Air/Hydraulic Bump Stops and Bent Axles
- Thread starter KlausVanWinkle
- Start date
Greg@RME
Adventurer
The stock front axle and control arm / track bar brackets are marginal at best and made from very thin material (weight savings = better fuel mileage), sufficient for stock sized tires at the very most and if you're going to wheel it hard, even that is questionable. While I do agree that too much speed combined with bigger tires will destroy a stock front JK axle in short order, I highly doubt that aftermarket bump stops will stop that from happening if you kept the front axle stock. If the most you're planning on doing is bouncing down dirt roads at moderate speeds on stock tires, the factory parts may suite you fine.
I'm running TeraFlex suspension w/SpeedBumps on 35's and noticed that the SpeedBumps allowed me to drive in the rough stuff faster, since they soaked up the big hits. It didn't take long for my front trackbar mount to tear off the axle. After checking out the damage, I couldn't believe how thin the brackets are on the front axle!! After the damage, I was looking at welding on the Artec JK front axle armor kit, which beefs up the knuckles, track bar bracket and upper & lower control arm mounts, while also beefing up the axle enough that you don't need to sleeve it. Eventually I decided that the simplest option was to swap in a Tera44 front axle housing, reusing my factory shafts, carrier & locker, outers, etc. The size and strength difference between the Tera44 and the stock JKUR Dana 44 was appalling, the factory axle's tubes, knuckles and brackets are incredibly tiny when compared to something built for strength like the Tera44.
I'm running TeraFlex suspension w/SpeedBumps on 35's and noticed that the SpeedBumps allowed me to drive in the rough stuff faster, since they soaked up the big hits. It didn't take long for my front trackbar mount to tear off the axle. After checking out the damage, I couldn't believe how thin the brackets are on the front axle!! After the damage, I was looking at welding on the Artec JK front axle armor kit, which beefs up the knuckles, track bar bracket and upper & lower control arm mounts, while also beefing up the axle enough that you don't need to sleeve it. Eventually I decided that the simplest option was to swap in a Tera44 front axle housing, reusing my factory shafts, carrier & locker, outers, etc. The size and strength difference between the Tera44 and the stock JKUR Dana 44 was appalling, the factory axle's tubes, knuckles and brackets are incredibly tiny when compared to something built for strength like the Tera44.