I have a chunk of money I want to put in to my rig over the next 60 days.
I live in the Pacific Northwest where most of it is trail rides with a little rock-crawling, but nothing compared to what I was used to when I live near the Rubicon Trail. I do plan on heading to Rubicon every couple years though and want this rig capable of doing mild rock crawling.
I have a D44 rear-end thats built, but still have the low pinion D30 up front. I want something stronger up front because I hate breaking things on the trail and I would love to move up slightly in tire size too (35"s now, maybe 36"s or 37"s max). Ran pricing, and for $6500 I can do two full built Dana 60s w/ 5.56 gears, lockers, truss, etc, or just a hair over $4000 do a HPD44 with waggy shafts for the front only. The cost difference is big, but its close enough that I'm considering doing the D60s and selling my D30/D44 combo to make up some of the difference. Why? Because I'm telling myself that if its the smarter choice to go big, stout, less worry about breaking things, and I can go bigger than 37's in the future if I choose to.
First Question:
How's my logic so far? Am I overbuilding? Should I go for it?
Second Question:
I hear from everyone that 4:1 T-case gears are annoying as sin here in the Northwest since there's a lot of trails and only a little rock crawling. But, I have a good deal on a 241J if I want it right now. I'm concerned about rock crawling at stock gearing though, but I've never used stock t-case gears at Rubicon ... all my previous rigs (Toy w/ dual cases, Samurai 6:1) made it easy. So, has anyone ran Rubicon with stock t-case gears and how did it fair? Would you rather than and have higher gearing for trail rides, or would you rather get the lower gears?
Thanks for your advice guys! I appreciate it =)
I live in the Pacific Northwest where most of it is trail rides with a little rock-crawling, but nothing compared to what I was used to when I live near the Rubicon Trail. I do plan on heading to Rubicon every couple years though and want this rig capable of doing mild rock crawling.
I have a D44 rear-end thats built, but still have the low pinion D30 up front. I want something stronger up front because I hate breaking things on the trail and I would love to move up slightly in tire size too (35"s now, maybe 36"s or 37"s max). Ran pricing, and for $6500 I can do two full built Dana 60s w/ 5.56 gears, lockers, truss, etc, or just a hair over $4000 do a HPD44 with waggy shafts for the front only. The cost difference is big, but its close enough that I'm considering doing the D60s and selling my D30/D44 combo to make up some of the difference. Why? Because I'm telling myself that if its the smarter choice to go big, stout, less worry about breaking things, and I can go bigger than 37's in the future if I choose to.
First Question:
How's my logic so far? Am I overbuilding? Should I go for it?
Second Question:
I hear from everyone that 4:1 T-case gears are annoying as sin here in the Northwest since there's a lot of trails and only a little rock crawling. But, I have a good deal on a 241J if I want it right now. I'm concerned about rock crawling at stock gearing though, but I've never used stock t-case gears at Rubicon ... all my previous rigs (Toy w/ dual cases, Samurai 6:1) made it easy. So, has anyone ran Rubicon with stock t-case gears and how did it fair? Would you rather than and have higher gearing for trail rides, or would you rather get the lower gears?
Thanks for your advice guys! I appreciate it =)
