Originally Posted by
Thoner7
Why dont more people use the stock axles? They are D60 and D70 no? Why buy a new D60?
The D60 in the front of an M715 is roughly of the same strength axle-wise as a D44. It has smaller shafts than a common D60 used in the open knuckle version. It also has the oddball wheel bolt pattern, which can be a hassle unless you don't mind running stock rims with tubes, or making/modifying/or having custom made rims for them. Then there are the drum brakes. The stock axles do work OK for what they are intended for and were pretty much bulletproof in a stock truck with low horsepower like the original Tornado. Larger tires and more horsepower will show some of their shortcomings a little faster. The D70 in the rear has a weird offset for the ring gear and that makes gears and lockers a little more difficult to find and a lot more expensive.
The stock transfer cases are NP200's and are as strong as an NP205 and are identical in many respects. The NP200 does make noise with the stock right rear output and will have heat problems with stock gearing. The noise can be overcome by relocating the output to the center and the heat issue will fairly well go away with more streetable gears.
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