Atlas vs Dana 20/300

[barrelroll]

I'm still in the planning stages of my cj5 build. I'm swapping in an sm465 and am trying to decide which t-case.

My goals for the t-case
-Twin Sticks
-Strong/ minimal breakage
-Lower gears, 2.46:1 or lower
-Shorter the t-case the better

The options, all prices are approximate

Option #1, Dana 20, 11.5" long
-Use a cj D20 t-case
-Twin stick kit, $150
-HD rear output, $500
-Can you get a HD front output or are you stuck with a spline front output
-Either d18/ bronco d20 2.46 gears or tera low 3.15 gears $100-$900
-Rebuild kit, $150
-T-case griddle from Tri County gear, web site is down, $100?
$1000-$1800 with still a small front output

Option #2, Dana 300, 12" long
-CJ d300, I'd have to buy one, about $200
-Twin Stick kit, $150
-HD Rear Output, $500
-HD front output, $175
-Re-build kit, $150
-Gears, either keep the stockers or 4:1 $0 or $600
$1175-$1775

Option #3 Atlas t-case, 11.8" long
-Factory twin sticks
-HD front output
-Short tail housing
-3.8:1 gears
-Everything is brand new
-Only time spent on "building" the case is the time to order the thing on the phone
$2075 form Poly Performance, $2295 from advanced adapters

I'm leaning towards spending the extra cash and saving my time towards the atlas. Anyone make the switch to an atlas? How did you like it?

[Olin18]

If you can swing the extra $ the Atlas would be my first choice. You get a great selection of final gear outputs. For me the 5:1 is pretty desirable. With the 300 you get ether stock, or 4:1... that's it. The atlas is also going to have a stronger housing, and the overall strength of the internals is going to be more.
Don't get me wrong I like the 300 very much. In fact I run one in my YJ, but if I had the extra money I would upgrade to an Atlas.
If you need the money for other parts I would stick with the 300. I don't think the 20 is very desirable.

[barrelroll]

I'm pretty sure I'm going to go atlas and now I have to decide on gear ratios. I'm almost thinking the 3.8 will be too low and the 3.0 might be a better choice. I've had rigs with between 50:1 and 120:1 first gears, the 120:1 was too low in my buggy on 36's on west coast rocks and this rig will see many more midwest trails. I've been playing with a crawl ratio calculator and the 3.0 gives me a 90:1 and the 3.8 give me a 113:1.

Either way I go with for low range gears the 465 in high range gives me the same crawl ratio as the t15/d20 did in low range. For general easy trails I'm thinking I won't even be in 4 low

[highlandercj-7]

Atlas or stak, I am going for the 3 spd case for the reasons you say, hard to determine the gear ratios, so make it easy high, low, and super low. Then you have one rig that handles all terrain well.

[TeamRush]

What's your APPLICATION?

APPLICATION IS EVERYTHING...

What are you doing you need a 5 or 6 speed TRANSFER case?
If you are rock climbing in a serious way, then MAYBE...

But if you are just a trail dirt slinger with the rest of us, then stick with stock gears in Dana 300 and be HAPPY!

[barrelroll]

A 3 speed stak would be cool but I'm going to stick with the tired and true atlas.

This jeep will be for a bit of everything and I'm pretty sure I'll be driving it from the midwest to Colorado this summer.

The doubler in my blazer was cool having stock low range for putzing around on the trail and then turtle for the big rocks.

I'm still a month or 2 away from ordering the atlas. Keep the input comming

[dave]

For my CJ5 I built my own adapter Ford T-18 to Jeep Dana 300. http://forums.off-road.com/jeep-shor...0-adapter.html (Home Built T-18 to Dana 300 Adapter)

It was a low cost option with excellent drive shaft angles!

dave