Jeep JL Wrangler Radius Arms - ARTICULINK??

wayoflife

Administrator
Staff member
As some of you may recall, I had made a post back in February about the new 2017 RAM Power Wagon and how it will be coming with an electronic sway bar disconnect up front AND what RAM is calling an Articulink suspension system and at the time, I had wondered if maybe this might be something we would see on the all new Jeep JL Wrangler. Today, I read an article on Autoblog written by Alex Kierstein and while most of it what he said and the photos he included wasn't much news to me, there was one thing he said that did catch my eye. Specifically, he stated...

"the JL remains a body-on-frame truck with a solid front axle, evidenced by the front diff peeking out and the radius arms connected to them."

And, after looking carefully at the photos, I came across this...
wrangler-unltd-rd19-kgp-ed-2.jpg

Here's a closer look...
articulink.jpg

I have to say, it sure looks to me like I very well may be looking at the Articulink.
attachment.php


What do you guys think? :crazyeyes:
 

cozdude

Guy with a Red 2-Door
I'm not to informed on how a radius arm works. Can you explain it a bit and how this would benefit/hurt the wrangler please
 

jagrubb99

New member
I'm not to informed on how a radius arm works. Can you explain it a bit and how this would benefit/hurt the wrangler please

I'm not familiar with the benefits of them, but I think radius arms just replace the need for upper and lower control arms and consolidates them to 1 arm. Someone correct me if I'm wrong but that's what it looks like to me
 

Sharkey

Word Ninja
If you have one arm with two attachment points to the axle, doesn't that mean that if you lose the singular attachment point on the frame side you are still screwed?
 

WJCO

Meme King
I'm not to informed on how a radius arm works. Can you explain it a bit and how this would benefit/hurt the wrangler please

I'm not familiar with the benefits of them, but I think radius arms just replace the need for upper and lower control arms and consolidates them to 1 arm. Someone correct me if I'm wrong but that's what it looks like to me

Ford used to use them a lot. It is kind of similar to a control arm, and kind of stabilizes the axle on the previous Ford design.

This new design Eddie presented for the Jeep can be found here: http://wayalife.com/showthread.php?...-something-the-new-Jeep-JL-Wrangler-will-have
 

hinrichs

Caught the Bug
I just watched the video from the older post about that suspension and it deff seems interesting. I saw something where, and this was speculation, that the jeep being used may even be the jeep pickup we have been waiting for since the rear is all fabric and has some odd angles unless they just did that good of a job hiding it.
 

wayoflife

Administrator
Staff member
Radius arms are great on vehicles like desert race trucks where you have big vertical travel of the axle. However, by it's design, radius arms are in a state of bind the moment you try to force them to articulate. As you can see in the image below, if you were to disconnect the radius arms from the frame, they would stand straight out like a diving board.

radiusarms.jpg

In fact, if you were to grab each end of the radius arms and try to push them in opposite directions, you would find it to be impossible as the lower arms are braced to your axle with upper arms. Think of your sway bar - not the links but the actual sway bar itself - it is basically a torsion bar with 2 arms that links are attached to. That's essentially what your front axle and radius arms are like only, your axle is no torsion bar. Push it hard enough and something has to give.

6794027F-D889-4A1D-8602-2B1F2CF4BB72-1429-000001162265B1AB_zps57534d3b.jpg

Back in the day, there used to be companies that made axles that twisted along the tube to allow for this kind of rotation and address this very real problem.

Does that mean this is a terrible design? Not necessarily. You can force a radius arm design to articulate but in order to do so, an enormous amount of stress is placed on your bushings. Factory clevite bushings are soft and elastic and they can take a lot of squashing and stretching but only to a degree. The problem shows itself when you exceed that degree with bigger flex as that will cause the bushings to fail or worse.
 

WJCO

Meme King
Back in the day, there used to be companies that made axles that twisted along the tube to allow for this kind of rotation and address this very real problem.

Remember this one? Actualy had pivot points (similar to IFS) to allow one side of axle to move at a time.

dana_28_whole.PNG
 

2nd.gunman

Caught the Bug
The Nissan Patrol and Toyota Landcruiser 70,80 and 100 series all use forged radius arms with a solid front axle and it really doesn't articulate very well especially when compared to a 5 link. You also get a lot of caster change.

Having said that the RAM setup looks like it has all the features of the 'high flex' arms you can buy for those 4wds
 

JeepFan

Hooked
If I had to choose between Articulink or IFS, I'd pick the Articulink. I'm old school and don't want the straight axle to go away. As far as the limitations of the control arm, I'm sure the aftermarket could come up with a super beefy control arm that can rotate laterally to prevent binding and increase articulation. Just my :twocents:
 

JAGS

Hooked
Sounds like a more "capable" stock rubicon, but some more R&D for the aftermarket lift kit world??

If some current manufacturers are having issues with blown bushings and/or broken brackets, I can only imagine the future with the articulink.

I'm ready to see a final product. Whether that be a truck or unlimited or whatever. Also very interested to see the marketing behind the launch as that lame stuff interests me.
 

2nd.gunman

Caught the Bug
If some current manufacturers are having issues with blown bushings and/or broken brackets, I can only imagine the future with the articulink.

That's more of an issue if you're adapting radius arms to 5 link mounting points as they're not designed for the extra bind.
 

Ausjeep113

New member
The Nissan Patrol and Toyota Landcruiser 70,80 and 100 series all use forged radius arms with a solid front axle and it really doesn't articulate very well especially when compared to a 5 link. You also get a lot of caster change.

Having said that the RAM setup looks like it has all the features of the 'high flex' arms you can buy for those 4wds

I was thinking the same thing, even with high flex arms it's not as good as a 5 link but could potentially eliminate the death wobble issues all 5 link jeep of the past have had.
 
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