Should I go with a dana 60 ???

I got my hands on a Dana 60 high pinion out of a ford. I am on the fence as to whether I should swap it in for my IFS. I was wondering what the pros and cons are of keeping my IFS. I am planning on running the track a bit more this year. To date I have never run in 4WD I'm worried about bending stuff w/my IFS. Any input would be greatly appreciated
 

duratothemax

<--- slippery roads
Aug 28, 2006
7,139
10
0
Wyoming
send a PM to heepjeep. He put a linked/coil-sprung 60 under the front of his crew cab long bed and I think he is pretty happy with it.

Personally I would never want to get rid of the IFS, because I dont have any desire to lift my truck or run huge tires. After a couple hundred dollars of parts/work, the IFS can be made to reliably withstand very high HP pulling/drag racing. If you arent looking to lift your truck and beat the hell out of it offroad, I think a braced/built IFS setup would suit you better, and be much cheaper/easier.

JMO, its all personal preference/

Ben
 

D-MAX Mafia

Hood down, smoke up!
Nov 4, 2009
1,112
13
38
Phoenix
I was also under the impression that the factory IFS was junk and it needed to be swapped out with a Dana 60. So I bought one, built it up and then realised I still needed to drop another 3-4 grand into it to make it right.

Long story short I ended up lifting my truck, building what I needed to fix the factory weak points and havent looked back. I launch at 15-18psi in 4Hi on 35" tires with high offset wheels. No problems yet...

A good friend of mine has a solid axle under his Dmax and after riding in it, you couldnt give me that POS! Its all over the road, something is always breaking and it rides like a tank. I'll keep my weak IFS over a solid axle.
 

Chevy1925

don't know sh!t about IFS
Staff member
Oct 21, 2009
21,696
5,854
113
Phoenix Az
send a PM to heepjeep. He put a linked/coil-sprung 60 under the front of his crew cab long bed and I think he is pretty happy with it.

Personally I would never want to get rid of the IFS, because I dont have any desire to lift my truck or run huge tires. After a couple hundred dollars of parts/work, the IFS can be made to reliably withstand very high HP pulling/drag racing. If you arent looking to lift your truck and beat the hell out of it offroad, I think a braced/built IFS setup would suit you better, and be much cheaper/easier.

JMO, its all personal preference/

Ben

x2. even lifted you can make them last and be jsut as strong/if not stronger than a D60. You jsut need to buy the right parts for your needs and she will be fine. A D60 is cool and makes you one of the "straight axle club" but thats about all your getting out of it

What i fine funny is everyone talk about how the wheel bearings are junk, our steering is junk, the cv's break, and it rides like crap. Well ive gotten 150k out of my wheel bearings before i replaced them, i find that better than having to repack bearings every 5-10k (im lazy). Our steering can easily be upgraded to something that is stronger than most people will ever need. I still have yet to break a CV cranked or flattened out with 165k and 550-600 hp (i know the high HP guys may break them but even a stock d60 will break outer stub shaft in big HP). And a bad ride is attributed to cranking the bars too much or poor shock choice, if you put a 2-3" spacer under a ford or dodge, it will ride like crap too.