axle over kill?
 

I was planning on lifing my truck and eveyone says to make it a straight axle. Well i cant seem to find the correct ones you all sugested but i did run across a set of GM 1 ton axles. they are 8 lug front and rear, D44 4:56 gear up front and Corporate 14 bolt in the rear with 4:56's

So what do you all think, Im pretty sure i will ahve to have them cut down to fit.

Anyway, Just figured i should jump on them while he still has them. Whats your thoughts?

those sound like the 3/4 ton axles. the 1-tons had d60 fronts. the problem with the 14bolt rear is the lowest available gearing is 5.13's. if your rig is a trailer queen, then it doesnt really matter, but if you want to drive it on the street, then you will probably want lower gears, especially since if you are going with an axle that beefy and that robs that much ground clearance, you want mega tires on there too.

the lowest available reliable gearing for a toy axle is 5.29, not much of a difference. Sure, you can get 5.71's, but you better not wheel hard with them.

These are full width axles, although the front can have the drivers side tube cut down to accept narower wagoneer axle shafts, there is nothing you can do to the rear, its stuck being the width that it is. The advantage is that rear 14 bolt is good for 44's under a fulzise rig, you will NEVER break it under a toyota. It can be shaved for ground clearance, you gain almost 1 1/2 inches back by shaving it.

You have another alternative that i am willing to bet you never thought of that will allow you to keep your overal width down, while giving you street legal, DOT approved double beadlocks. Run stock hummer rims on it. They have somewhere around 7" of backspacing, and are 16.5" rims, so they clear the brakes no problem. They can be had for arround $50-60 each if you look hard enough, will pull your tires in about 5" on each side (compared to a 15", 2"BS rim needed to clear the calipers), not to mention are double beadlocks.

Go for it. No such thing as "overkill" when it comes to axles.

thanks guys. I just saw them listed i the paper and thought i would get your opinions. I had a set of D44 and D60 out of a 3/4 tone jeep truck that some one stole from my grand fathers house :(..... I called about the D44 and 14 bolt. he also said he had set of a 10 bolt front and 12 bolt rear. would that be any better? Or do you think i should just keep looking for another set of Dana's... there are some 70 and 80 that show up but that is a lot of axle ;)

No, the later model chevs ran a copr 10 bolt up front on the one tone stuff, its the early that had the d60 up front...

I hope you plan on runing at least a 40" tire with that heavy/big pig of a 14 bolt...

yea a 40 or bigger, i also need a motor.... so im thinking start with the axle upgrade, then a built small block ;) then shoot for the top truck challange ;).... It not like i have to worry about body damage on this truck anymore.

but a 14b and a toy axle arent in the same league. i was comparing the 14b to a D60 or D70 where you can get 5.38,5.89,6.17,...7.17 etc for ratios

you can cut down the 14b to whatever you want, you will probably need custom shafts though.

15" rims will fit on the 3/4 ton axles with very little grinding compared to the 1-tons.

dont get the 10b/12b combo, they are mega$$$ to build up and they dont have that much aftermarket support. plus the 12b is a c-clip axle....eeewwww

thanks guys.... im just looking at my options right now. All i do is wheel this truck with very little on road driving. But over the last 10 years a 220K miles stuff has broken and needs to be replaced. Figure why go stock when i can build it.

you will have to cut and past but here is the truck... it now has a nice $20.00 pait job.. well it was $42.00 including the beer.

http://community.webshots.com/album/119143260SlHWkk

Every solid axle 1 ton chevy had a dana 60. There is a 91 V3500 crew cab 4x4 in my driveway right now, that has the 60 in it. The 8 lug version of the 10 bolt was put in 3/4 tons. The K3500's( not to be confused with the V3500 trucks) had a 10 bolt centersection up front for the IFS if i remember correctly.


You still have to grind plenty to get them to clearance. I have only 3" BS on my K5, and i still had to grind quite a bit off of my front 44. Not as much as i had to grind for my frinds 1 ton stuff, but he was running 3.75" BS. I never said they wouldnt fit, I said 2" will clear. which will push the tires out even futher. Not always a bad thing, but not always a good thing either.

Napoleon047 is right, stay away from the 10/12 bolts. Not worth the hastle and cost. 10 bolt housings are crap, 12 bolt axles are only marginally better, but then you have c-clips.

check out the 4wheeler mag. the latest one got a long list of the weak stuff that GM puts out.