Any reason to NOT get a rear Dana 60 over a Dana 44?

[wjtstudios]

The two other reason to upgrade the rear axle is the load carried above and the road type you drive on. I carry mounted ARB fridge and a bunch of gear in the back plus a 37 with a 10 gallon gas tank and 5 gallon water on my carrier. Fully loaded she is a heavy beast and running dirt roads loaded like that with a bunch of pot holes, it will bend axle shaft flanges in a heartbeat. The revolution shafts helped, but that was the reason I moved up from a 44 to a 60.


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[wayoflife]

Man...I have certainly battled this demon! So I bought a set of built up Rubi axles a little over 3 years ago for my Sahara. Sleeved, trussed, and gusseted front 44 with LCA skids, factory Rubi locker, and RCV shafts. The rear had chromoly shafts and the factory Rubi locker as well. Both axles came with Riddler diff covers and Yukon 5.38 gears. We discovered that the rear locker wouldn't engage right after installation. A new Rubi locker was going to be a little over $1100. I told them that if I was going to spend that much more on it, what else could we do to beef it up even further. We contacted Auburn and got one of their 35 spline lockers for $650. So we put new chromoly 35 spline shafts, all new bearings, etc, along with the same Yukon 5.38 gear set.

Fast forward 3 years, 2 days, and 6000 miles. The rear locker gave up on me while down at Hidden Falls Adventure Park 5 weeks ago. I simply noticed that it wasn't engaging, and then started hearing some light metal dragging sounds about an hour later. The next day I pulled the diff cover to inspect and found that the outside of the ring gear had 90% of the teeth missing. Weird, as the pinion still had full bite on the middle of the ring gear. The damage had been done up to that point, so I cleared all of the debris, refilled with new gear oil, and continued wheeling the rest of the weekend without issue. Back to the shop 3 days later, 4WheelParts pulls it apart and discovers that the 6 allen head bolts that hold the locker case together had started backing out. The debris accumulated from the shearing of those bolts are what ate the ring gear up.

I asked about the warranty of the locker but they told me it was only 1 year, and anything over a 31" tire voided it anyways. I'm running 35's. However...I was then informed that I had paid for their "Extreme" warranty, and that stretched it out to 15k miles, or 3 years. I was over that by 2 days, but they went ahead and honored it. They told me that they would install all new bearings, gears, and the now upgraded version of that Auburn Ected locker for a total of $161.00. The old locker had a 2 pin locking design and the newer version is a stronger, 4 pin design and is made of a different, stronger material. It was also a little over a grand. That was a no brainer!! However...I am always about beefing it up! I inquired about the Dynatrac 60, and he told me he would be willing to credit all of the parts needed towards the new 60. I would've been out around $2000 for the upgrade, minus labor. The struggle was REEEAAAALL!! I've currently got a wedding ring fund going, so I ended up passing on the upgrade. Still can't beat $161 to rebuild the whole rearend! I'll be moving up to 37's after the wedding ring is purchased. Just Empty Every Pocket!!!

Wow, it really is a shame that you threw all that money at factory axles and even more so that you gave up your Sahara rear axle in favor of a Rubicon especially being that you ended up installing a new locker and went to 35 spine shafts. Of course, I've never been fond of 5.38's in a Dana 44 being that the pinion is really small and have personally seen them fail. Guess all is well that ends well though being that you are now getting a ProRock 60 :yup:

 

[Jmo]

If you plan on running 40’s down the road, just invest in a set of 60’s.

I️ wasted a lot of money beefing up my 44’s when I was on 37’s. Now I️ took them off and put dynatrac 60’s on.

 

[jsukey]

Wow, it really is a shame that you threw all that money at factory axles and even more so that you gave up your Sahara rear axle in favor of a Rubicon especially being that you ended up installing a new locker and went to 35 spine shafts. Of course, I've never been fond of 5.38's in a Dana 44 being that the pinion is really small and have personally seen them fail. Guess all is well that ends well though being that you are now getting a ProRock 60 :yup:

I wish I could say that! I ended up passing on the upgrade. Gotta take care of my living/breathing honey first! Priorities!!! Financially, I wasn't really out when I got that Rubi rear. The price I paid was really more for the front Rubi 44. It was already sleeved, trussed, and gusseted, with LCA skids, RCV shafts, and Poly BJ's. Yeah, it sucked throwing money at it right away. What can ya do though? I'll be moving up to 37's after the wedding ring is paid for!

The 5.38's in the 44's was something I went back and forth on. I had read about failures due to the smaller pinion myself. I had also read about others who had never seen a failure after 10's of 1000's of miles. In the end, the price was just too good to pass up on the pair. I'm pretty easy on the skinny pedal, as I tend to just let the Jeep do the work. It hardly ever sees mud, unless it's something light that we run across while out on the rocks at Hidden Falls or Bridgeport. If I decide down the road that it's time to jump up to 60's...I can simply sell these axles and throw that money towards the new pair.

 

[wayoflife]

I wish I could say that! I ended up passing on the upgrade. Gotta take care of my living/breathing honey first! Priorities!!! Financially, I wasn't really out when I got that Rubi rear. The price I paid was really more for the front Rubi 44. It was already sleeved, trussed, and gusseted, with LCA skids, RCV shafts, and Poly BJ's. Yeah, it sucked throwing money at it right away. What can ya do though? I'll be moving up to 37's after the wedding ring is paid for!

The 5.38's in the 44's was something I went back and forth on. I had read about failures due to the smaller pinion myself. I had also read about others who had never seen a failure after 10's of 1000's of miles. In the end, the price was just too good to pass up on the pair. I'm pretty easy on the skinny pedal, as I tend to just let the Jeep do the work. It hardly ever sees mud, unless it's something light that we run across while out on the rocks at Hidden Falls or Bridgeport. If I decide down the road that it's time to jump up to 60's...I can simply sell these axles and throw that money towards the new pair.

Yeah, I've read a lot of stupid things on the internet over the last 20 years and I've wasted a LOT of money trying to save money. Hell, I even made the mistake of trying to build up factory 44's way before it was the thing to do and thinking they'd do the job. Of course, that was way back in the day and well before anyone was writing anything about how they'd actually hold up long term. Unfortunately, I had to learn the hard way - through experience and suffering break after break.

As far as others who had never seen a failure after 10's of 1000's of miles go, all I can say is that we all have our own idea of what "wheeling" is and how "often" is really often. Clearly, your rear end didn't hold up.

 

[jsukey]

Yeah, I've read a lot of stupid things on the internet over the last 20 years and I've wasted a LOT of money trying to save money. Hell, I even made the mistake of trying to build up factory 44's way before it was the thing to do and thinking they'd do the job. Of course, that was way back in the day and well before anyone was writing anything about how they'd actually hold up long term. Unfortunately, I had to learn the hard way - through experience and suffering break after break.

As far as others who had never seen a failure after 10's of 1000's of miles go, all I can say is that we all have our own idea of what "wheeling" is and how "often" is really often. Clearly, your rear end didn't hold up.

My failure didn't have anything to do with wheeling abuse, or strength issues though. Either Loctite was forgotten on the recessed allen head bolts in the locker differential case or they weren't torqued down properly from the factory. All 6 had backed out and started shearing off. I only had 6000 miles on the setup at the time. I will be the first to say that I definitely don't wheel as hard as others. My younger self spent way too many hours underneath my previous Jeeps, doing repairs that could have been prevented had I stayed out of the mud/throttle. I'm not knocking anyone for their wheeling habits nor the frequency in which they wheel btw. To each their own! My Wrangler isn't my DD. I do however drive it the 200 miles one way to Hidden Falls every year, as well as Bridgeport, K2, and Barnwell Mt. occasionally. Making it back under my own power is more important though, so I choose to wheel it a little more gingerly. I'm not afraid to try anything in it though! It's not a beauty queen by any means, and has its fair share of rock rash to prove it. Trust me, if I had the money to burn and the confidence that it would still fit in my garage...she would probably already be sitting on 60's with 40's at the corners. For now, I'm happy with its performance.

 

[wayoflife]

My failure didn't have anything to do with wheeling abuse, or strength issues though. Either Loctite was forgotten on the recessed allen head bolts in the locker differential case or they weren't torqued down properly from the factory. All 6 had backed out and started shearing off. I only had 6000 miles on the setup at the time. I will be the first to say that I definitely don't wheel as hard as others. My younger self spent way too many hours underneath my previous Jeeps, doing repairs that could have been prevented had I stayed out of the mud/throttle. I'm not knocking anyone for their wheeling habits nor the frequency in which they wheel btw. To each their own! My Wrangler isn't my DD. I do however drive it the 200 miles one way to Hidden Falls every year, as well as Bridgeport, K2, and Barnwell Mt. occasionally. Making it back under my own power is more important though, so I choose to wheel it a little more gingerly. I'm not afraid to try anything in it though! It's not a beauty queen by any means, and has its fair share of rock rash to prove it. Trust me, if I had the money to burn and the confidence that it would still fit in my garage...she would probably already be sitting on 60's with 40's at the corners. For now, I'm happy with its performance.

LOL!! Definitely, to each their own. I just know how much money you can throw at factory axles and know how much of a true waste it is. For the cost, you could be well on your way to a ProRock 44 or even a Trail Leader package. Just wanted to get it out there for others who might be reading this thread and don't know any better.

For me, both my JK's are running 40's and coil overs and they are my daily drivers. I should note, they both fit just fine in any standard garage with a 7' door or parking structure for that matter. It did take money to get them there but it would have taken a lot less and a lot less time to get there had I not dicked around with my factory axles and thrown money at them.

As far as others "wheeling habits or the frequency in which they wheel" goes, questioning their experiences is a far cry from "knocking" them. Qualifying their experiences help others to get a more accurate understanding of what really works and under what circumstances. Of course, I'm just a mall crawler and all this is just my opinion.

 

[Warebear]

Good read, good thread. I’ve been mulling over and over about how much money I’ll put into my rubi axles before I just upgrade.


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[wayoflife]

Good read, good thread. I’ve been mulling over and over about how much money I’ll put into my rubi axles before I just upgrade.


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Having owned and built up 4 different JK's and still having 2, what I would recommend is just playing with what you've got until you need or can afford to upgrade to something better. That's what I finally did on my 2012 JK and have been so happy with.

 

[any4xx]

Pretty much my plan. This Jeep will continue to be my daily driver with only occasional off-road use. My 5’00” wife also drives it sometimes so I am seriously not going to go any larger than 35” tires, as she can barely crawl into it now. Tuesday, 4.56 gears and C-gussets are going in. I’m guessing that will take me through life quite well.