To upgrade a dana 30 or not.

Tranquillity

Tranquillity

New member
So I've been reading older post about it. Seems that I could go up to 4.88 gear without being worried of the toughness of my tiny dana 30 gears. Let's say I'd go top 4.56 with arb air locker and chromoly shaft. Sounds like a good setup if I don't plan going over 35" ? Got a manual 2011 JKU.

My first idea was to get a PR44 but reading those thread made me wonder if I should be putting money elsewhere. I plan changing my 2.5" BB to a 3.5" evo when the wife will be looking away, so might take some times.

And the Carnage thread freak the hell out of me, breaking a D44 housing two times !? Jeez, should I be saving my money for an PR44 then? I'm not a pedal to the metal guy, I've gusset my C.

Thanks for your input
 
call and see about getting it swapped out. Get what you want the first time so you will not second guess yourself and have to spend double. I am doing this right now. If I had waited a couple more months I would sitting on a Double D from EVO instead of a Procomp 2.5. Learn from my mistake and get what you want from the beginning.
 
Yes that's exactly what I want to do! I mean, I bought a 2.5" BB as an entry and it's doing the job based on the price but eventually I will be wanting to make a final upgrade on my lift which will be either Rock Krawler or Evo

But before I make this decision I need to get straight with my front axle.
 
It's my:twocents: beefed up our dana 30 with no problems.Some will say it's waste of time and money,but if you can do the work yourself you will save $$
 
familytime2 said:
It's my:twocents: beefed up our dana 30 with no problems.Some will say it's waste of time and money,but if you can do the work yourself you will save $$
Click to expand...

In my opinion it's only worth the time and money if you are going to keep it for a long time or if you're only going to run 35's.
 
The D30 Can handle a bit of a beating. I am personally not going to beef it up (maybe evo gussets but thats it). Im just going to throw a better gear set in pop some 35s on that thing and go till it breaks. If I dont have money to upgrade it to a ProRock at that time people sell them a dime a dozen online. My :twocents:
 
I intend to keep my rig for a long time that's why I wanted to swap for a PR44 but since I'm plenty satisfied with my 35" and it seems to be a little overkill for these tires I will spend that money elsewhere... Should I sleeve it or the C gusset will be plenty enough ? And of course got to keep in mind that there will be arb locker on it.
 
just some info.... i may have a 30 with gussets, .44 mag sleeves and lca skids for sale here in a few weeks if you are interested.....


andrew-
 
Beefing up the dana 30 is a loaded question. If your running your locker alot & rock crawling alot then it is a waste. If you are like me and only use the locker sometimes and most of the surface is not solid then you'll be just fine with what you have planned. Big thing to remember is not to horse it so to speak. If your into the rocks though I'd definately go to the Dana 60 though. Every thing else is a waste.
 
paychex.308 said:
just some info.... i may have a 30 with gussets, .44 mag sleeves and lca skids for sale here in a few weeks if you are interested.....


andrew-
Click to expand...

Thanks but I don't plan on beefing it any more than my gusset !

Beyrgut said:
I had a similar question a while back in another thread and in the end "it depends" is probably the best answer. For me the D30 will be plenty for a while, and in the mean time I can put a way $$ for the replacement PR44.

In case you didn't run across this one in your search some good info in this thread.
http://wayalife.com/showthread.php?8442-Axle-build-or-swap-it-Help!
Click to expand...

Well, funny I didn't came across your thread in the first place. Thanks for the link, it has been very helpful. So it seems I will stay put with my D30 and give it some love.

Times for planing which next lift I'll get !

Thanks y'all for your input :rock:
 
Sleeves and C's for sure. If you're going to be running open in the front I doubt you'll have a problem. I've been wheeling quite a bit this past year (obviously not wheeling it like Moby does but then do any of us? ;)) and haven't had any issues. This is on all types of terrain including rocks running 35's.

If you're going to get a front locker then I'd say at least consider an upgrade. A set of RCV shafts will help but you're still going to have a smaller ring and pinion which will be the next weak link.

Still, there are ways of making things better. A high quality and properly heat treated ring and pinion will be much stronger than stock and should as long as you don't gear it down past 4.88 (beyond that you have too small of a pinion and too few teeth engaged at one time).

Not all axles and gears are made equal.
 
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