You can put the one ton axle in your half ton truck, but you will need 16" or 16.5" 8-lug (8x6.5" lug pattern) wheels and tires for the rear axle and you'll still have to use your 15" 5-lug wheels and tires on the front. Also the driveshafts likely have different size u-joint yokes on the axle end. One tons use 1350 series yokes and half tons usually use 1310 series so your rear shaft would need to be rebuilt with the new yoke. I just paid ~$300 to have my rear shaft rebuilt (re-tubed).

It's not all bad news though, frame widths (and thus spring pads and shock mounts) will be the same as long as the axle comes from a pickup and not a chassis-cab. You may need heavier springs and stiffer shocks to control the heavier axle, and make use of some of it's higher weight capacity.

The one-ton axle is do-able, but I don't know that you will be saving all that much money and personally I wouldn't want to hassle with having 2 different size/lug pattern tires and wheels on my truck.

With 33" tires, you will likely be disappointed in the lack of power with a 3.55 ratio.

A better plan, in my opinion, would be to look for an 8.8" axle from a '92-'96 half ton pickup or Bronco with a factory 4.10 limited slip (if you can find one...). It will have the 5x5.5" lug pattern so you can use your current wheels, and the rear brake wheel cylinder size will be correct for your half ton master cylinder. An axle in those years should also have the speed sensor for the ABS brakes and electronic speedo. You may be able to go a couple years earlier on the axle, depending on what years they started using rear ABS and electronic speedos. My '92 has both.

I have heard that Ford used 2 different style pinion yokes on the 8.8" axle in different years, or maybe in 4wd versus 2wd trucks. I don't know how true that is or how much it matters as long as you get a complete axle, but you may want to check into what years had what and if you can use your driveshaft with the other style pinon yoke, if that is the true.

Keep in mind that if you do find an axle, you're only saving significant money buying the axle versus doing the gear change if you get the axle for a good price and the axle you buy is in good condition and doesn't need any rebuilding...

Sometimes it's tough to do mods to your trucks major components and get away cheap...

Is your truck 2wd?

 

I installed my Auburn ECTED myself...for a selectable, the locker is cheap, only 530 bucks. It's a really nice selectable locker, it's limited slip when off..and fully locked (spooled) when on.

The ARB was installed by a local shop. I would have done it myself, but I got the install done for free. It was about 600 bucks for the install. Any mechanically enclined person can work on axles, it's not very difficult. Look on Ebay for some great deals once you decide what unit to go with. Try the search function of this website, you can pop up a lot of locker/limited slip info..its a hot topic. The front axle is more difficult than the rear. The rear is a piece of cake, took me like 2-3 hours.

 

It sounds like doing the locker and gears in my factory rear would be much easier vs trying to swap for a different rear and not knowing how many miles and what kinda shape its in. I will bring my truck through this winter and see how it is, if it's unbearable then I will bite the bullet and do the locker and gear swap.

I'm kinda getting annoyed with the stock gears being that it always needs to downshift on the highway to accelerate up any incline. I'm sure that's not good for the tranny either though the fuel savings are nice.

Another little problem I'd like to tackle is my speedo. Are there gears I need to get to compensate for the larger tires? or a plug in adapter? any info and or where to get the part would be great. If it's a cheap easy thing to do I'd like to fix it of not I can live with being off 5 mph or so.

One last thing if I installed a locker and some good off road tires would my 2wd truck be comperable to a stock 4x4 IYO?

thanks guys.

 

No gears are needed for speedo on the 95s...theres a tech article on our site explaining how to do it.

You probably don't see better mileage..probably worse..with 3.08/33" tire gearing. When I had my 3.55s and 35" tires..it was terrible on power/gas mileage til I went to 4.10s and it was way better.


I drove a 2wd truck w/ a limited slip (as good as a locker in the mud as both tires still spin)..and it's still worse than a 4wd because you don't have low range, and even still..stock 4wd is better than a locked truck w/ only 2wd. A stock open diff 4wd truck...is not really only 2wd (some people try to say so)...all 4 wheels get power off and on...so sometimes it is a full 4wd. The 2wd'rs on this site might disagree that the 2wd is subpar..but I've owned both for over 2 years each..wheelin' in the same spots with each..same tires..same truck (just not 4wd) and the 4wd was way better.

 

Justin is right, a 4wd with both open diffs is still better than a locked 2wd, but in my opinion, only a little better. If you air down your tires and put some weight in the back of your locked 2wd truck, you will be going alot of places you never thought you could go with a 2wd.

Alot of times when I'm wheeling in the F350, I leave the t-case in 2wd just to see how far I can go on just the rear locker and does surprisingly well, almost as well as my truck did in 4wd before I put in the locker. This is all comparing in Hi gear in the t-case.

At any rate, you can never go wrong putting some kind of traction differential in your rear axle, regardless of how many driving axles you have on the truck.

Yes, you are right, driving around with high gears and big tires is not easy on your transmission or engine. Likely contributes to early tranny failure in an automatic.