Solid Axle versus Independent Front Suspension

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There are many differences between solid axles and independent front suspension and how they are both widely used throughout the four-wheel drive world whether on a truck or an SUV and even from the roughest terrain to cruising down the highway. The different types of axle also affects the way a truck or SUV handles while towing a heavy load down the road, either gravel or on a paved surface.
Solid axles are most usually built using top grade materials such as chromoly and high tensile Pittsburg steel. The Dana 44 and the Dana 60 front axles are mostly used for trial riding and high-speed use in a mud hole or at a 4x4 drag race. These axles have been tested and proven to hold up to the axle manufacturers standards and when stock can withstand quite a beating but when slightly or heavily modified with lockers and a lower gear ratio will absolutely destroy any obstacle it is put up against. The solid front axle, (most usually the Dana 44 or the Dana 60), is used on a wide variety of vehicles from trucks to SUV’s. It is used in the Jeep, the older Chevrolet, (pre-1992), the heavy duty Dodge because IFS or independent front suspension is still used in the manufacturers light duty 1500 model trucks, and Ford which, like the Dodge, only has the large solid axles in their heavy-duty trucks like the F-250 through the F-550 and after that also use solid axles but they are the large, bulky, two and a half ton Rockwell axles mostly used in four-wheel drive semis. Then there is the light duty Ford such as the F-150, which the Independent Front Suspension is used in. Larger trucks such as semis and smaller heavy duty trucks that work for Duke Power or Asplundh are the larger F-650’s which have the large, bulky, two and a half ton Rockwell axl...

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Cappa, John, Sean Holman, and Ken Brubaker. "Automobiles- Springs and Suspension." Fourwheeler. NC WiseOwl, May 2012. Web. 17 Feb. 2014. .

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