On 6/17/2011 we had our 2010 Jeep Wrangler unlimited rubicon on an off-road trail in 2wd. The trail can be described as mild terrain not requiring 4WD for any part of the trail. Approximately 2 miles in we heard a loud noise, stopped the vehicle and discovered that the front axle housing was cracked. Chrysler's roadside assistance would not recover teh vehicle from the trail so we got it to a maintained road. Several days later we had the vehicle towed to our Jeep dealer for inspection. Warranty work was denied on the broken axle housing due to Chrysler's determination that we teh failure occurred due to extreme off-roading. Verbally we were also told that we were not using the vehicle for its intended purpose. We submitted photos and narratives of similiar incidents (front axle housing breaks during during mild off-road driving, and one instance of hitting a curb with the tires). These were regarded as incidents of extreme off-roading as well. Since the breakage occurred after several miles of travel on maintained highway, and then approximately 15 miles on mild off-road trails that did not require 4WD we will replace the entire axle with an aftermarket product that is similiar in cost. Our concern is that as we research online we are finding similiar incidents under similiar conditions - front axle housing breaks in the same location when the vehicle is under only slghtly higher than normal driving conditions on 2007-2010 Jeep Wrangler jk unlimited rubicons. Rubicons have an upgraded suspension system for off-road use comapred to other models and feature a "trail rated" badge on the vehicle, but light off-road use caused failure in our vehicle.

- Fruita, CO, USA