Marlin is suggesting i put a 4.7 crawl box onto my chain drive 2.28 tcase. I'm gonna run 35" tires max. Will the chain drive tcase hold up to the extra torque? It's quite a bit more expensive to change to a gear drive at the same time.

 

Chain drive 2.28 t-case? You mean your 2.56 chain drive t-case. So add 2.28 or 4.7 gears to the crawl box? That is the question is.

Anywho, yeah. Plenty strong, don't even sweat it. You'll be busting everything else first. The chain drive t-case is the least of your worries. Definitely not the weak link there(partial pun intended).

All joking aside. There's no proof that a chain drive is any weaker than a gear drive. It may in fact be stronger(which I suspect to be true).

 

I don't have experience with the chain drive case but if Marlin says its weaker...I'll take his word for it.

http://www.marlincrawler.com/transfe...runner-kits-v6

If I were you I'd go to the junk yard, walk out with 2 gear drive cases, a pair of drive shafts and a big grin. Mod, build, and put everything together. Enjoy the use of your truck while your doing all this work and not feeling rushed. Then one afternoon bolt it onto the truck and sell your factory parts.

 

Thanks Mudd...I've heard more guys running the chain drive lately too. I guess it will take an extra adapter, but yeah...4.7 crawl box to stock chain tcase. Should be sweet.

Nothingbetter...I'd love to do it myself, but being that my truck has had runner bars down one side fo 6 months....i shouldn't kid myself. I'm just lucky i find time to take it out. Not enough time in a day..... I also like the chain drive feature of being able to shift modes without stopping. Low to high while rolling can be helpful and smooth.

 

I'll take Marlin's word on most things...but certainly not that. It just doesn't stand to reason. If it's supposedly weaker...then why did they put it behind their more powerful engines and stronger transmissions? It's a fact that you need to upgrade parts on a gear drive t-case just to equal the strength of those parts on a chain drive. He's in the business of selling those parts...so go figure. And like I said...where's the real proof? Ever heard of anybody breaking their chain drive t-case? I never have. Ever heard of anybody breaking their gear drive t-case? I sure have.