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Upgrading axles: Why is upgrading the rear more important than the front?

Sprint7

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Exhibit A is my front axle. I’m running 37’s

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Chocolate Thunder

Chocolate Thunder

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I was wheeling in Hot Springs AK at the OHV park. I really wasn't doing anything crazy when it broke.
I stuck to mostly easy trails up there. Rubicon Ridge was the most challenging one I did.
 

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Sprint7

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I was on 4 fingers when this happened and the fact that it had been raining didn't help matters. Oh Well. Time to upgrade
 

twisty

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Yeah I think the reason most front shafts let loose is more the ujoint then the shaft. If you can swing it go RCV.
 

harleypap57

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Why don’t Dana, Dynatrac, etc. make full D44 rear axle assemblies? They all have them for the front, but only 60 or 80 series for the rear.
Here is what I was told when I asked the same question. The rear axle that comes in a Rubicon is much stronger than previous rear's. It's not cost effective for them to make a 44 in that case because it does not take the beating like the front. Most people who upgrade the rear axle other than going with chrome molly axle shafts goes to a 60 which Dynatrac or Dana now make a 5 lug instead of a 6 or 8 lug. I'm super with my Mopar Performance Rear 44 with a Rusty's Trust added.
 

BD1

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I have a 2018 Sahara JLU. I upgraded my front axle first (March 2019) since it seems to take the most punishment when going off-road. I have a Dana Ultimate 44 Axle with 4.88 gears. I did change to rear 200 axle to 4.88 gears at that time. Recently (Aug 2019) I put a new Mopar Rubicon 44 / 220 rear axle in with the 4.88 gears also. Both now have E-Lockers.
Good day when you did the front axle to a dana 44 and you left the rear with the dana 35 but re geared it? I am in this scenario and was wondering if this was possible and how it worked?
 

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Good day when you did the front axle to a dana 44 and you left the rear with the dana 35 but re geared it? I am in this scenario and was wondering if this was possible and how it worked?
What ever your axle combination is front and rear you need to make sure their gear ratios are identical else when you put it in 4wd the front tires will spin at a different speed than the rear causing things to bind and blow up


This is an old thread but I'll put my $.02 into it, for off road abuse the front takes more punishment than the rear, it needs to carry the load of the engine and turn the wheels but you can find yourself in situations where any combination of the 4 tires are taking on the full load. The old Dana 30s tended to hold up much better than the 35s and it is a popular upgrade for up to 35" tires on tjs, xjs, and yjs to beef up the 30 with chromos and swap the rear for a ford 8.8 or Dana 44. That being said most cars and trucks are built for on road driving where in most 4wd vehicles the rear will always be working and the front just coasts. So the rear needs to handle the full load and even more so if you are towing a trailer. When you are in 4wd on the road that load is more evenly distributed across between the front and rear so the front can be smaller than the rear because it will never see the load levels the rear does. So because of that many axle swaps start in a junkyard so rear axles are plenty, but the fronts are limited to what they make.
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