The start of a new addiction

[Bigred89]

Doing the famous d30 swap with a soa swap, goals for now is 4.88 gears, eventually a 1354m swap with a behemoth strong box, 33s (for now) not sure which way to go for the steering setup, this is the hardest decision to make if I should just do a late 70s f150 steering box or full hydraulic. I have an orbital I picked up for free from my grandpa with the steering column. As of now I don't really want to do anything extreme as far as rocks, I like the woods type trailing with a lil bit of rocks but our time will tell haha. Anyways I'll add some pix of when I first picked it up at bone stock and from recent changes and any input is welcome!

 

[WormsExplorer]

Looks good so far. How much did you wake off of your fenders?

 

[Bigred89]

For the fenders I just traced the top of the stock plastic fender flares and that's what I cut off.. worked pretty slick

 

[WormsExplorer]

Yeah it looks good. A lot of room there now You can get 33's in there now right? LOL

 

[Bigred89]

Yea I'm sure 33s would fit just fine right now

 

[Blown]

Looks good!

I would only use full hydro for off-road.

I would do this swap only with a Dana44 or larger.

 

[Bigred89]

Do you know what stroke ram to use for a d30? And I'm sure I'll eventually do a d44 it's just this is what I could get for cheaper plus its got chromoly axles and a locker so for what I do now it'll work good

 

[WormsExplorer]

What are you planning to use your rig for? I have a buddy that has a Dana 30 and Dana 35 on his jeep running 37's with Spacers and they are still rolling. We crawl here A LOT and he also drives it daily. So long as you take care of it you can run a Dana 30 all day long. Just my 2 cents. Now for Mudding I am not sure. For me I do not like Mudding but like everyone on here to each their own. Can't wait to see your SAS build.

 

[Bigred89]

It's strictly off road use only and I'm just doing trails and I'd like to get in to a little bit of rocks but nothing too serious

 

[WormsExplorer]

If that is all the Dana 30 would be perfect if nothing really serious. My buddies Dana 30 holds up really good. Only thing he has is ChromOlly Shafts. He has taken it up some crazy rocks and trails.

 

[Blown]

I built a FSB rock crawler for Colorado. The D30 would be weak for what I did. I broke a D44 and then built a 609. For what you are planning on running you will be fine, but I bet you end up doing more, more trails usually lead to wanting to do more, it's addicting................Good luck!

This site does not have the extreme 4x4 knowledge you will find at pirate4x4. Answers are there for your hydro.

 

[Bigred89]

Well I did the soa swap today.. lifted it alot more than I thought is was going to.. when I get the 33s on... Maybe 35s, it won't fit in the garage door haha

 

[Spudhut]

Looks great! Keep the pictures coming...Ill be doing mine soon. Good stuff!

Do you plan on swapping out the leaf springs for other units?

Where did you get the ubolts and plate from?

 

[Bigred89]

Looks great! Keep the pictures coming...Ill be doing mine soon. Good stuff!

Do you plan on swapping out the leaf springs for other units?

Where did you get the ubolts and plate from?

No Im just using the stock mono leaf for now but eventually plan on going with something with a few more leafs, as far as the perches and u-bolt plates I got them from Barnes 4wd it was about 60$ plus 40$ for all my u-bolts so not bad for 100$ worth of lift haha

 

[Bigred89]

No turning back now.. doing the swap this weekend, got the ifs garbage out last night

 

[Spudhut]

Excellent. Did you fully disassemble it, then remove brackets? or cut all the mounts with everything still attached?

 

[Bigred89]

Well I started to unbolt stuff then realized that was a waste of time so I just started cutting haha but I did actually unbolt the axle housing itself and the torsion bars up on the frame and cut the driveshaft as well since I'm using a first gen ex front driveshaft

 

[Spudhut]

Nicely done! Ill be diving into mine in the next months after I get all the other 'gremlins' free from it!

 

[Bigred89]

Yea it's a lot of cutting and grinding so make sure you get plenty of cutting wheels and grinding pads

 

[Bigred89]

Ifs totally gone and cleaned up.. ready for welding and the d30!