Yukon Gear DuraGrip Differential for Dana 44; 30-Spline 3.73 and Down Gear Ratio (03-06 Jeep Wrangler TJ Rubicon; 07-18 Jeep Wrangler JK)

Video Review & Installation

This Yukon Gear Dura Grip Differential is for those of you that have a Dana 44 axle with a 30 spline count axle shaft, that's gonna be those of you with an '03 to '06 TJ Rubicon or an '07 to '18 JK and has a 3.73 gear or down and once a positraction or a limited slip differential. This is going to be a fairly involved three out of three wrench installation. You are gonna have to tear the differential part and put it all back together which can require some specialty tools to get done right, so most of you are going to leave this to a shop to help you get it installed.Now there are going to be quite a few different traction adders that you can put in your Jeep. A limited slip or a posi is one of them, and this is going to have really good road manners, it's not really going to affect the way the vehicle drives at all, it's not going to affect your tire wear, you're not going to have a lot of noise or clunking or any of that stuff out of this differential. However, if you're looking for something that's going to give you the maximum amount of traction in an off-road scenario I would probably recommend looking at a locker that is going to give you truly full traction on both sides of the axle. You can either get an automatic locker or one of those that you can turn on or off in a variety of different ways, whether it be air, electronic or mechanical linkage attached to the differential, whatever that is. Those lockers are going to be even more effective, again, giving you 100% traction, 50/50 split, both tires moving at exactly the same speed all the time. This is going to help with that as torque is applied to the differential, it is going to help to spin both the tires a little bit more evenly but it's not going to be as effective at adding traction as a locker is going to be.Now, the downside to some of those lockers is that they can be significantly more expensive, and as we mentioned before, if you have an automatic locker it can negatively affect your tire wear, give you a little bit of a weird feel when you're driving on some roads in some different situations and they can also be a little bit noisy as they engage and disengage automatically. Of course, if you're getting one of those lockers that is selectable, you don't have to worry about it being noisy, disengaging and engaging because you flick a switch or pull a lever to turn it on and off.Now as far as traction adder goes, the brand and the build quality and the material quality is going to be very, very important. These go through a ton of stress, so you want to make sure you're getting something that is gonna hold up really well for you and that's why I do like looking at a brand like Yukon Gear. They've been in the gear game for a long time, they make a high-quality product and they're gonna build something that is going to last for you. Now being that this is a limited slip or a positraction, a posi-differential [SP], this can be rebuilt, this is going to need some servicing over time as things do wear out in there. There's a clutch mechanism, so as with any clutch, if you think about your clutch in your transmission, eventually that is going to wear out. This is going to be that same situation so this can require a little bit of servicing but overall gonna be very well built and if you take care of it, it's going to take care of you.Now because this is going to be a high-quality option from a reputable company, this is going to run you right around $515 which is going to be a big investment in your Jeep. But when you consider this compared to a locker whether it be automatic or one of those selectable ones, this is still going to be a little bit less expensive. And for the most part that's just because it doesn't add quite the same functionality that a locker would. But overall, I think that this is going to be a pretty good deal for the quality that you're going to get out of this thing.Now I mentioned before, this is a three out of three wrenches for the installation, it is going to be pretty involved. Like I said, you're taking the whole differential apart so you are going to be resetting up all the measurements in your differential, your preload, your backlash, all of those things are going to be reset when installing something like this. And in order to do that you are going to need some specialty tools and some specialty knowledge to get the differential set up again properly. So as I said, a lot of you are going to take this to a shop and have them install it for you and there's nothing wrong with that.So if you are looking to add a little bit of additional traction to your Jeep for not only off-road but also on-road use, but you don't want the clunk and the additional tire wear of an automatic locker, I would recommend taking a look at a posi or a limited slip differential, and this one from Yukon Gear is going to be a great choice for you and you can find it right here at extremeterrain.com.