I've got 60.5" ECGS Dana 60 rear, Dana 44 front with discs all around. I could not be happier with the results. Mine is an '81, so a narrow track originally and it felt top-heavy with regular issues with rubbing.
I've now got the same width as a YJ and it handles better and tracks like a new car. The tyres now are in the same ruts that all the other cars make in the road so it doesn't skip from rut to rut like it used to. No issues at all with rubbing any longer and it corners like a newer Jeep does.
I've got 33s, the AX15 with 3.73 gears, Eaton E lockers and a clocked Dana 300/ twin stick like you and it's shaping up to be the perfect combo. 55 mph in 5th gear is about 1600 rpm and very comfy.
Best mod I've ever done and spacers scare me. The folks at ECGS could not be any more pleasant to deal with either. Great group of guys and very helpful. I'd recommend both wider axles and ECGS to anyone.
I swapped masters to a disc/ disc from an early 60s 'vette. I thought I'd need a new proportioning valve but it works great as is. Rear disc has hand brake on an internal drum so it really was bolt in.Pretty much a dream setup here....Did you swap masters to a disc/disc master? What about prop valve?
I would want to be very stock suspension height and geometry if I was towing with a scrambler...everything about lifted jeeps (soft springs; big tires) is really bad for towing... My hitch only gets used for recovery.
I tow with the Trailhotness
What is Trailhotness?
I'm in the beginning stages of a swap. Picked up a 98 Isuzu D44 with 4.10 gears and a front Cherokee Chief D44. I'm planning on outboarding the springs and changing the carrier to 4.10. Try to find an Isuzu diff pre-98 so you don't have as much cutting to do. I went through many sawzall blades and cutting wheels.
The Isuzu rear I got was from a 98, which meant it had coil springs. No biggie, spring perches are cheap and would have had to be relocated anyway.Does the Isuzu rear have same spring pad locations? Same WMS width?
What wheels do you have? Do you happen to remember the backspacing and rim width? I've always liked the stance of your Jeep.I run a 78 Cherokee NT front 44 outboarded and a HD20 Grand Waggy rear. I now have 1" wheel spacers but I'm not wider for them, it's just to run the wheels I wanted to deal with backspacing. If I knew then what I know now I wouldn't have outboarded and would have narrowed a WT 44 but that was beyond my ability back at the time and I didn't have a local shop I would have gone to for the narrowing/rewelding. Other than that, I absolutely love this combo for width and it's done everything I've ever needed. I really think it's the "perfect" CJ width for anything 37" or lower (I'm on 35s with 5.5" or so of lift)
I also did a set of the Xenon wide flares that look totally stock other than the width, so often times people won't realize that I'm wider than a stock WT Scrambler.
The HD20 addresses all of the lightweight AMC 20 issues and gets you larger drums (which work just fine, especially when you go up an inch in size). Aside from running mud all the time and/or just hating to deal with drums, I don't get all the disc brake swap stuff beyond it being "cool". Especially when you start having to swap master cylinders to deal with it. Maybe if you were starting from scratch, but if you have a working setup with disc/drum, there's no issue keeping it. This is one of the better braking vehicles we own. Even with the World Cab, roof rack, armor, cage, etc. I've never felt like I needed any more braking on this.
I've towed my camp trailer thousands of miles around the country, I don't have a weight on it yet, but it can't be all that much, so take it for what it's worth. I pay close attention to how I load it to get a decent tongue weight without it being too much and my Postal tows it just fine with no issues. I am a big believer in too much preparation when towing and put trailer brakes on my trailer with a controller in the Postal.
If you're going back to your boat towing, that's another animal altogether and I'd be very leery (just because it's the way I am with towing in general).
Shot camping outside of Park City on the way to SEMA 2018. You can see the wider Xenon flares that make up the difference with the axle width and a very typical amount of tire stick-out that fools folks into thinking they're stock axles.
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What wheels do you have? Do you happen to remember the backspacing and rim width? I've always liked the stance of your Jeep.
The Isuzu rear I got was from a 98, which meant it had coil springs. No biggie, spring perches are cheap and would have had to be relocated anyway.