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chromoly axle shaft advice

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fulltilt

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Ontario, Canada
I hope to get some advice on who to buy chromoly axles from, and who to stay away from. I have been looking around and there is several companys out there to chose from, some offering a life time warrenty and others a ten year warrenty. I'm looking to beef up the 10 bolts in my 90 K5, it already has the 30 spline axles with an eaton in the rear and lock right in the front running 35's.

Before I get beat up on the 10 bolts and get told to run a 60 and a 14 bolt, the trucks not a hard core off roader, and when I do use it, its mostly, mud, snow and trails.

Any help would be great
 
i bought a set of axle shafts a while ago from a vendor at pirate4x4, turned out to be superior axle shaft's... theyve held good for the beating i put on the 12 bolt
 
I put Superior's in my '89. I wasn't planning to spend too much money into the 10 bolts, but I had to replace the shafts anyways. The bearings had spun and had galled the old shafts pretty badly.
 
I had superiors in my old 12bolt and never had a problem with them... I was able to twist the pinion yoke in half without breaking a shaft. The pinion on the 10bolt is larger, so with a detroit and chromoly shafts, I'd bet it would take a little more abuse than a 12 bolt (flame suit on!:weld:)

As far as front axles go (you didn't specify) I ordered both a set of superior's and warn's and ended up sending the superiors back. Things may have changed since then, but superior was advertising their front shafts as 4130 and warn as 4340 (which I understood to be a better alloy for axles) and the superiors still necked down on the stubs and the long side shaft (supposedly to equalize strength between all 4 shafts) where as the warns were thicker everywhere along the length of the shaft and even more so around the ears.

Both sets looked to be much more substantial than oem replacements and both are already machined to accept full circle clips on the u-joint caps. I did like whatever the coating was on the superiors, it seemed like it would be very durable, the warns were raw. If you can find a good price on the superiors I wouldn't avoid them, but having both of them in front of me at the same time and being nearly the same price, I chose the warns. Warn also has a lifetime warranty, but you still want to carry a spare set of front shafts if you decide to go bigger than 35"s.
 
My brother bought warns I believe (from 4wheelparts) for his dana 44 runs a very healthy 327 (sm465) 37s and a truetrac. He bought some good full circle clip u joints (cant remember which ones) and broke one rather quickly. Next bought the ctms and so far hasnt broken any joints or shafts. He did break the true track though but had the lifetime warranty so he got a new one supposedly updated from the one he had.

Rebil
 
to add: I have spicer 5-760x joints in the front shafts and never broke one (full circle snaprings) beating the snot out of it with 37"s... we'll see if they break before the hubs do with my 40"s:D, if so I'll probably be going with ox joints. If the hubs let go first, I'll replace them with the same instead of putting in drive flanges because it is a hell of a lot easier to change a hub trailside than a shaft/joint or ring/pinion!:waytogo:
 
I'm more concerned about putting chromoly up front, as I have broke 2 sets of axle shafts in one weekend, as far as a 12 bolt in the rear, its really not much stronger than the 10 I have in the rear.
 
I haven't checked for several years, but at the time I could not find any chromoly front shafts for a 30-spline 10-bolt.
 
well to be honest the shafts i snaped were 28's with a lockright locker, that also snapped all 4 sheer pins, so for the mean time i have put a set of 30 splines up front with an open carrier, they came out of the parts truck i have
so 28 or 30

i have been looking at yukons 4340's with a set of yukon 4340 superjoints they say the shafts are 50% stronger than stock, and a life time warrenty
 
6.2Blazer said:
I haven't checked for several years, but at the time I could not find any chromoly front shafts for a 30-spline 10-bolt.
Click to expand...

They are readily available from several sources now, we can get Yukon, Superior and Dutchman 30 spline 10 bolt front shafts.
 
Superior axle shafts- That's how I roll.
I have had no issues with mine. I have a Detroit, 28 spline 10 bolts on 35's.
 
So who actually lists prices for front axleshafts? I see lots of strength claims and various grades available, but what is wrong with saying how much it costs?
 
Superior or Yukon's Hardcore Line (previously Warn). I have Superior inners and Warn outers on my 10b w/CTM joints and that was the end of my axleshaft issues in my K5 with 37's.

I personally would be MORE worried about a rear shaft. You break a rear you MUST fix it to get home. A front isn't as critical as the rear especially with a semi-float rear. I would get a set of Superior rears, and then whoevers fronts.

I had troubles in the past with Yukon 10b front shafts but that problem is supposed to be resolved now by switching axle blank suppliers. A Yukon rep. has personally assured me the problems I had with there front shafts are now totally resolved. This issue was with there imported shafts not there "hardcore" line which was previously owned by Warn. I can tell you from experience around many different sets of chromo's for a 10b or D44 front that Superior or Warn have held up the best over time under heavy use. They also are more expensive.
 
Ok so are you guys going with superiors $300 or $450 dollar shafts, the cheaper one has a 10 year warrenty and the other has lifetime yet they are both 4340
 
I imagine that they $300 set is from imported blanks and the $450 set is domestic blanks. If I was going to spend the money to do a good set of rear axleshafts I would pay the extra and get the domestic blanks. If you are set on keeping the 10b's then the rear shafts are the most important shafts in the truck so get the best if you are going to do it.

My front inner shafts are Superiors Domestic line and have never given me an issue. I got them through this guy. He usually has very compeditive pricing. http://letzrolloffroad.com/ Give him a call and he can give you the scoop on what is what.
 
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