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johnnyboy916

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Just got a 2018 Sahara and I’m looking into a Dana 44 front axle planning on running 37’s any recommendations on a good axle on the market and advice on the gearing ratios that would work well. Auto trans. Also planning on running ARB air lockers or e-lockers front and rear. New to the Jeep world so any advice and opinions are appreciated


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Just got a 2018 Sahara and I’m looking into a Dana 44 front axle planning on running 37’s any recommendations on a good axle on the market and advice on the gearing ratios that would work well. Auto trans. Also planning on running ARB air lockers or e-lockers front and rear. New to the Jeep world so any advice and opinions are appreciated


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Welcome from Utah! Lots of good info here. Head on over to the wave section and introduce yourself.
 
I have the dynatrac trail leader package
PR44 front, 35 spline rear, ARBs and 4.88s running 37s with a 6speed, only regret is I wish I had 5.13s instead of 4.88s. (12' 2dr)

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Dynatrac is a great 44 housing. If you’re interested in getting some more detailed recommendation and pricing, head over to our website and fill out the contact form. I’ll be happy to share my thoughts on a build plan for your Sahara.


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Thanks guys. What made you decide to go with the ARB lockers over an e-locker? Just out of curiosity


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You should contact Exodus Jeeps either here on the forum or by phone. They have experience with both.

As far as quality axles, Dynatrac definitely builds a good axle. However recently they've taken a different approach in marketing and I'm not sure how well that will work out for them in the long-term.

Edit: Too late. Exodus just chimed in.
 
You should contact Exodus Jeeps either here on the forum or by phone. They have experience with both.

As far as quality axles, Dynatrac definitely builds a good axle. However recently they've taken a different approach in marketing and I'm not sure how well that will work out for them in the long-term.

Edit: Too late. Exodus just chimed in.

Thanks WJCO.

Yes Dynatrac makes a good D44 housing, probably better than most manufacturers out there. They do run a little more and the lead times can be frustrating depending on how the axles configured but overall, a solid product. In all honesty there isn’t another D44 replacement axle available that I’d recommend. The market has gotten more competitive on the D60 side than it has for the D44.

We recently tried building an axle for a customer using a Currie 44 housing and things went sideways real quick. Currie undoubtedly built the housing with incorrect tube lengths, which wouldn’t allow the axle shafts to work. The drivers side became too short and the passenger side too long. It was off by 3/4” and that pretty much made the housing useless. Currie didn’t want to own the mistake and swore up and down it was correct. When I spoke slowly and with little words to them, they seem to understand the situation better and then their solution was custom shafts that WE would have to pay for. Nope. Then they didn’t want to take it back because we already painted it black. It was a fight but we finally got it returned after WE covered the return freight. 3 weeks later a Dynatrac housing arrived and all the same pieces went into the axle just fine.

I have no doubt that if the same problem occurred with Dynatrac, they would’ve covered it. Well, at least they would have last week. My account rep that’s been there since I started left this past Friday. Not sure how things will go with them from now on to be truthful. Doesn’t mean they won’t still make great D44 housings, just don’t know what kind of service I’ll get going forward.


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Thanks guys. What made you decide to go with the ARB lockers over an e-locker? Just out of curiosity


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I went with ARB this round (over my previous Jeep that had Rubicon E lockers) for the ability to lock and unlock instantly. E lockers take rotation of the gears to lock and unlock which in some cases on the rocks in my previous Jeep proved to be a pain in the butt some times. If you get in the middle of an obstacle and find out you need lockers they will take a bit to engage and same with if a turn is necessary in the middle of or immediately after an obstacle the E locker needs rotation to disengage. I found that I would often get stuck in a spot that I needed to turn and my lockers would not disengage and it would be a frustrating experience to get going where I wanted to go. With the air lockers it's instant lock and unlock so I can start an obstacle and in the middle of it engage the locker whenever I want and if I need to adjust or turn I can turn them off as necessary.

Air lockers have their drawbacks too with the added compressor and air lines that have the possibility to leak air and leave you without lockers but there are ways to mitigate that and with periodic checking and maintenance I havent had any issues with mine. There is nothing wrong with E lockers as long as you know that they take rotation to lock and unlock and plan accordingly when off roading.

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I’m going a slightly different route based on Exodus Jeeps’ recommendation and doing some reading of my own. I’ll be putting an air actuated Ox Locker in my OE Sport 44 rear and the same setup in the Dynatrac PR44 up front, hopefully in a couple weeks.

What I like about the Ox air setup is there are no internal locker seals that can fail and they also offer a “drive away” device. Basically, if your air source fails you can manually lock or unlock with this gadget. Seems cut and dry to me, but this will be my first privately owned vehicle with lockers.

https://youtu.be/IJMrx9bJfGw
 
I’m going a slightly different route based on Exodus Jeeps’ recommendation and doing some reading of my own. I’ll be putting an air actuated Ox Locker in my OE Sport 44 rear and the same setup in the Dynatrac PR44 up front, hopefully in a couple weeks.

What I like about the Ox air setup is there are no internal locker seals that can fail and they also offer a “drive away” device. Basically, if your air source fails you can manually lock or unlock with this gadget. Seems cut and dry to me, but this will be my first privately owned vehicle with lockers.

https://youtu.be/IJMrx9bJfGw
Just curious, because I read up on these when I was in the market as well, don't these operate via a fork that is attached to the diff cover? Not sure you can get an OX locker that will go in a PR44 because of that.
I also could be completely wrong but I think that's why I ultimately didn't look much into those lockers.
Edit: watched the video and confirmed that yeah these operate with the diff cover fork which is cool for stock axles, with the PR44 though not an option
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