Thought exercise (1 Viewer)

[archie73]

I think you should go ride with someone in a buggy first. Get a feel for what you like and don't. Narrow fits in between trees but it falls over easier. Tall goes through mud and deep snow but it increases pucker factor. Long wheelbases climb ledges, short ones are more manueverable. No body panels or windows sucks in a hail or snow storm.

How do these fit into your goals?

A 3500 lb rig with 195 HP is a good start. Maybe a truggy style 4runner?

3.4, dual cases, gm metric 9.5 semi float rear and a good Dana 44 front on 37's will go a lot of places. You could use Toy axles too. 38's are doable but you are playing dangerously without top shelf axle shafts.

I’m thinking along the lines of a truggy. Bobbed behind rear doors.
When it comes to swapping axles, I fall back to the argument of getting 60’s. My only thought is why sink money into 3/4 ton axles, when 1 tons are available. I get that they are heavier and bulkier, but they’re stronger.
The unfortunate part is this is all budget oriented. That means I’d be in the process of buying things and storing them until I had enough to start.

 

[WILLD420]

You can wheel the hell out of a set of lesser axles to get the combo dialed in, then bolt the tons under it. As long as the axle tubes are smaller or same size, the only changes are putting your suspension brackets onto the bigger axles when you get them built. This lets you start the mock-up, then experiment with your chassis and upper drivetrain options first. Doesn’t make sense to have a set of tons laying under your chassis just to hold it off the floor while you are dialing down to your final combo.

It’s a lot easier to justify the coin on tons when you have a working rig. As cheap as rears are, you just need an 8 lug front, you can skip the lighter rear axle as they are the same price, initially and put the ton under the back.

Whatever you do, don’t hold off starting because you don’t have the perfect axles.