Axle housing

Pre 04 Ford Dana 60 axles are all 69.25" WMS to WMS, not far off from the 67" you're going for, the right wheel offset can correct that. You can also narrow an axle to whatever width you want (a few on here have done it to 05+ SD axles). Narrowing the long side of an 05+ SD axle ~4.5" and swapping in a 78-79 F350 long side shaft will give you ~67.5" WMS to WMS, this way you wouldn't need custom parts/shafts and should be easy to replace if something breaks. There's a plethora of narrow 1 ton rear axles, and they are all dirt cheap. If you are willing to do a little work, you can easily get both axles (nearly indestructible for our applications) for less than a custom front that's similar in strength to stock.

 

I’m also trying to not get real heavy either. By the time I buy one ton axles and lock and gear them I’ll probably be close to the 7k I was quoted for a fully built front diamond axle

 

$7k for a fully assembled axle? Why not buy the housing and source everything else and assemble yourself? Will be a lot cheaper that route.

 

Those aftermarket housings aren't much that much less weight than stock 1 tons.

 

Less then half

 

Also I’m not going to run very large tires so clearance would be an issue

 

Then buy that housing malburg has and build a toyota front with mini truck outers. That's a proven setup.

 

I would but I need driver side drop

 

Or buy a built dana 44 that someone else spent all the money on.

 

Oh that's right. I forgot that was pass drop.

 

If your worried about weight go fabricated housing. My 9 on housing I can pick up and walk around myself. Guessing 120-150 pounds. My dads 60 front takes two of us at minimum and is easier with an engine lift. His rear 14 bolt... forget about it.

 

Have you seen a 2nd gen on leafs up front?
I wish you the best of luck.
What leafs are you planning to run?
Are you gonna try to keep it low? I saw you say you were staying with a small ish tire.

I recommend a 3 link. But leafs are cheap.

 

If you are going to stick with smaller tires just keep it IFS. That 2nd gen front end is supposed to be pretty beefy. With the ground clearance loss of a solid axle and small tires you would probably have less trail ability, with the added bonus of an assload of fab work and a crappier ride than IFS.

 

When I said smaller tires I meant 37s not 42s

 

I feel like 3 link would be overkill for me. I’m not against it though really just trying to save money. My last couple rigs were on leaves but they were 2nd gen pickups

 

I debating on just selling the truck and getting something a little more easy to swap. The problem with that is I’ve beat this truck so bad that’s it’s probably not worth a whole lot

 

Ahhh!!

Still toyota axles suck, even fabbed ones, the turning radiuses blow total ass. The ever given has a tighter turning radius than my damn truck. Some will tell me toyota axles turn tight, they are liars and have never driven something other than toyotas offroad.
For that reason alone, coupled with the insanely high prices for toyota parts and the fact just about evrey vendor, including FROR, blows complete ass. Being able to find parts for your axles in bum fuck no where is pretty sweet, having to import cruiser parts and pack a junkyard with you with, sucks.

TLDR: I like my cruiser axles but the turning radius sucks and finding parts sucks.

 

Yeah I understand this very much, couple that with the unlucky bunch that with the damn frame rust issue that plagued the older second gens

 

It is probably over kill, but speaking from personal experience it’s a lot of work to keep one of these low with leafs. Leafs and the steering box like to get in each other’s way.

mine works, but I wish I had just linked it.

 

What axles do your friends have? Being able to share spares across friends is a huge benefit. Especially for smaller things like hubs, misc hardware, or even bigger things that you may not carry yet like a birf/stub axle, wheel bearings, etc.

On paper a SD 60 makes the most sense if I were going to build my last axle ever, but I'd honestly lean towards a fabbed 9.5 center with 80 balls and y-link steering and a RHD steering arm. The reason why? Because that's what my friends are on and they probably can get me off the trail with leftovers in the bottom of the toolbox.

I would not build a KP 60 though. Too expensive up front and too weak with the stock stub shafts that neck down and are smaller than Toyota shafts. I had no idea they were so little until a buddy broke one in Harlan on a climb with the front end not terribly bound up.

I vastly underestimated the level of labor that goes into a 3-link compared to a leaf setup. Probably double at least...We did a solid axle swap on a buddy's mini over a weekend with 3 of us working on it but I'm at 4 months of working on my links with probably over 120 hours of labor into it. Granted, it was my first link experience but there is just a ton more that goes into packaging everything compared to leafs.

Taking it out for its first drive tonight so fingers crossed all the labor was worth it!