I read this great article on AllPar yesterday and thought it was worth sharing here. I know, I know - an independent suspension on a Jeep is sacrilege but, I have to say that this design which was intended to be utilized on the new 1996 TJ wrangler is actually pretty cool. Give it a look...
Li’l Blue: the amazing independent-suspension Jeep Wrangler experiment
“Li’l Blue” was a “cost no object” demonstration of how an independent suspension can exceed the mobility of a live-axle or Hotchkiss suspension. It was one of three prototypes competing to become the 1996 Jeep TJ:
1.Li’l Blue, built mainly by Bob Sheaves and Evan Boberg of the Pre-Program Group, with the Parkway plant’s Quality Control staff;
2.Red Devil, a medium-cost link-coil mule made under Craig Love’s leadership in Vehicle Development; and
3.Screaming Yellow Chicken, a low-cost, long-leaf design built by the Production group at Jeep-Truck Engineering (JTE).
Why would they even bother to make a Jeep with an independent suspension? Generally, because:
•The Hotchkiss suspension used by CJ and Wrangler had a large amount of unsprung weight; in general, the higher the unsprung weight, the worse the on-road handling.
•The wheels can react independently, so that one wheel hitting an obstacle does not affect both sides (one cause of wheel shimmy, or “the death wobble”).
•Having the wheels react independently to obstacles also means that all four of the wheels are always on the ground, in normal on-road and most off-road driving (within the limits of suspension travel). This helps to maintain stability and steering control.
•Independent suspensions can generally be built as a unit and shipped to the factory, speeding installation and sometimes cutting costs.
•Lower cost
•Vertical wheel travel (articulation) is harder to increase in an independent suspension, due to the limits of powered joints — the angles of the joints are firmly limited.
•When the wheels travel independently, ground clearance is reduced when the car rebounds from a bump.
•With the Hotchkiss design, simple methods can be engineered to increase to increase ground clearance
The team working on Li’l Blue started by researching the 1963 Jeep Wagoneer design; its independent front suspension was the first of its kind, but it did have shortcomings, which Evan Boberg, Bob Sheaves, and Gerry Hentschel addressed. They started out with a deDion independent suspension, but, to increase wheel travel and ground clearance, connected the differential to the suspension so that it travelled with the wheel. This is illustrated by the following patent drawings; Evan Boberg and Gerald Hentschel were registered as inventors for Chrysler Corporation in the 1993 application...
Read the whole article here:
http://www.allpar.com/SUVs/lil-blue.html
