Originally Posted by Sahara Lee

I was not questioning anything. Simply supplying additional information for integration into the broader knowledge base.



I'm not saying a 2 degree down angle won't help reduce U-joint wear, it probably will. The down-angle setting is based on the twist caused by torque as you said but it is much more pronounced on leaf spring suspensions (more common on pickup trucks) than with control arms. Besides over-torqueing and extreme angles, U-joint brinelling can also be caused by insufficient angle. (less than 1 degree)



As far as fully independent suspension, that has been the military standard for jeeps (not Jeeps) since 1959.

M151 (MUTT) was produced by Ford, Kaiser and AM General from 1959 to 1982 and saw military service at least until 1999 has fully independent suspension and unibody:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giqGHuWv-eM And was replaced by the AM General HMMWV which also has full independent suspension:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_S7zhTkVepw

Originally Posted by Bonedoc

I see your point about it being a military standard but doubt that it would be cost effective for a manufacturer to bring it to the civilian market, affordably, and have it perform as well as an H1.....but that would definately be a good topic for a thread of its own.

Originally Posted by Biginboca

Just because the military uses something doesn't mean it's best or ideal, that's not a good standard. I think a base model JK could do a better job getting traction and keeping wheels planted vs what that bummer shows in the video. In my opinion that video was a perfect example of why solid axles rule climbing off-road.