DSTRAC / KNB Axles

This post is intended to help provide some information for anyone in the market for axles and specifically, the DSTRAC Axles. I'm sure there are a ton out there working just fine but wanted to share our experience with them thus far.

I have a local customer and friend who was in the market for a new set of axles which we talked about all of the available options. He eventually came across the DSTRAC Axles and like most, was sold on the price point. Front and rear tons for around 13.5K sounds pretty nice so he made the purchase.

I got curious and did some digging and from what I can gather (please correct me if I'm wrong), the main reason for the cheaper price point is due to the fact that all of the components are made "in house" or sourced locally in Brazil. This of course raises concerns on quality and availability on replacement parts when needed.

He ultimately received the axles relatively quickly, which is awesome, and installed them himself making modifications to them as he already had the EVO DTD installed on his JK.

After install, he quickly had issues after programming his Jeep for the new 5.38 gears so he decided to pull the rear diff cover to take a look only to find that they had installed a different ratio, not 5.38's which he ordered. He also stated the rear differential looked like a "Glitter Bomb" went off inside.

DSTRAC was contacted and advised they had a "bad batch of material" in the carriers and were going to send him all new gear sets and a new rear Air Locker (Not ARB as these are also their in house locker). After no response from them for almost two weeks, they finally sent him all of the replacement parts....

Here is the "New" rear air locker they sent him, complete with random welds and blemishes on bearing mounting surfaces.

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At face value, the ring and pinion doesn't look bad. Still waiting on the bearings to arrive.

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He also noticed some voids in the front hub assembly to which DSTRAC advised him "It's normal".

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What we CAN see is definitely concerning but what about the things we CAN'T see? I personally don't think these are worth the "savings" and would still rather pay the extra 4-5K for axles that I can trust and readily get parts for. But that's just me.
 
You gets whats you pays for. I remember when these first started showing up on Insta and was intrigued. Never to the point that I would have considered them on the last round mods to Gruff, but they at least looked like a decent cheaper alternative for someone. Couple things that bugged me were the fact that they felt the need to ride Dynatrac's coat tails by their name choice and mimicking their font as well. Good companies don't need to do that. Looks like they forgot to copy their quality as well.
 
Holy hell!! Thank you so much for posting this up. This kind of real and objective information is really hard to come by in this brave new world of social media whoredom and I can only guess, it's why your friend ended up buying a set.
 
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Knew a guy in Los Angeles that bought a set of these and had a bunch of issues. Kingpins on the front were shot in under 10k, and couldn't source any without going through them because they were an oddball size, casting voids all over the place, bad and missing welds, cheap oddly sized bearings. He eventually unloaded them used at a huge loss and went with ultimate Danas.
 
Knew a guy in Los Angeles that bought a set of these and had a bunch of issues. Kingpins on the front were shot in under 10k, and couldn't source any without going through them because they were an oddball size, casting voids all over the place, bad and missing welds, cheap oddly sized bearings. He eventually unloaded them used at a huge loss and went with ultimate Danas.
Holy Crap.
 
You gets whats you pays for. I remember when these first started showing up on Insta and was intrigued. Never to the point that I would have considered them on the last round mods to Gruff, but they at least looked like a decent cheaper alternative for someone. Couple things that bugged me were the fact that they felt the need to ride Dynatrac's coat tails by their name choice and mimicking their font as well. Good companies don't need to do that. Looks like they forgot to copy their quality as well.
I was always turned off by these from the start for being an obvious Dynatrac rip off.
Jesus. Spend $14k and get that! That’s terrible.
Yeah I'd be pissed. Can't say I didn't warn him.
Holy hell!! Thank you so much for posting this up. This kind of real and objective information is really hard to come by in this brave new world of social media whoredom and I can only guess, it's why your friend ended up buying a set.
I hate seeing people spend good money on parts and in my opinion here, get ripped off. He definitely got sold on the price point and of course after talking with them, they said all the right stuff. A lot of people wont admit they made a mistake, especially on a 14K purchase and can only hope to help prevent others from making the same mistake with supporting facts and evidence. Hope more will come forward and post up their experiences and pictures in this thread.
 
I was always turned off by these from the start for being an obvious Dynatrac rip off.

Yeah I'd be pissed. Can't say I didn't warn him.

I hate seeing people spend good money on parts and in my opinion here, get ripped off. He definitely got sold on the price point and of course after talking with them, they said all the right stuff. A lot of people wont admit they made a mistake, especially on a 14K purchase and can only hope to help prevent others from making the same mistake with supporting facts and evidence. Hope more will come forward and post up their experiences and pictures in this thread.
Who’s the hack now? Your crown has been removed and reapplied.
 
Knew a guy in Los Angeles that bought a set of these and had a bunch of issues. Kingpins on the front were shot in under 10k, and couldn't source any without going through them because they were an oddball size, casting voids all over the place, bad and missing welds, cheap oddly sized bearings. He eventually unloaded them used at a huge loss and went with ultimate Danas.
I know there has to be a ton of other cases out there based on the quality I'm seeing. Bummer for that guy as well. From what I understand these are now shipping out of a warehouse in Florida.
 
Update: After getting the new air locker from Brazil, he pulled the differential out to begin the swap and saw this on the ring gear.

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He installed the new locker and gears only to find the new air locker had an internal leak.

After talking with DSTRAC, they decided to just send him a new seal kit/seal housing. This left him with having to take apart both “new” lockers and combining the good parts from each

After pulling apart the original locker that came with the axles, this is what he found.

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He pulled apart the replacement locker and found this.

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At this point I think there is an obvious issue with the quality of materials used to manufacture their products.
 
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