For an aftermarket set of ring and pinion gears, can anyone make any suggestions. I've heard good things about Yukon. I'm curious about U.S. Gear, as the prices from Rocky Road are right in my price range.
I used Dana/Spicer in my 30 and Ford Racing in my 8.8, but if I HAD to go aftermarket, I'd probably go with Precision again--that's what I used in my FSB and they held up well.
the way i look at replacement gears is this... Dana/Spicer gears run 200K miles in OEM applications all the time... i have no evidence that aftermarket are inferior however i will always spend my $$ on a proven trackrecord... do not buy gears (or anything else) bases solely on $$...
Weren't the Dana's kiler expensive? I used to work in a shop that sold Dana products, and it was cheaper for the techs there to buy an aftermarket set from another shop at retail than a Dana set wholesale.
And yes, I've heard poor things about Rocky Road for customer service, but the prices for their gears and carriers are excellent. I just don't know anyting about the reputation of U.S. Gear.
it depends if your doing the install or not. I was told that Dana's are the easiest to install, they are more precise and need less fine tuning then the aftermarket
Weren't the Dana's kiler expensive? I used to work in a shop that sold Dana products, and it was cheaper for the techs there to buy an aftermarket set from another shop at retail than a Dana set wholesale.
Actually, the D/S weren't really all that bad. They even came with a basic install kit, so I didn't have to buy one and saved that expense. I got them from www.4x4groupbuy.com (ask for Jason).
I run Dana/Spicer gears because of the quality of the product. If you are looking to get a set of gears, one of the members "fullsizeXJ" sells all the gears you'll need, you can PM him and he'll give you a discounted price for members.
PORC has some real reasonable prices on their gears. I have been running them for a long time now and not a single problem. I wouldnt hesitate to buy them again.
ive used nothing but yukon. sometimes you get lucky and your unwrap dana spicer gears from a yukon box cause all they do is repackage most of the time.
my gear mentor says yukons are the way to go and he has only regeared like 500 or so jeeps.
no not 500... maybe only 200-250 at this point.
Ive installed them all. from Yukon to D/S to Genuine to factory gears. They all have their quirks. when you have the basics of gear setup down, you can get pretty good with just about any brand. but from my perspective. stay away from Genuine. I've talked with installers that have pleanty of GG under there belt and they swear by them. (I think mostly due to the profit of a cheaper gearset). But I've dealt with install issues in enough of them more so than any other brand of gearset. Yukon's are the best bang for the buck. Alloy USA has a very decent product as well. while I was in the biz, D/S was not that expensive in comparison but availability became sparse.
US gear is fine. Same as precission.
There is only a handful of actual gear MFG's out there. Many are bought in bulk and boxed in company packaging. the crappy gears come from one of the knee country's. (chinese, taiwanese) The best bang for the buck comes from India where QC is better in check. Then there was something about one mfg in Italy but I kinda forgot that story. then you have american gears.
people get a little to hung up on gears. Be more concerned about your installer. A crappy install can make a decent gearset sing... and not in a good way. while a perfect install on a crappy gearset might by you more time than expected.
