The case for IRS on a ute

As most are aware there are two "cars with a big boot" style utes available in Australia, Holden and Falcon. They are very competitive with each other but there is one are in which they are polar opposites, rear suspension.

The Holden range all feature IRS whereas the Ford range have leaf springs. This is the case all the wau up to the HSV and FPV models.

One advantage in the leaf is that it is not difficult to upgrade to 1 tonne load capability which appeals to some tradies and agricultural workers but as the majority of the higher end utes are just "cars with a big boot" and driven by people who have little commercial use I am wondering if the lack of IRS is a contributing factor to the ratio of Holden SS/SSV/Redline/Maloo to Ford XR6T/GS.

The XRT & GS are priced well and significanlty quicker in accelleration but are less common and quite surprisingly seem to retain a lower resale.

Like the "pretty red brakes" is the idea that IRS is superior more marketing hype than practical and is the hype pushing potential buyers in the other direction?

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Originally Posted by F6

As most are aware there are two "cars with a big boot" style utes available in Australia, Holden and Falcon. They are very competitive with each other but there is one are in which they are polar opposites, rear suspension.

The Holden range all feature IRS whereas the Ford range have leaf springs. This is the case all the wau up to the HSV and FPV models.

One advantage in the leaf is that it is not difficult to upgrade to 1 tonne load capability which appeals to some tradies and agricultural workers but as the majority of the higher end utes are just "cars with a big boot" and driven by people who have little commercial use I am wondering if the lack of IRS is a contributing factor to the ratio of Holden SS/SSV/Redline/Maloo to Ford XR6T/GS.

The XRT & GS are priced well and significanlty quicker in accelleration but are less common and quite surprisingly seem to retain a lower resale.

Like the "pretty red brakes" is the idea that IRS is superior more marketing hype than practical and is the hype pushing potential buyers in the other direction?

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I've never really seen utes as performance vehicles, to me they're "work horses" so id tend to see function come ahead of form.

I totally understand why basic SS/XR8 level utes sell because they are largely "tradie" tools but never quite understood the appeal of the next level up SP/Maloo. I'm not going to deny they're fairly popular though.

That being the case unless you could engineer the IRS to be just as capable as the Live axle for load carrying and just as cost effective i cant see the point of going to the expense of it for such a small market even if it gives them a marketing spin to work off..

It used to annoy the crap out of me too with my mates who owned utes because whenever you wanted to go anywhere as a group they couldn't carry anymore than 1 passenger.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by F6

As most are aware there are two "cars with a big boot" style utes available in Australia, Holden and Falcon. They are very competitive with each other but there is one are in which they are polar opposites, rear suspension.

The Holden range all feature IRS whereas the Ford range have leaf springs. This is the case all the wau up to the HSV and FPV models.

One advantage in the leaf is that it is not difficult to upgrade to 1 tonne load capability which appeals to some tradies and agricultural workers but as the majority of the higher end utes are just "cars with a big boot" and driven by people who have little commercial use I am wondering if the lack of IRS is a contributing factor to the ratio of Holden SS/SSV/Redline/Maloo to Ford XR6T/GS.

The XRT & GS are priced well and significanlty quicker in accelleration but are less common and quite surprisingly seem to retain a lower resale.

Like the "pretty red brakes" is the idea that IRS is superior more marketing hype than practical and is the hype pushing potential buyers in the other direction?

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Well I would love to have IRS in the Falcon Ute. I owned an AU XR6 VCT sedan which had the best IRS fitted to an Aussie car to date. (That was sold for an FG XR6 sedan last year.) I have an AU2 XL Ute and the handling and ability to put the power down in it compared to the AU IRS sedan is huge. I fitted some performance springs, shocks and swaybars over xmas which reduced the difference. But it is still significant. This week I'm putting on some 18" wheels and tyres. I will be interested to see how that goes.

I do use my mine mostly as a daily but also for building work. I've had up to 900kg of concrete or thereabouts in it.

I'm likely to be towing a car trailer (with bits and pieces in the AU's tray) in a few weeks time to pick up an XM Falcon shell which will be a 700km round trip so it definitey gets used hard from time to time.

IRS is mostly about perception when it comes to Utes. But, lets face it, most things in life these days do come down to perceptions.

My next car, that If things work out how I expect, will be an FPV FG2 GS Ute, Manual in White with Black. If that had an IRS it would be unreal. But not a deal breaker that it is not. It's load carrying capacity is I think mostly limited by 19" tyres to 540kg IIRC. Perhaps again a modern form over function debate.

Gday,

So the GS has a tyre load rating of 540kgs? So why doesn't it have IRS then instead of leaf spring? or are you able to option an 18 or 17" rim for a heavier load rating?

Well it is just the same chassis as all the others with a big engine. It would cost an absolute fortune to develop an IRS systems for just the "sport" models and moving all of the utes to IRS would preclude the "tradie" utes carrying 1 tonne. It would also quite possibly prevent the trayback options making falcon, like holden, styleside only.

How this will be affected by the increase of Ranger sales is another story all together.

If Ford were to use Ranger for "tradie" and create a new IRS only ute for the XR6/T/GS that may also overcome the other "styling issue" of the separate tub would there enough of a market to make this viable?

Exactely F6 - is it viable ?? I doubt it I'm afraid.

What if there was a solid axle terri, taking the place of the tradies falcon ute?

Even then, i can't really see the need. Ford over the past 14 years have done a good job with the ute, it always seems to be a favorite. No other company offers a Falcon ute-type vehicle. You hardly see a VE used as a tradies ute...(maybe young building-trades apprentices...)


The ute should stay as it is...a ute.