How does you determine what axle is installed in a truck?

The choices are 10 1/2 AA, and 11 1/5 AA.

I'm guessing the front is a 9 1/4 since it's the only one listed in the TSB about overfilling the pumpkin.

 

You have the 11.5'' rear axle.

All cummins powered trucks after 04? and for sure 04.5 have them. A few of the California SO models had the 10.5'' axle in 03.

The 10.5'' axle, today, only applies to the Hemi powered 2500 trucks.

 

Thanks, that's what I needed to know.

 

look on the inside of the glovebox door. you will see the axle.

 

SO have 10.5. The rest have 11.5...I think

 

'03 2500 SO AUTO's have the 10.5, the 5 spd SO's and all HO's have the 11.5
'03 3500 Dually uses the 11.5 regardless not sure about the SRW SO autos.

 

What's the big difference between the 10.5 & the 11.5 axels?

 

I presume it is a 1'' bigger in diameter Ring Gear.

 

And to add to the confusion there are 2 different types of hog head housings on the 11.5".

 

And, Pourin.....correct me if im wrong.....but the axle is one area you haven't had any problems (carnage) of any type, right?

I would think that sled pulling will put it to the test as harsh as anything else you can do to it. If yours is holding up fine, then the 11.5 AAM must be a beast. I don't recall hearing of any failures on them.

 

The 1150 rear is a beast. It's huge. For those more familiar with Dana axles, it's basically a Dana 80. 11.5" ring gear, 30 spline, 1.5" shafts.

 

Thats exactly right. I havent broken one yet. Eventually all good things come to an end. But I have over 30 hooks on my AAM axles and none have let go yet.
In stock form they are far superior in my opinion to the Dana's that preceded them in 2nd gen trucks.

 

I'll second that.

The front is high pinion, has a solid 1 piece passenger side inner shaft as opposed to the CAD units that almost all 2nd gens had, 33 spline stock shafts at 1.4" diameter with ginormous brakes. 2nd gens are either 30 or 32 spline depending on what year you have, and the brakes are good but not nearly as big. The 2nd gen Dana 60 actually has a larger ring gear at 9.5" but that's not much of a difference.
The rear axles in both are awesome. The single biggest advantage for 3rd gen owners are the disc brakes. The Dana 70 is 32 spline, the Dana 80 is 35 spline, both use 1.5 inch shafts. The AAM 1050 and 1150 both use 30 spline 1.5" shafts. I'm not sure why there are fewer splines on the AAM axles but it seems to work well, they might be a course spline. The Dana 70 is a 10.25" ring gear and the Dana 80 is an 11.25" ring gear, obviously the AAM's are a little larger at 10.50" and 11.50", hence the names of the axles. There is a Dana 80 available under 2nd gen duallies that uses 4 inch axle tubes and 35 spline axles, but most Dana 80s are simply a Dana 80 center section with the Dana 70 axle tubes, 3.5 inch I believe.

All of that said, the AAM axles are better in my opinion because of the brakes and the fact that the front axle is high pinion and uses a 1 piece passenger side shaft. The Dana models have a lot more aftermarket support and better gear ratios, but we are talking about stock vs. stock. AAM takes the win, but not by a landslide, because they all still have the disasterous hub assemblies.