I think it's about time for me to do this. I have 33X12.50's on it now getting 12 mpg on the highway. I will need tires in the next few months which is when I will lift it 3" and put on 35X12.50's. I intend on putting 4.56 gears in both axles. I understand it will probably be between 700-1000 dollars. My question is where did you get yours done at? I don't know of a rear-end specialty shop around here. What type of shop did you take yours to?

 

I got my parts from http://www.drivetrainspecialists.com/ Just had them switched out a couple of weeks ago. The guy that did the install said the parts were good and the price was also. Without knowing where you are it would be hard to find a shop to recomend. Check with a local auto parts guys and a couple of repair shops.

 

before you upgrade your tires and gears, there are a couple of things you should consider first. What year of truck do you have? is it 1500 or 2500? The Dana 44 and chrysler 9 1/4 came on the 1500's. The highest gear you can put into those will be 4.56. The biggest tire combo you should put on those is 35's anything bigger and its too hard on the drive train. If your gonna do any wheeling with that combo you are gonna be at the point where things start to break. If you wanna go bigger than 35's down the road, consider putting dana 60's and 70's on first. That gives you more options for gears and bigger tire combo's. Bigger is always better

 

actually they make 4.88 for the 9.25 now and the D44 has had 4.88 for ever.

 

hmm, good to know gri. Is that 9" lift all suspension or do you have any body lift in that? I'm looking for a bigger lift for my truck. i'd prefer not to lift the body if i can avoid it. I bought my truck second hand and its got a 3 or 4 inch lift on it. The suspension looks a lot like its off a 2500. I've never been able to find the same lift kit so i'm not sure exactlys whats on there.

 

35's will be as big as I want to go. I do some wheeling but nothing ridiculous, so I don't think breaking things will be a problem. Thanks for the input.

 

I imagine the 9.25 and the D44 would be a problem only if you wheel the **** out of your rig. The 9.25 is prett big so I doubt your not gonna have to much of a problem with some tires bigger then 35's. I guess the 44 might be on the small side for anything bigger then a 35, but like I said, unless your wheeling the **** out of it it should be fine.

Alot of people are obsessed with putting nothing but 1 ton parts on any off roader. A good idea, but also expensive. The fact is that most people probably don't wheel hard core enough to cause that big of a strain on the D44 and 9.25.

Thats just my opinion.

I have a friend building up a IHC Scout II and he just replace the rear 44 and the front 30 with 12 bolts. All the people on pirate4x4 were freaking out saying that the 35's he wants to put on there are gonna shread the axles and crap...but for going through some mud pits like we do (all there is to do around here) it will be just fine I'm sure.

 

I have a 3" body lift.