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Alternative one ton axles.

Vombrown

Vombrown

Mountain Man
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So let's discuss some things here. First off the GM Dana 60's in my neck of the woods have all but dried up. The ones that are available are ridiculously priced so let's discuss some alternatives. I know it's sacrilege but I have been looking at some ford and dodge stuff lately. Namely the Ford F-350 and the Chevy HD2500 rear axles. Both disc brake rears, gearing and parts are available and pretty cheap in in the junk yards. I know 14 bolts are cheap and parts are available for disc brakes but honestly I can get any number of the above complete axles for like 200 bucks. That's cheaper than a disc swap on a 14 bolt...just sayin'.

Front axles I'm sort of lost. I know there are good 60's out there that aren't the traditional GM old school axles but I'm not sure what I'm looking for and what they would come out of. I think the newer front axles with the brackets all over them could be trimmed back and new welded perches added. Gimme some input here guys.

Before anyone goes haywire about drivers or passenger side drop, I have a ton of transfer case options should I decide to go drivers side pumpkin. To me it's not even a concern. So let's just leave that for another discussion and stick with the axles.
 
For the rear I think an 11.5 (14 bolt) would be just the ticket. There are a bunch of them in the salvage yards here. Cheap, disc brakes and good options for parts. Even has a nice parking brake.

So let's figure out this front axle dilemma
 
11.5s are only cheap if you don't mod one. That's a horrendously expensive axle to mess with.

You can pick up ball joint 60s all day cheap, but it will have to be linked.
 
454Sub said:
11.5s are only cheap if you don't mod one. That's a horrendously expensive axle to mess with.

You can pick up ball joint 60s all day cheap, but it will have to be linked.
Click to expand...

What are they in and why does it need to be linked? Why not just plasma off the brackets, clean it up and weld spring perches?
 
This/\ but there is a couple company’s making radius arms for the ford axles. Would make swapping it moderately simple.
 
Longevity turning 37's at high speed through the snow. Nothing snaps an axle faster than full throttle and sudden stop when it grabs dirt or something underneath.
 
Bent77 said:
I vote ford HP, and swap the pumpkin to the correct side.

Rear axle, pick a 11.5 AAM and go
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See while I was out at my new found favorite junk yard I only looked at GM's for front axles. I wasn't looking for fords at all. I can say that there was a crap load of 2500 HD trucks out there and they should all have 11.5's.
 
Only 8.1 or Duramax has the 11.5.

I personally wouldn't get it, it costed 2100$ for a set of 3.73s and a Yukon for the one I was just around. That's a whole lot of 10.5.
 
Only 8.1 or Duramax has the 11.5.

I personally wouldn't get it, it costed 2100$ for a set of 3.73s and a Yukon for the one I was just around. That's a whole lot of 10.5.
 
Bent77 said:
I will say this at the expense of killing nuns and orphans and saying all things sacrilege

Run the d44 front and just swap on some chromoly shafts

Quick and sleazy
Click to expand...

I thought about that but I got a semi float 14 in the rear...so it needs to go anyway. While I'm already pulling axles, might as well pull both.
 
There's also the AAM 10.5 that shares a lot of parts/almost everything with the trusty old 14 bolt FF. Should be cheaper to work on than the 11.5 and have way more aftermarket options to beef it up. I got one out of an '04 Suburban 2500 sitting in my garage waiting to be swapped under my K5. Just be careful when looking at the AAM axles, GM switched to a metric bolt pattern in 2010(?) that won't match most front axle options.

FYI the only Ford 60's that'll swap straight over are from '78 - '79, after that they changed the spring widths and they won't work unless you want to link them like someone mentioned above. You could also keep an eye out for a Dodge 60, the spring widths are close enough to work and ORD makes a bushing kit that makes it a straight swap. The Dodge's are maybe an inch narrower on each side and will have external locking hubs '79 - '89 and then internal locking hubs like GM '90 - '93. Anything else is going to take a lot more work and fabbing to fit under one of our trucks...
 
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