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Jeepmedic46

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All my parts for my JCR rear bumper with tire carrier and fuel carriers are almost all in. My question is my rear springs are old and flat and need to be replaced. I was thinking of putting a 1” block on my bump stops in the front to put a 33” tire. I’m currently running a 255/75/17 with a 4.5” lift on my 2000 Jeep Wrangler. Currently running 3:55. Should I plan on swapping gears and reinforcing the Dana 35 and Dana 30 or just keep the tire size 255/75/17?
 

LostWoods

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How are your fab skills? Reinforcing that gen D30 is an effort in futility and 33s will be near its limit even fully strengthened off road.
 
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Billiebob

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Is this an overlander, RTT plus all the other overlanding gear or is this a stripped lightwieght 4 wheeler?
Stripped, lightwieght, the D30/35 combo might survive fine, even rhe 3.55s might work if your wheeling is not extreme.
But a fully loaded overlander with 33s and the D30/35s will put a lot of stress on the axles.
Add in accessing a remote camping spot and the odds of breaking something add up.

Check out the Revolution Super D30/30 upgrades.


If you do regear etc add lockers at the same time, you'll never regret it.
 
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smritte

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In one of my early cj7's I ran 33" tires with, 4.56 gears, a lock rite and auto trans in my dana 30 for several years. There were the early Sledge Hammer days before anyone really rock crawled. I was hard on it but careful. Others broke axles and outer u-joints but I didn't. They were pretty much heavy footed with manual trans. The rear 35 diffs, well lets just say by the time you built them you wish you just did a dana 44. Again though, I saw those hold up with 4.56 and 4.88 gears, detroit or loc rite lockers if they were careful.
I started attending 4wd events in the later 80's. Pretty much everyone had jeeps with 30/corporate , 30/44 or later 30/35. Everyone ran 33's because 35's weren't popular yet. I would say the C-Clip 35 was the weakest. This means I've seen hundreds of those combos being abused off road.
Later with the TJ's the only dana 35's I saw break were people with 35" tires and a real heavy foot. Almost all of the axles I saw break were stock with a locker and a heavy foot.
Personally, I always buy chromo axles for everything and a 4.56 works well with a 33" tire with 4.10 is as highest giving a bit better street. I no longer run limited slips and fixed lockers (Detroit, tru trac...). I only run selectable. Street, turning on a hill and slippery side hills are why.

Don't know how you drive or what terrain type you like. This is my experience in the Cal desert and forest trails including Rubicon and Dusy.

Heres a pic of my 79 CJ7 in the later 80's with a mechanical locked dana 30, 4.56 and 33" tires. Like I said, the dana 30 held up to me.

Scott 15.jpg
 

Jeepmedic46

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Thank you everyone, I’m going to keep my tire size the same. Jeep is going to get heavier when I add skid plates and a winch. Sleeping arrangements will be a cot in the back. Roof Rack will mostly hold lights. Jeep needs other things before I can think of re gearing.