Jeep Wrangler IV (Spy)

[Ampo]

Cioè? Costruiscono un nuovo impianto da Greenfield?

[RVC]

Per forza, modificare anche parte di quello esistente per lavorare l'alluminio (pulizia impianto, ingresso materiale, lavorazione, gestione scarti)avrebbe costi proibitivi. E' molto piu conveniente farne uno da zero, ma tutti i terreni del TAP+Supplier Park sono totalmente occupati. L'amministrazione locale sta finendo di comprare i terreni adiacenti all'impianto di Toledo per permettere alla Jeep di costruirci sopra il capannone nuovo e collegarlo all'assemblaggio del JK.

[pennellotref]

http://www.autonews.com/article/20141023/OEM01/141029907/wrangler-will-remain-body-on-frame-likely-to-stay-in-toledo-sources

Wrangler will remain body-on-frame, likely to stay in Toledo, sources say

Larry P. Vellequette

Automotive News

October 23, 2014 - 3:04 pm ET

DETROIT -- The next-generation Jeep Wrangler will continue to be a body-on-frame vehicle and won’t switch to unibody construction, Automotive News has learned.

As a result, the popular off-roader will likely remain built in Toledo, Ohio, where city and union officials have been fighting for weeks to keep the Wrangler in its historical home.

The developments may settle weeks of uncertainty surrounding the Wrangler, whose future was thrown into question after Sergio Marchionne, CEO of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, implied that the Wrangler might become a unibody vehicle.

At the Paris auto show this month, Marchionne suggested that the next Wrangler is likely to have an aluminum body. As a result, Marchionne said, Chrysler would be forced to move Wrangler output to another plant because the Toledo operation could not build an aluminum vehicle without a massive investment in new equipment.

Marchionne suggested at the time that Chrysler had additional manufacturing capacity available at two unibody plants outside of Ohio.

But now, sources inside and outside of Chrysler with direct knowledge of Chrysler’s evolving plans, say the off-roader will remain a body-on-frame SUV.

That means it remains compatible with Toledo, whether or not it switches to an aluminum body. Additional sources say Chrysler is leaning towards an aluminum body.

'Most capable'

Jeep spokesman Todd Goyer declined to comment on the next Wrangler, which is due in 2017. However, he insisted that the next generation Wrangler “will be the most capable Wrangler ever.”

The Wrangler’s frame construction is considered vital to its off-road capabilities by Jeep enthusiasts because it adds strength, rigidity and durability. More importantly for Toledo, the construction method largely determines how -- and where -- the next generation Wrangler can be built.

Unibody and body-on-frame manufacturing methods are incompatible with each other, meaning unibody vehicles can’t be built on the same line as body-on-frame vehicles and vice-versa.

Marchionne -- a solicitor by training who also holds a degree in philosophy -- was very careful in how he chose his words in Paris: He did not say the Wranger would switch to a unibody. Rather, he merely implied that it would when he named plants with available capacity in the United States that were unibody plants.

His comments were sufficient to ignite a firestorm in Toledo, prompting urgent discussions between him and the mayor of Toledo and representatives from Ohio Gov. John Kasich.

Body-on-frame

Chrysler Group has just two body-on-frame assembly plants in the United States: Toledo, where the Wrangler is made, and Warren Assembly in suburban Detroit where the Ram 1500 is built.

Both plants are already running at or above their capacity to meet growing demand for those vehicles, making a costly switchover to aluminum construction for an aluminum Wrangler equally expensive at both facilities.

Chrysler’s open manufacturing capacity in the United States is all in unibody plants: Sterling Heights Assembly, where the Chrysler 200 is built; Belvidere Assembly, which builds the Dodge Dart and Jeep Compass and Patriot; and the unibody half of Toledo Assembly, where the Jeep Cherokee is built.

To meet tightening Corporate Average Fuel Economy requirements, Jeep needs the next Wrangler to lose weight and improve its fuel efficiency with smaller engines and a better transmission.

Aluminum consideration

In his remarks in Paris, Marchionne admitted that an aluminum Wrangler is under consideration by the automaker, but cost remains the overriding concern.

Because of the construction methods needed to make an aluminum body, Chrysler would have to rip out its current tooling used to make a steel Wrangler and install all new equipment. That would require both a significant investment in tooling and time to shut down the highly profitable plant to make the switch.

“If the solution is aluminum then I think unfortunately Toledo is the wrong set up to try and build a Wrangler because it requires a complete, a reconfiguring of the assets which would be cost prohibitive. I mean it would be just be so outrageously expensive for us to try and work out that facility,” in Toledo, Marchionne said.

He later implied that the next Wrangler might be a unibody design when he noted that the automaker had available manufacturing capacity in both Belvidere, Ill., and Sterling Heights, Mich. However, he stopped short of saying it would move to a unibody design that would necessitate a move away from the body-on-frame half of the Toledo Assembly Complex.

Local leaders in Toledo were caught flat-footed by Marchionne’s comments and the thought that the Wrangler might be built anywhere else. On a weekend conference call, they asked to meet with the CEO after he returned to Chrysler’s U.S. headquarters in Auburn Hills , Mich., for further explanation of what Chrysler was planning and needed.

On October 9th, Toledo Mayor D. Michael Collins and representatives for Ohio Gov. John Kasich met with Marchionne in Auburn Hills.

Land deal

On Tuesday, 12 days after that meeting, Toledo’s city council agreed to spend $9.4 million to purchase more than 32 acres of land directly west of the Wrangler factory for its possible expansion.

A spokeswoman for Mayor Collins did not return a call seeking comment on the purchase. The Blade daily newspaper in Toledo reported Wednesday that Mayor Collins has declined to discuss how the purchase of the land “could affect strategic decisions by Chrysler.”

A spokeswoman for Chrysler declined to comment on the land purchase by Toledo.

Switching the Wrangler from a steel to aluminum body would lower its weight but add complexity to its construction, as such a move did for the 2015 Ford F-150 pickup. Marchionne said in Paris that Chrysler executives were having the same discussions “inside our house now” that Ford executives had to have with the F-150 switchover.

However, unlike Ford and its top-selling F-150, Chrysler has only one plant where it builds the Wrangler, and that plant is already working far above its intended capacity.

A switchover to aluminum that would suspend Wrangler production for even a few weeks would eat into dealer stocks and deeply cut into Chrysler’s profits. The Wrangler is one of Chrysler’s most profitable vehicles because it sells well with few incentives.

Wrangler production is on pace to reach 235,000 vehicles in 2014, which would be a third consecutive record.

Limited shipments

Despite higher production, growing demand domestically for the off-roader has forced Jeep to limit its plan to export the vehicle to more markets worldwide. Earlier this year, Jeep brand head Mike Manley said he was limiting Wrangler shipments to some overseas markets to make more of the vehicles available to U.S. dealers.

Through September, dealers in the United States have sold 134,068 Wranglers, up 12 percent from a year earlier. Wrangler sales in the U.S. trail only the Grand Cherokee at 136,310 through the first nine months of the year in Jeep’s five-vehicle lineup.

Sales of Jeep vehicles were up 45 percent through September to 516,387.

Minaccionne colpisce ancora !!!!!!!! Che stron..........one figl.....o di.............

[panda4x4]

Jeep - Prime Anticipazioni Sulla Nuova Wrangler - Quattroruote

In attesa del debutto della nuova Jeep Wrangler previsto per il 2017, si rincorrono già importanti anticipazioni sulle sue caratteristiche. La Wrangler è il prodotto simbolo del marchio del Gruppo Chrysler e la sua indole da fuoristradista dura e pura è da sempre la sua caratteristica principale. Proprio per questo motivo, secondo quanto riportato da Automotive News, la nuova generazione manterrà la struttura con telaio a longheroni, una scelta ormai riservata solo a pochi modelli.

Le novità. D'altro canto, il reparto tecnico sta cercando soluzioni per rendere la Wrangler adatta alle attuali esigenze dei mercati e per questo sembra ormai certa l'adozione della carrozzeria di alluminio, che permetterà di ridurre massa e consumi. Non sono escluse novità importanti dal punto di vista delle sospensioni, dei motori e delle trasmissioni, con un logico downsizing delle unità benzina e un'importante evoluzione a livello aerodinamico. In alcune interviste, Sergio Marchionne ha confermato che la Wrangler dovrà necessariamente essere "modernizzata", senza però perdere il legame con il passato e mantenendo soprattutto le sue caratteristiche uniche nella guida in fuoristrada.

Produzione. Tutte queste scelte influenzeranno anche la produzione della Wrangler: la tradizione vorrebbe che la Jeep continuasse a nascere esclusivamente nella fabbrica di Toledo, dove però l'utilizzo dell'alluminio richiederebbe investimenti ingenti. Del resto, è di pochi giorni fa la notizia dell'acquisizione di nuovi terreni accanto all'attuale complesso industriale, segno di una possibile e logica espansione del sito produttivo.

Modificato 27 Ottobre 2014 da panda4x4

[RiRino]

come si fa a creare quel riquadro come nel post di pennellotref ?

Devi premere il tasto(in alto a destra):''Racchiudi tra i tag

il testo selezionato''.

L'ultimo articolo di Autonews al riguardo

TOLEDO, Ohio -- The next-generation Jeep Wrangler will feature an aluminum body to save weight, and will remain a body-on-frame vehicle, sources say.

Because Chrysler won't make the switch to unibody construction, Wrangler assembly will probably stay in Toledo. And that means the company will likely produce more Wranglers for U.S. dealers and for export.

There's plenty, though, that we don't know about the redesigned SUV, due in 2017:

• Will Chrysler downsize the current 3.6-liter V-6 and squeeze in an eight-speed automatic transmission?

• The Wrangler will keep its frame, but will the next-generation retain its solid axles, preferred by off-road enthusiasts? With its recent one-off concept vehicles, the company has dropped various hints about the nature of the redesigned SUV.

• The city of Toledo on Tues., Oct. 21, agreed to buy 32 acres adjacent to the Wrangler assembly plant. That suggests that a plant expansion is in the works, but the city and the automaker are mum on the possibility.

The Wrangler tale started in early October in Paris when Sergio Marchionne, CEO of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, was asked about two of his previous promises -- never to build Wranglers outside Toledo and no more brick-and-mortar factories in North America.

In his response, Marchionne chose his words carefully. He said that the next Wrangler needed to lose weight and that doing so with aluminum might mean the Wrangler had to move elsewhere because of excessive costs to re-equip the Toledo plant for aluminum assembly.

He pointed out that Chrysler had excess capacity in at least two of its existing plants. But the two plants he named currently build only unibody vehicles, which can't be built on the same line as body-on-frame vehicles.

Marchionne's comments set Toledo on edge and started a campaign to keep the Wrangler in its historic home. But now that sources have confirmed that the vehicle will remain body-on-frame, Toledo is breathing a little easier.

Toledo Assembly is one of only two Chrysler body-on-frame assembly plants in the United States. And the land purchase next to the plant suggests both that an expansion is possible and that local officials are working on it.

An expansion could keep Wrangler production flowing and avoid a profit-eroding production hiatus like the one the company endured in 2012 and 2013 when it retooled the unibody half of Toledo Assembly for the Jeep Cherokee.

[h=4]Enthusiasts want to know[/h]

Enthusiasts and others, though, are just as eager to know how the redesigned SUV will be equipped.

Jeep won't talk about its plans for the next-generation Wrangler other than to say it "will be the most capable Wrangler ever."

Yet engineers and designers with the brand have provided regular clues to what they were working on with experimental vehicles taken out to the annual Easter Jeep Safari in Moab, Utah.

In 2011, for example, Jeep produced a one-off Wrangler it called Pork Chop. The concept dropped various components and replaced others with aluminum, carbon fiber-reinforced plastic and other lightweight materials to shed 850 pounds from the 3,839-pound base 2011 Wrangler Sport.

Two years later, Jeep's design team followed up with another one-off project for Moab that it called Stitch. Based on a heavy-duty Wrangler Rubicon, Stitch shaved weight wherever possible, including its frame, axles, body and interior.

The exercise shed more than 1,130 pounds from the 4,132-pound base 2013 Rubicon.

But weight is not the only factor that keeps the hot-selling Wrangler from improving its fuel economy. Aerodynamics and the drivetrain are likely to play an even larger role than aluminum in boosting the redesigned SUV's mileage.

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[h=4]Rolling brick[/h]

Aerodynamically, the Wrangler is often called a rolling brick because of its flat front surfaces that block air.

A more angled front grille would better slice the air instead of hitting it with the equivalent of a flat board, while a raked windscreen would reduce drag substantially as well.

Marchionne said Jeep also needs to find a way to use smaller displacement engines in the Wrangler than the current 3.6-liter V-6.

Also, more gears in the automatic transmission than the current five-speed would significantly boost mileage.

The eight-speed automatic that the automaker uses in its rear-wheel-drive lineup doesn't fit in the current Wrangler. That transmission helps the Ram 1500 achieve the highest highway fuel economy rating of any full-size pickup and would dramatically improve the Wrangler's fuel economy as well.

Marchionne and Jeep brand head Mike Manley have repeatedly said that the company has two overwhelming priorities as it redesigns the Wrangler for 2017: keep Wranglers flowing off the assembly line uninterrupted and don't screw up a good product.

"It is a problem because the evolution of the architecture will entail a significant change in the way in which Wrangler is built," Marchionne said in Paris. "We need to preserve two things: all of [Wrangler's] capabilities, and certainly we need to modernize it."

The likely plant expansion would keep Wrangler production flowing. And the body-on-frame is a good start to keep the SUV's capabilities. The company has hinted how it will modernize the next Wrangler, but the details are yet to come.

http://www.autonews.com/article/20141027/OEM01/310279954/next-generation-wrangler-will-get-an-aluminum-body

[panda4x4]

ecco fatto grazie !

[RiRino]

Ipotesi sulla sospensione anteriore

Allpar’s owner, David Zatz, asked what approach Jeep is likely to take with the “independent suspension” Wrangler for the 2017 model year. This article is based on my engineering evaluation of various public sources, plus private discussions.

[h=2]Will it really have an independent suspension?[/h] The short answer: Yes, I believe it will have a front independent suspension, adapted from the Ram 4x4, with a live rear axle.

Why not Li’l Blue (patent diagrams above and right), which can exceed the capability of current Wrangler designs (due to the floating differential and long-travel design)? The current staff is not capable of tuning and adapting it, and lack the technical expertice to further develop it. There is no incentive for me to give away my own two generations of independent development beyond the original, and they have not got enough money to get Evan Boberg or me back to work on it. It does have a lot of advantages at minimal cost.

I expect a live axle in the rear, since it does not steer. It is cheaper to change the tubes and axle shafts than the front, with the steering issues.

An independent suspension has indirect aerodynamic benefits. One of the most turbulent area on any Wrangler or CJ has always been the gap between the fender leading edge and bumper on either side and the gap between the radiator shell and bumper, creating a swirling mass of air trapped in and around the sheet metal, causing unstable drag. Jack has closed the gaps and improved the airflow by around 10%.

Using a body mounted drive axle would also allow an overall lowering of the body, relative to the ground, for further improvements.

Narrowing the body reduces the “hole” the car has to punch through at speed, further improving the aerodynamics. The cost to narrow a live axle exceeds the cost to narrow an independent suspension, due to retooling the axle tubes, axle shafts, and steering geometry changes for the knuckles.

It would cost less to provide a front suspension and live axle link coil suspension to narrow the track, pulling the tires inside the new narrower body footprint and narrowing the fenders to lower the drag and increasing highway fuel economy.

An independent suspension would also:

• Reduce unsprung weight, helping on-road handling.
  
• Letting wheels react independently, so that one wheel hitting an obstacle does not affect both sides (one cause of wheel shimmy, or “the death wobble”).
  
  • This would also keep all four of the wheels on the ground, in most on-road and most off-road driving (within the limits of suspension travel) situations, increasing stability and control.
    

  [*]Independent suspensions can generally be built as a unit and shipped to the factory, speeding installation and sometimes cutting costs.

Chrysler is not in business to support the aftermarket. This is nothing new. Their only concern is with selling cars and moving iron. How innovation spreads from carline to carline matters. Bigger tires and differential locks don’t.

Disadvantages include higher cost, more difficulty in increasing vertical wheel travel, reduced ground clearance when rebounding from a bump, and the difficulty of increasing ground clearance. Owners who want to modify their vehicles will find the price and/or engineering challenge to be much higher.

Looking at the Jeep Commander vs the Ram, both used a similar front suspension, but with different ball joints, slightly longer upper and lower control arms on the Jeep, different tuning, different frame attachments (changing basic geometry), and different shocks and attachments.

To sum up, I can see the changes to be:

• 4 inches narrower (track width and fender change)
  
• 1.5 inch lower body (suspension up inside the body but the same overall height)
  
• A 15% fuel economy improvement highway
  

[h=3]A quick review of the Ram 4x4 rear link-coil suspension[/h] The new Ram suspension builds on the success of the original ZJ Jeep (Grand Cherokee) rear link-coil suspension design, but corrects many of the shortcomings of the original ZJ design. It avoids errors of the past Chevy truck indpendent suspension by using five links rather than three.

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The springs are canted and “bent” at the loaded position (two 150-lb passengers, full fluids, and half payload) so reactions to motion of the ground contact patch are efficiently controlled and isolated.

The UCA (Upper Control Arm) links appear to be splayed outward at the frame attachment points, providing lateral stability which, along with the track bar (or “panhard rod”) keeps the lateral shift of the axle, between its maximum travel up and down, to the minimum possible arc. Due to the over-constrained system, the axle will travel laterally in the vehicle, through an arc of around two inches total, left to right. The positioning of the track bar ensures that the travel will be split evenly from jounce to rebound, minimizing the dreaded “head toss” prevalent in the Jeep XJ (Cherokee), MJ (Comanche pickup), and early ZJs (Grand Cherokees).

The side view between the upper and lower control arms indicates a long instant center (a theoretical point in space ahead of the axle, that controls the fore and aft arc the axle travels through as it goes from jounce to rebound). This ensures the axle does not change the wheelbase a great deal, affecting braking distances and geometry and upsetting the transient dynamics of handling in an emergency lane change.

The rear stabilizer bar is the only complaint I have about this design. As was shown on the original Dodge Dakota 4x4, the most effective position of a stabilizer bar is to place the end links as close to a rigid body (the center of the frame, where the bend and torsion is minimized) as possible. I do not know all the compromises the engineering staff were forced to make, but I am concerned this location has forced several poor tradeoffs, primarily excess weight needed from larger than desired components to control the loading. (The senior manager of the team, Steve Williams, wrote, “The only room for the bar was behind the axle, so the frame was a clean sheet design to accompany this. The frame is a box section, hydroformed to provide the strength required.”)

[h=2]The 2013-2015 Ram 1500 suspension: supplemental notes[/h]

Ram trucks built starting in 2009 used a multi-link coil-spring rear suspension, which weighed 40 pounds less than a leaf-spring configuration. The Ram 4x4 had a larger articulation range than its leaf-spring competitors, with less freeway hop. Shock absorbers were forward-facing and positioned on the outside of the frame.

[h=3]Air suspension[/h] The Ram 1500’s optional air suspension system alters height with air pressure, with five settings:

• Normal: Stays at 8.7 inches of clearance (from the base of the door sill)
  
• Aero: Lowers the Ram by 1.1 inches, increasing gas mileage by up to 1%; activated by highway speeds
  
• Off-road 1 and 2: Rises to 9.9 and 10.7 inches of clearance, respectively, to clear obstacles
  
• Park: Lowers the truck to a height of 6.7 inches for easy entry/exit and cargo loading
  

The system uses the tanks shown in blue as reservoirs; it does not use outside air.

The four air springs (one in each corner) have spring rates which depend on the ride height. In Off-Road 2, the rate is firmer, while in Aero mode, the rate is softened.

2018 Jeep Wrangler in depth, Part 2: Suspension choices

[LucioFire]

in altri lidi già piangono che verrà trasformata in un suv...a quanto leggo sopra non è vero

[RVC]

in altri lidi già piangono che verrà trasformata in un suv...a quanto leggo sopra non è vero

Dipende da dove si parte... Con un sistema come quello del RAM, avrà capacità fuoristradistiche ridotte rispetto al Wrangler attuale.

[stev66]

Questo è un pò da vedere. Campagnola aveva quattro sospensioni indipendenti , ma alla prova dei fatti si comportava meglio in fuoristrada della Land Rover coeva ad assali fissi.

A mio parere, in Jeep staranno bene attenti a non predere in prestazioni in fuoristrada , anche perchè i talebani non aspettano altro