Will my Dana 35 hold up

[bobbywalter]

while that is true about the stock wheels...its rarely done and when done not without issue rub wise in most cases.





but more of an issue is actual miles driven and the conditions driven in....where sasquatch and junkie puts on the same amount of miles in 5 years that i do in less then one and likely at nearly half the speed the majority of mine were done at. in harsh mixed driving with any moderate load the bearings are certainly high maintenance...especially with the offset i was running.

i feel it would be a safe bet that if i had run the 35's on factory wheels i likely would have doubled my bearing and rotor life. except for the swampers...the 15 35 15 would not workout with stock wheels...but i dont like runnin them down the road anyway and only run em if i had too due to job conditions.


now that i have more open road verse stop and go as i live way north, a d35 would be real livable.

so really no hard fast rule in my eyes besides the fact the bearing setup is defiantly weak for 35's on a daily driver if your a set and forget kind of person that does not do your own maintenance.

 

[Bent Bolt]

I've been waffling on weather or not to install D44 spindles and rotors VS just dealing with the fact of bearing issues and brake wear on the D35 stuff.
I have a set of 35 x 14.5 x 15 Pitbull Maddog's . I can get 10x15 Basset beadlocks for very reasonable $$.

So what backspacing would be best for the D35 hubs in this scenario ??

 

[4x4junkie]

So what backspacing would be best for the D35 hubs in this scenario ??

-½" to +1" is the best range for wheel offset, but many do go out to -1¼" (your typical 15x10 with 3.75" backspace) with no issues whatsoever.

"Best" for the bearings would be 4.5" BS, but you'll likely rub a bit on the rad arms at full steering lock with those tires (which is perfectly harmless as long as the tire lugs aren't actually "hooking" into the arm like they typically would do on a leaf spring, you just gain a couple feet on your turning circle is all).





And I gotta say, I went nearly 5 years and 20-something thousand miles with my 35x12.50s on my D35's bearings without even as much as taking the hubs off to repack them (and they looked perfect as well when I finally did do it last year). These same bearings had another 23,000 miles with 33x12.50s before the axle went into my BII too.
I would say that if you're not getting at LEAST that amount of miles out of a set of bearings, you're doing something wrong.

I run Timken bearings only, I use regular Castrol wheel bearing grease (I've used the cheap "Hi-Temp Disc Brake" Sta-Lube shit in the past too), and use the following procedure to tighten the nuts:

Tighten inner nut to 35ft-lbs while spinning rotor to seat bearings
Back it out ½ turn, retighten it to 15 INCH-lbs
Install locking ring washer (flip it over if pin doesn't line up, don't turn the nut)
Tighten outer nut to 250ft-lbs.

This procedure has yet to fail on me, nor on my buddy's truck who doesn't want to work on his own bearings (and doesn't trust any shops that might botch them up again). He runs 33x12.50s on standard 15x8s.

Also, if you have cheap chinese-made rotors, I have to wonder if the races aren't true on them and might be why some are having bearing failures I always stick with USA-made stuff.

 

[Bent Bolt]

Thanks, that's what I've been thinking lately. I do have to say that I have replaced all 4 bearings once already since I installed the D35 but it was due to water and mud intrusion ( fact of life in Alberta )

This is not my DD so I think it'll be OK. I'm going to order the Bassett's in the morning with a 4 " BS. Plus it will allow me to concentrate on the K-link steering and on board air !

 

[bobbywalter]

yeah....junkie has an ideal enviroment.

 

[Bennybooster]

Trs isnt gettin the hubs in till the 22nd.....gayy!!