The strength of the D35?

[4.3LXJ]

There are times you can get away with a locked 35. If I was still living in Northwest Oregon and just mudding and sand dunning, I would not worry too much about it. But in other areas such as where I am at now, having a locker in an axle can put it to the test in a hurry and surpass its capacity. It is in an area like this with lots of big rocks that I would not lock one, and I haven't on my own nor will I go above 31" tires until I change out my axles.

[Chico XJ Dude]

Thanks everybody. I really appreciate the advice... (well, save the post from "cantab27." I realize the link 'speaks for it's self' in some peoples eyes, but the reality is you can take any axle and compile a load of photos of it broken. How do you think media slants reality? To be fair it was amusing, however) Anyway, I did my first big wheelin' (as in not mud, hills, ponds or to the hunting blind, etc.) yesterday. I was in an area we call "the high lakes." I was amazed at what the rig was capable of. I underestimated it the whole time. I had my buddy spot me in the tough spots and after a while he got annoyed and refused to do it anymore stating that every time "you had a butt load of clearance." I figured out quickly that the best thing you can do while picking a line is attempt to run over everything! This seems rough, but it keeps the rig high. Now I know this doesn't sound counter-intuitive to most because they have done this before, but it did to me at first. I don't know anybody who wheels, so I have no mentor. It's trial and error. Anyway, I didn't scrape a darn thing even once. I'm kinda happy considering a book of northern California wheelin' trails calls this one "advanced" as apposed to "mild" or "moderate." To end this long story (I apologize) I found two glaring flaws with my rig: 3.07 gears are far to high for crawling on rocks (my clutch hates me now) and a locker is much needed (I found that running starts solve the lack of locker problem, but pose a handful more.) To conclude (very sorry for the story) I am going to prioritize locking the rear, but before that I'm getting at least an 8.8. Your comments and advice have all been helpful and it all came into perspective when I started climbing bigass rocks! Many thanks.
Please don't be shy to tell this tenderfoot anymore advice or wisdom. After all, I will have to be able to advise other tenderfoots some time in the future!

[pingpong]

I never said you couldnt wheel it with a d35. I had one in my MJ for a yr or so when I started wheeling. Hell I even wheeled Tellico(when it was open) ON 33's and drove it there and back.. but after that trip I got rid of the d35

[4.3LXJ]

Glad you had a good time at High Lakes. Yes these rigs are very capable. When you get your 8.8, a word of advice if I can. Get one with the 4.10 gear ratio from an Explorer with the towing package. Then find a D30 with a 2.5 or 2.8. It will have 4.10s also. Then you will be right in the ball park with the gears for cheap.

[nismo5]

theres a ton of exploders with discs at oroville pick n pull last time i was there not sure about the gears though and theres a d30 with 410's at chico pick n pull right now problem solved shoulda been on here a while back i had a spare d44 layin around i sold on chico craigslist we need to have a meet again sometime when we can all make it from the chico/paradise area maybe a run to the highlakes and camp out or something

[Chico XJ Dude]

High Lakes trip sounds like fun now that I'm not afraid of anything that isn't mud. Thanks for the info on the locations of the goods. Unfortunately, I'm busy trying not to embarrass myself with a winch bumper I'm working on. But, that may be mostly done by Sunday night. Then axles! But, I actually don't know where to start on those. If it doesn't simply take a set of sockets and a can of Knock'er Loose then I will need to do quite a bit of research.