Portal Axles
Photo: foxnews
With axle clearance, you have two options: normal height and something else. Something else usually means aftermarket lifting, which guarantees you will spend every weekend offroading to make it worth the money. Also, you’re guaranteed to get terrible mileage. What would be ideal is if that axle clearance could vary, situation depending. The Mercedes-Benz G550 plans to do just that with portal axles. These high-tech axles facilitate raising the clearance of your axle above the centerline in your wheels. Yes, you read that correctly. The clearance, when raised, exceeds the middle of your wheels. The simple answer to “how?” is, gears. This technology will come in handy when we colonize Mars.