To Truss or Not to Truss

L

Lost-jkur12

Member
Well, I ordered the Enforcer kit (4"/king2.0) and C gussets but the question I've been struggling with is to truss or not. I'm sure a PR is in my future but that's going to be a few years down the road. I plan on running 35's and never see myself going larger then 37's. Eventually I would like the ability to do a little pre running, not so much 45+ but at least run at 20-40mph and feel somewhat secure that the housing will hold up. Before I would run at those speeds I would get long arms and air bumps, but is that enough? or is a truss needed?

I'm building my rig in stages and I'd rather not dump money into the stock housing, but for a couple hundred bucks is it worth the security? since a PR isn't coming anytime soon.

My plan was
Stage 1
Enforcer/king 2.0 + C Gussets
Stage 2
Evo HiClear Long arms upgrade / air bumps / new roll cage
Stage 3
Coilovers
Stage 4
PR 60 front and back
Stage 5
LS swap

I wouldn't do it myself, I've read about warping and overheating.

Thanks in advance :beer:
 
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I know the devout believers will give me grief for saying this but, I personally would strongly recommend against trussing your axle. Even for welders with tons of experience and the proper know how struggle to get it right and still, more times than not, you will BEND your axle by trussing it. Being that a ProRock is in your future, I would save your money and just play with what you've got until you can afford it.
 
wayoflife said:
I know the devout believers will give me grief for saying this but, I personally would strongly recommend against trussing your axle. Even for welders with tons of experience and the proper know how struggle to get it right and still, more times than not, you will BEND your axle by trussing it. Being that a ProRock is in your future, I would save your money and just play with what you've got until you can afford it.
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Really? Professional racers run trusses.


Oh wait I don't give a shit about them. Yeah I wouldn't truss either. :thumb:
 
OverlanderJK said:
Really? Professional racers run trusses.


Oh wait I don't give a shit about them. Yeah I wouldn't truss either. :thumb:
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:cheesy: Well actually, more and more of them are running IFS now but that's a moot point. :crazyeyes:

In spite of what many choose to believe, taking your time and welding a little bit at a time will NOT prevent your axle from bending. There are specific steps and measures that are required in order to counteract bending and again, even guys with tons of experience don't always get it right. In the end, there's only so much you can do. But hey, what do I know.
 
Ill just tell you if you plan on running evo stuff like eventually a DTD it only likes other evo stuff. Sleeving it works great though.
 
I truss the bottom first. That way when I truss the top the two bends counteract to make the housing straight.



:cheesy::cheesy:
 
Oh nothing prevents, he just said he had future plans of coilovers, from what I have experienced if you went evo stay evo is what I'm saying it will save you money, if you don't want bending I think they call them prorock 80's
 
Sharkey said:
Sleeving doesn't prevent bends at the housing (just ask Moochie).
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After many miles with sleeved tubes, they are still straight. Like Sharkey said, the problem is where the tubes connect to the differential housing. This is where the stress is now, especially with coilovers, because you will drive faster off road.

I will never go larger than 37's so a Pro Rock 44 is what I will be using. When needed, I will probably use a Dynatrac Trail 60 in the rear.
 
Moochie said:
After many miles with sleeved tubes, they are still straight. Like Sharkey said, the problem is where the tubes connect to the differential housing. This is where the stress is now, especially with coilovers, because you will drive faster off road.

I will never go larger than 37's so a Pro Rock 44 is what I will be using. When needed, I will probably use a Dynatrac Trail 60 in the rear.
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oh the sleeves........ i have em and love em just not sure they are doing anything

andrew-
 
As many have stated; sleeve the tubes and gusset the inner steering knuckles = yes. These can be a cheaper alternative to a new aftermarket complete axle upgrade, but by no means an equal fix to going to a bigger, better aftermarket axle. View it as something to get you by until you want to get really serious about reliabilty. Some may actually never need to go any further and it's a great solution for them. The one thing sleeving and gusseting cannot address is the differential housing strength and ring and pinion size/strength ratios. You got what you got here. To address the stock, or even any aftermarket, differential housing (and axle tubes) needed increase for strength, you would normally truss it. But as Wayolife points out, it's not as simple as just welding a truss to the axle top and/or bottom. You can do that, like many do, and even using proper welding techniques by applying heat to different areas at different times to minimize warping of the axle. However, this is still an incorrect method. To truss and axle properly you need a fixture to lock the axle housing into and actually put an intentional stressed "negative bend" into it. When the welding of the truss is complete, if everything goes according to plan, it will return with enough of a "positive bend" to return it to its neutral position. This takes more expertise and knowledge than most shops want to admit, mostly because it's time consuming and expensive. Over the years I have seen some axles trussed at home with decent results, but these were on trail only rigs that get trailered to a location for a day of fun in the dirt. Put those same rigs on the highway and they are a handful.

One last bit, I asked the guys at Off Road Evolution 4 years ago when I was deciding to buy or build axles on my current rig. I had run home built and Currie on vehicles in the past and was not sure on the new JK's which was the better option. I learned a lot that day that I did not know. With the amount of time and cost for labor involved in building up my stock axles to an "ok" solution, the shop still thought purchasing an aftermarket axle was the best solution for my needs. The shop stood to make way more money off me on install labor with the build up of stock axles over the relatively simple bolt in of ready to run aftermarket axles. That shop won my business for life. So when a shop gives you two choices- better after market option versus we are going to make a bunch of money of this build, that told me the better solution was the aftermarket axle.
 
Great info everyone!!! It's clear I shouldn't waste time on the stock housing. I'm just going to weld on the gussets and skids and call it a day.

Thanks again, ill post up pics of my rig once I install the lift. :beer:
 
Moochie said:
I will never go larger than 37's so a Pro Rock 44 is what I will be using. When needed, I will probably use a Dynatrac Trail 60 in the rear.
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I think this the route for me, 37's are more then enough.

In the end I want a reliable (safe) rig I can have fun in, not something to run the baja. I'll get my speed fix on 2 wheels.
 
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