Since I have never met or wheeled with most of the people in this debate I hope you guys don't take this personal. But the idea of running big tires on a D30 long term is a really bad idea. I still have a d30 in my rig, ARB 4.88, CTMs, alloy shafts, and a WJ knuckle conversion running 35" MTRs. Pretty much a fully polished turd. Why did I spend all that money on a 30? Because I wanted to wheel my rig, and couldn't do the fab work to swap in a 44 or a 60. I never broke a stock shaft, but I have broken a few alloys on 33's. I have never broken a ring gear or a u-joint even when running alloys with 760s.
So again, why bother to spend all that money if I wasn't having problems? The biggest reason I did it was because of the inconvinience factor. I like to wrench on my rig in a nice shop, not on a dirty/rocky trail. I live driving my rig while on the few vacation days I am afforded, not wrenching on it. I like to allow the people in my group to have a good time wheeling, not watching me wrench on my rig. I want the people who travel thoudands of miles to run a trail the chance to run an obstacle without waiting for me to fix my rig. I want the guys who are wheeling with me to go wheeling again with me, not think twice about inviting me because I break all the time.
A properly set-up rig includes appropriate gearing and axle strength in relation to the tire size. If you are running huge tires on a stock drivetrain odds are you are using the large tires to compensate for the lack of ability inherent in a rig with a stock drivetrain. A stock drivetrain with huge tires is not condusive to driving easy. As you approach an obstacle rather than climbing over it the torque converter begins to slip and the rig stops, to continue moving you now require more throttle. As you increse the throttle the engine loads the torque converter until the point the rig now launches over the obstacle rather than traversing it in a controlled manner. Bad things happen at this point, you can't stay on the correct line, you slip off rocks and wedge yourself in a bad spot, you blow the beads on your tires. etc...
I understand wheeling on the cheap, but it is best to wheel with others who like to wheel on the cheap on lightly used trails close to home. Just because you CAN do something deosn't mean SHOULD be doing it.
