Full Float Axles

[ayoslickxd]

Hey BigJeff. I know this is an old thread, but I actually imported one of JMacx's Ford 9" rear axle for my DS Ram 1500 last year. I wanted to gain a little peace of mind while towing my travel trailer as it related to payload. I also upgraded the factory rear airbags, wheels and tires to match the capacity of the rear axle. It's been nearly a year and no issues. I have a 2016 Ecodiesel and it's my daily. My travel trailer is only 7300 lbs max and well within my Ecodiesel's towing capacity, but the tongue weight ate up all my payload. Installation was truly plug and play mechanically with the axle. I did end up installing an air compressor for the ARB air locker.



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How much was this if you dont mind me asking… im also interested in something like this… since my truck is mainly just a off road rig now

I need to fix my front differential issue as i snapped the whole housing …. In search of a front differential upgrade what are my options

 

[EcoDSL220]

How much was this if you dont mind me asking… im also interested in something like this… since my truck is mainly just a off road rig now

I need to fix my front differential issue as i snapped the whole housing …. In search of a front differential upgrade what are my options

It was about 14k. 10k for the axle and 4k for importing. Seems like the OP was looking for folks who might be interested in buying together to potentially get a better price on importing costs.

 

[ayoslickxd]

It was about 14k. 10k for the axle and 4k for importing. Seems like the OP was looking for folks who might be interested in buying together to potentially get a better price on importing costs

how does it ride, do you have more pics ?what year is your truck?

 

[EcoDSL220]

how does it ride, do you have more pics ?what year is your truck?

It rides great. I have a 2016 Ecodiesel Longhorn.

 

[ayoslickxd]

I wonder would this work for a 21 dt model

 

[EcoDSL220]

JMACX indeed makes a rear axle for the DT. Watch their videos on youtube. They go into detail on the wheel bearing differences.

Ram DS and DT Upgraded Diff Housings | JMACX

JMACX offers 3 options to upgrade your factory diff. Modify your diff or replace with the JMACX Complete Ford 9″ housing offering the ultimate RAM diff solution. Note when fitting the ram wheels please note that they will need to be bored to the OEM factory size for the wheels to fit. For...

jmacx.com.au

 

[boogielander]

I may be missing your point. Is this a suggestion to change to a 2500/3500? If my assumption is correct, I don’t like the way solid front axle trucks feel on the road. I prefer the 1500 for comfort on long roadtrips.

IFS is better for go fast off roading. I already have Jeep Wranglers for the slow technical off road (Rock Crawling).

The Ram Power Wagon was in the running when I was considering my purchase. The 1500 won out. Both options have compromises. I just had a path to fix the compromises with the Ram 1500.

not entirely true regarding IFS being better for go fast off roading. generally speaking it is true, but for our trucks...
it IS true for 4th gen and 5th gen classic, because of long travel availability.
it is NOT true for the DT 5th gen, because of no long travel availability unless full custom (which is understandable from manufacturers' point of view... 99% of the community here and in the groups are all about looks and getting it done cheaply. not enough demand for the legit stuff to do R&D and the initial tooling)

Now, if it's go fast you want to do while being able to tow, there are two companies that offer stuff that makes 2500 and 3500 capable of eating raptors for breakfast, lunch, and dinner: Carli and Thuren, with their top of the line stuff.
If anyone's interested in partaking in that kind of activities, hitting jumps and eating whoops, look up Dodge Truck Extreme (both the forum and FB group). Bunch of knowledgeable people there regarding suspension and taking HD trucks to hit unimaginable speed across rough terrains, and quite a lot of them are involved in desert racing as well. When I go with them, I can only following the back of the slow group so I don't slow them down.

 

[HemiDude]

Hey BigJeff. I know this is an old thread, but I actually imported one of JMacx's Ford 9" rear axle for my DS Ram 1500 last year. I wanted to gain a little peace of mind while towing my travel trailer as it related to payload. I also upgraded the factory rear airbags, wheels and tires to match the capacity of the rear axle. It's been nearly a year and no issues. I have a 2016 Ecodiesel and it's my daily. My travel trailer is only 7300 lbs max and well within my Ecodiesel's towing capacity, but the tongue weight ate up all my payload. Installation was truly plug and play mechanically with the axle. I did end up installing an air compressor for the ARB air locker.



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Glad to see someone who did this. I don't think @bigjeffg has been on here in a while, and I don't recall seeing anything from him on the build. How is the ride compared to what you hoped for?

 

[EcoDSL220]

Glad to see someone who did this. I don't think @bigjeffg has been on here in a while, and I don't recall seeing anything from him on the build. How is the ride compared to what you hoped for?

Ride is great. As people mentioned, it is unsprung weight. What did take a little hit was the fuel economy but not by much. I still achieve up to 17 mpg on flat roads while towing my TT.

What I truly gained with the axle is additional peace of mind. Pulling a travel trailer hundreds of miles from home can be unnerving with the thought of something going wrong. With the axle upgrade I now don't stress about the health of the wheel bearings. Another benefit is the ease of maintenance on the wheel bearings. I changed the bearings on the factory axle once and pulling the bearings out was a pain even using the factory recommended tools. On the new axle, removing the bearings for either repacking or replacing is really easy.

 

[ayoslickxd]

not entirely true regarding IFS being better for go fast off roading. generally speaking it is true, but for our trucks...
it IS true for 4th gen and 5th gen classic, because of long travel availability.
it is NOT true for the DT 5th gen, because of no long travel availability unless full custom (which is understandable from manufacturers' point of view... 99% of the community here and in the groups are all about looks and getting it done cheaply. not enough demand for the legit stuff to do R&D and the initial tooling)

Now, if it's go fast you want to do while being able to tow, there are two companies that offer stuff that makes 2500 and 3500 capable of eating raptors for breakfast, lunch, and dinner: Carli and Thuren, with their top of the line stuff.
If anyone's interested in partaking in that kind of activities, hitting jumps and eating whoops, look up Dodge Truck Extreme (both the forum and FB group). Bunch of knowledgeable people there regarding suspension and taking HD trucks to hit unimaginable speed across rough terrains, and quite a lot of them are involved in desert racing as well. When I go with them, I can only following the back of the slow group so I don't slow them down.

Lol that would be mee too i just like to drive slow and site seee …. But i broke my front diff so looking at options to beef it up

 

[boogielander]

Lol that would be mee too i just like to drive slow and site seee …. But i broke my front diff so looking at options to beef it up

upgrade lol
dana60 is like $10k per lol or wheel smarter and know when to say "nope"
how did you break yours?

 

[ayoslickxd]

upgrade lol
dana60 is like $10k per lol or wheel smarter and know when to say "nope"
how did you break yours?

Cant really say wheel smarter when it broke in reverse moving a light trailer… and many videos show the same spot breaking …. I also dont rock crawl or do anything crazy mainly overland in the snow

 

[boogielander]

Cant really say wheel smarter when it broke in reverse moving a light trailer… and many videos show the same spot breaking …. I also dont rock crawl or do anything crazy mainly overland in the snow

that is crazy thing just broke going in reverse moving a light trailer... i can't even imagine it.

 

[ayoslickxd]

that is crazy thing just broke going in reverse moving a light trailer... i can't even imagine it.

Yeap tell me about it all the abuse. Of off roading nothing but reversejng with a open trailer with a 1971 el camino into my driveway it snapped ….. only reason i put it in 4wd was the snow

 

[boogielander]

Yeap tell me about it all the abuse. Of off roading nothing but reversejng with a open trailer with a 1971 el camino into my driveway it snapped ….. only reason i put it in 4wd was the snow

dang man. i feel sorry for you.
f it, power wagon time!

 

[Nukldragger]

not entirely true regarding IFS being better for go fast off roading. generally speaking it is true, but for our trucks...
it IS true for 4th gen and 5th gen classic, because of long travel availability.
it is NOT true for the DT 5th gen, because of no long travel availability unless full custom (which is understandable from manufacturers' point of view... 99% of the community here and in the groups are all about looks and getting it done cheaply. not enough demand for the legit stuff to do R&D and the initial tooling)

Now, if it's go fast you want to do while being able to tow, there are two companies that offer stuff that makes 2500 and 3500 capable of eating raptors for breakfast, lunch, and dinner: Carli and Thuren, with their top of the line stuff.
If anyone's interested in partaking in that kind of activities, hitting jumps and eating whoops, look up Dodge Truck Extreme (both the forum and FB group). Bunch of knowledgeable people there regarding suspension and taking HD trucks to hit unimaginable speed across rough terrains, and quite a lot of them are involved in desert racing as well. When I go with them, I can only following the back of the slow group so I don't slow them down.

I was told Dirt King is working on a LT system for the 5th gens. Wish Don would get off the dime and make a LT system.

 

[boogielander]

I was told Dirt King is working on a LT system for the 5th gens. Wish Don would get off the dime and make a LT system.

lol they've been saying that since 2019
in 2019 - "next year"
in 2020 - "next year"
in 2021 - "next year"
in 2022 - "next year"
in 2023 - "next year"
in 2024 - "next year"
in 2025 - "next year"
in 2026 - "next year"
.
.
.
in 3019 - "next year"... probably.

Don is focused on the HD applications. it took him sooooo long to get the UCA, rear springs, and track bars out.

im gonna be real honest here: the 1500 market is just not there for manufactures to invest in. let's be honest, looking at the forum and the facebook groups, there's only a handful of people that actually get their trucks off pavement to do some serious stuff. most people are more preoccupied with wasting money on trash products that let their trucks stroke their questionable taste or trying to make their trucks go fast and compete with sports cars or buying Chinese knockoffs and replicas and be proud about that because they saved some coins and helped to arm CCP instead of supporting their fellow Americans with originality research and development than actually asking and buying legit stuff.
i mean, in 2022 when i bought the truck i thought i could help facilitate LT systems to happen, but 2 years later I gave up. I guided a few people to the correct path, but that's just less than 1% of the people. No established big name company is gonna invest the time, tooling, and resources for less than 1% of the overall community. So what I ended up determining is to admit defeat, save my coins from the LT system (yes, i know someone going to make them soon), and get myself a Power Wagon that has everything developed already.
At least with the HD platform, despite the presence of turds like big lift big wheel thin tire crowd, there are more people who actually do serious wheeling and high speed desert runs to guarantee aftermarket support.
end of rant.