Why did jeep go with the ram 1500 style rear suspension instead of the JL rear suspension for the gladiator?

[MALLCRAWLER]

The ram 1500 and the gladiator both have the shocks mounted to the chassis significantly forward of the rear axle. This means any fast movement is getting transferred to the frame at that pivot point, which means weight in the bed and on the tongue has far more leverage over sudden shocks than it does over slow bumps. This is not good on an off road vehicle.

Contrast that to the JL, which has the shocks mounted directly behind the springs versus far forward. Why would the forward mounting be advantageous? I assume it must be for some reason as its used on quite a few vehicles.

 

[SIG551-A1]

Because they are both trucks and that’s how to soften the ride of the rear axle by moving the shocks closer to the pivot point of the suspension. The further you sit them back, the more “leverage” they have on the axle and the stiffer the ride will be.

 

[Vtur]

It's to have enough up travel without having the upper shock mount poking into the bed.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Again, don't try to out-engineer REAL SAE members.

The explanation is - it's a TRUCK. If you want pure off-road, then buy a JL.
If you need a truck but like to off-road now and then, buy a JT.
Ideally you want shocks at a bit of an angle to help prevent wheel hop, axle wrap and so on. A good example is the staggered shocks on performance vehicles. One shock is attached at the front of the rear axle, the other behind the axle tube.
Being trucks, they don't need quite that type of control, so an angle forward is enough to control axle wrap or wind-up under heavy torque load.
These are TRUCKS. Torque applied to take off will cause axle hop in some situations. In fact, some of these even come with a shock mounted at the top of the differential housing to help control hop.

the primary purpose of these is towing and payload, truck stuff. Off-road is secondary. Sorry, guys, that's the market segment these are aimed at.

 

[Rahkmalla]

don't try to out-engineer REAL SAE members.

Nah buddy. I got my Honorary PhD in "looking at pictures online and making overly definitive judgements". After all that work I did on my dissertation, why would i now go back to "trusting experts"?

 

[Hootbro]

Everything is a compromise. To have put a rear JL suspension on a JT would have sacrificed a lot of payload and towing capability.

 

[MALLCRAWLER]

I'm asking a simple configuration question and you jackasses are accusing me of trying to out engineer the designers lmao.

Fuck this website and fuck it's users.

 

[PlaceTheBetts]

 

[sharpsicle]

Asks question, gets a good explanation, swears at the forum members.

Did I miss a page on this thread?

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Where do you guys come up with some of these things?!

 

[rharr]

to his point a bunch of old men know it alls (myself included) can make for a frustrating time. This site does have quite the extremes of know it alls and newbies all competing to out class the next person, throw in the arm chair quarter back and there has been times i have had to just walk away from here too.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

The better answer -
Gladiator is a truck. It's engineered to tow and haul stuff. It's got to tow up to ~7,000 pounds and haul up to ~1700 pounds of stuff. So it's patterned after a truck because it's a truck.

Wrangler is - well, it's an off-road vehicle that's fun to drive on the street.
First and foremost is the off-road capability, forget any towing or payload. It can tow small stuff but that's an aside.
You design a truck based on truck stuff that's proven over decades so you can compete in the light truck market.
You don't cripple it with Wrangler stuff, then you have just made it a bad wrangler because it's so long and a worse truck because it can't tow and haul.

So look at it as a truck, not a Wrangler wanna-be.
I guess it's like a Swiss Army knife - it can do a lot of stuff, but doesn't exceed at any of them.
No offense, but if pure rocks and trails are your thing, JL rules, and if you want to haul really heavy stuff or tow a massive 8,000 pounds, buy a Ram.

So - Gladiator is a truck. But danged capable one.

That skips any tech details on the whys and hows of suspension.

BTW - the Grand Cherokee my wife traded for her Wrangler could out-tow and out-haul either of our current Jeeps. Tow rating - 6,200 pounds, something like 1100 or 1200 pound payload.
She gave up a lot of towing and payload capacity trading a Grand Cherokee for a Wrangler.
I can no longer fall back to her Jeep if I need to tow and my JT is out of commission. I can't haul as many bags of dirt or mulch as I could in the GC (as long as she never caught me doing it)

 

[Gren71]

Where do you guys come up with some of these things?!

Google Giphy. Thats where a lot of them come from

 

[Arcticelf]

The better answer -
Gladiator is a truck. It's engineered to tow and haul stuff. It's got to tow up to ~7,000 pounds and haul up to ~1700 pounds of stuff. So it's patterned after a truck because it's a truck.

Wrangler is - well, it's an off-road vehicle that's fun to drive on the street.
First and foremost is the off-road capability, forget any towing or payload. It can tow small stuff but that's an aside.
You design a truck based on truck stuff that's proven over decades so you can compete in the light truck market.
You don't cripple it with Wrangler stuff, then you have just made it a bad wrangler because it's so long and a worse truck because it can't tow and haul.

So look at it as a truck, not a Wrangler wanna-be.
I guess it's like a Swiss Army knife - it can do a lot of stuff, but doesn't exceed at any of them.
No offense, but if pure rocks and trails are your thing, JL rules, and if you want to haul really heavy stuff or tow a massive 8,000 pounds, buy a Ram.

So - Gladiator is a truck. But danged capable one.

That skips any tech details on the whys and hows of suspension.

BTW - the Grand Cherokee my wife traded for her Wrangler could out-tow and out-haul either of our current Jeeps. Tow rating - 6,200 pounds, something like 1100 or 1200 pound payload.
She gave up a lot of towing and payload capacity trading a Grand Cherokee for a Wrangler.
I can no longer fall back to her Jeep if I need to tow and my JT is out of commission. I can't haul as many bags of dirt or mulch as I could in the GC (as long as she never caught me doing it)

All of that is true.

The simplest answer to OP's question is: They already had a rear suspension design for a light truck sitting around, and it was far, far easier to just copy-paste the 1500 rear onto the Wrangler Front and call it a day than to custom design a new rear end, or custom design an entire suspension package.

The latter would have been the right answer, as the Wrangler front end isn't quite up to serious truck work, and the 1500 rear isn't as good off road. But then the base model would have cost 70K.

 

[jurfie]

Sometimes I pop back in here, just for gold like this.

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