Thanks again, mr white.

Alright, I think I've made up my mind as far as the WJ knuckles. I'm opting to not take that project on and mainly because of someone's post over at NAXJA. Screenshot attached.

For the work and money involved, I think it's better to upgrade my rotors and pads instead and stick with my stock knuckles and IRO steering.

That being said, I'm back on the truss issue. What does one look for in a truss? The featured on the IRO truss are nice, but is it 5 times better than others that are 1/5 the price?

Someone mentioned longarm lowers with stock or short arm uppers. How does that work? Advantages, disadvantages? Radius kits just freak me out since you go from 4 to 2 points on the frame/body side.

Also, adding every mod to a D30 but what are the chances of exploding the tiny ring/pinion? Is there anything that can be done to upgrade this?

Not really. If a ring and pinion break they break. As far as I know you can just buy good gears and hope for the best.

I bought G2 4.56 gears and I am hoping they are sufficient for what I need.

As far as the OPs question about the truss. I've spent a good amount so far on trussing and improving the front axle. I probably would have gone with the TNT truss for the front if I were to do it again.

Here's what I have into the front axle for armor (beefing it up)

Artec Truss w/ Johnny Joint - $240
Artec C-Gussets - $50 (Jeepforum.com find)
Rugged Ridge LCA Mounts - $55
Synergy Sleeve Kit - $100

So I'm all in about $450 into armor and sleeves for the axle. That doesn't include the chassis unlimited diff cover I got nor the sway bar mounts I'm going to have to buy. Basically the only stock sheet metal (brackets) on the front will be the shock mount and spring seat.

I'm confident in the axle now though, way more so than before.

You CAN fit 15" wheels with WJ knuckles and brakes, use the Teeves calipers. I run WJ knuckles, GM TRE's, and 15" Ultra type 164 15x7 with 35x12.50R15's ... Works great. Never had a warped in the last 3yrs (when I did the swap).

I did the Iro truss with C gussets and LCA brackets. Its solid. Running the UTK steering from Serious Off Road. Have everything to do the OTK. Just need to relocate my trac bar to go OTK. What I like about the most is the coil spring retainers, bar pin eliminators, moves the shocks up and is well built.

Also did the spicer ball joints.

Interesting, tennis ***** as bump stops...are those staying in there?

I've never heard of this.. Seems like you'd be negating any advantages of long arm lowers if you had short arm uppers but then I see where maybe it might work? Definitely couldn't be ideal geometry. Radius arms still require a track bar so you do have another attachment but it's still dropping from 5 points to 3. Plenty of people run them with no issue though.

The stock uppers limit flex considerably.

I think teraflex may have been like that with there long arm kit.
The lowers mount was pretty much 1/4 c channel and a lower control arm mount welded to it. It bolted to the stock cross member and two more bolt that went thru the uni body. It used stock uppers but you could upgrade to aftermarket adjustable ones the higher you went.
It was a pretty popular kit.
I've seen a worse design by someone on here that had them built, it's a radius 3 link driver radius are with a lower pass arm. With only two bolts, front cross member bolt only and the one right in front.

Until I have money to go a different route.

Also there softballs.

Why not just tap a hole in the center, and run a bolt throughout the proper amount of hockey pucks? I've seen the softballs used before but they are an eye sore to me unless painted. You can usually get hockey pucks for cheaper than softballs unless you already had them.

I was running the hockey pucks. Trashed them out. Its just a lot easier and cheaper to throw some softballs in there. Might even get fancy and downgrade to a softball/baseball to gain some more up travel.