Ultimate Avalanche - Part 1

The cast-nodular Pro-60 knuckles on our Dynatrac 60 will be of the ball-joint variety, but with design that surpasses the strength of an OEM knuckle. We'll explore the merits of the ball joint versus the kingpin in the future, but we felt that the ball-joint style would work very well on our Avalanche. One thing that we like about the ball-joint design is that the tube forks have a larger spread to help deal with the leverage of large wheels, and we have heard of very few problems with wheel shimmy on ball-joint 60 axles with big tires. Another aspect is that all the parts we are showing can be purchased alone or as a completed axle.

Though most new Dana 60 axles use a unit bearing, we find this to be a detriment to anything other than a full competition vehicle. The unit bearings are reportedly less reliable, cause more damage when failure occurs, and are much more expensive to replace. Dynatrac uses the more economical fixed-spindle design with serviceable bearings like in previous years of OEM production.

We let Dynatrac convince us to keep the antilock braking system, and that is seen with the wires on the front axle spindle. Removing a safety feature didn't seem like a good idea to us or our lawyers. We are interested in seeing how it is affected, if at all, by the larger tires. It just might come in handy during the cross-country trek to the beginning of the Adventure.

Once the rotors were on, it was time to bolt on a set of Warn Premium Hubs. Though designed for a Dana 70, this set works great with the 35-spline stub shafts on our front axle. That was followed by the installation of the dual piston brakes, and it was time to hit the road back to ORU.

It was quite a sight to see many thousands of dollars worth of beautiful axles getting slid into the back of our free rust-bucket farm truck. Be sure to tune in next month when we install our axles under our truck, and we reveal the secret of our rear Dynatrac 60.