I’ve been wheeling for a long time, have had a lot of 4x4’s from a variety of manufacturers, work in the auto industry and have seen a bunch of broken differentials. I’m not anti Hummer and or pro Jeep in fact as I mentioned the Dana 30 (and Dana 35) are probably not up to any type of hard wheeling with larger tires even when upgraded.
You are correct defective gear's in a Dana 60 or what ever can cause a failure. From what I have read we are all guessing what caused the problem, at this point it‘s unknown why they broke.
As I said before the front differential in my opinion is rather small for extreme four wheeling in a 4900 lb vehicle with 33”+ tires and a 55:1+ crawl ratio. Which is why I am considering an H2 or H1. Not that they don’t break, they do.
Pulling a driveline and half shafts is no big deal but I would still rather replace a tie rod. BTW I was not referring to replacing a tie rod on an SAS H3 or saying I was going to do one. I’m sure some off road shops will be or already are working on that. I was saying that I am thinking of getting an H2 or H1 and that I would rather bent a tie rod than blow a diff.
As for the type of terrain they were on when the diff’s broke I’ve been to Moab, in fact my first 4x4 trip with the H3 was to Moab June of 05. I’ve not been on the Golden Stairs but have heard about the difficulty and am sure you could break just about anything on that obstacle. I’m certain the H3 can go off road a bunch and never have a problem. I’ve been on a bunch of trails in AZ, CO, UT and ID with out incident. I'm not anti H3, I love mine!
|