I've gotten conflicting opinions on this. Clearance isn't an issue, but my TJ's last owner says I'll snap an axle shaft. Several other owners have said no problem, as long as I don't abuse it or put lockers in. Ran with a guy this weekend with the setup in queston: 3.07's, 33's and stock open D35/D30. All he had was 2" BB and the tires - impressed the hell outta me where that TJ went.

I drove that way with a 3" suspension lift for at least 25,000 miles. It's sucks, because you have no power, bad gas mileage (like Jeeps get mileage) and can't use 5th gear.

I just ran the same setup for over 2 months while waiting for the rest of my stuff to come in. I actually preferred it to driving with 31's on the road, 2nd gear for around town and third gear for out in the boonies, didn't need 4th until hitting the interstate. On the trail the loss of crawl was a bit annoying, but ran through the woods and mud here in Washington without a problem. I just took it easy and kept my limitations in mind while on road or trail. When pulling from a stop I could feel the flex in the axle shafts, (Kinda a pause and then a spring forward feeling) just had to feather the clutch a bit, but ran fine once rolling. I wouldn't recommend it on stock shafts for any duration after the way my stuff was flexing, somethings gonna give sooner or later. Much happier now with the 4.88s, Dana 44s and Superior shafts in there I gotta say.

Good luck,
Mark

You can attempt almost anything. Common sense and years of experience dictates that most people that try it have a few failures before they either stop 4 wheeling or figure out the reasons. The terrible gearing makes an already weak link even more stressed. Instead of crawling in style, you're sometimes forced to blast your way thru an obstacle with momentum.
That often leads to way too much stress and breakage.

If you had better gearing, you could possibly put less stress on the breakage prone parts by driving slower and keeping all our feet on the ground. And I don't agree with the earlier post about lockers. If anything they reduce wheel spin and cause less, not more breakage.

The D30 front end isn't a big problem if you can prevent any jumping of the front end. A lot of breakage occurs when you get some wheel hop under acceleration. Avoid that. The shock loads when a tire gets traction is a ticket to a tow strap to get home.

If your driving style allows you to drive on the roads in 3rd and 4th, you can consider a Terralow transfer case. Keep your eyes open, from time to time they come up for sale here.
It takes your low range down so you might not need to change axle gears if you can live with your current on road performance. (high range remains 1:1) Simple math Multiply 3.07 x 2.72 = 8.35 your current gearing. Then multiply 3.07 x 4.0 = 12.28 and see the difference. Then if you must, divide the 12.28 by the 2.72 = 4.51 So just changing the transfer case would give you the equivalent of almost 4.56s for off roading. A big difference, but still with toothpicks for axles.

And the innards of the D35 are pretty weak, too. Tiny gear teeth, tiny spider gears and cross shaft. If you elect to replace parts as you wreck them, you'll end up with a moderately strong D35 that costs as much or more than a D44. Drive slow and careful.

quote:

I don't agree with the earlier post about lockers. If anything they reduce wheel spin and cause less, not more breakage.

quote:

If your driving style allows you to drive on the roads in 3rd and 4th, you can consider a Terralow transfer case. Keep your eyes open, from time to time they come up for sale here.
It takes your low range down so you might not need to change axle gears if you can live with your current on road performance. (high range remains 1:1) Simple math Multiply 3.07 x 2.72 = 8.35 your current gearing. Then multiply 3.07 x 4.0 = 12.28 and see the difference. Then if you must, divide the 12.28 by the 2.72 = 4.51 So just changing the transfer case would give you the equivalent of almost 4.56s for off roading. A big difference, but still with toothpicks for axles.

So lockers or lower t-case gearing wouldn't put additional stress on the entire assembly due to more torque being transferred through it?

quote:

And the innards of the D35 are pretty weak, too. Tiny gear teeth, tiny spider gears and cross shaft. If you elect to replace parts as you wreck them, you'll end up with a moderately strong D35 that costs as much or more than a D44. Drive slow and careful.

Should I just forget about larger tires or wasting any money at all on the stock diffs, until I can upgrade the axles (or at least the rear)? I want to run 35"s and selectable lockers for a maximum traction and clearance while still being fairly daily-driveable and balanceable.

Basically, if you want bigger tires, you'll end up breaking stuff unless you upgrade the axles first. Thats pretty normal, but often you need to get the jeep running so you spend money patching up something you're going to replace.

It can get expensive. The best way to do it is to upgrade the axles first. As you purchase lower gearing the size and number of the teeth work against you. Gears adequate for a 4.56 or 4.88 ratio are pretty small (but you get lots of them ). At least by upgrading to D44 or bigger you have the advantage of much larger teeth. Most of us do the full range. We upgrade to lower gearing, lockers, and then we also replace the Tcase. For most people just starting out, its expensive. A good argument could be made that its less expensive than emergency repairs. Much cheaper if you do it yourself as opposed to dropping it at a dealer and having them put in new stuff at full retail and also charging shop rates for labor.

The hidden secret is that this isn't a cheap hobby if you get really involved for the long term. Thats why a lot of people don't continue.
Playing in 4wd is fun. If you don't know your jeeps limitations, you'll break it. Most of us do that more than once. The thing that separates the off roaders from the one time thrill seekers is the ability to bounce back. And maybe to learn from their mistakes.

Some advice: Never be the show off. When you see guys playing, each trying something a little different and a little faster, don't participate. Just park and watch them play. Then learn. Watch what the guy that broke did wrong. Act stupid and ask the guys that seem to know the most what they think went wrong. You don't have to believe them, but listen anyway.

If you drive slow and careful, a TJ can last a long time. The name of this group is Rockcrawler. It didn't get that way by blasting over rocks or blind charging. Its done slow and careful..OK, the ones that do it correctly follow that. The guys with broken rigs try to do with horsepower and momentum what you should be doing with finesse and smarts!

32's will work better and wont be to noticable compaired to 33's. i did stock 3.07's, a dana 35, open diffs and 32's for about 3 yrs before i started stepping up. you need to remember to be light footed and easy on the clutch, assuming its a stick. dont expect to do hard trails, but it will be pretty capable. as capable as near stock gets. keep in mind that a stock tj is VERY capable right off the shelf. my stock tj beat my moderately modified yj on the John Bull trail. i went up there on a wed. in the yj, was pissed at it, saw the new tj's (oct. 96) got a new one on friday, saturday i hit john bull bone stock and blew my yj which was on 35's away!

32's would be better suited for you, but alot of people i have wheeled with make it ok with 3.07s and 33's. Buy a lighter alloy rim instead of steel, and that will cut down on the weight. Just dont be a throttle jockey on the trail. And to step up to 35's, i would recomend a 44 for the rear, try ebay for a used stock tj rear.

This is just my 2 cents worth about the issue of lockers and more/less breakage. I believe lockers can and will cause MORE breakage, simply because they can direct ALL available torque to only one axle shaft (which in the case of a locked axle, will be the one with the MOST traction)therefore putting all the stress and weight of moving the vehicle on said axle shaft. In a lot of cases, this puts more stress on a shaft than they were originally intended to bear. I do agree that with more wheel spinning, you have a better chance of breaking things, but an open diff is pretty forgiving, because torque is free to move from one shaft to the other. bottom line, lockers are absolutely a must have for any serious 4 wheeler, but you do need to use common sense when using them, and judicious use of the skinny pedal can and will cause things to explode! like i said, just my 2 cents. have a good one!

Just wheel it like it is until you can afford to upgrade to your needs.

Like you said, SprungTJ, I'll most likely just wheel it like it is until I can put in the proper upgrades. I don't want to spend money twice on the same area. Plus, until I have another DD, this one can't be broken. Nevermind that I discovered the joys of the whoop-tee-doo's this weekend on some dirt / atv type trails ...Only casualty though was the upper grease zircs on the disconnects - so no worries. Wish I had pics!

Anyhow, I'll most likely leave the drivetrain as-is, and focus on the following for now; bumpers F&R, winch & swingout, belly skid, header (cracked exhaust manifold), and before winter, a hard top and full doors. At that point, I'll start shopping for axles. When I have the axles built, locked and installed, then I'll upgrade the lift (likely Clayton a LA, maybe stretch) and go to 35"s. Then it'll be 'done.' (right...)

I think that is a good plan.