If you have an Chrysler 8.25 in the rear right now then your axles are strong enough for 33s and you would be wasting money on an axle swap. If you have the Dana 35 rear you can find a Chrysler 8.25 out of another XJ and swap it in.

 

I kept the dana 30 upfront and re geared . put a ford explorer 8.8 in the rear of mine with disk brakes and 4.10 gears and lsd

 

if your going full size axles don't waste your time with dana44 stuff skip right to dana 60s or better

 

 

I have a healthy 4.0 in mine and now it has a Spartan locker up front and a grizzly Yukon locker in rear im wheeling on 34x10.50x15 super swamper tsl on bead lock rims aired down to 4psi and it crawls the rocks like a champ I did sleeve the dana 30 also I almost forgot about that lol

 

what size tires you goin to run ? 35" and down stay with what you got but if you go dana 60s or bigger your gonna want 37"+

 

Throw some chromoly shafts in the front axle if you are worried about it. The HP Dana 30 can handle more than people think, the 8.25 rear is also a very good axle. If you want to do an axle swap then 1 tons would make the most sense but then you would want bigger than 33s or your going to be dragging the axles allot.

 

 

If you are going to wheel up the I80 or US50 from where you are, you will want a locker or you won't get far and axles won't be an issue for you. You have some great wheeling just an hour and a half from you, but if you really want to have some fun, front and rear auto lockers will be the ticket. 97+ 8.25 and D30 is a great combo for 33" tires. If you start getting taller, then those Ford axles are a good way to go

 

Yep that's about right. Lockers help out allot I have Spartan lockers in the front and rear, they work great.

 

I have a bone stock hp 30 with a Lock Right & stock 8.8 w/discs & it's welded. I have 35s BFG MTs. I flog the crap out of it on every trip.
I have only broken 2 passenger side axle shafts & 1 rear drive shaft. But to be perfectly honest, my original locker malfunctioned & took out the first shaft. The second one was due to no grease in the joint caps. I only run junkyard parts.
The driveshaft was due to a rock that I smacked it into.

I'd never sink $ into chromo shafts in a 30. Just get a set of jy shafts & change out the u joints. For extra security you can tack weld the caps to the ears.

 

 

Not necessarily. 96 was a bastard year. They were changing over to OBDII that year and some other things. So if I were you, I would pull an axle and count the splines first. If you have a late 96 you could have the 29 spline shafts