dana 30

thinking about doing a sas and i have a dana 30 i can get for free. ill be replacing a dana 35. im i gonna screw myself over? i will eventually loose the dana 30 and go to a 44 but for all know it could be over 2 years. opinions on a dana 30?

this is beating a dead horse. Your 35 is stronger then the 30. Wait for a real axle.

yea....what he said

I'm going to be doing a D30 swap soon but replacing a D35 with a D30 isn't something I would do. Just wait to get the D44.

Get the free D30 and then sell it.

Toreadorranger said:

this is beating a dead horse. Your 35 is stronger then the 30. Wait for a real axle.

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With shafts and hubs being the weak link of the Dana 35, is it really stronger????

The answer is No, its not, and Im getting sick of the whole D35 arguement.

What it comes down to is this:

If you dont have a lift on your D35 TTB truck, and want to SAS it, then the D30 is more than enough axle to get you through and do it far cheaper than Buying a lift kit for a TTB truck.

If you Have a D35 TTB truck that is already lifted, I wouldnt worry about putting a solid axle in it until you need something stronger than the D35. which is pretty much the D60.

If you are dead set on SASing it, than a D30 is just fine for anything you would run the D35 on, and there is a Sh*tload of aftermarket parts for it, just make sure its a High Pinion axle, low pinions arent worth a sh*t. The good axle shafts can be found at the JY dirt cheap, Weld a nice gusset on the housing and you have something that should last you a while, and be less of a hassle than the TTB.

RacinNdrummin said:

With shafts and hubs being the weak link of the Dana 35, is it really stronger????

The answer is No, its not, and Im getting sick of the whole D35 arguement.

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Yeah, but....

The argument isn't about the shafts, it's about the D30's ring & pinion gears (and it's housing). You can't do much to beef the gears, yet plenty of them fail on D30s. You almost never hear of R&P failures on a D35 frontend. Once you got the 760X joints and Jeep hubs on a D35, you've got a pretty reliable axle. With a D30, you have a pretty good chance of cleaning some teeth off the gears before a shaft breaks. IMO, I'd rather bust a shaft than strip a R&P.

If your running an HP30 axle, the only way your going to "clean" a few teeth off of the axle is to seriously beat on it, or from running huge tires.

The biggest issue with Ring and Pinion teeth being chewed off is from people flat running too low of a gear ratio. Why somebody needs 4.56 gears in a D30 is beyond me, unless your tires are too big, or you are rock crawling... Neither the Dana 30 or TTB 35 is meant for that and is going to serve you little purpose.

My friend has an XJ with 31" MTR's and 3.55's, we put a locker in the front, and we give it hell, it takes on obstacles that trucks twice its size fight. It has yet to break a ring and pinion or a shaft, and has plenty of low speed to do anything aside from rock crawl.

I hear of more people breaking D35 hubs, outers, and beams than I do of jeep guys breaking ring and pinions. Besides The ring and pinion is only a little over 5/16"s bigger on the D35, its not like its huge compared to the D30.

RacinNdrummin said:

Besides The ring and pinion is only a little over 5/16"s bigger on the D35, its not like its huge compared to the D30.

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You're forgetting the larger diameter pinion shaft on the 35 that makes for less pinion gear deflection while under load. Between both of those it adds up to quite a bit.
Numerous people run 5.13s in the D35 (with 35" tires even), yet still no one seems to be breaking the gears.

Like Toreadorranger's post you quoted mentions, these points have all been made in depth in the past. I'm sure you can bring up plenty of past discussions ("arguments", as you put it), using the Search.

My D30 that was given to me has 4.56 in it. But I'm not going to be crawling or anything of that nature...mabey splash in a "puddle" sometimes. I'dont have to money to change the gears. Plus I have a D35 that has 4.56 with a Detroit locker in it that came with it. Think I'm going to be okay? I'm not going to be running huge tires anytime soon. Oh ya ill be using leaves.

4x4junkie said:

You're forgetting the larger diameter pinion shaft on the 35 that makes for less pinion gear deflection while under load. Between both of those it adds up to quite a bit.
Numerous people run 5.13s in the D35 (with 35" tires even), yet still no one seems to be breaking the gears.

Like Toreadorranger's post you quoted mentions, these points have all been made in depth in the past. I'm sure you can bring up plenty of past discussions ("arguments", as you put it), using the Search.

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The pinion shaft diameter is only .030" difference, there isnt a deflection problem due to that. Its just simply that the pinion gear diameter is too small at that point and tooth contact suffers, and I can imagine its just about the same on the D35. The only thing that keep d35 gear from breaking is that fact that people blow shafts and hubs out all the time.

Plus, how many HP30's do you hear of blowing R&P's??? Not many, usually its wrangler and ZJ low pinion crap that blows, Not the HP axles.

For the Vast Majority of ranger guys, the dana 30 swap is just fine and is a good beginning level project for somebody wanting to do an SAS, and it will hold up to plenty of abuse.

dangerranger83 said:

My D30 that was given to me has 4.56 in it. But I'm not going to be crawling or anything of that nature...mabey splash in a "puddle" sometimes. I'dont have to money to change the gears. Plus I have a D35 that has 4.56 with a Detroit locker in it that came with it. Think I'm going to be okay? I'm not going to be running huge tires anytime soon. Oh ya ill be using leaves.

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I think you said in another thread you'll be running 31" tires? You should be fine. That shouldn't be enough tire to cause an issue.

RacinNdrummin said:

The only thing that keep d35 gear from breaking is that fact that people blow shafts and hubs out all the time.

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Yeah which obviously proves that the D35 gears are stronger.
I know this, every time I go out wheeling and come across a Heep with a frontend problem, about 1/3 of the time it's a blown R&P. Most of the time when it is shafts, it's on a pre-'95 small-u-joint D30. Those running the same shafts as the D35 (5-297X joints) the majority of the time it is the R&P (yes, seen HP ones stripped too).
You can argue all you want, but facts don't lie. I'm done with beating this horse again.

All I know is my buddy swapped a high pinion d30 into his MJ with a 4.0L and 4.10 gears on bald ass 35" MT's and he could not go out without destroying an axle shaft.

My d35 with 4.56's and 36x12.50 TSL SX (read extremely heavy tire at around 80lbs without a rim) has not had a single axle shaft, hub or gear problem in the 4 years that it has been lifted. And I do NOT baby this truck on the trail (90% of the time its in rocks and tough climbing trails).

Seen way too many broken d30's to know better than to put one under a ranger.

With some simple mods and knowing how to set it up, the d35 is an EXTREMELY reliable front end. Period.

Personally I have thought about tracking down a Rubicon D44 with the factory locker. Maybe by the time I get to that they will be cheap...

If you have a D35 I wouldn't mess with a D30.

4x4junkie said:

You almost never hear of R&P failures on a D35 frontend

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Yep. Almost




4x4junkie is right, the facts don't lie. The Dana 30 is a step down in terms of strength when compared to a Dana 35 ttb.

If you wanna do it, go for it. If this is just a trail truck with 33's, you'll be fine. There are many threads and articles in the tech library on this swap.

Sasquatch_Ryda said:

All I know is my buddy swapped a high pinion d30 into his MJ with a 4.0L and 4.10 gears on bald ass 35" MT's and he could not go out without destroying an axle shaft.

My d35 with 4.56's and 36x12.50 TSL SX (read extremely heavy tire at around 80lbs without a rim) has not had a single axle shaft, hub or gear problem in the 4 years that it has been lifted. And I do NOT baby this truck on the trail (90% of the time its in rocks and tough climbing trails).

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Just curious, is you buddy locked or open in the rear?...

I've seen quite few blown up 4.56 and 4.88 HP D30 gear sets, the gears are just too small.