Re: Real World Dana 30 Experience
"same here...TJ on 35s, 4.88s and no locker. stock shafts as far as I can tell. been daily driving it for the last 4 years and wheeling it on occasion. no issues.
I also owned a CJ5 with the dana 30. I dropped a Chevy v8 in it and wheeled it (open, stock gears and shafts) and never had an issue. also had a newer TJ that was on 33s and stock gears with the dana 30. wheeled it often and had no issues.
I think that the 30 is good up to 35s open or locked, as long as you're a conscious wheeler and don't pull stupid moves (too much skinny, hard turns while locked, letting go in high-traction areas, etc). even then, the most that will break is ujoints/ears. I had a buddy with a built YJ who beat the snot out of his 30 for two years before upgrading to a HP44. the only thing he ever broke was ujoints, so he went with RCVs on the new axle and never had an issue again.
J."
I also owned a CJ5 with the dana 30. I dropped a Chevy v8 in it and wheeled it (open, stock gears and shafts) and never had an issue. also had a newer TJ that was on 33s and stock gears with the dana 30. wheeled it often and had no issues.
I think that the 30 is good up to 35s open or locked, as long as you're a conscious wheeler and don't pull stupid moves (too much skinny, hard turns while locked, letting go in high-traction areas, etc). even then, the most that will break is ujoints/ears. I had a buddy with a built YJ who beat the snot out of his 30 for two years before upgrading to a HP44. the only thing he ever broke was ujoints, so he went with RCVs on the new axle and never had an issue again.
J."
pre 95 YJs had smaller 260 u joints. 95 and later wranglers (both standard and rubi) have 297/760 u joints which are standard Dana 44 hardware. Good news for our u joint strength but potential bad news for our pinion. Never seen it but have read about deep gears plus lots of go peddle resulting in a broken pinion. As I stated earlier, I'm hopeful that only going to 4.56s and keeping the stock axles means if I ever do get too carried away with the skinny peddle I'll have a damaged axle which I can fix on the trail vs a damaged R&P which I can't.
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