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| The Dana 20 has been know as dependable and reliable T-case for broncos with under 35 inch tires, but once you had some serious horse power (EFI or a 351 swap) and 35 inch and taller tires you will begin to see its weaknesses. The only problems I have ever had with my Dana 20 is its hard shifting due to the fact the linkage design is really poor as you have one center bar that pulls on 2 forks to shift high and low range with only cotter keys to help take up the slop (solved by adding a twin stick), and the constant snapping of the rear output shaft. The Dana 20's main weakness has always been the wimpy 10 spline rear output shaft. There is nothing worse then having to limp home in front wheel drive because you lot your toothpick size output shaft, well bronco people your prayers have been answered thanks to Wild Horses. | |
| When I first
heard of the new output shaft from my Friend Dennis
Lander, I called Jim, the owner of Wild Horses, and
wanted to give the shaft a full product review with
updated testing. I have snapped a few output shafts in my
days with my 33 and 35 inch tires, and now that I am
running 38x14.5 inch tires I planned to snap a whole lot
more, so you can imagine how excited I was to hear about
the new output shaft and all the time I would get to
spend 4 wheeling and not replacing output shafts (now I
can focus my time on replacing front axles). The Wild
Horses output shaft is a full 32 splines and dwarfs the
original 10 spline, and even custom 26 spline units. This
is a great product for those of us that snap a lot of
them and keep putting another 30 year old output shaft in
again. This is one nice looking shaft, the quality on this is top notch along with the small parts like the yoke and seals. They have also added a small hole in the center of the geared end for better lubrication |
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Here you can see the Shafts laid down Side by side
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The pure beef of the new HD shaft compared my stock one
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| There has been a lot of talk on the BBS boards about if the 400 dollars you would spend on a heavy duty output shaft was worth it, well I hope to answer that question with my testing. The main reason I hear why not to buy the HD output is because people say "Why not get an Atlas II Transfer case instead?". Well dollar for dollar the Atlas is about the best case out there and you can invest as much money you want into your Dana 20 for as much as an Atlas II costs. The problem is however that most of us already have money into our Dana 20 or just have no interest in dropping the 2,500 bucks at once to buy the Atlas where for 400 bucks we can greatly increase the strength and reliability of the Dana 20 | |
| I am not here to force you to go in either direction only to you give a brake down on pricing for the Atlas VS the D20 debate | |
| Options | Dana 20 | Atlas II |
| Purchase price | Free it came with the Bronco | $2,500 |
| Twin stick | $150.00 | included |
| HD output shaft | $400.00 (no front shaft yet) | 32 spline included, 32 spline front add 240.00 |
| Lower gears | $1529.00 (4.86:1 JP eater gears) | This is the 4.3:1 Atlas |
| Drive line mods | You gain 1 inch with the HD output, but
it should not effect the drive line Shorten/lengthen shafts for cold duck ($80) |
Shorten/Lengthen shafts |
| Misc Work | Notch cross member for Cold Duck and NP 203 box | New shifter holes, cross member Mods |
*Pricing was from the Advanced Adapters website and Wild Horses website*
The Atlas is Made from a Beefy 356-T6 1 piece case where the stock D20 is a cast piece, but you can add items like a Girdle to add some strength. The Atlas VS the Dana 20 is a big decision, the Dana 20 you can build up slowly where the Atlas you buy completely assembled from Advanced Adapters, But after all is said and done you still have a stock 10 spline front output shaft on your Dana 20 where the Atlas II has a upgrade-able 32 spline Shaft. I have not seen a front output snap, but that does not mean that it could not happen, more often then not the front axle u-joints will let loose before the output shaft.
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