We've had to engineer a lot of things out in the woods. I call it my "No rig left behind" policy. No way am I leaving my or anyone else's vehicle out there to get stripped or burned. We'll get it out of the woods if we have to drag it out on skids on all 4 corners.

ToddW - Yeah, I've kicked around the idea of the 14-bolt, the Dana 60 was free and is in really good shape. I have a friend who runs one and has beat it like it owes him money with no problems. Locker won't be an issue as I'll just weld it up, but a lot beefier welding than the D35 is right now.

IronRaven - A spring isn't very bad. Coil spring or leaf spring? In one weekend (the same weekend listed above) I managed to fry my winch (being repaired as we speak), snap that axle shaft, my starter died (replaced already), and kill my throwout bearing (working on getting a new one in). I knew very little about automotive repair until I bought this Jeep new in 2005. I bought the Haynes manual for it and have repaired a lot since then.

It's amazing how much you can learn to do on your own.