Dream...On!

Have you ever had the flu? No, no, not the measly little stomach flu that's over in a few days. I'm talking about the 'real' flu, the one that attacks every joint in your body like a pup-on-a-raw-steak, and makes you see things that aren't real. You know, the one that makes you fall asleep in weird places in weird positions and then wakes you up from you semi-coma to try and find another more comfortable spot just to do it all over again.

I just got over the 'real' flu, and yes, I saw some very strange things while hanging out in the two week long, fever-induced cranium fog. In one particular dream I was hanging with the dudes from Orange County Choppers. I was astonished when they knew my name, and loved it when Paul senior laughed at my jokes and punched me in the arm just like one of the shop guys. Even cooler was that Paul senior, Pauly and Mikey were driving a '63 Ford van just like mine; wooden dashboard and roof, fire engine red paint with gold leaf paisley stripes and all. Vinny was sitting in the back on a purple shag carpet, petting a green cat.

Hey...it could happen.

I had another dream while on fever-vacation that has been a recurring one over the years. Going one-ton on the Land Cruiser. But this time the dream actually started to make sense, and one week after the fog lifted the thought of running larger tires without skeerdness is getting more and more appealing.

The Achilles heel (or heels if you will) of the FJ40 are the dreaded Birfield joints in the front axle and the tire-size limiting 30 spline axles even in the Rockn'FJ's FJ60 full floater rear. Yeah, I know that Longfield makes some pretty hefty upgrades that rival anything that the aftermarket produces for the Dana 44, but the D44 still is marginal for any tire size over 36" in extreme conditions IMHO. I have grown tired of driving on the ridge of mediocrity and constantly convincing myself that I can get by with what I have. I want heft and confidence, and I probably won't get either one unless I get 1.5" 35 spline axles.

So now that I've given in to the reality of what I want, I have to decide just what pieces will turn this dream into what I need. I want to run a 42" tire for Oklahoma and such, but I want to leave the option of running a 38.5"-40" tire open for the future. Yep, even running one-ton gear will be a compromise.

Front Axle - I'll be looking for Dana (D)60 from a GM 1-ton. I could run it full-width, but at 69.5" WMS (wheel mounting surface) to WMS it seems a bit too wide. Even with 5.5" backspacing on the rims the overall width from outside of the tire to outside of the tire would be around 82.5 inches when using a 14x40" tire. That's 6" wider than I am right now with 36" Swamper SX's and 3.5" backspacing. It also would require that the spring hangers be moved outboard of the frame to match the Chevy's spring pad width.

To run the D60 using the stock FJ40 spring hangers would require narrowing the long-side axle tube by 4.5". The upside would be the 65" width WMS to WMS that more closely matches the axle that I'm looking at for the rear. The downside is obviously the cash outlay for two custom long-side axles - one to run and one for a spare.

Rear Axle - Most folks think that the GM 14-bolt is the obvious choice for a rear axle to match a front GM D60, and in a lot of cases it probably is. Even though the shafts are only 31-spline, they're plenty stout and rarely broken. But in my opinion the 14-bolt requires too much grinding on the housing to make it smooth enough to cruise over the rocks with style, especially with 38.5" tires. Too much grinding for me anyway.

So why not a Dana 60? They're a dime a dozen which makes them desirable, but the majority of D60 rears came with 30 spline and I already have that. Since I'm not interested in a high dollar custom built axle, this one's out.

I've been looking at the D70 for the rear, most importantly the D70u. Smooth housing, 35-spline 1.5" axles and available in a 65" width. Mmmm...maybe this is the one; I'll have to give this one some thought.

Transfer Case - Swapping in a centered rear axle will also require a t-case swap. I'll retain the SM420 granny trans with it's oh-I-love-it 7.05-1 first gear. Right now with the Toyota case and 5.29-1 ring and pinions in the axles, the rig's lowest overall gearing is at 86-to-1 which has been adequate but lacking in certain crawl conditions. To end up with even lower overall gearing with a 15% increase in tire size and 5.13-1 ring and pinions, I would want somewhere between a 3.8-1 and 4.3-1 low gear in the transfer case. The Advance Adapters Atlas case looks to be the most promising.

Stay tuned to C4x4.com for the latest confessions of a dreamer.

Captain Beadlock <><