Community based Jeep discussions.
What we are thinking of Upgrading:
Axles and Lockers are a necessity for many trails. My non Rubicon model has a Dana44 Rear and Dana30 Front.
My cheapest upgrade would be to change gears and add lockers to these axles. Or, Buy a set of used
Rubicon Axles. Or, if you are lucky enought to find a n
ew one that is still available like
this...
We are in need of a winch. I want to make sure I cn get out. Most people say you need to go with a Warn, but I am trying to compare price with function and have found the X20 version from Smittybilt to match pretty well.
Here is what I am looking at adding to the Polar.
Current Project:
Axle Swap for Rubicon Dana 44's
We are looking at following the Jeep Badge of Honor app trail recommendations. Since we live in southern California the trails in our neck of the woods are on the higher level of the spectrum.
Since our Polar Jeep is a Sahara at heart we have the dana 44 in the rear and the dana 30 up front all without lockers. Even worse we have 3.21 gearing with 35" tires. The Jeep is surprisingly easy to drive around town and on the freeways. We have yet to get stuck without the lockers, but some of the upcoming trails are quite remote and we don't want to have to hike out 33 miles.
We researched a couple ideas here:
- Re-gear and add lockers to our current set up. Cost would be about $2500 in parts. Labor would also be neccessary as we don't have the gauges and such to set up the ring and pinion gears correctly. We would also still have the weaker Dana 30 up front and 30 spline Dana 44's in the rear.
- Buy a package from Dynatrac or similar. The cheapest there would be around $6500 and still entail work on the stock Dana 44 or $9800 for a pair of bolt in axles. This would be a Dana 44 front and Dana 60 rear. Awesome, but out of our budget. Of course you can also trick these axles out to upwards of $15k for 60's front and rear. Maybe some day, but overkill for our current needs.
- Our good friend ebay. Yep, did a search to find axles. Many pairs to choose from. I think this will be our best bet. Some are new and some are used. Most come with everything you need and they bolt right up. The hardest part is shipping on these. I have found some locally that I will be buying. Also nice because we can take a look at them first.
Again, we don't have the buttons in the Jeep for the lockers to activate. These only need a constant 12v to operate so any switch pod will work. I have decided to also add a couple little red LED's to utilize the sensor for when the locker is locked. We will add a complete write up on this install with pics and video as we get closer.
Completed Upgrade # 1:
Rubicon Express 3.5" Lift
We bought our 2014 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Polar Edition in the middle of 2014. This was our 7th jeep. We already knew there were many things we wanted to change or upgrade. The previous 2008 JK Unlimited was a Rubicon and had a Rancho 3 or 4 inch lift. I had always liked the proportions for that Jeep and wanted to create the same look and function on our new baby.
I set a budget of under 1500 for the lift which gave us a lot of options. The Rancho sport kit we had previously had was in the running. This was the first kit I had installed with the control arm relocation brackets. This was a much easier solution than messing with long arm kits, which I couldn't afford anyway. So I began my search to find a new suspension system for the Polar Jeep.