dana 44 or super30

[irishjeeper]

my buddy wants to put somthing stronger in the front end of his tj.hes torn between a super 30 and a rubicon 44. does anyone here have any oppinions on the matter. what makes a super 30 super?

[igofshn]

What kind of wheeling. There are lots of people running a D30 on 35's that have never had a problem.

[irishjeeper]

well i think hes worried more about having the six inck lift with the 35 inch tires than he is about the terrain hell encounter.would he be wrong?

[NAILER341]

there are a number of us that have been running the dana 30 with warn axles and having good success.
i recently upgraded to the super 30.
a 44 is nice, but shares the same u joint as the 30.
a polished 30 will likely get the job done.

[irishjeeper]

ok, so a super 30 im guessing is high strength axle shafts.so a pair of ctm or ox u- joints would suffice for helping the strength as well? thats pretty easy. so why have i heard about the 30 a 35 being problematic.or is that just the industry tring to profit?

[igofshn]

Why the overkill??? 6" lift is not the problem. What type terrain is he wheeling?

[Materdaddy]

ok, so a super 30 im guessing is high strength axle shafts.so a pair of ctm or ox u- joints would suffice for helping the strength as well? thats pretty easy. so why have i heard about the 30 a 35 being problematic.or is that just the industry tring to profit?

The dana 35 rear is a problem, the dana 30 front (usually) isn't.

[peteyg]

I did a Super 30 install for a guy a couple weeks, ago, and I was impressed. The kit is very complete.

Here is what is "super" about the Super 30 kit:

30 Spline axles with a 30 spline ARB (vs. 27 spline axles for the stock 30).

Superior Alloy Axles, inners and outers.

Your choice of U-joints. We did 760's for this guy, and that is a damn fine axle. 760's are good joints.

What the Super 30 kit does not address is the inherent weakness of the small ring and pinion, but there's not a lot you can do about that.

I think if you were to put a Super 30 kit in a High Pinion 30 with either OX or CTM joints, that would be just about as strong as you could make a '30.

Also, if or when you get ready to upgrade, you can part it out and get most of your money back. When I parted out my '30,, I got almost $1K out of the parts. I couldn't sell the axle complete for $600. Go figure.

[irishjeeper]

Why the overkill??? 6" lift is not the problem. What type terrain is he wheeling?

hes not actually taken it out yet he bought it and is now with me ,stuck in the southern desert of afghanistan.i think he wants to build it as strong as possable with out too many mods.

[Beat98TJ]

The only issues I ever had with my d30 were broken gears. Everything else held up fine (ARB & 4.56's) Until that is I bent the housing to hell trying to fly.

[irishjeeper]

thank for all the info , hes gonna go with the super 30.

[Scout99]

Thumbs up on the Dana 30

The Best way to build a Dana 30 for a TJ is to get a non-vacuum disconnect high pinion Dana 30 out of a XJ Cherokee. The reverse rotation gear set makes it much stronger than the TJ gear set. It also has a high pinion which will keep your drive shaft out of the rocks. The housings can be found very inexpensively and your TJ Knuckles, axles and breaks are completely inter-changeable. What also makes up a super 30 is the 30 spline locker and inner axle shafts as apposed to the stock 27 spline shafts. These parts are aftermarket. I recommend an ARB air locker and either Alloy USA or Superior shafts. I run the Alloy USA inners with the Warn 5 on 5.5 lock-out hub conversion with 30 spline outers. My inners are still the stock 27 spline count though. I retain the stock spline count for one reason. In the event I do break an inner, I have the stock TJ Dana shafts as spares. With the 30 spline inners you won't have much availability of trail spares in the event of a breakage unless you go buy a second set. On the other side of the coin I have wheeled the Rubicon and Dusy Ershim several times with 35" MT/R's and the stock 27 spline shafts before I went to 27 spline Alloys and never broke. This goes with finesse and not being to over-aggressive behind the Wheel. Having said that the possibility of breaking a 30 spline shaft is less in that as you increase in spline count, you increase in strength. I have enough confidence that with the set up I run I could start the Rubicon at 6 in the morning with my crew and be done with time to spare before sun-down at observation point with zero problems. That’s my take on the Dana 30.

[Huntersbo]

I understand the dana30 has the same size pinion shaft as the dana 44 but has a weaker case.

[Elusive]

I understand the dana30 has the same size pinion shaft as the dana 44 but has a weaker case.

not really...
the pinion shaft itself is the same size. the yokes are interchangeable, but that means nothing. they never break. the pinion gear is smaller and the ring gear, and the internals to the differential are a LOT smaller. these are the real differences between a modern 30 and a 44

[Long&Low]

Plus there is a bit of difference between a TJ D44 and a HD front HP Ford D44 (from a 3/4 ton), ie .50" tube, being the main one.

All in all if he's staying 35" tires, a well built D30 should be just fine. And realisticly, if he's going bigger than that, don't waste the step to a D44, go D60.