Axles

[Cajundoc]

I recently purchased a gladiator and am learning about off roading from this forum. I see a lot of people change to new axles as an upgrade. What is the quality of the stock gladiator sport axles? And what off road conditions are people worried about damaging axles? Is it a direct blow from a rock?

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[It's Allgood]

I recently purchased a gladiator and am learning about off roading from this forum. I see a lot of people change to new axles as an upgrade. What is the quality of the stock gladiator sport axles? And what off road conditions are people worried about damaging axles? Is it a direct blow from a rock?

All Gladiator's come with the Dana 44 front and rear. These are great for most people unless you want large tires(like over 40 inches) and also want to hardcore rock crawl. For 99% of all other uses, the axles are great and can also be upgraded themselves to be stronger.

I would ask yourself what you want to use your Jeep for and how much your willing to spend to change it. Speaking from personal experience, you can do nearly every trail out there with 35 inch tires and a 2 in lift. Add lockers to that combo and you can do 99.9% imo.

 

[Renegade]

You can bend an axle shaft flange sliding sideways into a large boulder, or break a shaft bouncing while accelerating and climbing. For general off road use with stock-ish tires, stock axles should be fine. When you get up around 37” tires, bending or breaking becomes more common. Replacing stock axle shafts with chromoly shafts is a simple job you can do with a jack, a stand, and hand tools, as long as you get them with the bearings, seals, and tone rings preinstalled. In the photo below, you can see that my axle shaft had twisted, probably from a bounce while climbing an obstacle. That one also had a bent flange.

 

[It's Allgood]

In the photo below, you can see that my axle shaft had twisted, probably from a bounce while climbing an obstacle. That one also had a bent flange.

Ouch, what size tires were you running?

 

[FLUndertaker]

I recently purchased a gladiator and am learning about off roading from this forum. I see a lot of people change to new axles as an upgrade. What is the quality of the stock gladiator sport axles? And what off road conditions are people worried about damaging axles? Is it a direct blow from a rock?

I certainly wouldn’t say “a lot” of people swap the axles. It’s probably less than 5% and when you exclude the folks who swap stock rubi axles in place of their non locked narrow track JT axles the percentage is probably is down to 1%.
Now for those with a MD after their name I believe it’s closer to 90%. Time to call Dynatrac Doc. Just kidding.
A lot of folks regear their stock axles to account for larger tires. I am about to gear down to 488 or 513 and add a locker to both ends. Better than stock axle shafts are also available as is a FAD delete but once you get in that deep I would either go with a super 44 or better yet a Dynatrac 60 and be done worrying about it.

 

[Renegade]

Ouch, what size tires were you running?

Running 37s, doing some considerable rock crawling. I also broke a front u-joint. I’ve since swapped the rear shafts for Dana chromoly, and am saving up to do the same in the front.

 

[Kindafearless]

You can also add an axle truss.

 

[guarnibl]

As others have suggested — 35’s, 2 or 3” lift and you’ll be good for most trails. I’m one of the few folks that change axles but only because I’ll run 42’s in Moab. It’s entirely unnecessary and expensive just for what is mostly a look and the ability to run the 0.01% of trails.

 

[Cajundoc]

A lot of good info (some over my head) I didn’t realize it was that easy to swap in rubicon locking differential into a sport model.
I also realize some of you out there are hitting some serious terrain! I have to drive 200 miles to find rocks!

 

[Renegade]

A lot of good info (some over my head) I didn’t realize it was that easy to swap in rubicon locking differential into a sport model.
I also realize some of you out there are hitting some serious terrain! I have to drive 200 miles to find rocks!

It’s not that people swap Rubicon differentials to their Sport axle housings, but they swap the entire Rubicon axle assembly when other people upgrade to larger axles like Dana 60s.

 

[Chris-AZ]

I have 37 wheels, and I did front axle shaft swap for RCV chromoly and FAD (Front Axle Disconnect) delete along with a re-gear to 5.13

To do the re-gear you have to take off the axle shaft; it saves time and money to do it both at the same time.

Later I may swap the axles to swap my 37 to 40, but so far, with 37 and 5.13 on a Rubicon, I'm quite impressed with the rig's capabilities. Of course, being too enthusiastic can lead to an axle failure, but as long as you are careful, it should be ok.

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