Tooadvanced

Not much more than an aluminum body to make it lighter. Only other thing is smaller thinner axles and go back to a c channel frame

lateralus

....or, as voters we could elect public servants to reverse one size fits all legislation. Iam tired of carbon credit get rich schemers running the narrative, telling us how to live and living a different way.

BlackRockBurner

Saves close to 2/3rds unsprung weight in contrast to solid axel, and keeps ground clearance on rebound. Hopefully Jeep designs this with 33's as the stock size wheel on a 3/4 scale JK frame.

Facing reality: Smaller, lighter, IFS or full independent suspension is the future of Wrangler. Upgrading will be more expensive, and one still has the option of solid axels, it will just cost. But since many are already replacing stock Dana 44's with aftermarket axels it's a wash. This change is going to happen no matter who owns Jeep. I will miss solid axels, but admit I am not the majority of the Jeep demographic. I would say the majority on this forum is not the overall average buyer.

http://www.allpar.com/SUVs/lil-blue.html

Tooadvanced

Fact still remains that ifs/irs is still heavier than a solid axle with more moving parts to fail. Unsprung weight doesn't matter to gas mileage but rather total weight. With the ifs they will lower it and put a large facia to cover said parts and the aerodynamics will increase mileage.

BlackRockBurner

Re read article, these are jeep engineers doing their job. The TJ axle went from 300 lbs. to less than 120lbs. Unsprung weight matters for handling & mileage. Cutting weight happens everywhere; a few ounces here, a few pounds there. Increase power to weight ratio along with aero and efficient trans / power train are the goals for any platform. Jeep must design for the abuse we will give it.

Tooadvanced

Like i said though that ifs weights more than a solid axle so there no weight saving to be had there. No doubt brother that handling will be better. But lets just check the fj, xterra and 4 runner and see what kinda mileage their getting. My sis in laws stock jk gets an honest 20-21 mpg highway. Those other ifs equipped rigs don't. Best my bros xterra ever got was 17

BlackRockBurner

"It (IFS) did increase unsprung mass about 25 percent vs. a shorter travel independent front suspension, although it still had lower unsprung mass than a beam axle design ( solid axel)" from the article. This IFS version of suspension shaved off close to 200 lbs. when compared to solid axel. Switch to aluminum body and scale down to 3/4 size of JK and 3,000 lbs is in reach. I know this is going to eventually happen. I hope Jeep keeps 12" travel and at least 33" wheels in smaller than JK frame or 35" wheel in same sized JK frame.

Customizing our rigs will cost more. Still possible, but more difficult.

trouty33

And the goal to get better gas milage would be a lot easier to accomplish of we would go back to burning REAL gas. The 10% corn oil SUCKS and is killing our MPG. All a government ploy,force a worse product to use and then laws to improve MPG. The wranglers most of us know will soon only be available by building one which is what most of the guys on here have done anyway we'll either have to find an older on to use as our starting point or pay for the new version and go from there...

BlackRockBurner

The future ideal goal is to get rid of gas. Not short term our use short sighted thinking, but our grand kids and after thinking. Shale oil from Canada isn't for the USA, it's going to Europe and China. Even if we went to war with all oil nations to take oil, including China, it is still a limited supply. Want to eliminate the terrorist threat? Pull out of the oil Middle East.

Diesel & diesel / electrics for long range are the long term future power trains. Fuel that is not petroleum based but waste based/ plant based is renewable and has less ill affects on environment and nation conflict. Electric motors with a few hundred pounds of torque at zero rpm and a range of 300 miles isn't a bad thing. Want to go further? Add more diesel to charge the batts.

I once liked hydrogen fuel but the oil companies want to base it on petroleum, so there's no difference.

Tooadvanced

I can read the article but I've seen actually ifs and solid axles on scales and guess what? Ifs weighed in 40 pounds heavier. The pentastar is a joke in the jk to grt better mpg. Throw the diesel in and get loads better power and mpg. They are seeing real world numbers of over 26 mpg in the ram diesel and when hypermilled up to 40mpg. The ford ecoboost truck I had got an honest hand calcd 22.8 mpg at speeds over 70 mph. I had over 3000lbs in bed of truck with cruise set at 75mph and had 11% hills and returned an average of 17.3mpg. Jeep needs to step up to the modern age of 330 hp v6's that get actual good mpgs and everything would be solved