EB dana 44 or fw dana 44

[hockeyryan]

hey so im at a cross road in my build plans for my ranger. I am curious to see what you guys think. Im looking at sasing my ranger in the future and im wondering what axle to buy. i was gonna get a eb dana 44 but they are low pinion. and with a fw dana 44 idk if its to wide for the wheeling i do. i have a jeep friend and he has fw axles in hes jeep but it seems like he has problems with the width on things i have no problems on.
so what are the advantages/disadvantages of fw axles?

thanks for the input

 

[brinker88]

I'd put a Narrowed full width D44 in the truck. Advantages? HIGH PINION.

 

[hockeyryan]

i was wondering about a narrowed axle but i wasnt sure if i was really ready for narrowing a axle lol

 

[Hagan]

FW because they are sexay!

 

[FordRanger89]

Get a full width dana 44 so you can have the high pinion. The EB axles also come with 260x (small) u-joints. If you find a high pinion with disk brakes they come with 5-297x u-joints. Bigger is better, go with a full width dana 44 high pinion with disk brakes.

That's what I did. Narrowing them really is not that hard.

http://therangerstation.com/tech_library/narrowing_a_ford_dana44.htm

Just take 5 or 6 inches off the passenger side. Then send the axle shaft up to Dutchman axle. http://www.dutchmanaxles.com/ it will only cost you $55 to get it cut and resplined.

easy dude

p.s jeep axles are nice.... but you don't want to have to say, "my truck is built with jeep stuff....." There is something to be said about keeping a ford a ford.

 

[PlumCrazy]

I am rocking an EB 44. It was factory drum with 260 joints. I swapped disc knuckles from a 78 150 axle and also swapped over the 297/760 axle shafts. You can buy the EB long side shaft with the 760 yoke from BroncoGraceyard. My 44 is LP and spooled. How many broken r&p have you guys actually seen on a LP? The lock out hub will fail first 99.9% of the time. The biggest advantage of HP is ground clearance and larger tubes. I plan on trussing mine anyway.

If you go the narrowing route, chop out 6" so a standard EB length shaft fits. That way you dont need a custom shaft made if you snap it.

-PlumCrazy

 

[Green__machine]

got a fw in mine, thought about it too long just wanted to wheel it ,didnt regret it ,has great stability.

 

[4x4junkie]

I say leave it full width also. If you find it's too wide afterward, you can always throw some deeper-backspaced wheels on to bring the tires back in a little bit (though this would leave the hubs a bit more exposed).

 

[matix99def]

i dont know how you guys can run fw. lol here u have to have the whole tire covered with a flare within half an inch and the bumpers must cover the full track width. some of you would need a 8 inch flare lol. wish i could look that badass

 

[hockeyryan]

we have the same laws here but of course new mall crawlers get away with it here lol But i have a trailer and i might be buying a tow rig so i dont really care anymore.

 

[hockeyryan]

Thanks for the input guys. i just picked up a fw dana 44 and a 8.8 this weekend. i wont start building them till xmas is over