4x4 Parts Shop, Colorado Springs, CO 80915

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So what comes after tires?

GOT AXLES?!? We do. In fact, we’ve got some of the best axles out there. Axles can, and most likely will, make or break any buildup out there. From street to hard-core off-road, the type and strength of your axles is key to success.

Nate has already told us about some of his earlier pursuits of pleasure in a 4-Wheel Drive vehicle. He’s already bought ~ and busted ~ a couple Chevy’s. Then he showed us some home video of a couple trail rides and we knew that he needed something durable, something with some major strength in the axles. The answer was nothing short of Dynatrac Dana 60’s.

We placed the order for the Dynatracs as quickly as we could. It was in early March. We talked to James in sales. We also talked to his boss, they both said that it would be an 8 week turn around. So we decided to look elsewhere for the alxes, we needed them faster than that. DTS (DriveTrain Services) could do the same job with a turn around of 3 weeks, guaranteed. Right as we were going to go with DTS, James called back to see if we were ready to get the axles. We told him that he was beat out by a better delivery time and he asked us to hold. After talking to his boss, James came back on and stated that they could make the time that DTS quoted, “…but no promises” he added. Realizing that the word “Dynatrac” carries allot of weight in our industry so we ended up placing the order with them.

3 weeks went by, no news or packages. At about the 5 week mark we called and asked James’ boss when we could expect them. They were 2 weeks out. RRRrrrr. About the 7 week mark we were told they were getting close and needed the final payment before they could ship. Payment sent. Finally, at about the 10-11 week mark we got a rather large box.

Like kids in a candy store we hurried to the back of the freight truck. The driver asked us for a fork lift to help offload some of the box. We told him that we didn’t have one and he stated, “Do you have anything? The box weighs 1000 lbs!” Looks like we need to find one then. After a quick trip to the machine shop in the building below us, we had a forklift, we now were ready to go. A quick signature on the dotted line and we were in the shop opening the new ‘present’.

Now, if the $9,500 price tag on these axles doesn’t knock you out, then seeing them up close will. We knew Dana 60s were big, but we never really took a good look at a set before. These axles are huge ! Let me say that again, huge. We’d have to say that the housings are about 2x the size of the Dana 44’s that came out of it. We mean that literally. We was taken completely by surprise.

What did we order and why.

Width. Well first we had to plan for the worst of trails here. We knew that this Scout would see some nasty angles so we knew that the stock width wouldn’t do. That in mind we ordered the axles 2″ over stock width, which puts the width in the 62″ area. Dynatrac has no problem on making custom axle widths, in fact that’s about all they do. We called out the width, and they made it, no extra costs.

5 on 5.5″ Bolt Pattern. One major problem with Dana 60’s is that they are almost always 8-lug bolt patterns. That means that your stuck with trying to find ‘usable’ 8-lug wheels. That, in turn, means that you’re going to have to go with 16″ or 16.5″ rims. ‘Not a bad thing,’ you say? Ya we guess if you want to go with metal rims or really pretty custom rims that cost some big $$’s. We didn’t want either of these options, no offense to those that have them. There was only one thing to do about it, and that was not to worry about it. That’s right, Dynatrac will build any axle with any bolt pattern you desire. Our Scout was 5×5.5″ stock, and that is the way the axle were made. Super Sweet!

Brakes. Third, getting a rig moving is one thing, getting it stopped is another. Nate’s truck is an auto, and even though he’s got the crawl ratio from ‘heck’, we all know that auto’s have a way of making us ride the brakes down steep grades. No doubt that the standard D60 drum brakes would have to go as well, this baby needs 4-wheel disks.

Dynatrac, again, had the bases covered here. They offer both front and rear vented disk brakes that are big enough to stop the rig without breaking a sweat, but small enough to fit in our 15×10 Champion Wheel BeadLocks (just barely, that is). And, the rear brakes come E-brake ready.

Gears. We knew that we would need some great “crawl-ability”, but also wanted to be able to turn the 37’s at a comfortable 70 mph on the highway. Working with Randy’s Ring and Pinion RPM calculator, we decided on 4.56 gears. They would give us good off-the-line performance while maintaining good highway and off-road prowlness.

Lockers, Lockers, Lockers. What can we say here. If your going to build a Rock Crawler, you’re definitely need a big time locker. But which one? Detroit’s? OX? LockRite’s? No, No, and definitely No. There was no choice here, none at all. We knew what we needed before they asked. ARB’s , all the way. Done.

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