Chrome moly axle question

[pipelayer]

I have a full size dana 44 in my bronco now and would like to upgrade to stronger shafts and have found a bunch of companies advertising chrome moly shafts but have no name or idea the make.

Do any of you have some suggestions on a shaft by experience? Wild Horses has a good price and same with Bronco Graveyard but they dont now or want to tell me the make of them. Im also looking at getting the gold joints with them. I think I should get some before my axles brake and I cant use them as spares. Also warranty would be cool.

Brian

[Efibroncoman]

Re: Chrome moly axle question

For a Dana 44 I'd look into RCV's. They're more expensive but have a lifetime warranty and are rated for up to 40" tires. For my 60 I got the house brand chromo axles from West Coast Differential. I don't think there is a huge difference between name brand axles and house brand... At least not enough to justify the huge price difference.

[pipelayer]

Re: Chrome moly axle question

RCV is a big jump in price, if I went that big I would probably just go with a 60. I don't drive hard but I'm thinking snow is in our future one of these winters and that's when things get abused for me.

[TWISTER]

Re: Chrome moly axle question

How about Yukon? I ran Ten Factory when I had a 44 with 37" tires and held out pretty well with the Gold joints.

[Rockbronco67]

Re: Chrome moly axle question

I have all Yukon

[pipelayer]

Re: Chrome moly axle question

I was told yukon has a base model and they have yukon extream ? I will probably go with the Yukon or what ever wild horses sales but wanted to see if somebody already did the research.

[Efibroncoman]

Re: Chrome moly axle question

I read or heard somewhere that Yukon bought all the original Warn tooling and factory and that the Yukon standard shafts are heat treated in India or somewhere but the Yukon extreme shafts are made completely in the US with Warn tooling. Not sure how true that is.

[earlybronco72]

Re: Chrome moly axle question

I'm a second vote for the rcvs. I have them and they take the concern out of the shafts. I am always concerned about blowing up a hub now, so I will be going with the flanges soon. They are amazingly smooth at speed. I have run down the highway at 75 and not realized my hubs are locked in. Before I would get vibration and wobble from the other axles. Also, at full lock they are just as smooth. As for greasing the joints it is easy, pull the hub and inject the grease down through the stub shaft into the joint. You no longer have to pull the shafts to service them. I used to break an alloy shaft a year at least. I'm glad I bit the bullit, I just wish I had gone straight to the flanges.

[71BRONCO71]

Re: Chrome moly axle question

I just went through this debate with myself. I was set on buying RCV's for my new axles, but decided against it.
If you think you will need RCV's, get them. Of not, don't.
I decided on the 4340 shafts from WH. They had the best price. Yukon were an extra 100 dollars.

[pipelayer]

Re: Chrome moly axle question

I think that's what I'm going to do but it's a little strange that they cant find a manufacturer for them.

[welndmn]

Re: Chrome moly axle question

It's hard with today's market place.
Some are selling Yukon as their house brand, some label it yukon.
It is correct that Yukon has two lines, their normal alloy shafts and their extreme shafts that were all of the Warn left overs. I don't believe Yukon ever made the "warn" shafts, they were just selling old stock.

There are house brands as well, like WH or Toms sell.
I can tell you for a fact the WH brand shafts are a quality shaft and I'd have no issue running them as WH deals with quality stuff.
Are they as strong as the once famous warn axles? Who knows, they are nearly a 1/4 of the price on what I paid for Warn axles 10+ years ago.

I'm a fan of doing Cryo' treatment to spicer ujoints or just buying CTM's.

[Broncrick]

Re: Chrome moly axle question

I picked up Alloy USA shafts, only had to warr one of them, Summit carries them

[garberz]

Re: Chrome moly axle question

I'm running the WH's brand chromo's. While I'm not typically hard on my stuff, I haven't had any issues, also using the Spicer joints w/full c clips. They may be an overseas product, but my experience has been, Wild Horses doesn't sell substandard products. It's just not worth it to them to have products like that come back. I felt if I didn't pay the money for the RCV's, the WH's axles will be fine. Anything in between wasn't worth the extra money. I'd pick one or the other, depending on what you're willing to spend.

Mark

[pipelayer]

Re: Chrome moly axle question

A little update, my brother and I ordered wild horses axles with gold joints we had a small problem or not a problem but strange thing in the order, out of the four u joints only 2 matched but we called them and they sent some with a call tag to replace the couple that look different. I also notice the outers look like stock axles with the taper down in the spindle area this isent like the other axles we have from Sean that my brother used in a pinch last month. Also I couldent get the long side in past the spindle flange for some reason I needed to die-gring the inside a hair to get the axle in I dident want to take off the lumps on the axle ears. So a report will be up how they do after this weekend
On fordyce, or not if all works out.

[pipelayer]

Re: Chrome moly axle question

Damn it's hard to post on this forum with my phone. I don't now what happens but it shoots my letters all over some times and can't get back to the spot I need to. Is this just me and my phone?