Howdy all, Buck here. I'm sitting in a fancy hotel over in sunny, sandy, hot Bahrain.....and all that's on my mind is wondering if any of you guys are planning the Last Chance Snow up on the Naches Trail this year in November.

Also, the gears in my brain have been going non stop since I left on this deployment. I have pretty much made up my mind to get a Dynatrac Trail Series D44 for the front of my new XJ build Great White. Then I will just get chromo shafts, new gears to match the front, rear disc brakes and have my new low pro shock mounts welded onto my old XJ rear D44. I want the front and rear D44s so I can run 5.13 or most likely 5.38 axle gears. I am going to move on up to 35"-37" Super Swampers of some sort. I'd really like to do IROKs but them things are spendy. I will probably just go cheap and get a set of the bias ply TSLs. I'm going to do Unibody Frame stiffeners of some sort and a full interior roll cage in this Jeep as well. I just don't want this one to start folding up on me after a few years of hard wheeling like my 91 did.

Anyway, I hope a group of you guys gets together to go up there and run Naches in the snow. I know I wish I could. I will be there in 2014 you can count on it.

 

HMMMMM.......so a lot of people looking but nobody going? That's pretty sad. That last one I went on was a blast!!!!!!

 

Theee best snow wheeling trip I've ever been on hands down.....besides having to wait on those DBs in JKs that were ahead of us on the trail all day.

 

That JK almost had an bad day if I didn`t throw my **** in reverse and throttled down lol What D44 for the front are you talking about? I need one for Old Red

 

Good times. Hopefully it ll work out this year

 

Hey Buck nice to hear from you brother! Jeep Unit will be going up from the eastside in early NOV, prob 2nd weekend.

Last year was a scary *** run, the snow was so slick! Sliding down backwards around curves on the side of a mountain was definately scary haha, it was a blast though! We will be doing it all again this year!

I like your plans for your new xj, you going to buy a pre built d44? You should hook up with busted knuckles, the kid knows his ****! Check out his build, he could probably help you out for way cheaper. He also lives up there around you somewhere.

I plan on caging mine in the near future also, probably over the winter. I have the bender already, just need to get some tube. Truth be told I havent touched my jeep one time since June on its first wheeling trip ever, up to the funny rocks and all around naches. Building it so fast wore me out i guess but im itching to get back in the saddle! Going to take my jeep and the wifes jeep up to moses lake mudflats this weekend to play around.

 

It's made my Dynatrac. It's called a "Trail Series D44" It is supposed to be cheaper than the "Pro Rock Series D44" they have been making for years. I don't know how much cheaper. Knowing Dynatrac probably not much cheaper. They build them bolt in ready for XJs with your choice of gear, locker and brakes. The closest place to me that sells them is Northridge4x4 in Silverdale. 4WheelParts also sells them. Let me know if you find out the price before I do.

 

Well, I think I spoke a little soon on saying I "AM" going to get that Dynatrac trail series 44 for my new XJ project. One place I checked price was $5200.00 the other place was $5400.00. That is more money total than I have in the entire Jeep. That's including buying the new Jeep and the total of all of the 4x4 parts I had on my old Jeep. That is a damn rip off I don't care who you are. I bet the newest and nicest Jeep XJ out there wouldn't go for much more than $5500.00 how could you justify putting just 1 axle under a Jeep that is worth more than the Jeep itself. I don't have that kind of cash. So what I will be doing is buying a 10 ton hydraulic spreader from Harbor Freight so I can fix the "C" on the driver's side of my D30 that I bent. Then I will be buying a balljoint press from Harbor Freight so I can install the new replacement XRF ball joints I got for free under warranty just before I left on deployment, the "PROPER" way so I don't bend my axle again with my 10 ton shop press

 

Then I'm going to go down to Everett and visit Randy at Randy's Ring and Pinion and get a set of Yukon Super D30 4340 chromoly axle shafts with Yukon Super joints in them and get the Lifetime no questions asked warranty. I don't think you can do much better than if you break it you get a new one free no questions asked for the life of the vehicle. No I know why Dave "Popcan Cherokee" keeps his beat to death XJ. He was the guy who first told me about the lifetime warranty Yukon Chromo shafts at Randy's. I believe he has a set in his cherokee. I think with a D30 with chromos, beefed Balljoints, Beefed U-joints, Axle trussing, beefed control arm mounts, welded tubes and gusseted C's, I really don't think there is any D44 out there thats going to be as strong as my D30 let alone stronger and I won't have paid no ridiculous amount of money for it either. I will have built it myself.

 

Buck, I would stay with 760 joints. If you go super joints, the next weakest point is probably your ring and pinion. You cant fix that on the trail! That may be just my way of thinking but thats what I did. I have yukon chromos with full circle 760s.

That dynatrac axle is cool and all, but you can build your own that just as strong for 1500-2k depending on the locker u want.

 

I'm planning on doing the naches trail next Saturday the 26th. Any takers?

 

Hey Timmy,

Good advice as always, my brotha. The spicer 760s are strong and will be much cheaper than Super Joints too. I will always carry my built up spare shafts with hubs attached because that is a much faster and easier trail fix if an axle or u-joint breaks, too. Good to hear from you buddy!!

 

I am now in Dubai, UAE. The word I'm hearing is the Navy is cutting out all travel for us corporate Tech. Reps. with our contract renewal for 2014. So, I should be back home in Wa. before the end of the year.