Advice and tips from crawlers?

[RougeRanger]

So I recently bought a 94 3.0 4x4 xlt and going through the front end. This is my first build ever and I'm having a hard time deciding if I should put ANY money or time with the d35 or if I should just go ahead and do a sas!?

I dont have any experience with rock crawling however it intrigues me and I have always wanted to tear a truck apart and build my own version! I've read A LOT in the how to tech section and have seen small things such as grinding down the shoulders of u-joints for more angle, black Bill's locking mod etc. I am building on a budget and thinking of what I can do ahead of time to prevent future issues with the d35.

My thoughts are to throw some washers under the springs for now, [lift coils soon hopefully] and either a shackle flip or possibly 64" Chevy leave conversion in rear (want to read into it more) and weld the rear end just to be able to get started wheeling!

To those of you with experience, am I waiting my time and money with the d35? Also, what else can I do to have a more capable rig?

 

[4x4junkie]

What size tires are you shooting for on this build? This will dictate more than anything whether there is good reason to SAS or not.

 

[RougeRanger]

Honestly I'm trying to be realistic here so just 33s for now to get started wheelin, then maybe 35s SAS later

 

[4x4junkie]

The D35 should be able to handle tires of those sizes no problem (it's what I've had on mine for 15+ years now).

A few things I would recommend for it:
Upgrade your locking hubs to the stronger Warn #37780 Jeep hubs, (link)
Spicer 5-760X axle u-joints with full-circle retaining clips (or welded caps), (link)
Replace your wheel bearings & races with good quality matched sets (Timken #SET-37).

That should get the axle in good shape for 35" tires. Then you'll just need to figure out what locker and gear ratio you want. My suggestion would be 4.88:1 or 5.13:1 (for 33" or 35" tires respectively) since you have the 3.0L V6. The 3.0 likes more RPM than say, the 4.0L, which should help with both power and fuel economy.


Take a look through some of the many "sticky" threads at the top here if you haven't already, there's tons of good info about the various ways you can build these trucks. I personally think the TTB suspension has a lot going for it, which shows up well in many of the wheeling pics on my BII page. The TTB can be finicky though if you're not sure how everything works (the steering seems to be what trips people up most often, which is exacerbated by the glut of poorly-engineered suspension lifts out there), but with the wealth of information accumulated around here, it seems like most people have been having an easier time with it.