D1 300tdi Axle Upgrade Advice

Hi guys,

I've got a 94 D1 300TDI, recently fitted some 35-12.5-R16 Maxxis Creepy Crawlers to the truck and noticed after a few off road days the standard disco axles just aren't coping.

Given the truck only gets used for off road days I think now may be a good time to look at axle upgrade options. I've done a bit of digging online and it appears the standard rover axles only really take upto 33's.

I've read that the main axle swaps in D1's are either Sailsbury rears from a 130 or Toyota Land Cruiser axles (but I've also read that you need to find a particular version of the axles, and most years are as weak as the rovers) - Does anyone have any experience with these swaps? Are they relatively straightforward or are we talking a lot of custom fabrication?

I've also seen a few people in the states running Dana 44 fronts 60 rears - I gather this would be the dream set up in terms of bulletproof axles. But from what I can see there's a hell of a lot of work needed to make this work on a D1. Has anyone ever ventured in this direction before and have any advice?

Is there any other axles I've missed which may be a good replacement?

The long term plan is to run some 37" Treps so although I accept I may be able to put a bit of money into the rover axles to get them to take the 35's reliably - I'm going to really struggle with 37's!

Thanks in advance!

Pinzgauer or Unimog?

Best upgrade is probably drive more sympathetically.

What sort of off roading are you doing to actually need 35's, let alone 37's?

What bits of the axles are you actually breaking?

And what sort of money are you looking to spend to upgrade?

There are lots and lots of choices. None cheap and all will required a degree of work, some a lot more than others.

Ashcroft and others offer lots of upgrade bits for the rover axles.

People have retro fitted Toyota internals to Rover cases.

A Salisbury is essentially a Dana 60 diff centre

You are hugely unlikely to find Dana 44 or 60 axles lying about in the UK. A wrecked JK Wrangler Rubicon might be your best bet for some D44's. Many have fitted Unimog axles too.

But remember LR's use an offset diff, many other axles have the diff in the middle. So may require some creative thinking to get it all to work.

I'd suggest you are looking at £2500 - £5000 per axle min. But could probably quite easily run to £10k each end.