203, 205 or stick with my 208?

[txbartman]

Okay, its time to get serious here. I currently have a 700/208. I have never had a problem with either and even have a spare 208 in case I do. I am getting ready to slap the one-ton axles under my rig. When I do, I plan to go with rear discs on the 14BFF. Now I am trying to decide if I should stick with the 208, run a 1-ton CV driveshaft with slip yoke from Jesse, and caddy calipers with ebrake on the rear ... OR ... if I should swap to a fixed yoke tcase, get a fixed yoke CV shaft, run 3/4t calipers on the rear and a tcase/DS mounted ebrake.

Problem I have seen so far is the HIGH cost of attaching a 205 to my 700. I don't do rocks normally. Mostly just mud and trail running which involves the normal rocks, ledges, and hill climbs, but nothing too radical.

I need some opinions. If you think I should swap, I need some thoughts on how to cost effectively do it. I currently run 35s but plan to go to 42s shortly. Mine is also about a 50% daily driver (guess that would be an every-other-daily driver).

 

[Grim-Reaper]

Well the 208 have a nice deep low. The down side is the Slip yoke. If you gear the axles right they will hold up fine. The probem will be how much lift are you planning on running? Over 6 inches and I would say that your drive line angles are going to bind the slip yoke even with a CV shaft.

 

[txbartman]

Currently I have 4" lift. I plan to stick with that and trim the fenders a bit more for the 42s. I also have a 3" BL that helps. The 1-tons I am installing have 4.56s in them.

 

[Grim-Reaper]

$ inches you should be ok. You could offset the rear axle back 1.5 inches and that will help with the drive line angles. Only down side is you may have to lengthen the drive shaft some.

 

[txbartman]

I'm swapping in a 14B for my current 10B and was planning to go with a new, custom 1-ton CV driveshaft from Jesse anyway. Are there any cons to moving the erar axle back 1.5? I am already planning on moving the front one forward by that.