The Story Of A Cummins Suburban (Lots Of Pics)

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by MrBeast

I was going to ask, did you rebuild the NV4500 yourself?

Yes, there is a pic or two in here somewhere.

Originally Posted by MrBeast

I have a good question for you, I have heard that the stock GM master cylinder is not sufficiant to push the dodge slave on the cummins, I am looking at a wilwood that has a 1" bore and 1" stroke, do you think that would be sufficiant?

I honestly do not know. I have a complete hydraulic system for a 1st gen Dodge in mine. Might be something to consider for simplicity and ease of adapting.

Speaking of adapting, how are you adapting your 4500 to the 1st gen plate on the back of the motor?? Did you get the '94up motor plate with the trans?? If not you will need a conversion bellhousing to mate the 4500 to a 1st gen plate and at that point I would highly suggest the 1st gen hydraulic setup.

[mosesburb]

Well, I haven't been doing much with this except driving it. A couple notable things have occurred with it lately though. First and foremost, the moment you all have been waiting for (well, I have anyways), I got this super-lightweight, super-aerodynamic machine over 20mpg!! Yessir, we got a 20.55mpg tank out of it. I'm not sure how it happened, but I did the math three times and it worked out the same each time. Of course the next tank was 16.83 (I have no idea whatsoever how THAT happened), but that was followed my a 19.95, so I am counting the 16.83 as an anomaly. All along, I was hoping to get over 20mpg with this 6600lb machine and I finally got it. Hopefully I can repeat it here soon. Ironically, that 20.55 had some stop and go, some extended idle time and some A/C time on it as well (this time of year, the only time the A/C is on is when my wife is in the truck).

I finally got around to regearing the front axle. I picked up a set of like-new, used 3.73 gears. I then managed to match schedules with an old friend of mine to help with the install--thanks Brooce!! Everything to do with the gears went as smooth as could be, but I had some issues with water in the hubs. I am not sure how it got in as all of the seals and the washers under the screws are new, but there was definitely water in there at some time. Upon removal of the locking hub, I was greeted with rust everywhere. The left side was worse than the right as it required replacement of the outer wheel bearing and race due to rust issues. Immediately on the inside of the bearing was perfect--no water got past the bearing. On the right side, no water even got to the bearing. I only had to clean up the mess in the splined area of the hub. I will have to do some more looking to see how the water got in as it could only come from rain and/or driving in rain as the front axle has not been submerged in water.

On a completely different note, some of you may remember when I built the exhaust for this I built one section of it twice--one section with a muffler and the same section without a muffler. Well, Saturday morning I swapped the muffler-less pipe into the truck. Wow, what a difference. There is not too much noise difference idling and driving with a light foot without a muffler vs having a muffler, but when the hammer goes down this thing sounds like a whizzed off semi with and angry exhaust note. I took my boy for a ride to pick something up and when we got in I asked him if it sounded any different. He said no. Cruising out of the neighborhood I asked him again and he said no. Once we got out of the neighborhood, I got on it. I looked over at him and he had this ear-to-ear grin going on that was almost too big for his face. I asked him again and he said it sounded like a semi(truck)-racecar. I'm not sure what a semi(truck)-racecar sounds like, but if it sounds like this thing under heavy throttle, then it sounds pretty damn cool. We had a great time listening to the turbo wail and the exhaust howl and ended our day at a weekly car show.

It was a whole bunch of fun. In the end, I'm not sure who laughed more, me or him.
Great times!!

I did add a little bling to the unit this weekend. I have to thank Kert from diy4x for the idea and Scott (mrk5) from Big Horn Graphics for the excellent product.

I will let it speak for itself:



I realize it will not add the twenty hp that a performance parts sticker will, but I like it better anyways.

[83GMCK2500]

Wooo-sah! Sounds awesome. I wish you were closer, I'd love to take a look at that beast, what a great build.

What all does your "full Banks kit" include on the CTD? I don't remember, have you outliend what it has from air filter to tail pipe?

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by 83GMCK2500

Wooo-sah! Sounds awesome. I wish you were closer, I'd love to take a look at that beast, what a great build.

Thanks!! It is a real barrel of monkeys now. Ironically I was going to mention that my mileage would suffer from being on the throttle so much while enjoying the new exhaust note, but I filled up today and I still got 19.35mpg!! I have no idea how, but I will take it nonetheless!!

Originally Posted by 83GMCK2500

What all does your "full Banks kit" include on the CTD? I don't remember, have you outliend what it has from air filter to tail pipe?

To be honest, I do not recall exactly what all of the components of the kit were, but a few of the high-points are:
Intercooler
Intercooler tubing
Intake manifold plenum
Wastegated turbo exhaust housing (smaller than oe for faster spool-up with w/gate to control total boost)
I think the kit came with a Banks aif filter, but I could not use the monstrosity that was the oe filter housing.
Turbo downpipe
Gauges, EGT and Boost
Probably some more stuff to justify the ridiculous price of the kit.

If I ever find the sales literature, I will post actual components.

[MrBeast]

Man, I love the window sticker!

I did some of that too this weekend.

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by MrBeast

Man, I love the window sticker!

Thanks!!

Originally Posted by MrBeast

I did some of that too this weekend.

[LOW DOUGH]

I really liked the part about you and your son going for a ride! I hope that's what my daughter does when she gets older.

Good show!

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by LOW DOUGH

I really liked the part about you and your son going for a ride! I hope that's what my daughter does when she gets older.

Good show!

Thanks, I hope she does too.

"Dad, can we take the orange truck??" I never get tired of hearing that one. A funny side note on the trip to the car show. We were waiting at a light to go under the freeway and make a left on the other side to go up the on-ramp. Light turns green, go forward, make the left, then I get on the gas--nothing spectacular maybe a 50-75% effort if that. We crest the top of the on-ramp and I look over at my boy who had the veins in his neck sticking out, his arms rigidly trying to push himself up out of his booster seat and a look on his face that he is ready to cry.

Me- "The hell's wrong with you??"
Him- "We're going so fast"
Me- "No we're not" as I punch him in the arm, then point and laugh at him. He finds it is impossible to cry while he is laughing so hard.

I think a vehicle can be a great teaching tool. I would always have him out in the shop while I was working on the Sub. Often he was playing in the dirt, but other times he would have his safety glasses or welding helmet on watching me or helping (or playing in the dirt). Get her own safety glasses and gloves or whatever else, so when you are dinking around with something she has her "own" things to use. Have her help you with the simple things so she has a sense of accomplishment on it. Little things like that, I have found, go a long way.

I am pretty sure my boy was the only one in his kindergarten class that knew how to weld and had actually done it. He had watched me a couple times and I asked if he wanted to try. After a couple tries he was actually doing pretty good--for being five and having a #11 shade in his helmet. I don't let him hang around when I am doing anything heavy, but the light stuff I'll let him watch. He enjoys it and I like having him around.

[lyrikz]

I like stories like that.. My daughter is the same way, ALWAYS wants to sand something on the truck. I need to get her more involved.. just find one piece for her to take care of.

Good story.

[BLUE THUNDER]

Very very nice. I love Suburbans. Almost makes me want one more door.

[Ackattack]

I can't wait to be able to get my son out in the garage helping me. He's only 13 months now.

I took him for a ride in my truck, and when I got on it he made kinda a Tim Taylor grunt and had a big smile on his face. For all I know though, he may have just farted.

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by lyrikz

I like stories like that.. My daughter is the same way, ALWAYS wants to sand something on the truck. I need to get her more involved.. just find one piece for her to take care of.

Good story.

Thanks!! Yeah, it sounds like you are well on your way there. Maybe have her do the sanding down low--I can't reach down there, can you get that for me??

Originally Posted by BLUE THUNDER

Very very nice. I love Suburbans. Almost makes me want one more door.

Thank you. Funny, we both want one more door. Three doors--WTH?? One more door would make things sooo much easier, but I hate bodywork, so this one will not get one.

Originally Posted by Ackattack

I can't wait to be able to get my son out in the garage helping me. He's only 13 months now.

I don't know how old my boy was when I brought him out in the shop. He had some strange health issue when he was very young. He would sometimes get to crying so hard that nothing could get him to stop. I would take him out in the shop, just holding him and letting him look around. More times than not, it would hit the reset button on him and calm him down. I also have a couple Hot Wheels trucks and a helicopter that are mine, that he can play with in the shop, but they do not go in the house. I guess it was kind of a trick to get him out here, but it worked. I always stressed shop safety, both in equipment and behavior. I take him to different shops that I deal with and he will maintain himself in a safe manner such that he is welcomed wherever we go.

Originally Posted by Ackattack

I took him for a ride in my truck, and when I got on it he made kinda a Tim Taylor grunt and had a big smile on his face. For all I know though, he may have just farted.

Hey, at his age, appreciation of acceleration or quality gas is a good sign!!

We had a fun day today. We went to Costco to restock our shelves and while rolling through the parking lot, my wife said that she likes the strange looks that the truck gets. I have run enough older vehicles that get/got looks and this thing is like none of them because of the sound coming from it. It is not just an old Suburban, it is an old Suburban that sounds like it has a large diesel engine in it, so it elicits strange looks.

Shortly after that we head across town to pick up my sister and go to get some dining room chairs she secured for us. We get six chairs loaded up, drop off my sister, load up my boy's scooter, helmet, baseball gear, a couple large folding chairs and some other miscellaneous stuff and head to his baseball game. We get out of the game, fire it up, turn on the front and rear A/C (my wife was with me) and set the manual throttle at about 1000rpm to get the interior cooled off while I finish loading the gear. While this is going on, some other dad comes over and says with a big grin that this thing sounds like it has a Cummins in it. I said yeah, sure sounds like it doesn't it?? He asks what does it have and I tell him and his grin get bigger and we chat for a moment. We head out from there, stop and get some mexican food for dinner then stop at a car show. We head home and as we are rolling down the freeway we come up on one of those XB box shaped vehicles. I look at it and realize what kind of a load we are hauling what with all the crap in the back and all and say to my wife that we couldn't be doing this with one of those--even if it had a roof rack.

[LOW DOUGH]

The looks and questions are worth every bit of the work you put into the burd.

[mosesburb]

Well, I guess it has been awhile since I've updated this thread. Not too much has occured since then though.

I pulled the injectors awhile back and had them tested as I thought I might have one that was leaking. When they were tested they were found to be popping at 222 bar instead of the required 245 bar. Among other things, this has the effect of advancing the timing an ever-so-slight bit. I changed them out with a set of injectors from Cummins. Upon starting it I immediately found the idle to be smoother. I thought the idle was smooth before, but after the injectors, it was just that much smoother. By injecting the fuel exactly when it was needed instead of popping a bit early, I lost a bit of raw power. It still runs very well, but I could tell a difference in power after the injector swap. The loss is not enough to make me want to adjust the pump to get it back. One nice side benefit is my mileage went from a repeatable average of 19.5 mpg in town to a repeatable 20.5 mpg in town. Now, I had been working an odd shift that put me on the road in non-rush hour times, but recently I have changed shifts and find myself in stop-and-go on a daily basis. I figured my in town mileage was skewed because of my odd travel times. The first tank after my shift change I figured was a fluke, but when I got 20.6 mpg on my next tank, I knew I was on to something. That is true stop-and-go, with the a/c and fan clutch on. Not too bad for 6600lbs and the aerodynamic properties of an 8-8-16.

I did have one problem recently. I had a crack develop in the power steering pressure line at the pump. It did not spray out, it just dripped--and not too much at that. It made it a real ***** to locate. It wasn't until I pulled the line off of the truck, cleaned it thoroughly and inspected it in the shop that I located the crack under the nut. Unfortunately, I had already tried a couple other things before I located the source of the fluid. Oh well. I made a different line for it and routed it differently, so hopefuly there will be no more issues with it.

In the middle of June I did a carpentry project on it. I built a structure that would be used in the near future.

Base structure:



Top sheeting:



Basement storage:



Now, other than the two bolts attaching the base to a couple seat bolt holes, the entire structure is keyed together--no tools required to remove/disassemble. The really cool thing is that it doesn't rattle or squeak. With the exception of the one 4' wide chunk of plywood, the whole deal stacks up into a space of about 16 x 16 x 60.

So, that takes care of sleeping arrangements for the Missus and me, but I had to come up with something for the boy. Roof-top dwelling momentarily crossed my mind, but I figured I'd lose that sale with two votes against me, one of which being female, so I set to work figuring out something for him. I decided he had to sleep somehow on the rear seat. The seat itself was too narrow, but with a platform of his own, it could be made to work. I took some measurements of him and ripped a chunk of plywood that should fit well, added a couple legs that are keyed in place (no tools needed) and came up with this:



It works great and it actually has some room for growth. I sanded everything so as not to find a splinter in the dark woods. I also added a couple tie-down points for the cooler at the very back of the rear platform. I put some of that floor cushion stuff with the diamond plate texture on the platform to keep loaded goods from rattling around while in transit.

Then came the camping expedition.

[mosesburb]

So I had some vacation time that I had to use before my service anniversary, so I plotted an idea that if sold, could be quite fun.

It worked. We loosely planned a camping/wandering trip and with that, set to loading the truck. Now, my boy has not been camping before and as a side note, he still sleeps with his light on in his room (I am opposed to this, but with my horrid work schedule for the past nine months or so, it left me on the phone at bedtime instead of there in person). Now, when I say sleeps with his light on, I don't mean a little bit, I mean we have planes circling asking for permission to land kind of light. So with that, we knew that we had some work cut out for us.

I got the truck loaded up on the Tuesday before the 4th of July weekend. We got out of town at about 0900 and we were on our way. We headed up to Poland Junction and took that across to where it meets up with FR261. A funny thing happened on the way to FR261 though. When you get past Poland the road gets rough and is basically one lane at that point. About 1/4mi in, we come around an uphill corner and are nose-to-nose with a Caterpillar D6R. Uh, this is not good. Where we sat, it was around 1/8mi worth of backing up to get to a point to turn around. I do not really like the sound of that, so I park it and walk up to talk with the operator. He says the road is open and give him a few to clear the area and we'll be able to pass. Sure enough, a few minutes pass and he runs it almost vertically up the side of the hill so we can pass. We finish Poland Road with no further excitement and meet up with FR261.



We take FR261 over to Seantor Highway and head North toward Prescott. Somewhere along the way, nature called and I found a nice scenic spot to take care of business:



We get into Prescott and find a place to eat lunch. We get out and find a museum that has a bunch of old mining equipment outside, so we wander around it and I explain to my boy what each piece is and how it worked and was used. We wander back to the truck and find some fuel then head north to AZ89A and take it toward Mingus Mountain/Jerome.

We turn off AZ89A about ten miles before Jerome and take FR104 over to FR413. Heading northeast on FR413 we start looking for a spot to camp. Not too far down the trail I saw a little two-track off the left side. We back up and head down the two-track. We get in a ways and find a tree fallen across the trail. It had been there awhile and a route around the tree was already present. I managed to get the Sub around it and we continued heading back into the sticks on this two-track. We got back in a ways and found a nice spot.



We started setting up our gear, but with burn restrictions there was no possibility of a campfire.



We stayed up for awhile then decided to retire to the truck. I put up the window coverings that I engineered and had my Mom manufacture. She used two layers of canvas (almost like denim in weight) and stitched magnets along the hems to make some really cool window coverings. This, and the fact we were in the middle of nowhere, made the inside of the truck very dark. We watched a John Deere show on the DVD player, then he laid down and I read him a couple stories. After those were done he got a little whiney when he realized the lights were going out. I told him a non-fiction story about an orange Suburban and how it came to be. He liked the story and was about out. When he woke up in the morning, I pointed out the fact that he slept with the light off and woke up alive!! (side note: he only uses a dim night light at home now--a positive effect of camping!!)

So I packed up the truck and we head out. We continue down FR413 in the same direction (toward Jerome) that we were headed when we found the two-track. Now I had run the road about ten years ago in another truck so I had an idea of what was coming, but I was in for a rude awakening once we got well into the switchbacks. It appears as though the road has not been maintained in many years. It was quite overgrown and very rough--mind you not too difficult, just rougher than hell, so no speed could be attained. We ran fourteen miles of this road in low range for speed control and several of those miles never saw the speedometer needle move off zero. It is a VERY NARROW shelf road. These pics do not do justice to the roughness or narrowness of the road.



In this one you can kind of see where the edge of the road is in relation to the center of the hood. (This is an extremely smooth part of the road, extremely smooth...)



The road just grates on and on and on and on. I have to put the left side of the truck into the bushes/trees/manzanita/genereal vegetation to keep the right side tires (the wife's side BTW) on the trail. There were points where I was scraping the left side, right side and top simultaneously. It got to a point where we were taking on so much vegetation through the open windows on the left side that we rolled up the windows and cruised in A/C comfort for the rest of the trail. This is a long, painful trail, but it has some spectacular scenery. There is a point where you can see sixty miles in a 180* radius from one point. My favorite view of Jerome is also had from this trail:



The trail ends in Jerome, so at this point relief is felt because the end is near. Well, not quite. There is still over an hour of this lovely road to run yet. Somewhere along after this view, I am putting the left side of the truck into a bush and all of a sudden the steering wheel spins left and the truck stops. Uh, that can't be good. I back up, move right ever so slightly and head on down the trail looking for somewhere I can get out and inspect the damage. I find a spot and check it out. The chrome ring on the locking hub hit a rock. It appears as though there was no harm done. Driving down this trail is a constant sawing at the wheel, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.... Well, somewhere along that run I get the feeling that something with the steering is not right. It still works and we FINALLY get off that trail. It took so long that it is past lunch time so we head down the hill toward Cottonwood. Now that we are on pavement, I realize what is up. The steering wheel is at 11:00/5:00--not good. We stop to get some grub and when we get out, my boy looks at the excessively pinstriped/scratched truck and exclaims "The truck looks cool!! It looks like it has flames on it!!" I call a buddy of mine that we visited in January and he is around so we decide to head that way. We stop to pick up some food and I stay with the truck and start working on the drag link. I get it re-centered and we head up the hill.

We get to the forest road that my buddy lives on and I tell my boy to come up front. I have him sit on my lap and let him steer us along the FR to my friends place. He loved it!! We hang out there for the night and the next day we go out wandering around. We stop off at Blue Ridge Reservoir.



We head down by the dam and check out it and the spillway. We brought a fishing pole and tackle box for my boy, but the walls surrounding the lake are so steep that we couldn't find a trail down to the water.



We decide to spend another night up there. I brought a rifle with so I could teach my boy how to shoot. He did pretty good and actually put a few rounds into what he was aiming at. Not bad for a first time. We roasted some marshmallows over a grille and sacked out. We got up the next morning and putzed around trying to delay the inevitable departure. While we were doing that my buddy's wife said we need to stop at the Baker Butte fire lookout station. Sounds good. So we load up and head out. We stop off and check out the tower.



It is very neat up there. The map for spotting fires is extrememly cool in its simplicity. The lady has a very cool labrador and she answers all kinds of strange questions that I/we have. I have some pics off of the tower is anybody is interested in seeing them. We climb down from the tower and unfortuantely are on our way home. We get home without issue and unload the essential goods leaving the others for later when it cools off.

All in all it was a great trip. We had a load of fun. My boy got his first camping trip, first rifle use, first opeartion of a UTV, first roasted marshmallows and first driving of the Suburban. The truck ran great and other than the adjusting of the draglink had no issues at all.

This was the intended use of the Suburban from the time I bought it. It took a bunch of years, but it can finally be used for what it was built for--back country travel. Yay!!

[monte0185]

Originally Posted by mosesburb

So I had some vacation time that I had to use before my service anniversary, so I plotted an idea that if sold, could be quite fun.

It worked. We loosely planned a camping/wandering trip and with that, set to loading the truck. Now, my boy has not been camping before and as a side note, he still sleeps with his light on in his room (I am opposed to this, but with my horrid work schedule for the past nine months or so, it left me on the phone at bedtime instead of there in person). Now, when I say sleeps with his light on, I don't mean a little bit, I mean we have planes circling asking for permission to land kind of light. So with that, we knew that we had some work cut out for us.

I got the truck loaded up on the Tuesday before the 4th of July weekend. We got out of town at about 0900 and we were on our way. We headed up to Poland Junction and took that across to where it meets up with FR261. A funny thing happened on the way to FR261 though. When you get past Poland the road gets rough and is basically one lane at that point. About 1/4mi in, we come around an uphill corner and are nose-to-nose with a Caterpillar D6R. Uh, this is not good. Where we sat, it was around 1/8mi worth of backing up to get to a point to turn around. I do not really like the sound of that, so I park it and walk up to talk with the operator. He says the road is open and give him a few to clear the area and we'll be able to pass. Sure enough, a few minutes pass and he runs it almost vertically up the side of the hill so we can pass. We finish Poland Road with no further excitement and meet up with FR261.



We take FR261 over to Seantor Highway and head North toward Prescott. Somewhere along the way, nature called and I found a nice scenic spot to take care of business:



We get into Prescott and find a place to eat lunch. We get out and find a museum that has a bunch of old mining equipment outside, so we wander around it and I explain to my boy what each piece is and how it worked and was used. We wander back to the truck and find some fuel then head north to AZ89A and take it toward Mingus Mountain/Jerome.

We turn off AZ89A about ten miles before Jerome and take FR104 over to FR413. Heading northeast on FR413 we start looking for a spot to camp. Not too far down the trail I saw a little two-track off the left side. We back up and head down the two-track. We get in a ways and find a tree fallen across the trail. It had been there awhile and a route around the tree was already present. I managed to get the Sub around it and we continued heading back into the sticks on this two-track. We got back in a ways and found a nice spot.



We started setting up our gear, but with burn restrictions there was no possibility of a campfire.



We stayed up for awhile then decided to retire to the truck. I put up the window coverings that I engineered and had my Mom manufacture. She used two layers of canvas (almost like denim in weight) and stitched magnets along the hems to make some really cool window coverings. This, and the fact we were in the middle of nowhere, made the inside of the truck very dark. We watched a John Deere show on the DVD player, then he laid down and I read him a couple stories. After those were done he got a little whiney when he realized the lights were going out. I told him a non-fiction story about an orange Suburban and how it came to be. He liked the story and was about out. When he woke up in the morning, I pointed out the fact that he slept with the light off and woke up alive!! (side note: he only uses a dim night light at home now--a positive effect of camping!!)

So I packed up the truck and we head out. We continue down FR413 in the same direction (toward Jerome) that we were headed when we found the two-track. Now I had run the road about ten years ago in another truck so I had an idea of what was coming, but I was in for a rude awakening once we got well into the switchbacks. It appears as though the road has not been maintained in many years. It was quite overgrown and very rough--mind you not too difficult, just rougher than hell, so no speed could be attained. We ran fourteen miles of this road in low range for speed control and several of those miles never saw the speedometer needle move off zero. It is a VERY NARROW shelf road. These pics do not do justice to the roughness or narrowness of the road.



In this one you can kind of see where the edge of the road is in relation to the center of the hood. (This is an extremely smooth part of the road, extremely smooth...)



The road just grates on and on and on and on. I have to put the left side of the truck into the bushes/trees/manzanita/genereal vegetation to keep the right side tires (the wife's side BTW) on the trail. There were points where I was scraping the left side, right side and top simultaneously. It got to a point where we were taking on so much vegetation through the open windows on the left side that we rolled up the windows and cruised in A/C comfort for the rest of the trail. This is a long, painful trail, but it has some spectacular scenery. There is a point where you can see sixty miles in a 180* radius from one point. My favorite view of Jerome is also had from this trail:



The trail ends in Jerome, so at this point relief is felt because the end is near. Well, not quite. There is still over an hour of this lovely road to run yet. Somewhere along after this view, I am putting the left side of the truck into a bush and all of a sudden the steering wheel spins left and the truck stops. Uh, that can't be good. I back up, move right ever so slightly and head on down the trail looking for somewhere I can get out and inspect the damage. I find a spot and check it out. The chrome ring on the locking hub hit a rock. It appears as though there was no harm done. Driving down this trail is a constant sawing at the wheel, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.... Well, somewhere along that run I get the feeling that something with the steering is not right. It still works and we FINALLY get off that trail. It took so long that it is past lunch time so we head down the hill toward Cottonwood. Now that we are on pavement, I realize what is up. The steering wheel is at 11:00/5:00--not good. We stop to get some grub and when we get out, my boy looks at the excessively pinstriped/scratched truck and exclaims "The truck looks cool!! It looks like it has flames on it!!" I call a buddy of mine that we visited in January and he is around so we decide to head that way. We stop to pick up some food and I stay with the truck and start working on the drag link. I get it re-centered and we head up the hill.

We get to the forest road that my buddy lives on and I tell my boy to come up front. I have him sit on my lap and let him steer us along the FR to my friends place. He loved it!! We hang out there for the night and the next day we go out wandering around. We stop off at Blue Ridge Reservoir.



We head down by the dam and check out it and the spillway. We brought a fishing pole and tackle box for my boy, but the walls surrounding the lake are so steep that we couldn't find a trail down to the water.



We decide to spend another night up there. I brought a rifle with so I could teach my boy how to shoot. He did pretty good and actually put a few rounds into what he was aiming at. Not bad for a first time. We roasted some marshmallows over a grille and sacked out. We got up the next morning and putzed around trying to delay the inevitable departure. While we were doing that my buddy's wife said we need to stop at the Baker Butte fire lookout station. Sounds good. So we load up and head out. We stop off and check out the tower.



It is very neat up there. The map for spotting fires is extrememly cool in its simplicity. The lady has a very cool labrador and she answers all kinds of strange questions that I/we have. I have some pics off of the tower is anybody is interested in seeing them. We climb down from the tower and unfortuantely are on our way home. We get home without issue and unload the essential goods leaving the others for later when it cools off.

All in all it was a great trip. We had a load of fun. My boy got his first camping trip, first rifle use, first opeartion of a UTV, first roasted marshmallows and first driving of the Suburban. The truck ran great and other than the adjusting of the draglink had no issues at all.

This was the intended use of the Suburban from the time I bought it. It took a bunch of years, but it can finally be used for what it was built for--back country travel. Yay!!

I have ridden that trail from prescott over to jerome on 4-wheelers. It was alot of fun. We took an entire week and road all over the place there a few years back when my grandfather got remarried. It was alot of fun. Put about 500 miles on my 4-wheeler.

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by monte0185

I have ridden that trail from prescott over to jerome on 4-wheelers. It was alot of fun. We took an entire week and road all over the place there a few years back when my grandfather got remarried. It was alot of fun. Put about 500 miles on my 4-wheeler.

Yeah, that trail would be much better suited to a four wheeler, or three wheeler or two wheeler for that matter. Lots of good scenery, but boy do you pay for it in an old straight axle Suburban. Definitely lots of great areas to explore up there.

[Palf70Step]

Looks like a GREAT trip. Beautiful scenery.

[bullington]

Awesome Suburban!

I looked for what size lift you had and couldn't find it. Is it a 4" lift? Love the lift with skinny tire look!

Edit: Found it 4" lift plus an inch from the 3/4 ton spring pads.

[71meangreenc10]

Some of the best views I remember were from the AZ skylines.....

Only if the schools were good for my son where I lived, I would retire there......


Smitty

[FRENCHBLUE72]

Damn good story...

[vectorit]

Those pics of your burb on the back roads really look good, and they brought back lots of memories of my burb doing those trips back in the day! Though I plan to do some like that soon again with my baby.

What size tires are you running? They look great!

I am currently running 33x12.50's, and I am thinking about going with a tire like you are running.

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by Palf70Step

Looks like a GREAT trip. Beautiful scenery.

Thanks!! It was a great time.

Originally Posted by bullington

Awesome Suburban!

I looked for what size lift you had and couldn't find it. Is it a 4" lift? Love the lift with skinny tire look!

Edit: Found it 4" lift plus an inch from the 3/4 ton spring pads.

Yes, 4" and the 1" comes from the 1 ton D60 spring pads and a Zero Rate type 1" bolt-on block on the rear spring pack.

Originally Posted by 71meangreenc10

Some of the best views I remember were from the AZ skylines.....

Yes, and the best scenery is only visible from dirt--not pavement!!

Originally Posted by FRENCHBLUE72

Damn good story...

Thanks!!

Originally Posted by vectorit

Those pics of your burb on the back roads really look good, and they brought back lots of memories of my burb doing those trips back in the day! Though I plan to do some like that soon again with my baby.

Cool!! I highly recommend it!!

Originally Posted by vectorit

What size tires are you running? They look great!

Man, I had to look through the post to find out myself (I didn't feel like going outside to look)

(From post 164): They are 255 85 R16 BFG M/T KM's. The size is what drew me to them as I was able to use them on a 6.5" wheel. The dimensions come out to be about 33 x 10. This was perfect--tall and skinny, ready to go on my "old man" wheels.

Originally Posted by vectorit

I am currently running 33x12.50's, and I am thinking about going with a tire like you are running.

I had 33x12.50 16.5's on this for many years while it sat. I liked the look of the tires/wheels, but the tires dried up and cracked apart, so I went with these because I got a screamin' deal on them (also I liked the size and they would go on the stock steel wheels).

The problem with the size is that it is odd. I am dreading the day I have to replace one as I bet it is going to be a special order or at least a transfer from another store. Maybe not, but I bet it does.

[mosesburb]

Ten thousand miles!! Yessir, I passed 10k a few days ago. No fanfare, no pictures, no hype. I celebrated by taking it through emissions (it sounds super-*****in' running on the rollers at 50mph inside a bulding). One year and ten thousand miles. In a way it seems like I have been driving it forever when in reality I have just been looking at it forever in my driveway.

So, Saturday me and my boy were going to go to a car show in Prescott, AZ. It is about ninety miles north and 5300' in elevation, so it is much cooler than here. I figured there would be some different cars there than we see at the shows around here. My boy was looking forward to it big-time. I think from Wednesday on, it was the topic of choice for him to bring up. It rained--cow/flat rock type stuff on Saturday. He was not happy about having to stay home. We bounced around town picking a few things up and visiting some people here and there.

Sunday I got up at about 0600 and it was dry outside. I went in his room and he half-way came to and gave me a hug and wished me a good day (typical work day routine). I informed him it was Sunday and he half tilted his head and said oh. I asked if he wanted to go to a car show. He asked "in Prescott??" I said yes and he threw his covers off and sailed down the ladder and ripped into kitchen to start getting ready. So we get our stuff together and head up there. We pull up to the guy collecting money for parking and he asks what year the Sub is and i say '72. He said that I have a choice. I can pay five dollars and park right here in the mud and walk all the way over there--or--I can drive all the way around over to there, pay five dollars to enter the truck in the show and park in the grass. You sir, are a great salesman!! So needless to say, we paid five bones and entered this chick-magnet in the show. I knew I had no chance at winning, but out of humor, I went ahead and filled the registration card out and turned it in.

Yes, I was officially #137 in the Truck category.


Obviously, I did not win anything, but I did notice a couple things. The first thing I noticed is this truck was all-or-nothing with people. There was almost no in between. What I mean by that is people would either pass by, completely oblivious to it or if they looked at it they spent a minimum of five minutes (usually more). Now mind you, all I did was pop the hood and take off. I did not hang around the truck at all, but the topography of the site was such that I could see the truck from the swap meet area and when I would see the same people there for awhile I started glancing at it when it was visible and noticed the pattern.

The whole car show deal with the judging is not for me, but my boy liked it. He was all excited when we entered it and heard about the judging. It was a very fun day there and about a hundred yards past the car show is a lake.



It had all kinds of granite outcrops and boulders that lent themselves well to climbing and adventure so we crawled around on those for awhile then headed back to the truck to roll out.

So all in all, we had a great time. We had great weather and a real nice drive.

On a little side note, I was at work today and a member of management came up and told me he went and looked at a '72 shortbed in town this morning and the guy selling it couldn't stop talking about this cool Suburban he saw at a car show in Prescott. It was orange and had a Cummins. The guy I work with said he knew of the truck. Then a buddy of the guy selling the truck came over and started telling the guy I work with about this really cool Suburban they saw with a Cummins in it. I thought it was kind of funny that it took less than two hours at work to hear where I went this weekend. Small world.

[Beelzeburb]

Great work again man. This thread has yet to disappoint or decrease in the quality of the material posted. I'm about a year behind your project in terms of driveability and completion, but I can't wait until I get to start having adventures and using it like it was intended to be used, just like yourself.