Can I fit 35s?

I posted this on the facebook too. I am currently running a 3.25 lift, but have extra 1.75 spacers sitting around. I am running high clearance tube fenders front and just tube fenders rear. I have 4.56 gears so that will not be too bad. Getting newish 35s on craigslist is cheaper than new 33s from a shop. But is it worth it? I am a little concerned about fitting and the stress on my axles. D30 and D35 of course. If I can save money on tires then I can upgrade differentials, and at least chromolys in the rear. What do you experts think?

I would do the upgrades to the axles first if possible. I believe if you are going to stay with the D35, you should look into the Crown D35 4340 chromoly axle shafts. I went with those and a Detroit locker for the strength and reliability of it. I also found the detroit used for $150. When I looked into it they were the only direct replacement (27 spline, c-clip) axle shafts made of 4340 alloy. USAlloy and yukon are made of 4140 or less and they don't come with bearings and seals. I researched it pretty well and went to some metal sites and found (comparison only) 1040(stock) @113,000 psi tensile, 4140(USAlloy,Yukon,Superior) @238,000 psi tensile & 4340(Crown)@ 250,000 psi tensile. I figured the 4340 would give a good amount of upgrade. I was told buy a very knowlegable jeeper (Geoff S.A.J.E.) that the Super 35 kit makes the carrier/locker the weak point due to the reduced thickness of the locker were the larger shaft connects. He had a failure on his S35 locker. That's when he suggested stay with the stock size due to being able to get OEM parts to get home. Made sence to me and I also carry all my old parts with me (shafts,carrier&bearings). I have not broken anything yet. I have torn the upper control arm/trackbar bracket off my housing. The brackets seem to be the weak spots on my axles now. I plan on going to Dana 60s eventually but don't have time and money for that just yet.

Another thing is that you are looking at 5 inches of suspension lift. What are you doing about the rear driveshaft? You may not need the extra lift. A friend had the same fenders and a 4 inch lift with 37s I believe and he had very good flex without to much tire rub on the fenders and where it was rubbing, the fenders were smooth and didn't cut on the tires. Maybe you should try a buddies 35 inch on your jeep to check for rubbing before the extra lift that may just add problems that you don't need. I wil let you test fit my spare if it comes down to it. I think we have around the same offset rims. What part of town are you on? I'm northeast SA, Marion area. I also have a very good articulation test area.

I live in helotes. I would only have about 3.75 inches of lift total haha. My Jeep is a low rider. I would be taking the original spacers out of the front, replace with a bigger one, then stack the two in back. Only adding a half inch from what I have. But yeah if I could test fit that would be awesome. But I fear these deals may be long gone before then.

Do you need the tires now due to the condition of the old ones? How good of a deal are the tires? You also have factor in is it your Daily Driver, how long will it take to do upgrades, can you do the upgrades (mechanical ability,equipment) and how much do you have to spend. Because you could probably fit the tires on for basic driving with the 3.25 inch lift and get upgrades later. But then you would not want to go wheeling, especially as hard as you wheel. If they are not locked the axles should be ok for lite trail riding, but then again will you be able to resist the temptation? I have personally beat the crap out of the stock non locked d30 & d35 on 33s trying to pull friends out (prewinch) and only tore the bracket off the axle housing. I also have friends that have stocks with 35" like goodyear MTRs, not the aggressive Swamper type, that were scarily rough with them with no problems, but then again they might have been trying to break it so "they have to rebuild"(wives). The people that say a D35 blew up on them just driving down the road. What were they doing to it before they got on the road? When was the last time they serviced it? Those are thing I would like to know. Hairline cracks can last a while before failure. 33"s are only 1 inch less ground clearance than 35"s and do weigh less. 35"s do look better. But then again I thought your jeep had 35"s and looked good with not to much open wheel well and good articulation. Depending on how much you drive, those tires may not have tread left when you get upgrades done and would be able to use them. Oh yea doubling up the spacers sounds bad. I think you can get Ford F150 front spring for the rear and cherokee springs for the front with spacers or something like that to get a junk yard lift. Contra on Offroadjunkies.net has that setup on his jeep. I could find out if you would want to check that route out. What size spacers do you have?

I have .75 spacers front and rear. I would swap the front for the 1.75 spacers. And thanks for the info, it certainly made me feel better about it. I am leaning towards playing it safe and running 33s. And then locking up. My tires are good to go except for one that decided it would wear uneven and it screams like the devil and has a pretty fun a squeaky hop around 45 mph.

I'd scrap that D35 altogether. It's not worth the head ache.

Stock turdyfive and 35's..............BOOM!

Yeah that is what most people will say. But a lot of the guys are still running 35s and chromo shafts. I think I will probably play it safe and stay smaller.

On my TJ I had a Super35 kit and blew up two ring&pinions, twisted the splines on the shafts and blew up the Detroit on 35's.

No wonder you have a buggy now haha

Yes the dana 60s are the way to go, IF you have an extra 4 to 5 thousand dollars laying around to build them yourself or the 9 thousand dollars to buy a set of fabricated dana 60s. or you could try to find a set of d44 from a rubicon with the weak stock shafts and brackets, for @$3500 if you are lucky, and still dump @$700 into shafts and be buying a bracket kit when you tear the stocks off. Or you can maybe find a rear TJ d44 for @$1500. throw at least $1500 beefing that up, or the 8.8 swap ($300 housing, $300 brackets,$400 locker, $200 other parts) @$1200 if you can build it yourself, and still have the D30 to beef up. You may be able to find someone who is upgrading and has some very built but abused axles with hidden surprises, that I found out the hard way. But alot of people just dont have that kind of extra cash and for the wheeling most jeep owners do, building the axles you have already is a fairly cheap way to go. Mainly you have to think about what you want to do in the long run. I looked at alot of stuff when I decided to build a turd. My money situation(poe), Was wheeling my only hobbie(no), do I still want to drive it on the street(yes), how easy will it be to fix(OEM parts), could i find anyone who has broken the setup I have(no).

Yeah I hear ya man. it is a high miliage daily driver. And I need to keep it that way. But I also love me some level four out of five trails which I already handle mostly fine. So I am leaning twords a new set of 33 MTRs with Kevlar. Sell my IROKS. True trac and Chromo out back. And an Aussie up front.

Check out TireBuyer.com. I just bought my 4 TTCs for $1009 to my door in less than 3 days. Others were $300 each (tax&shipping) do a search for tirebuyer coupons. I found a 10% discount. You should be able to find a great 33" set on C.L. It seemed to be that way when I was looking for 35".

Yeah that is how it always goes. When you looks for 35s you find 33s, and vice versa. I will keep my eyes peeled. But I still may pull the trigger on the 35s.

I have a trussed Super35 (with the fantastic Eaton E-Locker) and the C-Clip Eliminator, and I have only had problems with the pinion eventually eating itself up over time. I have gone down this road as far as I can go, and looking back at it, if I had to do it all over again I would go one of two routes, assuming you can't luck your way into a cheap TJ/LJ/Rubi 44:

1) Low-cost option: source an inexpensive Ford 8.8 out of a mid/late 90's Explorer, put TJ brackets on it with whatever diff/gears I need, and call it a day. Leave the D30 alone other than locker/gears, maybe chromo shafts if you really feel like it, but the D30 rarely breaks. Good for 35's forever.

2) D60 front and rear. Cut the back of the tub, stretch it, and 4-link it. Plan on the rig being down for quite a while, and make sure you've researched the holy hell out of it. Good for 40's easy. There are many other axles that would work just as well, but these are very common with extreme aftermarket support.

I have put a tremendous amount of time and effort and money into this D35, and I'm even about to put disc brakes on it for no reason other than it's easy and cheap and I hate dealing with drums. If I had to do it all over again, however, I wouldn't. In the long run, there are just too many disadvantages and too much money to address them. With my trussed S35, I have no qualms hitting it hard with 35's; on the other hand I could do that with a stock 8.8 with a lot bigger pinion and ring gear and a lot less money.


Regarding lift and 35's, you're fine.

if you're getting a really good deal on a set of 35's then get them. find a used D44. Chris got one for his XJ for about $150.00. Then threw a little $$ at it and swapped it under his XJ. Or, like Deacon said above, ford 8.8 is a good option. Late models have the benefit of disc brakes.

Look HERE

Here TOO!

You can get the tires now, stay with your current 33's, and upgrade the axle later.

but the D30 rarely breaks. Good for 35's forever.

Not to hi-jack the thread, but why are the D 30's so much better than the D S35's. Wouldn't the Pinion size be larger in the 35's as opposed to the 30's? Or is this a function of Torque displacment? (the rear axel dealing with most of the load and power output.)

the D30 & D35 are very similar :

R&P 7.2" & 7.562"
27 spline axles

But, the D30 doesn't have the same load at the D35 being in the rear as you said above. If you drive with finesse and do a super 35 kit, you should be OK. But once you start spining tires or getting on it....

jkx0778 wrote:

the D30 & D35 are very similar :

R&P 7.2" & 7.562"
27 spline axles

But, the D30 doesn't have the same load at the D35 being in the rear as you said above. If you drive with finesse and do a super 35 kit, you should be OK. But once you start spining tires or getting on it....

Leave the ring gear aspect out of it, that's a wash. The 35 housing flexes like a straw, truss the crap out of it all you want, it's just money down the drain.

I don't care how much it's justified, polishing that D35 turd is not worth it in the long run! I did it and regret it. You can build an 8.8 for a reasonable price. Cut and reuse your brackets, price of gears and a lunchbox. D30 with 35's is ok but still always scared me. I broke a r&pinion, carrier and twisted the splines on 2 sets of superior chromoly's.

8.8 swap, @$350 axle, @$450 bracketry, yoke, & e- brake, @$75-$200 ring & pinion depending if you can find used 4.56 ones, not stock on 8.8 that I know of. @1000 Thats with a limited slip stock shafts if you can do all the work yourself. Then if you want to lock it up the @$150 spool,or $400-$800 locker whatever way you want to go there. $250 alloy shafts. Its a way to go but how big of tires can you run then after all that work. Still have the front turd. Then you still have the c-clip axle problem. You are in the D60 work and price range from what I figure. I don't think an 8.8 is worth the trouble. The way I see it,if you are going to do an axle fabrication and swap look into something that will be worth the work, a D60 or 14 bolt if you really want to do hardcore offroading. But a built up D35 is ok for light to moderate wheeling as long as you don't think you are at King Of The Hammers. You just have to know your limitations. I built my D35 @$600 with commen sence and have a very capable jeep that I can lightly wheel now, while I save and build up some real axles. Think of where you want the weak spot to be, the driveshaft, transfercase, or the parts that you have already replaced and have the spare parts to fix it if you keep the standard size parts. Nomatter what you do to your jeep, in the right situation you will break something. If you are scared of fixing something, you probably shouldn't be offroading.

Dang is this Religion or Politics? I guess the D35 topic will never be safe, but it does make for interesting conversation. Thanks guys. I really think JeepNation has a great group here. We really love our jeeps. Testify!

If I were really in the market I would jump on one of these deals:


damn I really wish I had the $1000.00 for this one

$2000.00 for build Front & Rear axles

1 Tons - not sure if the d60 is chevy or ford???

Yeah to bad I am very limited on the price range. I am not too worried to break stuff, but I am concerned about cost. I think I am going to run the hell out of what I have till it breaks and try to replace what I can. It is a DD high mileage work horse that likes level 4s on the weekends. Spends way more time on the road but I still want it to be as capable as I can get it. I have a fabricator with stacks of axles laying around that always cuts me deals, but that is for when I come into a couple extra grand. If that ever happens.

Just a few more for you to consider....

$800.00 for a D44 with 4.88s and Detroit locker

might check this one out

and this one too

another GC

Cherokee...V8 !!