TJ: Dana 44 front axle comparison

[aw12345]

Right now I am doing some work on a dana 44 front axle and was amazed how skimpy the the stub shafts are.
Which leads to the point what's the big whoop about searching so hard and dropping a lot of coin on an axle that has skinny stub shafts, in my book more prone to breaking than the stock TJ stub shafts, then you have selectable hubs that explode, wheel bearings that need greasing if you forget the left front wheel will come of your Jeep somewhere in time. It's a lot harder and time consuming to change the front axle shafts if you break them on the trail. On top of that more bearings and parts to go wrong. In Comparison to a stock Rubicon axle it has only 3 advantages, a high pinion, which is nice and thicker axle tubes also you can run a highsteer. The latter you can fix on the Rubicon axle with a nice truss like the ones from TNT and a flip kit will help the steering. The other big advantage of the rubicon axle is it bolts right in and has a locker. Except for going bigger in gearing than 4.88 a dana 30 high pinion will make for the cheapest solution, truss it locker it stick some good axle shafts in it and enjoy the extra clearance of the small pumkin

Here are the fancy chromemolly dana 44 axles in comparison to stock dana 30 axles out of a TJ





On top of that a axle shaft in a DAna 30 or Rubicon Dana 44 can be changed in about 30 minutes or less with only a 36mm socket a wheel wrench and a 12 point 13 mm wrench try that on a fullfloating axle

[xjkevin]

exactly why i skipped the 44 and went to a 60.. but you do get selectable hub option, and a stronger ring and pinion..

[aw12345]

My thing is basically for those that want 5.38 gears a rubicon front axle is a pretty good choice, except for the high pinion don't see a lot of reason to search all over the place for an old f150 axle or spend a lot of coin on an aftermarket dana 44 front axle. In that respect drop it on a currie 9" or a spidertrax those things are purty or at least a stock dana 60

[Elusive]

Right now I am doing some work on a dana 44 front axle and was amazed how skimpy the the stub shafts are.
Which leads to the point what's the big whoop about searching so hard and dropping a lot of coin on an axle that has skinny stub shafts, in my book more prone to breaking than the stock TJ stub shafts, then you have selectable hubs that explode, wheel bearings that need greasing if you forget the left front wheel will come of your Jeep somewhere in time. It's a lot harder and time consuming to change the front axle shafts if you break them on the trail. On top of that more bearings and parts to go wrong. In Comparison to a stock Rubicon axle it has only 3 advantages, a high pinion, which is nice and thicker axle tubes also you can run a highsteer. The latter you can fix on the Rubicon axle with a nice truss like the ones from TNT and a flip kit will help the steering. The other big advantage of the rubicon axle is it bolts right in and has a locker. Except for going bigger in gearing than 4.88 a dana 30 high pinion will make for the cheapest solution, truss it locker it stick some good axle shafts in it and enjoy the extra clearance of the small pumkin

Here are the fancy chromemolly dana 44 axles in comparison to stock dana 30 axles out of a TJ





On top of that a axle shaft in a DAna 30 or Rubicon Dana 44 can be changed in about 30 minutes or less with only a 36mm socket a wheel wrench and a 12 point 13 mm wrench try that on a fullfloating axle

I'm not going to argue any of the points, but I will make observations.

1. 30 spline chromolly stubs are available for D-44's

2. I run drive slugs that don't explode on hard core trails, and hubs at all other times. they take 5 min to swap and the slugs cost $10 for the pair at a junkyard.

3. The wheel bearing do not require greasing after you assemble them....At least not more that once a year. I do a lot more maintenance to my rig than that.

4. The axle shafts come out just as fast if you carry a spindle nut socket in your trail kit.

5. The differential itself it larger. stronger cross pin, stronger case, bigger gears, in a 44 vs 30.

6. TJ rubicon 44's aren't high pinion, so the gears are weaker than HP 44's when run in the front. The HP axle also keeps the driveshaft up and out of harms way.

7. The stock axle brackets are weak and require welding to truss them anyway.

8. I can swap axle shafts with a hub nut sucket and 9/16 socket in th3 same time as the unit bearing axle.

9. cross over steering is far, far superior to the inverted Y crappy TJ style, and you get to use $18 Chevy 1 ton TRE'S.

[Double AA]

My experience wheeling a 44 fairly hard for 7 years is;
37" tires are too much when running the Hammers. I would consider 35's the max.
The premium (gold) Warn hubs never broke.
Never broke a ring or pinion gear or had any problem with the differential (ARB).
Never bent the housing
Unless taken out by a U joint, the outers shafts never broke or twisted.
Inner shafts(Superior)would twist or snap way too often.
The U joints are small, 300M is a must.
I broke three knuckles, two shortly after I installed hyro-assist. One broke with the AGR box and pump.

[bullysteve]

yo art those axles look familiar ......are we going to be able to do a run this staurday night ??

[aw12345]

Most likely I am planning on getting the detroit locker in today, bring me the socket to adjust the front wheel bearings

[aw12345]

It looks like this axle had stock stub shafts and he broke one on his first outing. I agree with ya all that with 37's and a v8 he needs something beefier than this thing or at least carry plenty of spare parts and the tools to change them. For most people tooling around on 35's the Rubicon 44 would not be a bad choice. High pinion is nice but in the end for what it is, building a dana44 highpinion is a lot of coin for little gain

[ECV Jeep]

My experience wheeling a 44 fairly hard for 7 years is;
37" tires are too much when running the Hammers. I would consider 35's the max.
The premium (gold) Warn hubs never broke.
Never broke a ring or pinion gear or had any problem with the differential (ARB).
Never bent the housing
Unless taken out by a U joint, the outers shafts never broke or twisted.
Inner shafts(Superior)would twist or snap way too often.
The U joints are small, 300M is a must.
I broke three knuckles, two shortly after I installed hyro-assist. One broke with the AGR box and pump.

Dang it...........looks like I will be building a 60 in the future!

[aw12345]

It's my understanding that the stock dana 60 knuckles will break also

[Double AA]

The sport has really changed over the past ten years, and so has the equipment. When I bought my CJ in 99 and did the axle swap, it was based on 35" tires. Interco made larger tires, but if you wanted to drive your Jeep on the street, the big radial mud terrains were 35". I put a D60/D44 in and ran the tougher trails like the Hammers. It was rare that I had an equipment problem that I didn't cause myself.

At that time competition rock crawling was a low dollar grassroots affair and products weren't really aim directly at the sport. Then Goodyear came out with "THE" rock crawling tire, the 37" MTR. These were for competitors only, but I had a few friends that were on the circuit and I finally got a set. That was the beginning of the end of my D44. I already had Superior axles, ARB and an AGR pump and steering box.

Shortly after I put on the 37's, I bent my tire rod. I installed a HD chromo high steer tie rod and promptly broke a knuckle. I then installed a Terra Low 4-1 kit and I could snap U joints and front shafts on demand.

Meanwhile, the Hammers were getting dug up and much tougher. The Hammer trails that were originally designed for Jeeps on 33's are now for Jeeps on "as big as you can fit tires". Many of the newer trails are designated buggy trails. There's only a few trails left for Jeeps on 33's.

If you think you would like to run the more challanging trails, and there's a chance of you running a tire larger than 35" in the future, you should consider a Ford 9", D60 or a 609.

Breaking sux!!