I was wondering how the two fornt axles compare strength wise? I know that a rock's has bigger axle shafts and joints, but some people say rock shafts are brittle.

How does a D60 with 1.5shafts throughout and good joints(longfeild, ctm, ect) compaire with a rock's?

Just trying to figure out which Direction i want to go on my YJ, Also want to keep it legal for the road.

Thanks for the help

Big D

if you want to keep it legal, forget rockwells..too wide and the brakes pose a problem..

A 35 spline (1.5") 4340 D60 axleshaft is much stronger than a stock 1.625" rockwell shaft. You can run 40 spline inners (and outers) on a D60 (with a good bit of custom work) and those shafts are 1.708" in diameter. Pretty darn strong. A D60 CTM is a pretty stout unit. Generally the weak point on the D60 is the ears of the axleshafts.

A 2.5 ton rockwell has massive steering joints which are next to impossible to break with the stock shafts. Randy Ouverson from Ouverson Engineering (www.ouversonengineering.com) builds a set of 2" diamter 4340 rockwell shafts, and retains the stock steering joint, to give you an exlample of their strength. With this setup, breakage should be pretty much eliminated, even with 50"-60" tires.

Gear & carrier strength wise, there is no contest, the rockwell is the hands-down winner. A D60 is relatively stout in this department, but nothing close to a rockwell.

Weight wise, and size wise, the rockwells lose. You can narrow them, but they are still heavy & the pumpkins take up tons of room, necessitating large lift for use in regular vehicles.

I'd say unless your plans include 50+" tall tires, a D60 is the way to go.

Hans

Hay thanks for the info, the setup i will be running is a 4.3L chevy with a th350 to a Np205, I got A D44hd in the front now and a 14Bff in the rear, for tires i am gona run 44" tsl's. Now their aint no rockcrawlin around here mostly mud, deep warter, and deaper mud. and sand.

I was gona go rockwells becouse i wanted 4 wheel steer and they are bullet proof but as always plans change. and i cant find a good way to put on wheel brakes cheap and run 16.5" tires. Found the one that uses bus rotors an F450 calipers but have to run a 20" rim with thoes , and hub out only which makes it real wide.

So now i am loking at a D60's in the front

Thanks

ECG