D 30s.............

christov11 · Jul 20, 2016

Goodmorning WAL!

Been wondering if i understood correctly about DANAs and whatnot. The wallet isnt ready to drop serious moneys for new front and back and I got the 30s geared at 3.73 from the factory. Thats fine for now as im going to run 33s for a while as its fresh from the factory. Eventually going to go up to 35s but that wont be for a few years at least given the type of usage shes going to go through at first.

that being said im comfortable keeping the Dana 30s for quite a while.... BUT.... given that the wheeling is only going to get harder along the years I want to make sure its going to last.

So to keep in budget im thinking of reinforcing it and from what I gather C qussets would be a good way to start. also just started looking into a truss? I understand the gearing and understand the difference between the danas but I dont fully grasp the concept of beefing up them up.

im not about to drop a few grand on new danas compared tothe few hundred to beef up the 30! and like I said for the wheeling im going to do... its not necessary...yet. but making sure the dana 30 is going to hold up better than stock would give me great peice of mind.

more loooking for confirmation that c gussets and truss would be a good start. if someone could explain the use of a truss that would be great. as luck may have it, at work I have access to WAL but nothing else on the internet haha so my searching capabilities are VERY limited to say the least.

thanks in advance guys! :beer:

wayoflife · Jul 20, 2016

You will be fine running a Dana 30 with 35's. Installing c-gussets will help prevent them from bending and they are cheap enough that I'd say they're worth it. Sleeves or a truss are used to help prevent your axle housing from bending but I personally wouldn't waste the time or money installing them. Speed more than rock crawling or playing in the mud will cause a housing to bend and neither will prevent that. And, based on your location, I doubt you'll be doing much bombing across the desert. That being said, I would save up and invest in chromoly axle shafts with full circle clips but ONLY after your factory ones need to be replaced.

Bingobelle · Jul 20, 2016

The d30 does not self destruct just by using the 4wd on the transfer case.

Use it. On 33 and moderate wheeling it will be fine.

The jk is not a desert race car from the factory so jumping is a bad idea.

GR8WHITE · Jul 20, 2016

I wouldn't throw a dime at the d30. As long as you keep it open, it will do just fine for 35's. C gusset aren't really worth doing on an axle u are planning on replacing anyways and a truss is definitely not worth the $. A stock d30 can actually put up with a lot (or At least mine did on 37's).

christov11 · Jul 20, 2016

That was quick!

Thanks a lot! like I said its more for peice of mind as im planning on keeping the 33-35 range with the tires. we do get a lot of muddy trails but its nothing like what you guys saw durring the pacific northwest video. that CRATER yall got "stuck" in was rediculous haha

so lets start from scratch then... cgussets inexpensive and wouldnt hurt a couple hundred bucks and some welding and theyre done so i could get that done with my "fun money" without thinking twice.

apart from that i guess not much is worth it until it fails over time?

wayoflife said:
You will be fine running a Dana 30 with 35's. Installing c-gussets will help prevent them from bending and they are cheap enough that I'd say they're worth it. Sleeves or a truss are used to help prevent your axle housing from bending but I personally wouldn't waste the time or money installing them. Speed more than rock crawling or playing in the mud will cause a housing to bend and neither will prevent that. And, based on your location, I doubt you'll be doing much bombing across the desert. That being said, I would save up and invest in chromoly axle shafts with full circle clips but ONLY after your factory ones need to be replaced.

so lets start from scratch then... cgussets inexpensive and wouldnt hurt. a couple hundred bucks and some welding and theyre done so i could get that done with my "fun money" without thinking twice. <---- FORGET THIS

keeping in mind that theres mostly mud trails in the area and they are softer trails; apart from that i guess not much is worth it until it fails over time? <--- forget this too!

EDIT!!!

SORRY I READ WRONG! forget it!

Cgussets it will be and i guess that will be all until she breaks!

Red Knight15 · Jul 20, 2016

C gussets are cheap insurance.

wayoflife · Jul 20, 2016

Running 33's, I really wouldn't bother even with c-gussets. Running 35's, it's unlikely but I have seen where guys have bent their c's just from hitting a deep pothole at a high rate of speed. It'd be hard for me to say that gussets are even "needed" for your needs but they're the most I would ever throw at a Dana 30.

QuicksilverJK · Jul 20, 2016

I did c's and sleeves on mine. If you are able to do the work yourself it is really inexpensive piece of mind. Can be done in a day and gives you a chance to get a closer look at front end. While the sleeves don't provide much structural support I don't think they are useless. I read stories of people having a hell of a time getting them all the way in the tube (because the tube already had a slight bend) but mine slid right in and 12 plug welds later I was golden [emoji106]. I don't plan on any additional upgrades to the 30. But hopefully these will help me get by till I can afford a PR.

wayoflife · Jul 20, 2016

QuicksilverJK said:
I did c's and sleeves on mine. If you are able to do the work yourself it is really inexpensive piece of mind. Can be done in a day and gives you a chance to get a closer look at front end. While the sleeves don't provide much structural support I don't think they are useless. I read stories of people having a hell of a time getting them all the way in the tube (because the tube already had a slight bend) but mine slid right in and 12 plug welds later I was golden [emoji106]. I don't plan on any additional upgrades to the 30. But hopefully these will help me get by till I can afford a PR.

Sorry, I have to disagree on the sleeves, they are totally useless and over the last 8 years or so since they've been available, I have personally seen plenty of axle housings STILL break and STILL bend right at the differential. I wish this weren't true as I was one of the first people to buy into the idea of them and even ran them on one of my JK's but the fact are the facts. Or at least, based on what I have seen.

QuicksilverJK · Jul 20, 2016

wayoflife said:
Sorry, I have to disagree on the sleeves, they are totally useless and over the last 8 years or so since they've been available, I have personally seen plenty of axle housings STILL break and STILL bend right at the differential. I wish this weren't true as I was one of the first people to buy into the idea of them and even ran them on one of my JK's but the fact are the facts. Or at least, based on what I have seen.

No, I totally agree and that is why I said they provide little strength. Aside from a full truss I don't see a way to avoid a brake at the diff if you are playing that hard. But if the tube bends it will affect alignment and tire wear. This is why for $100 I don't see the harm in doing it, especially if you are already doing the c-gussets.

christov11 · Jul 20, 2016

honestly thats my thought.... if its useless then no.... but even for a little more support a few hundred bucks wont hurt.

i pay more in car insurance in a year... helps me justify a few hundred on C gussets or whatever I need when im actually and going looking for trouble in trails, know what i mean? if the whole thing was a grand or 2 like new axels Ide have a lot harder time justifying it.

EDIT:

Thanks gents!
C gussets are going to be the way to go for now to help her last a few years. when the warantee is gone and i decide to forget about moderation the axels are gonna get thrown on! and again thats only if its needed by then. time will tell!

xflstl · Jul 21, 2016

One thing that sleeves can do that is not useless, when a critical failure happens it can give you that couple of extra seconds to slow down and get stopped. Before your axle completely comes apart.
This happened to my friend at highway speed. At around 200k miles on his rig. The sleeve at least partially helped save his butt.

christov11 · Jul 21, 2016

xflstl said:
One thing that sleeves can do that is not useless, when a critical failure happens it can give you that couple of extra seconds to slow down and get stopped. Before your axle completely comes apart.
This happened to my friend at highway speed. At around 200k miles on his rig. The sleeve at least partially helped save his butt.

thanks for the insight!

wayoflife · Jul 21, 2016

QuicksilverJK said:
No, I totally agree and that is why I said they provide little strength. Aside from a full truss I don't see a way to avoid a brake at the diff if you are playing that hard. But if the tube bends it will affect alignment and tire wear. This is why for $100 I don't see the harm in doing it, especially if you are already doing the c-gussets.

I think you missed my point - your axle WILL STILL BEND even with sleeves installed. I have seen it and still see it happen all the time. The $100 is only if you can do the install yourself, it's considerably more if you need to have someone install it for you. But, even at that, $100 is $100 that can be used on other mods. Don't get me wrong, to each their own, I'm just trying to save people from making the same mistake I've made in thinking sleeves will actually do anything and maybe save them some money.

xflstl said:
One thing that sleeves can do that is not useless, when a critical failure happens it can give you that couple of extra seconds to slow down and get stopped. Before your axle completely comes apart.
This happened to my friend at highway speed. At around 200k miles on his rig. The sleeve at least partially helped save his butt.

In my humble opinion, this is EXACTLY why they are useless. Clearly, the sleeve did NOTHING to prevent the break from happening and if you've ever seen a housing break without them, you'd know that you'd still be able to roll to a stop as your axle shaft will keep the tube from completely falling apart. But then, what would I know.

QuicksilverJK · Jul 21, 2016

Fair enough. since I did the work myself I don't see the harm in it. I'm ok with the $100 spent brake or no brake. The only way to know if something works is to see it fail, so in theory you never know how many times something stopped a smaller problem from occurring (Not including a full brake at the housing as the design is obvious that it does not protect against this.)

jmayps · Jul 21, 2016

Quick question in regards to the D30. Like christov11, I also plan on keeping my d30 for a while as my jeep is 90% dd. Later on down the road (think years from now) it will turn into more of a toy and I'll build it for 37s. Would it be worth it to regear now for 35s if I don't plan on moving up for sometime? Or should I just wait until I upgrade for 37s? Right now I'm running 3.21s on 285/75r17s.

WJCO · Jul 21, 2016

jmayps said:
Quick question in regards to the D30. Like christov11, I also plan on keeping my d30 for a while as my jeep is 90% dd. Later on down the road (think years from now) it will turn into more of a toy and I'll build it for 37s. Would it be worth it to regear now for 35s if I don't plan on moving up for sometime? Or should I just wait until I upgrade for 37s? Right now I'm running 3.21s on 285/75r17s.

If you are serious about the upgrade, wait and do it all at once. If you're not so sure, then do the re-gear especially if you drive a lot of hills. I did a re-gear in December which is awesome and I love it, but I'll be getting a PR in about a month or so and really wished I would have just waited. Would have saved about 500 bucks or so.

EDIT: I'm keeping the same ratio, but still wasted money on the front axle that will be switched out.

jmayps · Jul 22, 2016

Yea I'm torn between the whole 4.56 vs 4.88 decision. It'll be several years before I get a new axle...unless mine blows out tomorrow, then it'll be much sooner than that.

xflstl · Jul 22, 2016

wayoflife said:
In my humble opinion, this is EXACTLY why they are useless. Clearly, the sleeve did NOTHING to prevent the break from happening and if you've ever seen a housing break without them, you'd know that you'd still be able to roll to a stop as your axle shaft will keep the tube from completely falling apart. But then, what would I know.

That's one way to look at it. Personally I don't think it's clear that the sleeve did nothing to prevent the axle tube from breaking. The only thing that is clear is that ultimately it did break. That 100 dollar sleeve might have gotten him an extra 100k miles or so out of that tube before it finally let loose. I'm not enough of an expert to say.

WJCO · Jul 22, 2016

jmayps said:
Yea I'm torn between the whole 4.56 vs 4.88 decision. It'll be several years before I get a new axle...unless mine blows out tomorrow, then it'll be much sooner than that.

A lot of guys on here say 4.88s are great for 35s.

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