jorgelrod
Hooked
Hey guys, since I bought my Jeep in 2013, I've been building a pretty balanced rig that has served it's double duty of DD and weekend Overlander/Wheeler pretty well. I eventually upgraded the D30 for the PR44 and felt like the jeep was solid. Back in PR, the tropical setting gave me a pretty simple wheeling scene, the island being 100 miles long by 35 miles wide was pretty much a mud wheelers dream and as some of you have seen in my pics from posts through the years, I was never shy to bury my jeep in the stuff. Seeing how that was my scene, I built my Jeep well but at some places I felt that were I was was kind of enough. Examples of these are the fact that I run the standard 30 splines on my Sport rear D44 even though I have an Air locker, I run Dynatrac's 30 Spline shafts up front in my PR44 and I for the most part have though that was pretty strong for 35's. In comes the last quarter of the year and situations in my personal and profesional careers had me move to Jacksonville Florida, all of a sudden my range of places to wheel, campsites to visit expanded a thousand fold. Those dreams of taking the rig to Moab or the Rubicon and at least check them off the bucket list are now a hell of a lot more tangible. I've started to think about what I want to do, where should my build go from here and I feel I'm kind of at a catch 22. One thing is for certain, the springs on my 2.5 inch lift have started to sag on the passenger side and I've been eyeing for a while now the jump to 3.5", the rest is where I find my self not knowing where to go. So here we go, this are my doubts and were I am open to suggestions from the group, after all, most of the way I've built my jeep has to do with what I've learned from you guys.
I'm still on the fence about 37's. I find the 35's are in a sweet spot where my rig has been capable as hell and gas mileage has been pretty good for a rolling brick. I drive down to Orlando at least once a month to visit my wife's sister and family and do a lot miles around JAX because everything is so spread around here. Then again, I want at some point in my rigs life to visit Moab and the Rubicon and places like Ouray and Black Bear pass, Etc. These are places I want to visit, but unlike Eddie or most of the guys for whom these places are a pretty close and "local" scene, these are places I might visit once or twice on pilgrimage but not very often. It seems the South Eastern US is all about the mud too. How much am I limiting myself if I stay at 35?
30 Splines. I have found my rig pretty capable, I'm also the first guy to say time to break the winch when I feel pushing to hard might break something. I saw guys a plenty back home run 37's on their D30's and get away mostly because of the fact that we ran mud. Me being part of this forum, I knew better, that is why I moved to my PR44 and wheeled the hell out of my rig with confidence. Given my new reality and those things I want to do, is 30 splines enough if I stay at 35's? Will I definitely need to move to 35 splines (Front and Rear) if I decide to slap 37's or can I get away with it?
35 Splines. I posted a bit back about the idea of maybe growing the rear to a FF/60 with my visualization that I would run like Rubicat did for a while with a PR44/60 combo with spacers in the front to match the wider rear FF. Even if I jump to 37's I figure that is my limit, I don't see myself going to 40's, not because I wouldn't want to but because a Jeep on 40's brings a whole host of other upgrade needs I cannot afford and would most definitely would want to try and skimp on to end up wasting money on breakages etc. This idea was brought to kind of a standstill as some of the members on the forum brought to my attention how I would scrape my diff on just about everything on 37's. I know I could go for the 35 Spline rear upgrade from Dynatrac, but what about the front? Am I good with 30 splines or would I need to move those to 35 splines as well (This is also a factor that make me think about staying at 35)
Sorry for the long post. I've been thinking about this for a bit the last few weeks as I'm starting to set apart some $$ for newer upgrades but want to learn from previous mistakes (Sleeving my 30 and putting a truetrac so that I would eventually end up doing a PR44 anyways) and want to head in the right direction. As always I value all of your input and advice as I know how much it has helped me in the past.
I'm still on the fence about 37's. I find the 35's are in a sweet spot where my rig has been capable as hell and gas mileage has been pretty good for a rolling brick. I drive down to Orlando at least once a month to visit my wife's sister and family and do a lot miles around JAX because everything is so spread around here. Then again, I want at some point in my rigs life to visit Moab and the Rubicon and places like Ouray and Black Bear pass, Etc. These are places I want to visit, but unlike Eddie or most of the guys for whom these places are a pretty close and "local" scene, these are places I might visit once or twice on pilgrimage but not very often. It seems the South Eastern US is all about the mud too. How much am I limiting myself if I stay at 35?
30 Splines. I have found my rig pretty capable, I'm also the first guy to say time to break the winch when I feel pushing to hard might break something. I saw guys a plenty back home run 37's on their D30's and get away mostly because of the fact that we ran mud. Me being part of this forum, I knew better, that is why I moved to my PR44 and wheeled the hell out of my rig with confidence. Given my new reality and those things I want to do, is 30 splines enough if I stay at 35's? Will I definitely need to move to 35 splines (Front and Rear) if I decide to slap 37's or can I get away with it?
35 Splines. I posted a bit back about the idea of maybe growing the rear to a FF/60 with my visualization that I would run like Rubicat did for a while with a PR44/60 combo with spacers in the front to match the wider rear FF. Even if I jump to 37's I figure that is my limit, I don't see myself going to 40's, not because I wouldn't want to but because a Jeep on 40's brings a whole host of other upgrade needs I cannot afford and would most definitely would want to try and skimp on to end up wasting money on breakages etc. This idea was brought to kind of a standstill as some of the members on the forum brought to my attention how I would scrape my diff on just about everything on 37's. I know I could go for the 35 Spline rear upgrade from Dynatrac, but what about the front? Am I good with 30 splines or would I need to move those to 35 splines as well (This is also a factor that make me think about staying at 35)
Sorry for the long post. I've been thinking about this for a bit the last few weeks as I'm starting to set apart some $$ for newer upgrades but want to learn from previous mistakes (Sleeving my 30 and putting a truetrac so that I would eventually end up doing a PR44 anyways) and want to head in the right direction. As always I value all of your input and advice as I know how much it has helped me in the past.
