The Story Of A Cummins Suburban (Lots Of Pics)

[hgs_notes]

I might do route 66 in my C-10 someday. Great update.

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by Mr Pops

I love this thread! Awesome pics! Keep em commin!

Thanks!! Glad you like it.

Originally Posted by 1985-GMC

For sure the best thread ever!

How's the body roll without a sway bar?

Ha, ha. Not sure about the best thread ever, but probably the most scenic one. No body roll to speak of. Front springs, though soft ride, are pretty damn stiff. I don't think they would be a good option for a small block truck. I had thought about adding a sway bar when I was building it, but once I drove it I forgot all about it.

Originally Posted by hgs_notes

I might do route 66 in my C-10 someday. Great update.

Thanks!!

I have actually been doing a bunch of work to this thing lately. I was wiped out when I got home from work last night, so rather than go out and put another 4-5 hours in on this, I figured I'd update the thread a bit. I have more to post, but I need to load the pics to PB (who has been sending me hat mail for not buying whatever they are selling), so we'll see how that goes. Just came in to cool off for a few and scarf some lunch down before going back out.

[justcuz]

Great travelogue as always. The photos are beautiful. Leaving for Prescott this morning. Then tomorrow to Paige, on to Durango, Moab, Kayenta and then back to Prescott for the rodeo on July 2nd I think. I may have to do a travelogue like yours and post up in the newer Suburban pages (we are taking the 2000). Six of us are going. I may try the County Road 6 up to Seligman if I can convince anyone to ride along. It will be when we get back so probably the 1st or 3rd if at all.

Keep up the great work on the scenic photos and trips, it is always fun to see and the highlight of my visit to this website. I'm sure your son will remember these trips forever, my kids always remembered the trips where they learned something of the history of the area.

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by justcuz

Great travelogue as always. The photos are beautiful. Leaving for Prescott this morning. Then tomorrow to Paige, on to Durango, Moab, Kayenta and then back to Prescott for the rodeo on July 2nd I think. I may have to do a travelogue like yours and post up in the newer Suburban pages (we are taking the 2000). Six of us are going. I may try the County Road 6 up to Seligman if I can convince anyone to ride along. It will be when we get back so probably the 1st or 3rd if at all.

So how was it??

Originally Posted by justcuz

Keep up the great work on the scenic photos and trips, it is always fun to see and the highlight of my visit to this website. I'm sure your son will remember these trips forever, my kids always remembered the trips where they learned something of the history of the area.

Thanks. I'm glad you enjoy the thread. I really hope he remembers the stuff we see--or at least some of it. He is not a very typical kid for his age. When we head out he will take a video game thing and a DVD player, but very rarely will they ever get used. More often than not, I will look back in the mirror and find him looking out the window at this or that. So many kids need the headrest-DVD players going just to go around the corner to the store. Kind of sad.

[mosesburb]

I decided that a better power source was needed for my fridge and navigation laptop. My main charging system consisting of the 130/140A(??) alternator and the two yellow top Optimas was sufficient under normal circumstances, but for extended periods of time not running or running the fridge in hotter weather, more piece of mind would be had with an auxilliary battery that could be isolated from the main charging system. What to do?? Where to put it?? What to use?? Meh, I'll figure something out.

A little history; I have always carried two spare tires. Now, mind you, I have never needed one, much less two, but I always had the second. Well, that second tire takes up quite a bit of valuable real estate. I was convinced by my buddy Lance that I only need one. It was not an easy convincing, but with the purchase of one of these at the Overland Expo, I was able to let the security blanket of that second tire go.

So, with one tire gone, what to do now?? I got rid of the stock size tire that I carried in the spare tire well. My other spare rides under the sleeping platform. I decided that since the larger spare would not fit in the spare tire well, that would be a good place to start renovations.

I pulled the spare tire well out and cut the back half of the radius out.



I wanted to do the front of the well, but that part of the well forms the lower part of the fenderwell for the right rear tire and I thought it would look goofy. It's all about the looks. I then welded some filler pieces to the sides of the open radii.



I then took some sheetmetal and made a piece to fit in the bottom and in the rear area:



Now it is fully enclosed. I then went and jacked the battery out of my Nova figuring if I am somewhere needing this power, I can't be driving the Nova simultaneously, so I decided to share its AGM Deka battery. I got some high amperage disconnects and made some cables out of super-fine strand 1/0 welding cable with the military battery lugs. This pic is a final test-fit of the goods--not a final assembly)





I have it wired so everything that is hooked to it can be used whether the battery is there or not. That way if we are doing a quick overnighter, I don't need to have a battery in there and everything will still pull off the main charging system, but if we are going on a longer run, I can drop the battery in and everything will run off of it. So, for that to happen I need soe sort of an isolator.

I looked at various styles and decided they were either too much money or not enough quality. I have never been a real fan of automatic units--not syaing there are not some decent ones out there, I just don't particularly care for them. I decided to use an old, dumb, battery master switch. Yep, clunk, on and clunk, off. It doesn't get much simpler than that. I do not have to worry about whether it is connected or disconnected when it should or should not be. Stupid simple. My favorite kind of part. I mounted it at the base of the driver seat.



I also put a junk drawer under the seat. It is a nice addition as sometimes the stuff under the seat would come out under braking while going down hill. Not a good stiuation.

[hgs_notes]

Good solid set up and a good use of space. I am planning to just add a second battery under the hood with an isolator of some kind. I really don't have much for electrical loads planned at this point, but it may get a winch, a stereo, and then some jacks for plug in accessories and chargers, etc. I have an OEM driver side battery tray to use for mounting.

What is the floor covering you have there?

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by hgs_notes

Good solid set up and a good use of space. I am planning to just add a second battery under the hood with an isolator of some kind. I really don't have much for electrical loads planned at this point, but it may get a winch, a stereo, and then some jacks for plug in accessories and chargers, etc. I have an OEM driver side battery tray to use for mounting.

What is the floor covering you have there?

Thanks. I wish I could have put the battery under the hood, but with two under there already, that wasn't going to happen.

Th floor covering debacle is described in this post. I still don't like it. It still fits like ****. For the money and the company it came from, I expected a little better. It is thick and heavy duty though.

[hgs_notes]

Looks durable, but the fit isn't good. Have you tried using a heat gun to shape it? You can a lot of molding to plastics with a simple heat gun. You can also use carpet tape under it to hold it down in the low parts of corners, etc. It's super sticky double sided tape, it's cheap and can be found at the home stores. You might be able to get that to lay down like it's supposed to.

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by hgs_notes

Looks durable, but the fit isn't good. Have you tried using a heat gun to shape it? You can a lot of molding to plastics with a simple heat gun. You can also use carpet tape under it to hold it down in the low parts of corners, etc. It's super sticky double sided tape, it's cheap and can be found at the home stores. You might be able to get that to lay down like it's supposed to.

Tried it. It worked momentarily. This stuff has a very powerful memory. I don't see me trying anything to make it better any time soon. If you don't know what the shape of the floor is, then it looks ok. If you know what the shape of the floor is, then it looks like crap. Most people think it looks ok or even looks good.

[mosesburb]

I went through the "4th door" recently. I replaced the window run channel, the belt moldings, the run in the division bar, cleaned and lubed the regulator and added some sound deadener to the inside of the quater panel and the inside of the interior metal. It turned out good. The metal has a real dull thump instead of the sheetmetal sound. While I had the seat out, I decided that having the ability to put a smaller seat in the back would be a good thing. The bench is nice, but when we are rolling out with just the three of us, we don't need a whole bench seat in back there. I had shopped for a single bucket to match the fronts a few times since I bought the front seats, but had never even seen a similar pattern, much less the same seat. This time I lucked out--sort of. I found a bucket seat that matched the front seats in style and fabric. The drawback was it was a little dirty.



Now nobody in their right mind would buy this, much less pay full price for it, but I did for the reasons stated above. The front seats I have now were pretty nasty when I got them (not quite as bad as this one) and they cleaned up almost perfectly, so I knew this one would clean up pretty good. Now, I forgot to take a picture of it, but you can see in this pic the seat is pretty bright. There is only a small area that still retains a very slight discoloration--very slight. Very impressive that a seat that funky could get even remotely clean, much less almost spotless.



This will give me room to trasport the fridge here instead of in back. I need to figure out a mounting system that does not require drilling more holes in the floor.

I picked up a laptop to run navigation programs on. It is a little Acer 10.1" that I have OziExplorer and Delorme Topo programs on. I then needed to come up with a laptop mount. Lance turned me on to a company called Jeniko. This company does mounts for industrial applications, but has some fantastic prices. If you have ever shopped for laptop mounts, you know something simple is a ton of money. I bought a floor mounted unit that had a six-hole mount that screwed to the floor. I don't like sheetmetal screws so I was going to use nuts and bolts. A problem arose when I looked under the body where the bolts were going to come through and found they were going to come through inside a body reinforcement channel with no way to put nuts on the bolts. I can use the sheetmetal screws, but I don't want to. I came up with a different idea that required no holes to be drilled in the floor. I made a bracket out of 1/4" flat stock and mounted it to the passenger seat frame with some 3/8-16 header bolts. Then I was able to drop the laptop base into it and go from there.



Once I got the upright in the bracket I found the second arm was not going to be long enough for what I was doing. I picked up a couple pieces of aluminum rems at the steel yard and one of them fit the bill nicely. I countersunk a socket head capscrew in it and made my own nut apparatus for the computer end and it worked out nicely.



The computer can be easily rotated for the passenger to view the screen.



In this pic you can see my mounting solution for the fridge on the floor.




A closer pic of it.



A little on the simple side, but it works great. I hook ratchet straps in the holes and run them around the ends of the fridge and hook them on the seat brackets on the passenger side. No movement whatsoever. It mounts into a seat bracket hole for the bench seat, so no new holes.

[hgs_notes]

Congrats on finding the matching seat. If there was 2 I hope you bought both, in case you actually expand the family again. You know, stuff happens.

I'm remembering your tendancy to over build and seeing a boxed in 1/4" steel channel to mount a 1 lb laptop. Yep, that should do it. lol

So what's the bungy on the T-case shifter for?

[justcuz]

Originally Posted by mosesburb

So how was it??
The trip was great but hot. Went from Prescott to Page to Durango to Moab to Tuba City back to Prescott. Saw the rodeo in Prescott. Next day 4 of us went to Seligman from Prescott on that County Rd/Forest Road. took a couple of hours and we came back down 89 into Prescott. Was a nice afternoon drive. Once I get a couple pictures downloaded I will post a thread in the newer trucks section.



Thanks. I'm glad you enjoy the thread. I really hope he remembers the stuff we see--or at least some of it. He is not a very typical kid for his age. When we head out he will take a video game thing and a DVD player, but very rarely will they ever get used. More often than not, I will look back in the mirror and find him looking out the window at this or that. So many kids need the headrest-DVD players going just to go around the corner to the store. Kind of sad.

Good for him, you have succeeded in showing him that on the road time is special and he can play the video games at camp or home. You are building something there with your boy that will be a lifelong bond of shared appreciation for he beauty of nature and the back country. Congrats.

I've been off the grid for a bit recovering from surgery I had on the 10th. It may be a few days till I post up my pics of the route. Some interesting terrain variety and of course any day you get dirt under the tires is a great day!

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by hgs_notes

Congrats on finding the matching seat. If there was 2 I hope you bought both, in case you actually expand the family again. You know, stuff happens.

Well, not planning on expansion, but the other seat was junk. This one was actually a bit further gone than I would have preferred, but I knew I could salvage it and with my boy in it, it stands a good chance of getting re-stained with some sort of bright colored drink etc. Now, I did purchase the matching rear bench seat out of the truck to use as a third row seat if I decide to put one in. I figured if I had this much trouble finding a matching seat, I probably would never find another one, so I grabbed it with its integral seat belts.

Originally Posted by hgs_notes

I'm remembering your tendancy to over build and seeing a boxed in 1/4" steel channel to mount a 1 lb laptop. Yep, that should do it. lol

My buddy Russ (my machinist) and I joke about this quite regularly. He is much more engineeringly (new word!!) inclined than I, but neither one of us are real gifted in that area. I have the ability to fabricate things and he can machine them, but as far as calculating point loads or structural rigidity and the tensile strength of a component, we come up a bit short. My solution to this is to visualize what forces are acting upon it in a given direction and pick a suitable material which is usually significanly heavier than it "needs" to be. Heavier, yes, but it keeps my parts breakage to a minimum and that is my main goal. The guys who fab those trophy trucks and never us a piece of tubing heavier than .065 absolutely amaze me. Yeah, I could build one, but you would feel the thing coming down the trail long before you could see or hear it because it would be so damn heavy.

Originally Posted by hgs_notes

So what's the bungy on the T-case shifter for?

I needed a place to store a bungee cord. No?? It is a high tech, variable length vibration dampening device. We were somewhere and the stick was vibrating a little bit and just grating on my nerves and that was all I had within reach to make it go away. It goes away if I grease the zerk on the bolt very regularly. I know what I need to do to fix the problem, but I seem to always be able to find something better to work on, so it remains. Maybe I should just get a tan one and call it fixed??

Originally Posted by justcuz

Good for him, you have succeeded in showing him that on the road time is special and he can play the video games at camp or home. You are building something there with your boy that will be a lifelong bond of shared appreciation for he beauty of nature and the back country. Congrats.

Thank you. Oftentimes when we are out in the middle of nowhere, I will ask him if this is better than sitting on the couch watching television or if he thinks any of his buddies at school have ever seen a view like this or from this point or ever done this or that. It kind of helps put things in perspective for him. He still eagarly anticipates our adventures and if "driving on dirt" is mentioned, he gets all giddy and happy. It's a good thing. It can be used as a reward also.

Originally Posted by justcuz

I've been off the grid for a bit recovering from surgery I had on the 10th. It may be a few days till I post up my pics of the route. Some interesting terrain variety and of course any day you get dirt under the tires is a great day!

Hope you are doing better. Your trip sounds very familiar. VERY familiar. Send me a link when you get them posted!! I enjoy other peoples vacation photos.

[justcuz]

I will, have to get them downloaded and posted. I should have some time next week.
Still just under 2 weeks post op on my prostate surgery, so still have a little abdominal tenderness. Should get better once the Dr. lets me start walking again.

[1leglance]

Great to get back on here and catch up with the mod's to the big bad orange monster.
I really like the laptop mount, at first I thought you had placed it too far to the rear but with a manual trans I guess it was that or way in the air above the shifter.
Then again you are not a Nav Nut like me who is always switching programs, views and looking at pre-trip notes he saved

I also like the new seat and fridge mount, that really freed up some serious space and better you can now get a snack or beverage while on the road.
Oh and the battery install is brilliant. I also put my aux battery in the wheel well but yours came out so much better I can see I will be stopping by your place for a lesson on sheet metal welding.

Great progress on the rig and I am looking forward to getting our burb's back in the dirt soon.

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by justcuz

I will, have to get them downloaded and posted. I should have some time next week.
Still just under 2 weeks post op on my prostate surgery, so still have a little abdominal tenderness. Should get better once the Dr. lets me start walking again.

Hang in there man. Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

Originally Posted by 1leglance

Great to get back on here and catch up with the mod's to the big bad orange monster.
I really like the laptop mount, at first I thought you had placed it too far to the rear but with a manual trans I guess it was that or way in the air above the shifter.

That location took way too long to decide on. I just could not find a better place to put it. Here it is in the way of that. There it is in the way of this, and so on. It really worked out well there. We don't use the third door for ingress and egress except when the truck is in "tent" mode, then we only use that door. Having a flexible kid helps as he climbed over it bunches of times and never had an issue with it and the way I modified his sleeping platform, the mount has no interference with that either.

Originally Posted by 1leglance

I also like the new seat and fridge mount, that really freed up some serious space and better you can now get a snack or beverage while on the road.

Yeah, for extended trips with just us, the smaller seat is great. Yes, having the ability to grab a cold drink while ripping down the road is a very nice feature. Unfortunately, when the bench seat is in place (which will be most of the time), the fridge will have to go in its previous location.

Originally Posted by 1leglance

Oh and the battery install is brilliant. I also put my aux battery in the wheel well but yours came out so much better.

Well, that *may* be, but I would be embarassed to admit how long I spent working on that thing. While I was working on it, I was trying to remember how you did yours thinking to myself that yours went in in a shorter period of time and you were out using yours instead of incessantly working on that one project.

Originally Posted by 1leglance

I can see I will be stopping by your place for a lesson on sheet metal welding.

Haha. Your lesson just might be doing a project on this thing while I sit in front of a fan in the shade .

Originally Posted by 1leglance

Great progress on the rig and I am looking forward to getting our burb's back in the dirt soon.

Me too man, me too. Glad you're back!!

[DirtyLarry]

After spending a week traveling with Mosesburb around Utah and Western Colorado last month I can say this is one well engineered and built rig. The attention to detail and quality of work Nick does is amazing. That Cummins purrs like a kitten too. Good work my friend!

Here is a picture of the grill in my ole TBI 5.7L/700R4 ’72 C20 beater that I sold a few years ago that I was telling you about. I covered the vertical bars with ¼” masking tape then painted it satin black. After it dried, I peeled the tape off for an el cheapo look alike billet grill. This would look great on the Superburb!

[RatRod68]

Just went through this whole build, and i must say, what a read! This thing is fantastic.

One thing i did not see ANYWHERE in the thread was the 4th door... Do you have a build up on the 4th door mod?





On another note...

Originally Posted by mosesburb

Saw this thing here and at the last show we went to earlier this summer. It is an interesting homologation of an early/mid 80's F-700ish frame and other equipment into a crew cab with a bed that would make a Longhorn bed look positively short:



They used everything except the body from the Ford. Gauges, HVAC, steering column, everything. Kind of interesting how they put everything together.

This truck makes me all happy and gitty. My next build will be a Cummins powered, 4 door short bed, 71/72 lifted C20. (why not a K20? It will be just a tow rig, so I want to eliminate the mileage loss due to 4wd components, but i love the look of a lifted 4x4)

Thanks for the awesome read sir.

[justcuz]

[QUOTE=mosesburb;5510928]Hang in there man. Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

Thanks, I had the robotic surgery and am recovering pretty quickly. I'll post up pictures of the county road trip this week.

Got to get the 3/4 ton torsion bars in the front of my 2000 to level it out. With the H2 springs in the rear and the 3/4 ton T-bars in front I think it will have more ground clearence than Lance has. My only modification after that is heavier duty tie rod ends, since it is still the wifes daily driver.

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by DirtyLarry

After spending a week traveling with Mosesburb around Utah and Western Colorado last month I can say this is one well engineered and built rig. The attention to detail and quality of work Nick does is amazing. That Cummins purrs like a kitten too. Good work my friend!

Thanks Larry!! Other than having shiny paint, your is pretty cool too.

Originally Posted by DirtyLarry

Here is a picture of the grill in my ole TBI 5.7L/700R4 ’72 C20 beater that I sold a few years ago that I was telling you about. I covered the vertical bars with ¼” masking tape then painted it satin black. After it dried, I peeled the tape off for an el cheapo look alike billet grill. This would look great on the Superburb!

That does look pretty sharp. Maybe if I decide to re-do the grille/etc, I will give it a try. That truck looks like it could be Lance's truck's younger brother.

Originally Posted by RatRod68

Just went through this whole build, and i must say, what a read! This thing is fantastic.

Thank you.

Originally Posted by RatRod68

One thing i did not see ANYWHERE in the thread was the 4th door... Do you have a build up on the 4th door mod?

Nope, only three doors. A fourth door would be great, but I despise paint and bodywork and I am too cheap to pay someone to do it, so it doesn't happen too often around my place. I get decent results, but I am sooooo slow at it that it is painful.

Originally Posted by RatRod68

Thanks for the awesome read sir.

I'm glad you enjoyed it!!

Originally Posted by justcuz

Thanks, I had the robotic surgery and am recovering pretty quickly. I'll post up pictures of the county road trip this week.

Got to get the 3/4 ton torsion bars in the front of my 2000 to level it out. With the H2 springs in the rear and the 3/4 ton T-bars in front I think it will have more ground clearence than Lance has. My only modification after that is heavier duty tie rod ends, since it is still the wifes daily driver.

Yeah, we (Lance and I) were just discussing his lack of ground clearance, horrible breakover and worse departure angle around a campfire Saturday night. Height is a double edged sword. I deal with mine, but I carry a two-step step ladder in the truck for when I have to haul my MIL, or mother or aunts or...... with me/us. Not a problem, but for someone like your wife, or Lance with his bionic leg, height can be a real issue. Steps can help tremendously, but *can* be detrimental on a trail, but I think they are worth the risk.

[RatRod68]

Originally Posted by mosesburb

Nope, only three doors. A fourth door would be great, but I despise paint and bodywork and I am too cheap to pay someone to do it, so it doesn't happen too often around my place. I get decent results, but I am sooooo slow at it that it is painful.

Oh ok. I am losing my mind. I thought i seen a 4th door in this picture.

[jbclassix]

Originally Posted by mosesburb

Nope, only three doors. A fourth door would be great, but I despise paint and bodywork and I am too cheap to pay someone to do it, so it doesn't happen too often around my place. I get decent results, but I am sooooo slow at it that it is painful.

Something wrong with building a 4th door very slowly?

[Dieselwrencher]

It'd be hard not to put a door handle on the LH quarter behind the driver's door and paint a line mimicking a door opening.

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by jbclassix

Something wrong with building a 4th door very slowly?

Yeah, I can't drive it while I do it--and--it requires paint and body work.

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

It'd be hard not to put a door handle on the LH quarter behind the driver's door and paint a line mimicking a door opening.

That is probably as close as it will ever get--but--that still requires paint work.....

The biggest problem I have with any modifications/repairs on this is the whole truck is covered in original paint. No repairs here or there (except the ones I did). The paint could be made to shine if I cared that much, but the best part is the paint is still there. Almost all of the paint on my '93 p/u and '92 Blazer is gone. Not only is this paint still there, it still looks pretty good. I am refusing to put crap paint on this just to have it burn off in 10-15yrs, when this is 40yrs old and still good. This stuff was probably so high solid that it came out of the gun in solid form. Might even have lead in it. I haven't tasted it to find out.

[justcuz]

[

.










Yeah, we (Lance and I) were just discussing his lack of ground clearance, horrible breakover and worse departure angle around a campfire Saturday night. Height is a double edged sword. I deal with mine, but I carry a two-step step ladder in the truck for when I have to haul my MIL, or mother or aunts or...... with me/us. Not a problem, but for someone like your wife, or Lance with his bionic leg, height can be a real issue. Steps can help tremendously, but *can* be detrimental on a trail, but I think they are worth the risk.[/QUOTE]

I used the 3 leaf one ton springs in the front of my 1976 3/4 ton. It brought the front end up about 1 to 1.5 inches. I know they ride fairly stiff though. Some aftermarket companies make a 2.5 inch lift for the 73 and up trucks. You could install those springs and move the rear mount back a couple inches. 73-91 Suburban 4x4 springs are longer than 67-72 springs by a few inches right?

We have a 93 truck and a 92 Blazer also. Both are the same color maroon and the paint on the roof and hoods are just starting to peel. We don't live in Az. though with the heat and sun exposure you get, although you can't prove it by me with the weather we have been having the last couple weeks. I'm ready for a road trip to Oregon! Still having trouble posting my picks because they may be too big, will try to resize and see what happens.