New: Ultimate Dana 60 Semi-Float Rear Axle for JT Gladiator

[Ericshere03]

I've towed 6000 lbs to Burning Man and back, over 1100 miles round trip, raced my truck over 1300 miles in Baja and drove home - all on the same D44 with 4.56 gears and supercharged. Only ever had 1 issue with the rear when I was hitting whoops in Baja and passing raptors, I chipped the ring gear. Honestly, I'm impressed with the D44.

I've gone through 4 intake cams, and only replaced my ring gear because of chipping it at 105k miles (been jumping this since I bought the truck in 2020) so, I wouldn't worry about towing

Dang … impressive … I do have the ecodiesel, but with a supercharger we are probably sending the same amount of torque to the axle … my trailer is 4800lbs dry and rated up to 6000lbs.

as for your cams, have you tried nitriding, cryo, rem polish, dry film ??? Depending on the failure, there may be a treatment that helps with longevity …

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[piroman683]

An intake cam every 25k miles?!?!

first was at 58k (Driver), then another at 76 (passenger), then another at 103 (passenger), and finally 105 (driver).

 

[piroman683]

Dang … impressive … I do have the ecodiesel, but with a supercharger we are probably sending the same amount of torque to the axle … my trailer is 4800lbs dry and rated up to 6000lbs.

as for your cams, have you tried nitriding, cryo, rem polish, dry film ??? Depending on the failure, there may be a treatment that helps with longevity …

I've only replaced them with OEM mopar parts. Part of the cause is rooted in the variable valve lift mechenism.

For the D44 were you more worried about max torque to the axle or max carry capacity? Torque should be no issue, the torque it sees in 4 low is significantly higher than what you would see when towing. As far as carry capacity, I know most are reated for about 1200-1400 lbs in the truck bed. a 6k trailer will have ~ 600 lbs tongue weight so you would be fine to throw another few hundered in the bed.

 

[Ericshere03]

I've only replaced them with OEM mopar parts. Part of the cause is rooted in the variable valve lift mechenism.

For the D44 were you more worried about max torque to the axle or max carry capacity? Torque should be no issue, the torque it sees in 4 low is significantly higher than what you would see when towing. As far as carry capacity, I know most are reated for about 1200-1400 lbs in the truck bed. a 6k trailer will have ~ 600 lbs tongue weight so you would be fine to throw another few hundered in the bed.

You are right on with the tongue weight... my concern was more around duty cycle, in 5th gear on up the torque is a lot less but its more constant for long intervals. I am fairly gentle accelerating but the truck still scoots pretty well with a 5k load on it.

 

[piroman683]

Alrighty, I took the measurements of the actual area of the rotor that is used for braking. The JT has more surface area than the F150 brake parts on the Dynatrac 60. The D60 rotor looks almost the same size, but it is, per spec, 5mm bigger in diameter.

Both calipers look almost identical, both single piston.

Both pads look to have the same arc length of brake pad material, however, I did not measure these and don't feel the need as there is a notable difference in rotor area used for stopping.

	Odmm	ODin	IDmm	IDin	OD rad	OD area	ID rad	ID Area	stopping area
JT	345	13.6	290.78	11.4	6.8	144.9	5.7	102.9	42.0
F150	350	13.8	303.8	12.0	6.9	149.1	6.0	112.4	36.8

THis is the OD vs ID area from the F150

This is from the JT

 

[BearFootSam]

While I understand and don't disagree with the spirit of your post, I have a few comments.

To my knowledge the Power Wagon has only been offered in the big cab, short bed option since it was brought back in '05 or whenever, so a single cab doesn't exist unless you build it yourself.

Also, yes, it runs the big shouty V8 that we all (or mostly) want, and giant axles, but the body is also around a foot wider than the Gladiator, so there are plenty of trails where it's going to take damage where a Gladiator's sheetmetal can sneak through. Also, even once you V8 and 1-ton swap a Gladiator, it's probably still a couple thousand pounds lighter than a Power Wagon, so it'll probably still break stuff less.

I totally understand your point. There is a lot of crossover between a Power Wagon and Gladiator, and certainly some Gladiator owners could have saved money on their build by just buying a Power Wagon instead. I might be one of them even though mine isn't all that built, but I wanted something smaller to daily and that wouldn't get so pin-striped out in the desert.

As for this axle, I didn't see pricing, but if it's reasonable enough, I could see it making sense as an alternative to re-gearing a factory axle. Otherwise, like others have said, people wheel the factory axles on 38's and 40's all the time and they hold up, so this doesn't seem like much of an upgrade.

Dimensions are one thing, it’s the secondary effects of dimension that discriminate the two. Take visibility, in the JT my forward blind spot is among the shortest in the segment. Likewise I can see my driver side sidewalls from the driver’s seat. Those two factors compounded by turning radius really shape where you can practically go.

A PE might need two good spotters to skate through a section I can navigate in the JT solo.

Where trails are tight with steep drops and sketchy road edges, the width and limited visibility of the PW will be obstacles. I’ve had some close calls driving an MATV in Afghanistan where the truck collapsed road edges and nearly rolled. You don’t want to do that.

 

[Rusty PW]

Dimensions are one thing, it’s the secondary effects of dimension that discriminate the two. Take visibility, in the JT my forward blind spot is among the shortest in the segment. Likewise I can see my driver side sidewalls from the driver’s seat. Those two factors compounded by turning radius really shape where you can practically go.

A PE might need two good spotters to skate through a section I can navigate in the JT solo.

Where trails are tight with steep drops and sketchy road edges, the width and limited visibility of the PW will be obstacles. I’ve had some close calls driving an MATV in Afghanistan where the truck collapsed road edges and nearly rolled. You don’t want to do that.

The 3gen PW has a wheelbase of 140". The JT has a wheelbase of 137". The 4gen and up PW's has a wheelbase of 149". My PW weight 7,026 lbs when I first got it. My JT is around 5,400 lbs. Think of the PW as a JT on steroids with a factory winch. I've taken my '08 PW on most of the Moab trails and Rausch Creek trails.

 

[geckosrt8]

Has anyone done this yet pics info.?

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