Fred Williams
Brand Manager, Petersen’s 4Wheel & Off Road
Photographers:
Currie Enterprises
Whether in lightweight buggies, high-speed desert trucks, or big-power muscle cars, the Ford 9-inch axle is a proven contender, and the Currie name has been synonymous with this dropout-style axle for 50 years. The original stamped steel housings have long been eliminated from the Ford factory offerings, but the simple and strong removable-carrier housing axles (also known as banjo style) are still being made by Currie.
One of the latest upgrades Currie has offered is its fully fabricated F9 axlehousings. Unlike the old-style housings, these fabricated housings offer greater ground clearance even with the pinion rotated up to 20 degrees, a stronger structural design, and multiple axletube diameter and thickness options. These trick axleshousings can also be ordered ready to bolt into a Jeep TJ or JK Wrangler as an awesome instant axle upgrade.
We recently had the chance to follow the assembly of an F9 housing as well preview some even bigger, badder axle options coming from Currie.
Indy-Axle We mentioned the prototype F9 Heavy Duty fabricated housing, which is larger and allows for up to a 4-inch axletube, but here is another interesting offering from Currie, the F9 Independent. This all-steel third member is just what you need for your custom four-wheel-drive independent suspension. We imagine you'll see some homebuilt long-travel IFS rockcrawlers and desert runners in the future, and this should make it that much easier.
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