I am a huge fan of what a lot of guys call light iron, and I live out in CA, what you call a rough trail we call a gnarly trail. It has ruts maybe some mud, a few rocks o pass over nothing really big, and off camber areas, just a real fun trail, ow take that trail and put in a few rock gardens with rocks the size of basket balls to a large hassack that you need either a lot of experience or a spotter to get through, and we are having fun now baby. Stream crossings are a plus also.
For a trail like that I run a D27 or a
Dana 30 out front on 33s and a
Dana 44 in the rear. I have buddies running Corp 20s on those trails all day long on 33s, ok so they are 1 piece and have a few welds here and there, but they take those trails all day long.
The expense on the light hardware, well each winter you go over it real good to see if any work is needed and handle it, daily issues to do is at either camp or getting home inspect the units for damage. You would do that to a set of Rockwell's.
You need to make a decision and a plan, that decision is based on knowledge gathered at a place like this thread. I am kinda proud you joined our forum to find out what to use. It shows we are becoming known for good tech. But here is the time to decide what to do.
I will advise you of one thing, Nothing is bullet proof, so let us make plan and go with it. If your choice to keep those axles is the one you are going with, then you are going to go with the lowest cost alternative, plus the one that requires you to learn the most about wheeling as you will become a lot better wheeler running them as you are forced to pick the correct line. Guys with bigger stuff take lines that are a lot more damage creating, and they break their stuff doing so, Because they can.
I have always said, a successful day wheeling means you are drinking a beer at camp handing tools to the guy working on his broken Jeep.
This is a mantra we all should have.
Beer good, Wrenches bad.
