Yea if you have the money and skills go 8.8 if not get a bolt in 44a

Thanks for all the input guys! Think im gonna save up and buy a dana 44 with lockers and gearing already installed through one of my 4wd parts mags. May take me forever and a day to save up for it but i believe it will be worth the wait for what i have planed. ill go ahead and do the junkyard disc swap in the meantime and start saving for my Ironrockoffroad 7 inch longarm and dana 44 axles with arb air lockers. Money money money. Now that my wife is a Nurse i can let her pay some bills for a change.

If your gunna spend that much you should get a 8.8 or 9 in. Especially if you plan on running 35's or larger with that 7 in long arm. My wife just got a job in a salon after a year of being unemployed, so I know what you mean by letting her pay some of the bills

Shaft strength wise they are about the same depending on what they are out of. 44 has bolt in flanged axles and if you break a shaft you can drive it without the wheel walking out. 8.8 is c-clipped and even with disc if you break a shaft the disc won't hold the wheel forever and will warp and or bend the backing plate trying to hold it. You can get c-clip elimintators which widen it to stock width. The factory carrier on the 8.8 is a known weak link but just use a full case locker and you're fine, and make sure to weld the tubes to the housing cause they are known to spin. Both are good to about a 37" tire but any larger and you'd want to go full width for the stability anyway.

Iro is a waste of money if ya plan to swap axles get Clayton's!

So you don't read much do you?


Have fun with that. That "sweet" IRO lift is going to lock you into the stock axles, so there goes your new D44's...

I guess i read a little more than you dude. Dana 44s can be ordered right out of magazines or the computer built specifically for the Jeep ZJ with all mounts in stock position except spring perches and shock mounts that you must mount yourself for custom pinion angle. Though be it not cheap it can be done. The dana 44 ive got my eye on is going to be around 3500 bucks but comes with arb air lockers and if i buy now a free air compressor anyone got some bones i can have? Oh, and the saying money dont buy you happiness is crap! With enough money anything is possible

That's pretty awesome, I was talking about the IRO kit not being compatible with the D44's right out of the magazine...Call them up to verify, then you'll be back editing your statements again...

ignorance is bliss only to the ignorant person. Everyone else just sees a dumb ***!

"Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and consciencious stupidity."
-Martin Luther King, Jr.


Mine's wittier...



I was simply informing you that your grand plan of buying D44's wouldn't work with IRO's lifts. Attack me if you desire, call them if you don't believe me. That's the thing with IRO, their lifts lock you in to the stock axles. When you get at that height level, you're going to want to run larger axles, IRO's kit's aren't designed with that much adjustability in them. That's why you'll see Clayton's on these larger rigs.

That's why I have a Clayton's style set up.