There are starting (and I say starting, because it's still a very few) that have broken the rear axle, with the 33 splines. Might be because the X's and Fronty's are relatively new. Might be because the majority of owners/drivers out there don't drive their vehicle nearly as hard as they claim. Might be that there's not too many that are locked that actually drive thier vehicle to its limits.

The point is, once you have a locker, you're going to be driving on much harder stuff than you did before. If you aren't, then you didn't need a locker in the first place. So intentionally dropping down to a weaker part doesn't make sense, unless it's going to save you a buttload, like it did for DR.

I would imagine that the 31 spline rear axle is strong enough for the majority of Nissan offroaders that are out there, because lets be honest, there's really only a handfull of Nissan drivers that are currently driving their rigs to their limit. I doubt we'll see too much breakages of rear axles, until there are more of us that have the truck paid off, and are more willing to go for it, offroad.

The H233B rear axle is only a little stronger than a Dana 44, and we all know (or at least we ought to) that you can break a Dana 44 offroading. The nissan axle isn't any different, or immune to that. It's not indestructible. There's just very few of us that are willing to push it to the limit.