is it a good plan

hi im new on this page i own a cj5 74 36 inch swamper sx with stock dana 30 and 44 the motor is a 360 from a 86 wagoneer and it s back up by a 77 t18 {6.32}, i will soon change to dual dana 44 from old wagonneer. i already have 4.88 gears, a detroit locker for the back 1 and a eaton electric locker for the front. the 2 dana 44 i think to use are 60 inch wide bolting plate to bolting plate, and are offset on helper side . the thing is that i thougth to use a dana 20 case with the gears of a dana18 but many poeples told me it would break so what i think is to buy a advance adaptor atlas tcase. i don t want to do the job back in 1 year so is it worth it?

 

You have alot of engine, alot of tire, and axles capable of a ton of abuse.

Atlas offers xfer cases in a variety of ratios. Go atlas for 2 reasons:

#1 Don't leave a weak link.
#2 The D20 leaves you somewhat limited as to a uber-low creep gear.

Your rig sounds pretty capable. No sense in negating your engine/axle/tire combo with a blown up xfer case on the trail. Now go sell a kidney and get the atlas!

 

This is a quandry that I am currently in. Its no 360, but its a healthy straight six with a T18, D20 and 44s. I have yet to harm it, but I drive fairly easy. I just really want lower low range without sacrificing highway cruising. An atlas would be perfect, but its added drivetrain length not to mention the cost ($2000+$500 adapter) kinda kill it for me. Not sure what to do. They make lower D20 gears and heavy duty rear outputs, but those just might wind up being bandaids on a bad idea. Maybe not, who knows. :?

If ya got the money go atlas.

Kevo

 

thank s guys since im in canada the price is even higher but i have the money to affort that atlas but then which 1 would u choose there s an 3 for 1, 4 to 1, 4,3 to 1, or 5 to 1 i was thinking about4,3 to 1 would be good for me. i have build my baby for many years so i want the best. i did not steal a bank but i work hard and don t take much vacancy but for my wife and wheeling. lol
it seem to be nice poeple here , big al

 

The Tera gears (or for way cheaper the D20/18 low conversion) is not a bad way to go. I still have the stock 3:73 gears so I can hit 55 with this conversion at reasonable RPM (going any faster in my /5 would scare me a bit too much) and get close to 70:1 crawl ratio. A friend gave me the Bronco gear after a swap, and I picked up the 18 gears for under $50.00. My sturdy D20 will be a bit "extra" low next summer for way cheap. Check out this 4x4 wire report.

I also have driveline length issues to deal with (360/T18/D20) on my /5. This fix maximizes my rear driveshaft length (by keeping it unchanged).

I'm always interested in clever ways to max out your off road performance while still maintaining street-ability. However, you ARE going to make concessions, and if you do significantly improve off road performance, the on road manners WILL suffer.

For the original poster, with those meats and gearing, an Atlas might be the way to go, but tell me what kind of drive shafts do you have!?! I put in a rear CV and with my setup (3" of lift to clear 32" rubber), I'm already at max angle on the joint!

Good luck,

 

i have 3 inch lift with 2 inchs body lift and some fender triming + i backed the rear diff 2 inchs and forward the front diff 2 inchs i also gave about 15 degree on the back diff.

the thing about that jeep i do only local road wheeling when i go far away i put it on my trailler, the max speed i go is 40-45 mph, faster would scare me a little too much. im scared about a casing of dana 20 which is at least 20 years old i plan on running 37 inch tire in future so it could be a weak point. i also plan on special axles (superior) and bigger driveshafts so i want heavy duty.
thank you al

 

the Ratio of your Transfer Case will depend on what you want your final crawl ratio to be. Low gear in the Tranny

6.32 x the Gearing of the T-case x gearing in the Diffs mine right now in my jeep

which is a FOrd T-18 with Stock Dana 20 2.08 IIRC and 3.73 rear my final Crawl is 49:1 which aint half Bad since i am running 32 inch tires at the present. I would like to go to a 3.8 atlas in the future but that would be way in the future