Quote:
Originally Posted by jim7777777
...Can you have that bullet-proof, easily modified, off-road performance with an independent suspension vehicle???
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The military H1 Hummer (not the H3 & H4 which are based on Chevy pick-ups) has 4-wheel independant suspension, but had to overcome some serious design hurdles to achieve the amount of wheel travel stipulated by the military.
Because the pinion angles on the driveshafts would be too great using a conventional set-up, they had to put on really long control arms to reduce the angles on the shafts and mount them to a narrow central box frame (similar in design principals to those dune buggy racers you see that run independant rear ends). It's the reason why the Military H1s are so wide externally but also have so little internal space (even the civilian versions of these huge beasts are only 4 seaters), because there is a great big box frame sticking right up in the middle, running the length of the vehicle from diff to diff.
So I'm guessing if the new generaton Wrangler were to lose the solid axles (or even just the front one) but stay near to it's current dimensions and chassis design then there would be some loss of wheel travel over the currently produced model, and the scope for lifting & modifying the suspension & increasing its travel would be limited far more than it currently is.