Well I guess I will start in the back and work my way around to the front. There has been much talk about the relocation of the gas tank from the rear and putting the muffler back there. I originally wasn’t to keen on this idea, but thinking back we weren’t to happy with the gas tank back there getting smashed and crushed by rocks as we came off of obstacles. In ‘03, Jeep at least installed a heavier factory skid plate for the gas tank. I know it holds up nicely since I took my Stock 05 unlimited to Moab and bounced it off plenty of rocks. Now a muffler should crush easily. What was surprising and since nobody has talked about it was that the muffler appears to be a stainless steel welded shell. I know I took a 3lb black smith maul, and hit it. Scuffed it, but did not leave a dent. Now I know I did not hit it with anywhere near the force that a rock would, but still I would have dented some of the other mufflers easily. Of course, the rest of the exhaust is still stainless steel. The muffler does have a clamp right by it where it connects into the rest of the exhaust system, so replacement is even easier. |
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The rear axle does not look any bigger than the previous Dana 44’s. It is still a low pinion so no improvement on that end. We already know that some aftermarket covers still fit, so the opening is the same. The nice thing about the axle is that they moved the shocks outboard to the tires. Nth Degree came out with some shock shifters to move the shocks outboard for more stability on the TJ’s, Jeep did it for us on the JK’s. The new bracket is larger and hangs down a little further, but being over by the tire should prevent it from being hit as much as the older ones did. The bracket is also angled in the front so should allow for some sliding over obstacles. Of course, the new Rubicon lockers are electrical so you have another wire running to the rear axle, but they got rid of the pumps and airlines that had a tendency to leak, or have the plastic pumps. The axle has two connections going into it. The indicator wire appears to be in the same location, but a new actuator wire is now located near the top of the differential. One thing they did do was eliminate the brake line axle breather combination that was so familiar on the TJ’s. Each brake is fed with its own brake line, so with a lift you will most likely need four extended brake lines now. The rear track bar utilizes two bushings at either end, almost like the small factory bushings that were on the upper control arms on the TJ’s |
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Let us move up to the center section where the gas tank, transmission and transfer case are. The 2007 laws required that gas tank move here. The tank does hang lower than the frame rails, but so did the old one, just now in a different location. The tank on the Unlimited is 21.6 gallons, and on the two door only 18.6 gallons, a little bit less than the old TJ tank, but the new engine does get better gas mileage. The tank does have a substantial skid plate on it, with cross members. It does not look like it will be very easy to raise the gas tank, since two cross members appear to go over the top of this tank. You would need to redesign the cross members to make a lifted skid work, since there is no room between the top of the tank and the cross members as far as I can tell with my fingers. With a heavy enough skid you should be able to skip off the top of obstacles. No matter how much we do not like the idea of the gas tank location, the skid is still fairly smooth and long, unlike the new skid for the transmission and transfer case. My first thought looking at this was “Hmmm plenty of places to hook a rock.” A nice full width, flat skid would have been nice. The aftermarket should be able to come up with something quick on this one, probably incorporate a complete skid with a mild lift to it, if those gas tank cross members can move. There is room above the transmission and transfer case to raise them, a lot more than on the previous years. Now that great big vapor canister that they installed on the other side definitely needs a skid plate for it. It just begs to be pounded by a rock. There does appear to be enough room and enough hose length to move this to below the rear seat opposite of the exhaust pipe. This would also be a good area for an air tank. |
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Jeep went with some new drive shafts. Okay real CV joints probably are not the favorite of some of us, but the one thing they are not is off-road serviceable, which is what we really do need. They do have a larger diameter, but they taper down at the end going into the other coupling. Some people immediately point this out, but if you look at your own drive shafts, they do the same thing. I know of at least one drive shaft manufacturer that has already built new 1310 u-joint drive shafts for the JK’s so we can upgrade to them. |
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Jeep also revised the front axle. One of the biggest changes you see up here is the new steering system. Gone is that vague steering system that existed in the TJ’s. Now you look at beefy new bars. This is similar to the U-turn steering by Off Road Only, so I can see some heavier parts being down the road, and maybe even a nice high steer setup. Like the rear, gone is the airline for the locker to be replaced by an electric line. The one item of dismay that I saw was that the outer stub shafts appear to be the same size as the previous years. I will need to find an older Rubicon to get some measurements from to compare. I do know that one two door on 37’s did lose a cap already. May have been a combination of the torque and 37’s, but that is just conjecture. The one nice thing about the front axle is that it is a high pinion axle. Now if they could have only done that with the rear. The one thing that I did notice up front was that the drop links on the anti-sway bar are the same as the rear except about 4” shorter. Therefore, with a lift you could possibly just move the rear links to the front. The front LCA brackets on the axle still need some protection, they are a little longer, but could still benefit from boxing the front in. The front track bar utilizes the same bushings as the rear bar. |
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On the Rubicon the front anti-sway bar comes with an electric disconnect. This thing definitely needs a skid plate; it hangs lower than the chin bar and is exposed in the front. It sits behind the front plastic air dam/ skid. |
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Suspension over all. The suspension is very nice, almost too smooth. The new control arms are longer. The arms are now a combination of boxed steel and tube that make for stiffer arms. I hope that we will not see as many twisted and bent control arms as we did on the TJ’s. The axle mounting points are the same, just the frame mounts are now in different locations. |
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The front fog lights are tucked in behind the bumper. Though the turn signal does stick out pretty vulnerable in the fender now. |
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