The title basically sums up my question, but....

I have seen a few Cherokees successfully running 35's on a polished 30/8.25 setup with some breakage.

It seems like people running a stock 44/9" setup on 35's experience similar amounts of breakage...

^I have not seen any of these break in person... I just read about them. Maybe I'm just spending too much time over at pirate...

So my question is: Is it worth it to do a 44/9" swap? How much stronger is the 44/9" setup compared to the 30/8.25? I will be running 35's at first, and eventually 37's.

How large of tires can a polished 44/9 combo hold up to?

 

If you plan on running 37s I'd go for the 44/9. I'll probably do a 30/8.25 for my 33s on up to 35s and then eventually go 44/44 or 44/9

 

def do the 44/9" on 37's. i would feel very comfortable running 35's on 30/8.25, and if they break there cheap!

 

whats nice about stock xj axles is that spare parts are cheap and plentiful. but once you get to the 35" tire range and break them pretty reglarly its a pain.

i would never run 37's on a dana30/8.25

and to reliably run a 44/9 with 37's it should be moderately polished(alloys, good u joints, 31+ spline rear)

and i am not a fan of how low the 9" pinion is

 

X2. Ive got a 44/9 sittin in my garage waitin on parts so in about a month ill be able to tell you if it was worth it lol. Also the 9" has a super low pinion but there are multiple companies out there that make pinion guards and such

 

Sometimes common sense goes out to the scrap pile when stronger components are installed.

Every axle can fail depending on driver input.

 

i run 35s with a dana 30 with an arb, 4.56s, sleeved tubes, chromoly shafts, and SOLID dif cover and a 29 spline 8.25 with just an aussie in the rear and dont have any problems. i try not to romp on it as much as possible but sometimes you just have to. havent broke anything yet. but as stated before i wouldnt run anything bigger than 35s with that set up

 

I hate to say it but if you have been over on pirate you should know this answer all ready. You can polish a d30 to d44 strength. You can polish a D44 to almost d60 with 33 spline shafts. a 9" well you can cure the LP.. by buying a hi-9, but thats bucks. A 9" isnt much lower then a 8.25, can be polished to d60 strength realtively easily.

To me the option would be go 8 lug front and rear run 44 up front and d60 rear.