I think my axle shafts would break at the thought of 44s and my wallet hurts just from thinking about it!! One day I may find some 36-37" swampers but I think I would be playing Russian roulette with the d44 lol.

The majority of the area is swampy so most of the trails turn into mud trails with the odd rocky power line, which usually ends in mud anyways. Got a few sand dune trails as well.

Most of the trails here and actually unnorganized four wheeler trails. As long as we stay out of farmers fields, skidoo trails and private property, a lot of it is fair game. I know 2 cops that wheel and even sometimes come out with us. One has a bronco on 35s and the other has an 80's Chevy on 40s. I'm not sure on provincial laws but what you guys may not know is that Ontario is pretty much split into 2 provinces. The southern half is where 80% of the population is and the northern half, where I am, is a very small community and a lot larger, area wise, than southern ontario. Biggest town within 300km has 4000 people with a few little towns having 3-800 people. Northern Ontario is a HUGE fishery, with 1000's of little lakes in a small area. I've been told we have the best fresh water fishing in the world. Most of these lakes are unnaccessable to the "daily commuter" as I call them and they are way back in the forests so you can imagine all the little bush roads and atv trails. Myself and my wheeling buddies being avid wheelers and fishermen, we usually do both activities in 1 day. The community is well aware of the wheeling and I've been called by tow trucks and even cops to come do a recovery mission. One time my buddy with the rubicon got a call from paramedics asking for assistance to save someone's life. You could say we all, even cops, live by small town laws, not government laws.

 

I know everyone wants to loose their D44 and swap to a D60 but even with your trucks a D44 can be made to live under them.
I'm running a D44 in the front of my Jeep and it is no light weight rig. I'm just over 5,000lbs with me in it. And I'm running 38" tires on that axle too. I thought about swapping in a D60 front axle but for me it is such a pain to get one to fit. I am 75" from outside tire to outside tire right now and if I had gone with a D60 I would be even wider which I was trying to stay away from. Most of our trails up here were built for a narrow rig so all the folks putting full width axles under their rigs are ruining the trails. If I lived in Utah or Arizona where the trails are wide open then I wouldn't be as worried about vehicle width.

Now there are such things as hybrd axles like a D44/60 which is a D44 axle using D60 C's and outers. Then you run a 35 spline diff and can run D60 shafts. If you want to take it farther you can make a D44/50/60 which is where again it is a D44 axle running D50 ring and pinion and D60 C's and outers. Now slap a set of RCV shafts in that bad boy and you've got a light tough axle that can take up to 40" tires.
I do understand that for a full size truck it isn't a big deal to just swap in a D60 and be done with it. I just thought I would throw a few ideas out there for ya. But if you want to run BIG boy tires (42"+) then a D60 is for sure the way to go.

 

Hahaha, I'm still lazy for sure. I'm actually on vacation right now. Rig runs good and the tune seems to be holding up. I'm just gonna wheel it till I upgrade or break something, hopefully not any time soon, lol.

 

My original plan was to run 60s but I thought about it and I already have money spent on this diff and I have 3 spare 44s so I think I'm okay. To be honest I haven't had many problems with the d44 on 35s. I broke 1 axle shaft in almost 2 years and it was my fault. I don't think I'll ever run bigger than 35, maybe 37s because its still my DD but if that changes and I decide I want 40s, then ill have to figure something out.

 

Going out again tonight. This poor old dodge has been gettin spanked pretty hard lately lol.

 

Maybe that's why your gas mileage has been bad haha

 

Smiles per gallon my friend

 

So the last couple of weeks have been for regear and ARB locker install.

I did the rear Dana 70 first and link here for that


FYI: ALL HIGH PINION AXLES HAVE NO CARRIER BREAK. CARRIER IS 4.10 AND DOWN


I just finished the front Ford HP60 for final gear pattern



Finding carrier shim stack



Pattern chk #1

Drive side






Fast forward to chk #3, which is what I settled upon

Drive side





changed to blue color compound and greater load on carrier to run pattern to confirm my thoughts on the pattern

drive side





The pattern is off center to toe side and a tad shallow from center b/t toe and root.


My tracking sheet






Then I mocked up the truss with about -7* castor to get an idea of the ARB bulkhead clearance.









I decided to put on the passenger side in order to avoid any clearance issue with track bar mount. Most are typically driver side and that becomes an issue for full bump.


Here's one basket of brackets that have arrived. Adjustable track bar mount (axle side), adjustable (10* inboard) upper link frame mount, upper link axle mounts, and lower link axle mounts.





I think I'm going to target ~7" lift, so need to see what that actual _ideal_ castor would be, plus look for clearance items b/t truss and underside.

Need a better picture than this

 

I think you want to run the patter a bit deeper into the gears..... looks to shallow to me..

Cool pics, nice progress. Are you having fun yet?

I think "ideal" caster (on a stock axle) is a hair over 3*...... Going higher will tend to make the truck want to stay on-center more. I don't see that as a bad thing... but, no real idea of what other problems going high might cause.....

 

Yeah...the pattern started out shallow-er and I progressively moved it deeper. I'm ok with where it's at now though b/c as it drives under load...the pattern will go deeper. The other part is that this is the front axle and the gears are already broken in, otherwise I agree and would have worked another 2 setups to get it deeper. However, good backlash of 0.006 in the range of 0.004-.009 while having pattern centered on both sides from toe to heel is very encouraging!!


As for castor...thanks for that input. I'm putting a picture here to remind myself +/- direction.. lol



My current caster is roughly +5-6* (I need to re-verify it) for the low pinion D44 at 5" suspension lift. I'm anticipating going to about 7-8" lift...and so the caster should go up a degree or so.

However, I've got a high pinion...and perhaps I can stay at 5* ish....?

it's time to rotate tires, so I'll take some decent pictures and measurements to help this _rationale_ of estimation.