"One reason to go with the 3/4 ton Dana 44 HP is because you are guaranteed to get 3/8" tube wall thickness whereas some of the earlier 1/2 ton Dana 44's have thinner tubes"
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I don't know how hard you boys on Or. beat on your front ends but in our area I have seen very few front axle tubes/housings crack unless they were trying to jump the rig.
My rec. for Steve makes sense if you consider the INTERNALS-when you do a full width D44 what do you order for gears, shafts and ujoints-D44 stuff. In our area the ujoints and shafts seem to be the common broken parts- That is why I said a Dana 44 is a Dana 44-you still have parts internally that will break. If he is upgrading for width/stability he does not need to go through the hassle of an 8 lug 44 over a standard 5 on 5.5 which is cheaper to find and EASIER to put under an eb. If he is upgrading for strength then 3/4 ton or half ton whatever, internally it is still a D44 and WILL break. If strength is the issue save up and do a Dana 60 front and be done with it. There are also several companies who are doing various versions of the 9 with 3" tubes and F450/550 knuckles/outers-they are however much more expensive.
Lastly, on the sterling, strength is as I said earlier great, however, they seem to have a rock magnet on the bottoms that like to attach them to many more rocks than old faithful D60. Check the ring and pinion offerings and the sterling does NOT have as many lower geared possibilities-obviously can be a non point with a doubler or an Atlas but again more $$.
