"Thanks for this detail. Exactly what I was looking for. I can do the axle swap myself versus if I replace gears in my existing set up I want someone with more experience to set the gears (I'd hate to blow up a $2000 set up to get some practice...) This is why I've been seriously considering the 44s as I'm thinking the labor savings will make the price closer. If I stick with the drum brakes it looks like about $6k to go with the 44s (front and rear) and $5k to rebuild the existing set up. For me, the extra $1k is probably justified to have some future optionality if I really want to go crazy on the build!"
John, definitely there are costs to be saved in avoiding the re-gearing cost quagmire so that's a definite plus for the ready-made swap in. Keep in mind however that the front axle will cost more than the rear, I've priced them many times out of boredom & they seem to run around a third higher than the matching rear. For some reason I don't see a Dana 44 front axle on the ECGS website & the Currie site just listed the housing @$2,000 but Quadratec has a G2 Core 44 full Front assembly for $4,050 shipped (compared to $2,868 for the ECGS Dana 44 rear). I'm no expert on G2 or any of these other bolt-ins but I've read some questionable things about the G2 so I'm not suggesting you'd go that route without researching it.
Were you able to find a combination of front & rear for $6,000?
John, definitely there are costs to be saved in avoiding the re-gearing cost quagmire so that's a definite plus for the ready-made swap in. Keep in mind however that the front axle will cost more than the rear, I've priced them many times out of boredom & they seem to run around a third higher than the matching rear. For some reason I don't see a Dana 44 front axle on the ECGS website & the Currie site just listed the housing @$2,000 but Quadratec has a G2 Core 44 full Front assembly for $4,050 shipped (compared to $2,868 for the ECGS Dana 44 rear). I'm no expert on G2 or any of these other bolt-ins but I've read some questionable things about the G2 so I'm not suggesting you'd go that route without researching it.
Were you able to find a combination of front & rear for $6,000?