How many super 35 axles have you seen or heard of breaking? I've read the "pooper 35" comments and not sure what to think. I wanna 44 but so **** hard to find. super 35 w/ ARB for a grand sounds pretty good!

super 35, and an ARB? Sounds like a moderate deal...your right the D44 is a little tedious to find however, you might be able to go to a jeep junk yard and score one maybe out of a cj, cherokee, or even a tj. In the long run it would make more sense due to the human nature of always wanting bigger and better things. I dont want to talk you out of a thirty five because your using what you have and I think eliminating the weak points (I.E.) Stronger Axles, Locker, Stronger R&P etc. will help build your rig to a more solid stock form.

There are some cherokee's with a towing package that has a 44 sitting underneath it. But like I said, if your wanting to upgrade (bigger and better) then by all means skip the 35 upgrade and focus on the stronger 44.

The problem with the super 35 is you are putting a stronger carrier/locker and stronger axle shafts into an already weak housing, and weak ring and pinion. The weakest link is then usually taken out. You may not hear of alot of problems with the super 35 kit, but you may here the added street of both wheels being locker causes broken pinion gears, and tweaked housings. Save your $1,000, you can buy a tj dana 44 off ebay for that.

Just a few more $$ and you get the Dana 44 you want with the gears of your choice. Give us a bit more info such as current Jeep and engine tranny combo, current or desired gear ratio and we can offer "better" advice. You might also try http://www.jeepsareus.com or your local shop to build one and still keep the price reasonable. They have a variety of gearing and locker options also that may work for you. If you want a Dana 44 so bad, why blow that much money on something you're going to replace?

Good luck,
Mark

Here's a link to a $1000 Dana 44... http://rcboards.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/9606037942/m/5561010551

I ran a Super 35 with 35s on 17" Allied Beadlocks for almost 50,000 miles with zero problems. Jeep saw at least 100 trails in that time frame. All Moderate to hardcore rock trails in Colorado and Moab.

The ring gear and pinion are NOT the weak links of the D35. The weak part of the housing is EXACTLY the same weak part of the TJ 44 housing. SO you accomplish NOTHING if you think you are getting a stronger housing with a TJ 44.

D35 has 1" more ground clearance than the D44.

Not saying the Super 35 is a perfect solution or a great substitute for a D44 or F8.8. Just saying it deserves more credit than most people give it.

I do agree that a super 35 kit will hold up, but some information should be known. I have seen many ring and pinions fail in a dana 35, especially since they have a very small around 7.56 ring gear diameter, as a dana 44 has around 8.50, that to me is an upgrade. I must say that the pinon gears are nearly indenticle, and strength can only be minimal.Plus, the dana 44 has 30 spline shafts, stock. These shafts do share the 1.31 thickness as the super 35 kit, but they can be once again upgraded witht the 33 spline upgrade. To fit the 30 spline shafts in the dana 35 housing, the carriers/lockers had to be machined smaller, and could be prone to more failure because of smaller tolerances. They may share the 2.50x.250 tube size initially, but the dana 44 increases in size as it aproaches the flange, and most later dana 44's have larger tubing anyway. Also, the dana 44 housing is alot more rigid, and stronger. Another advantage is that the dana 44s have bolt in shafts, as the dana 35 is c-clip. The list can keep going on and on, how many broke dana 44's to you see on the trail compared to dana35s. Explore all your options and make the correct choice.

the Super35 can take a good beating ... it's still not my axle of choice though
This will be a never ending debate amongst Jeepers though
A stock Dana44 with locker still has advantages over a Super35 ... 2 of which are important to me -> bigger carrier and bigger ring and pinion.

Found my Dana44 with lunch box locker for around 1 grand. IMHO still better than polishing the turd35 for 1 grand , but like said -> there's quite a few buddies running the Super35's with 35" boggers and 37" MT/R's without problems.
I'm happy with my Detroit Super44 though