On Wed, 21 Jun 2000, Kyle Kozubal wrote:
> > Why would they put such a small pig in the rear? Especially with that
> > engine and tire combination? The Ram comes with a 44, but that's in the
> > front, and even then, a fairly popular mod seems to be ditching it for a
> 60.
> > Maybe its a show only truck? Doesn't seem likely though since they went
> > through the expense of lockers front and rear... Color me confused. :-)
>
> Jon,
> You consider a Dana 44 axle 'small'?? Hmmmm, well if the world of 4WD, a
Yep. :-)
> Dana 44 is fairly strong and has many many upgrade choices currently on the
> market to make it severely stout. Also, the parts or replacement are very
> common, which means the parts are cheaper. You can get any size gears you
> want for it, and everyone who works on diffs/axles/drivetrains knows about
> the Dana 44. Who knows, maybe the guy also got it for a great price. I
> wouldnt second guess the strength factor nor the reliability factor of a
> Dana 44 axle, if built right.
> Kyle
> 93 Dakota 4x4 V6
>
You are probably right, I'm sure its a decent diff and can probably
be built to take more abuse than stock. (I haven't broke the one in my
Ram yet, but then again I haven't really done any "real" offroading
in it either.) It seems like every custom build up I see in the 4x4
magazines though includes replacing the 44. Shoot, even the 60 is too
small for some of those guys! :-)
Anyway, I was just surprised that someone driving anything heavier
than a Jeep would use such a small axle in the rear to turn 39" tires
with a 360. But, I suppose a lot depends on what sort of offroading
you want to do. A 44 would probably be quite capable for regular
offroading and perhaps rockcrawling, but if you want to churn through
3' of gumbo, it might be a weak link... I don't have anything
against the 44; for the sake of economy, if I ever decide to upgrade
the Ram, I'll probably put steeper gears and a locker in the 44 rather
than going bigger, since I'm not really a "hard core" offroader.
-Jon-
.--- Jon Steiger ---- jon@dakota-truck.net or stei0302@cs.fredonia.edu ---.
| Affiliations: AOPA, DoD, EAA, NMA, NRA, SPA, USUA; Rec & UL Pilot - SEL |
| '92 Ram 150 4x4 V8, '96 Dakota V8, '96 Intruder 1400, '96 FireFly 447 |
`------------------------------ http://www.cs.fredonia.edu/~stei0302/ ----'
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