nhegel

Is the 2 door stronger than the 4 door?

Pan117

Four door is stronger for sure. They have an extra vertical pillar on each side because of the extra door

TXstiGuy

uh extra pillar well on the two door from the "b" pillar back is solid

cherokee4meplz

the 4 door is the better looking of the two, IMHO.

BlueXJ

4 door has an A pillar and a B pillar plus the C pillar while the 2 door has only the A & B pillars. So the 4 door is a little stiffer. But there is a minimal difference in rigidity on the street but in the rocks with the doors removed the 4 door is the more rigid body.

TrueBlueXJ

x2. I've been tempted to remove my doors in the past, but would never do so until there's a set of strong tube doors to replace them, as the rigidity of the body would suffer too greatly. But I like the looks of the 2-door over the 4-door, and the visibility is much better.

wicked_xj

2 doors are more aggressive looking but 4 doors are stronger

OAS

As far as unibody CARS go, a 2 door version will always be both lighter AND structurally stonger than the same model in a 4 door version.

I would ASSume ( ) that the Cherokee being of unibody contruction also, would follow this trend.

The extra 2 doors not only add more weight and complexity (window mechanisms, door beams, etc) BUT the openings must be further reinforced as this is 2 extra "holes" cut into the side of the body.

Look at the specs on any of the older auto's that offered multiple bodystyles in the same car model genre.

PS: dont hit me! I drive a 4dr. Country!

redmuck

i dont know about strength, i hav the 4 door because its easier for me and passengers.

xj jeepman

4 doors r stiffer

Fen

I have to agree with OAS; the 2 door version is always the stronger in my experience and I can't see why the Cherokee would be any different. Perhaps with the doors removed the situation is different as 2 smaller openings probably allows less flex than one bigger one, but with the doors installed I just can't see how 4 doors can be stiffer. Pillars aren't stronger than solid sections of bodywork.

I'm also a 4-door driver however. I wanted it to be my practical DD so 4 is better, but in any case I'm not sure the 2-door was sold outside the US as I don't know that I've ever seen one.

ulendo

wrong concept - the Cherokee isnt a conventional unibody, but body-on-frame. in a unibody, there's NO longitudinal structure underneath, and the sheetmetal does all the work. Body on frame is more like an aircraft structure with spars, and stringers. there IS a frame under the cherokee..lighter than a chassis, but FAR stronger than a unibody.

re stronger...the 4 door has extra spars when compared to the 2 door..in essence it has more braces to triangulate the roof structure. is it stronger...I'm not qualified to say, but if you look through the highly modifieds that are being rock crawled, or even just the sales #'s, the 4 doors seem to have superiority.

Venumb

The doors on XJ's add nothing to the rigidity of the body. Your XJ will flex the same w/ or w/o doors..2 or 4. That being said..I'd never wheel w/o doors of some type in place just for my own personal safety.

Fen

If the 4 door has more strengthening in it than the 2 door that is for one reason only; it would be too weak without it. It is possible it could be strengthened to the point it's stronger than the 2 door I guess, though I don't know why that would have been part of the original design unless the difference is very marginal.

I've never owned a monocoque car that didn't have box section rails under the floor; there is nothing special about the XJ underneath compared to the vast majority of vehicles with no separate chassis.

Doors make a massive difference to structural rigidity. They are not as good as solid panels, but they are massively better than empty holes. If you aren't conviced then jack the truck up by the middle of a rocker until both wheels are in the air and then see if the doors on that side are as easy to open as they normally are. My money is on the catch being stiffer to release because the door is stressed by the flex in the body.

Many years ago I had a Cherokee as a company car in the Middle East. When I had quit the company and was working out my notice period I had the opportunity to play with it in the desert along with another guy who was also leaving; we weren't exactly feeling like responsible, happy employees. We raced it about 15 miles from the drilling rig we were working on to the nearest store to buy water and chocolate and then raced it back, one driving each way and timing the trip. I lost; the other guy at one point getting off the track and crossing it at roughly 70 degrees - the track was about 2 feet sunken compared to the desert. We took off pretty well and it felt pretty lucky to keep the XJ on its wheels when it landed. Quite a few 2 gallon water bottles split open as well.

Anyway, the point being when we got back to the rig I had to bend all 4 door tops back into shape by sticking my knee in the top of the door card and pulling the window frame. You could see close to an inch of daylight between the top of the back doors and the door shut, the fronts were not quite so bad. That tells me that the body of that 4 door flexed a massive amount.

ulendo

where do you work?? I work at Okanagan Truck Performance, and lifts, diesels, and conversions put food on my table....I deal with this stuff on a daily, if not hourly basis. theres a VAST difference between 'most' unibody cars, XUV's, and SUV's when compared to the XJ's body on frame setup. the gauge of the metal sections, lateral braces, and degree of internal bracing make the cherokee quite, quite different.