joints are totally unnecessary and if anything, way too strong. I would rather have my u-joint fail than to have a shaft break deep inside the housing or blow a ring & pinion. If you can only afford to get one shaft, get the driver side as you are more likely to break it than a passenger side shaft.



A 1350 yoke requires that you run a 1350 u-joint and that will only come on a 1350 shaft.



I personally wouldn't waste any money on high clearance knuckles as they will only give your tie-rod about an inch of additional clearnace and I can assure you that you will still hit your tie-rod sooner than later. I would instead use your money to buy an HD tie-rod like the kind that Currie makes as it can take a hit after hit after hit.

Rather than buying expensive RCV shafts that are nice, but totally unnecessary and in my opinion, have joints that are way too strong. I would instead buy a more affordable set of good chromoly shafts with full circle clips (most factory shafts fail at the u-joint due to the loss of c-clips) and then use the money you save and buy a set of Dynatrac ProSteer ball joints. These are expensive but, they will most likely be the last set of ball joints you will ever need. Totally worth every penny.

Of course, that's just me.

Thank you for the thorough response.

With all that being said if I were to order a prorock 44 from evo with the following would there be anything else Id need to do in your opinion, such as gussets or sleeves and such?

- prorock44 unlimited and extreme duty
- detroit locker
- prosteer balljoints
- 5.13
- factory yoke
- chromoly shafts with u-joints
- reuse factory knuckles

 

[wayoflife]

Thank you for the thorough response.

With all that being said if I were to order a prorock 44 from evo with the following would there be anything else Id need to do in your opinion, such as gussets or sleeves and such?

- prorock44 unlimited and extreme duty
- detroit locker
- prosteer balljoints
- 5.13
- factory yoke
- chromoly shafts with u-joints
- reuse factory knuckles

The ProRock 44 Unlimited comes with super beefy end forgings and super thick tubes. You will NOT need to gusset or sleeve it as it will already be way stronger than a factory 44 that is.

Unless you are planning to run a factory front drive shaft (which I wouldn't recommend), you will need to get a 1310 or 1350 yoke. Of the two, I would spend the extra money and get the 1350. I personally like running JE Reel shafts as they are well made and come with made in the USA Neapco u-joints standard instead of the cheap Chinese joints that you will find in a lot of other popular brands.

Reusing the factory knuckles is fine and everything else looks good to go. :yup:

 

[FuriousDz]

The ProRock 44 Unlimited comes with super beefy end forgings and super thick tubes. You will NOT need to gusset or sleeve it as it will already be way stronger than a factory 44 that is.

Unless you are planning to run a factory front drive shaft (which I wouldn't recommend), you will need to get a 1310 or 1350 yoke. Of the two, I would spend the extra money and get the 1350. I personally like running JE Reel shafts as they are well made and come with made in the USA Neapco u-joints standard instead of the cheap Chinese joints that you will find in a lot of other popular brands.

Reusing the factory knuckles is fine and everything else looks good to go. :yup:

Great! looks like this is the route Im going to go then.

Thanks again for the help