VR Ute

[vlad01]

Why do those cars get special treatment? If anything aren't 4x4s generally considered the most obnoxious vehicles and drivers? I would have thought they would be the ones a small town universally would be most annoyed about. I get Harley though, no one usually complains about a loud bike.

Anyway, with these chassis, they were always limited on wheel width. I found 215 to be the widest that doesn't rub 98% of the time on sedan. I think ute and wagon would be similar. I had 225 and they worked most of the time but would rub inside and outside on the rear when turning hard or under heavy carrying load.

215 doesn't rub at all under carry loads, but occasionally can kiss the inner and outer rear guards simultaneously when cornering hard. Inside wheel stretches out and nicks the outer guard and the outside wheel tucks in and kisses the upper inner guard. You don't hear it on 215s but you do see the fresh witness marks.

I guess that's why Holden considered the 185 the standard wheel and the 205 the wider option for the VN and VP. VR and onward fixed the issues and they could run 235 no problems at all and they had the wider axle to stop the inner rub too.

But as far as I can tell, VN to VS ute and wagon still had the same sort of design as the square arch in the VN, VP did and might be limited like you're suggesting.

[brindo]

I am starting to doubt whether mufflers aren't an optional extra on Landcruisers. But worse still are 5 cyl Ford Rangers - the exhaust on them is just noise, there's no note to it. Rangers only sound good on the back of a tilt tray.

Regardless the resonator is fitted now. It has certainly knocked the edge off it and depending on who you are its a lot better. Feedback so far is that "you've wrecked it" and "this is only good for you and the neighbours", and it "sounds like a vacuum cleaner".

[immortality]

A single 2.5" is way to small for a 215i engine.

[brindo]

This is a 3" single, but at this stage the cat is only 2.5", which can wait for another day.
I originally wanted a twin cat twin system with a 3" single pipe over the diff, but for $300 for a near new 3" catback versus $2500 for a custom system I couldn't pass it up.

[vlad01]

I find this chart helpful.

Exhaust_flow_chart_large.webp (16.51 KiB) Viewed 2106 times

[immortality]

That is a good chart.

I prefer twin exhaust systems where possible.

It's a shame muffler manufacturers don't post flow numbers for ....mufflers.

[seabreeze]

Nice ute brindo. Nothing beats the sound of a plastic!

I've got a 235/40/18 tyre on the VN wagon. Lovells springs and stock panhard bar. Easily 15mm of clearance both sides. No hint of rub.

[brindo]

Thanks seabreeze, thats good info.
That’s with a VT offsett rim too? Are you running any wheel spacers?

I had a VS wagon that had VT wheels which I thought were a 48p. I ran 225s and it used to scrape on the LH inner tub only, but I never had an adjustable panhard bar. The RH side was fine.
My old VS ute, which I thought was 43p, never had any issues with 225s at all.
I’ll have to do some research on what 235 profiles are available in 15 inch rims.

[seabreeze]

Yeah, VX Clubby rims. They fit perfect. I didn't expect that to be the case.
I've a VS ute with VU wheels, 225/50/16 tyre, lowered, with an adjustable panhard bar. Even with that it was a pain to stop scrubbing the RHS inner wheel well.
VN wagon is pretty much brand new underneath, so maybe that and the factory HSV wheels are doing the trick.
I'm pretty sure the VR/VS utes got a slightly different offset wheel from factory. Deceptively little room in there.
Yours tubbed with a fat tyre would look tough as!

[vlad01]

I have about 10-15mm with 215, but body roll takes that away as live axles do, but only just touches without making any noticeable sound. The witness marks tell all. Only just, takes the dust/dirt off and cleans the paint in those spots without actually eating into anything. The side walls show the same clean darker rubber.

On my VP S with walkies, there is only 7mm with 215s, so it will get the 205 as per the factory walky specs to hopefully be ok. They have a pretty negative offset compared to factory wheels, so you could have the axles shorten by maybe 10mm each side to be sure nothing will ever rub.

When I had 225s on the shitbox is was about the same sub 10mm and it rubbed inside and out all of the time when loaded up, not even with cornering in the equation. The side wall shape had a lot to do with it.

I think I may has posted pics of this before and the lack of space, both inner and outer guards. If not, I'll try adding them. if I find them, I believe that was with 225 before I had them swapped to 215.

When you run a straight edge across the tyre sidewall to the guard you get the true clearance under load, and it usually was only 2-5mm when measuring 10-15mm with a ruler.


I did take pics of the white VP too with the factory steel rims and caps under full suspension articulation when the springs were out, and yeah there is bugger all room even with 205 under these conditions.

On the VR when I was getting the entire exhaust out over the diff. I dropped the shocks and the wheels never hit anything stretched almost double their max normal travel on the left side and fully compressed on the right. The outer guards being flared and round added lots of room and some is also given to the inner guard by widening the axle by I think 15 mm over VN/VP.

Plenty when the suspension moves just up and down, but most people forget about the angles when cornering or only one side going over bumps.

Live axle has pretty crazy angles when cornering hard or very uneven road relative to the body of the car.