Quote
What about the ring gear, tubes, shafts, being a full floater. I know you can upgrade all those on a 9" but stock the 60 seems much stronger but heavy.


If you looked at the pictures on Pirate, you should have seen the 9" was beefier - The ring gear is smaller in diameter but is considerably thicker, making it much stronger than the Dana 60. The Dana 60 pinion is 1.250, the 9" is 1.313, while the Dana 80 is 1.625 The axles can be made as beefy as you want - 35 spline is always nice. Here's another site that makes a complete 9" setup, the 3rd member isn't as good in my opinion, as the one mentioned on Pirate, but they pretty much address what the 9" is all about.
http://www.sunrayengineering.com/