I picked up a 95 Dodge 3500 4x4 Regular cab long bed wrecked Hard in the rear for $1K. It was a deal i couldn't pass up and I am sitting here trying to plan my new toy do you all think the Dana 60 and 80 are strong enough to handle 44 TSLs or should i just step up to rocks and 49s. But im trying to keep a low center of gravity.

I am looking for some input before i start my build and would be appreciated


Thanks Coty

I know a 60 in the front and definitely an 80 in the rear will be plenty enough for the 44 TSLs, but for the 49s I wouldn't really know. I have a dana 44 in the front and in the rear a full floating corporate 14 bolt out of a 72 1-ton chevy in my mud truck with 44-18.50 TSLs and haven't had much problems. The only thing that broke in the rear was the wore out stock locker from doing burn outs on the pavement (not reccomended with 44s), but I have since run a detroit locker in it for about 6 years with no problem. In the front I have broke both driver and passenger side axle shafts several times. However you should be fine with the 60 because they have quite larger shafts. And about the low center of gravity.... its a mud truck, don't worry about the cosmetics (you said it was hit hard in the back) just run it without a bed and trim the front fender wells. This way you shouldn't need too much of a lift.

Let us know when you get this thing going and be sure to share some pics.

What are you looking to do with it? Rock Crawling, Mud, mix? The front 60 will hold up to the 44"s if you keep it in the mud for the most part. If you want to get into the rocks, you will need to do some work to it more than likely. Steping up to 35 spline outer shafts would be a good start, and upgrading the u-joints to some CTMs would be good also. RCV makes one hell of a set of CV shafts that will just laugh at the 44"s. This is what I have in mine, but I got them straight from Bobby Long (why I still call mine Longfields ;) ) as he was the one that designed them and brought them to market, RCV was just doing the forging and machine work (IIUC).

What motor do you have in that truck? If you have the cummins, you will definitely need to step up to the 35 spline outers as that is a heavy ass motor.

If I had to do it all over again though, I would save my money up and acquire a SET of steering rockwells and use them with the new(ish) 54" boggers. I have a good bit invested in my 60/70HD axles right now though that I just can't see the expense of 'upgrading' to a set of axles that won't be any stronger than I have now with out dropping an extra 3 grand an axle on bling shafts.