Independent Rear Suspension on the T1XX

[Thomcat]

So, time for a good Avalanche story.

 

In the Home Depot lot loading about 15 sheets of sheet rock by sliding into the bed with the rear seats folded and midgate down. Some good ol' boys further down the aisle who evidently were unfamiliar with the Avalanche's design were watching me. When I finished and slammed the gate they came over to look in amazement how pieces of 8' long sheet rock could be loaded into what appears from the outside to be a 5' bed. I opened the rear door and showed them the folded rear seats area and opening to the bed .......they said:  "We had to come over and look, we thought you wuz a magician or something!"

[OnTheReel]

6 minutes ago, tuna mac said:

I’d rather have a two bulletproof solid axles on my truck. Guess I should have bought a ram power wagon

I don’t miss the death wobble, constant U-joint clicking, axle seal leaks, and all too common ball joint failures that come along with solid front axles. If there’s a bulletproof example, I certainly wasn’t ever lucky enough to get it. I got no problems at all with IFS, and GM was first to the market with that, at least in the HDs.
 

Now the independent rear suspension push will put us into the unfamiliar land of rear wheel alignments, blown CV joints and all the other crap that we’ve never had to deal with.
 

Call me skeptical on GM’s 4 million miles of tests on this set up. They advertised similar testing figures for these pickups. Somehow they still missed a few pretty substantial issues...

[tuna mac]

28 minutes ago, OnTheReel said:

I don’t miss the death wobble, constant U-joint clicking, axle seal leaks, and all too common ball joint failures that come along with solid front axles. If there’s a bulletproof example, I certainly wasn’t ever lucky enough to get it. I got no problems at all with IFS, and GM was first to the market with that, at least in the HDs.
 

Now the independent rear suspension push will put us into the unfamiliar land of rear wheel alignments, blown CV joints and all the other crap that we’ve never had to deal with.
 

Call me skeptical on GM’s 4 million miles of tests on this set up. They advertised similar testing figures for these pickups. Somehow they still missed a few pretty substantial issues...

Ya I’d be curious exactly what said 4 million miles were like...ain’t no way they were all real world miles. Or if they were they overlooked a lot of issues. 

[econometrics]

31 minutes ago, OnTheReel said:

Call me skeptical on GM’s 4 million miles of tests on this set up. They advertised similar testing figures for these pickups. Somehow they still missed a few pretty substantial issues...

 No kidding. Like leaving the truck outside in rain while it was parked during those “7 million miles of testing”.  

Edited December 29, 2019 by econometrics

[f8l vnm]

5 hours ago, Badbird2000 said:

You are correct. Not sure why I thought they were irs. Just coil springs. My bad...please ignore me...

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk
 

No worries bud. All good my man. I get shit wrong all the time , this is why we’re are all here. 

[f8l vnm]

I’d actually love air suspension as an option like they will have now on the new SUV. Not standard but an option.  Buddies limited RAM rides really smooth. But obviously you give up a little capability 

[UGADawgs]

2 hours ago, econometrics said:

 No kidding. Like leaving the truck outside in rain while it was parked during those “7 million miles of testing”.  

They were always covered in the spy cladding so they never actually water tested them in the wild. 

[Thomcat]

10 hours ago, f8l vnm said:

I’d actually love air suspension as an option like they will have now on the new SUV. Not standard but an option.  Buddies limited RAM rides really smooth. But obviously you give up a little capability 

Article wasn't talking air suspension, but magnetic ride suspension which if like Honda's motor mounts is a whole different expensive animal. Hondas used them to  filter out the wicked V3 vibrations in their short lived V3/4/6 engine, other makes may use them for different purposes including suspension control.  Basically a rubber bladder filled with a magnetic liquid that changes viscosity as a function of the strength of an electromechanical field similart to a variable strength spring.. Ones designed with the size and strength to handle the weight loads of a pickup would likely cost more than the engine to replace, not if, but when, damaged

[OnTheReel]

1 hour ago, Thomcat said:

Article wasn't talking air suspension, but magnetic ride suspension which if like Honda's motor mounts is a whole different expensive animal. Hondas used them to  filter out the wicked V3 vibrations in their short lived V3/4/6 engine, other makes may use them for different purposes including suspension control.  Basically a rubber bladder filled with a magnetic liquid that changes viscosity as a function of the strength of an electromechanical field similart to a variable strength spring.. Ones designed with the size and strength to handle the weight loads of a pickup would likely cost more than the engine to replace, not if, but when, damaged

 

The article talks about the possibilities of GM using the IRS to add air suspension or magnetic ride control. The article doesn’t mention that the 2015-2018 Sierra Denalis already had MRC. So it wouldn’t be really “new”, so much as it would just bringing back something that the bean counters got rid of. GM replaced MRC with Adaptive Ride Control for the T1s; a simpler (cheaper) system without the magnetic fluid. 
 

Doesn't matter, the same bean counters that killed MRC won’t allow this IRS to see the underside of a pickup bed anytime soon. Another worthless, speculative article that will likely be proven wrong.