What all should I have on hand? What else should I do while I'm in there? Tips, tricks, etc.?
Oil, of course. Also, I have new Solid dif covers coming and will put them on at the same time. What else should be done?
About to do the same thing. Never taken a Dana 30 apart.
You do realize a front locker makes breakage a more common reality. Because of the added stress on everything steering u joints pinion bearing axle shafts steering. I love having a locker in front it makes your rig soo much more capable. But man if there is any way you could upgrade to a 44 in the long run you might be happier. They often come with lockouts and owner serviceable bearings. Some have flat top knuckles. So you can do high steering without replacing your knuckle. Hope this is not rude just my two cents worth. Some people have good sucess with a 30 especially conservative drivers with small tires. A four popper helps a lot, To me the gas savings alone would be enough to justify the swap having lockouts is a nice thing for several reasons but that one is a big deal at least to me. good luck hope to see you on a trail this summer either way and hopefully not broken. again just my opinion. Mombo
As for what to look out for, depending on your tie rod it can be a little bit of a wiggle getting the carrier out. If your carrier hits your tie rod before it will come out easily just turn the wheels a little until it hits that sweet spot and it will come.
I don't know why people keep talking about taking the carrier out, I didn't have to. Take off the diff cover and drain it, take your driver side caliper and rotor off, pry off the unit bearing (I used an air chisel, worked awesome), pull the shaft part way out, remove the cross shaft, pull out the spider gears, install the locker per manuf. instructions, reverse the order to put it back together. It's really straight forward. If you've done a lockright, you'll have no problem doing this one.