Re: The Story Of A Cummins Suburban (Lots Of Pics)
Man that sucks! That's a really sad thing to see happen to an old truck, especially yours; sorry dude! :thud:
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Re: The Story Of A Cummins Suburban (Lots Of Pics)
Man, I'm so sorry to see and hear this! If it is too bad, Sharpie, Dennis, has a really nice 68 burb body for sale. it is really nice! It would be a little work and a drive, but an easy way to keep your pride and joy if yours is beat to death and may be too hard to fix. Good luck man.
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Re: The Story Of A Cummins Suburban (Lots Of Pics)
That sucks man. Try and put a possitive spin on it., you don't have to worry about painting it, just a new windshield, some airing out and vacuuming of interior, and keep on trucking.
Or give teach the little guy a hammer and dolly and put him to work for a little while, looks like he can weld decent. |
Re: The Story Of A Cummins Suburban (Lots Of Pics)
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In one of the calls of condolences I received today, the question of what to do came up. The way I figure it, the only realistic option, keeping in mind my affection for common sense is to replace the glass and keep driving it. Unless I wanted to invest the huge amount of time required to straighten the whole truck and paint it or body swap it and paint it, there really is no reason to do anything to it. It all comes back to the fact that it is not a pretty truck (thank goodness). It's ugly. It doesn't stand much of a chance of changing its status from ugly anytime soon. Enjoy the divots and drive!! So that is what I am going to do. I feel really bad for some of my coworkers. Mine looks great compared to some of the cars and trucks. Nice looking vehicles, clean and shiny and they all have texture to them now. Sucks, bad. Quote:
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Re: The Story Of A Cummins Suburban (Lots Of Pics)
That was one bad az storm, sorry to see you got the short end of the stick, it just rained a lot out on this side of town.
Maybe I have an orange hood laying around. Paintless dent removal is also an option the insurance companys use after a storm like this rolls through. Tom |
Re: The Story Of A Cummins Suburban (Lots Of Pics)
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Yeah, we got hit hard there at work. I was talking to the UPS guy that pulls a long-box around my area and he said that a bunch of their equipment got damaged (tractors, parcel trucks, parcel cars, etc) along with every vehicle in their employee parking lot. They are about a mile away in the direction that the storm traveled, so it sounds like it did not lose any intensity enroute to them. I also heard from someone who was a couple miles away from UPS and they had windshields busted out etc. That is approx four miles away from work, so for it to keep its intensity that long, you know it was a mean one. I heard that Sanderson Ford got hit real bad. I saw a couple tote-the-note lots that had golf-ball finished on all of their inventory. I'm glad you just got rain as I would hate for my parts supplier to have nothing but damaged parts for sale :lol:. |
Re: The Story Of A Cummins Suburban (Lots Of Pics)
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Re: The Story Of A Cummins Suburban (Lots Of Pics)
I know it's been said many, many, MANY times throughout this thread... but this thread is truly awesome. I've read through it multiple times. I would absolutely love to build a burb like yours. I've always wanted to do a diesel swap. Unfortunately I am a student with no $$$ so this dream is a long way away. Your fabrication knowledge and overall mechanical knowledge seem to be rather extensive. Where did you acquire it? I am sooooo jealous. Are you in some sort of fabrication or engineering as a career? Cherish that Cummins burb and keep being a great father. :chevy:
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Re: The Story Of A Cummins Suburban (Lots Of Pics)
Awesome build man. I've been throwing the idea around of trying to put a cummins, but I might go the LS route instead.
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Re: The Story Of A Cummins Suburban (Lots Of Pics)
So I got the glass replaced on the 9th. I was lucky and the same guy that installed it last year replaced it this time. The guy was very good. He managed to get it out completely intact. He even had his doubts, but he pulled it off.
That put the truck back in service. My boy had the next week off from school. Fall break. I want a fall break. I get to do the old-man thing with the "you know, we didn't have those fall breaks when I was your age...." But I digress. I took Thursday off to get a few things done with a planned adventure for Friday. I had put the BFG M/T's on it on Sunday, but the thing that I didn't like about them is they threw my speedometer off by an unknown amount. So first thing Thursday morning, the boy and I head down to get the speedometer corrected. What I did was I had them regear another correction box so I have one for the street tires and one for the muds. After that we headed over to the Mom and Pop parts house that I use. It oftentimes ends up as much of a social call as a parts run, but this time I actually remembered everything I needed. So we got our parts and headed over to my favorite bolt store to pick up some inventory. After buying waaaaay too much inventory (always happens there), we head over to Cabelas to get a few supplies for our Friday adventure. We get in and get out and all is well. That is until I go to start the Suburban. Yup, you guessed it, nothing. No click, no rrrrr, nothing. Just like a few weeks ago. It had not acted up since--no problems at all. Well, this is not good. I have my boy crawl over and hit the key when I say so. I grabbed the hammer that I installed under the seat and ever-so-lightly tap the starter and the thing cranks and starts instantly (as usual). Hmm, a starter issue on a Friday adventure could be a real, real bad thing. I make a call to a friend at the mom and pop parts house and he is going to bring a starter home. We get home and I pull the starter out so it is ready to go. I then find out that the flight my MIL is on is coming in earlier than I thought. I have to take the Sub because my wife went to some appointment and left me and the boy at the house to pick up her mom. I need the Suburban all of a sudden. Er, uh, but it's got no starter man!! So my buddy forgets the starter at the store. D'oh!! This is really not good now. He saves the day by having a co-worker bring it home with him (what chain stores would do this for you??) and I pick it up. I throw it in (almost literally) and I ask my boy if he thinks it will work. He says yes, and i say I hope so. I hit the key and we are in business. It actually sounds great. The old started had been going for awhile--possibly before I bought the motor. The new starter throws the motor over with no effort at all. I pulled my heavy-duty contacts out of my old starter and put them in a bag for possible future use. Of all the things that Cummins did with their motor nothing confuses me more than the bolts they used on the starter. Every bolt on the motor is a reduced hex, flange head bolt. Every single one--except three. The three that hold the starter to the engine. Those three are reduced diameter flange head TWELVE POINT bolts. Why in the world would they do that?? Well, when I assembled this thing I could not bring myself to install those so I go the proper grade 10.9 reduced hex flange head bolts instead. How goofy to need a special socket just for that. |
Re: The Story Of A Cummins Suburban (Lots Of Pics)
HA! Man the comments I have for that story! Cummins and starters... hmmm! Cummins engineers hate mechanics! Enjoy your 5.9L because that is the easiest starter to change on a Cummins engine! As for MIL and airports... that's like going to the dentist for me.
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Re: The Story Of A Cummins Suburban (Lots Of Pics)
Yeah, that seems to be the industry standard for starter bolts on a diesel. They might be nice at the factory, but are a PITA when the starter fails! I replace the bolts just like you do when I replace a starter to try yo save someone the headaches later down the road.
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Re: The Story Of A Cummins Suburban (Lots Of Pics)
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Re: The Story Of A Cummins Suburban (Lots Of Pics)
You almost got burnt on the picking her up deal huh? That is my kind of luck right there too. :lol:
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Re: The Story Of A Cummins Suburban (Lots Of Pics)
Ok, so at this point I have a truck that starts and runs. So Friday morning I head down to give the state a bunch of money and time so I am allowed to continue doing what I do for a living. I get done there and head home and load the truck up for an adventure. The adventure ended up becoming slightly abbreviated as my wife's half-day turned into more like a 3/4 day or even a 7/8 day. So we got a bit of a late start and even at that, I forgot a couple things. Oh well.
So the adventure as it was ended up being rather sedate, but a bunch of fun just the same. We left out of here and headed up toward Crown King. It is an old mining town/ghost town in the Bradshaw mountains. There are several ways to get there, but we took the easiest way by going in through the front door. This is not much of a wheeling adventure as it is graded and a passenger car can navigate it without much trouble at all. But hey, it is twenty six miles of dirt road and dirt is better than pavement so I'll take it. Along the way in, we pass through the thriving metropolis of Cleator. It is about half way in and it has a bar. I bet this little bar can challenge some of the larger bars in Phoenix for revenue. http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/f...g/DSC06284.jpg So, once passed Cleator, you are greeted by views like this: http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/f...g/DSC06287.jpg So we got into Crown King at about 1600 and figured we would eat there so we didn't have to deal with cooking in case we had trouble locating a suitable spot to camp. We stopped at the Crown King Saloon to eat. The Saloon was brought piece by piece over the mountain from Oro Belle (another ghost town site) in 1901. It is a very neat old building. So anyways, we head out from there and head over to the Senator Highway. This is a dirt road that is very nice in some areas and rough in others, but generally a decent road. We head north on it looking for a place to camp. Several of the trails leading off of the road are closed to motorized travel. Swell. We pass many, many spots that are right off of the road where people literally get their wheels off the road and call it a camp site. Well I like a bit more privacy and less traffic through my campsite so we keep rolling and find a narrow little trail off the side. I turn down it and it goes in a ways and levels off. Off the side of the landing is a smaller trail that looks about the right size for a Rhino. I walk down a little bit and there are three trees on either side of the trail that are very close together. I figure I can get the compact Suburban through it. "What's the worst that can happen" I say as I point the truck downhill at the narrow spot. We get through with no scratches dings or dents and are rewarded with a great little spot. It looks like an adit pile, but I could find no evidence anywhere of an adit or shaft. From up the hill: http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/f...g/DSC06296.jpg A little closer: http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/f...g/DSC06290.jpg It ended up being a great place with no noise, dust, or mayhem. I started setting up the truck for the evening and we got a nice sunset: http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/f...g/DSC06308.jpg One of the things I got at Cabela's was a self inflating air matress. The last time we camped in the truck both my wife and I woke up with sore hips from the board we were sleeping on. Now mind you, I had a high density floor padding on the bottom, an eggcrate foam on top of that, two thick sleeping bags on top of that and we slept on top of all of that and ended up sore. Well, this little air mattress made the difference. It worked great!! I don't have a pic of it, but I did take a pic of the master bedroom: http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/f...g/DSC06310.jpg I also took one of my boy's bedroom complete with the grand staircase: http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/f...g/DSC06311.jpg We crashed out and got up in the morning and packed up to head toward Prescott. My wife and boy were wandering around and found a little furry friend: http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/f...g/DSC06315.jpg When we were ready to head out, I took a pic of the view. Something about getting in the truck to go and the hubs are still locked, the transfer case is still in low range and this is the view (so much better than the driveway): http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/f...g/DSC06319.jpg It was a good night and the air matress was worth the high price of admission. The only issue that we had was it got pretty warm in the truck when we were going to sleep. It did this the last time also but the ambient air temp was much higher then. I wrongly figured that the lower ambient air temp would take care of that issue. I started out in long pants and long sleeves and ended up in shorts and short sleeves. I need to figure out a ventilation setup with screens because we encountered alot of mosquitos up there. So we head toward Prescott and see some beautiful scenery along the way: http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/f...g/DSC06321.jpg I have a few more to add but I still have to load them. |
Re: The Story Of A Cummins Suburban (Lots Of Pics)
Another great story and pic's.
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Re: The Story Of A Cummins Suburban (Lots Of Pics)
Great story! Thanks for sharing. I would love to do a trip like that some day, but it will be a ways off I'm afraid. Do you have any pics and more info on that Saloon? That sounds pretty intriguing.
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Re: The Story Of A Cummins Suburban (Lots Of Pics)
Another very cool story. I just saw your thread on ck5 too haha.
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Here is some internet stuff on it: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...KingSaloon.jpg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown_King,_Arizona Quote:
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Re: The Story Of A Cummins Suburban (Lots Of Pics)
ever think about selling it (to me) and moving on to the next challenge? :lol:
Seriously I love everything about your burb, have dreamed about doing the exact thing for quite a number of years now. My search for a suburban has came up dry around these parts though. Thanks for putting in the effort for a good tread. |
Re: The Story Of A Cummins Suburban (Lots Of Pics)
I have a habit of waking early and come downstairs to see what everyone else is doing with their trucks to fill the time before work or whatever starts. I spent yesterday morning and this morning, and a little time last night reading this thread (I'm a slow reader). I'd like to have something new and witty to say to describe how much I've enjoyed going through it, but I don't. I'm not a diesel guy, but love the build and how you approached it. Very well done. I think you have a knack for writing too. Some of the phrases you used made me laugh. I like that you built it to use it. I love that you actually finished the project, so many of these threads die off or get sold incomplete. My wife is from eastern Idaho and I love going out there to visit. My brother in law and I will try to sneak off for a couple days of camping and wheeling sometimes and they are some of my best memories. I love the scenics pics, some of those could have been used for ads back in the day for GM.
I was wondering what the dyno report was. You had mentioned it was on one a while back but didn't say what the results were. Again, nice build, great thread, I really enjoyed it. |
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I rolled through Idaho probably twenty years ago, Very beautiful country up there. Quote:
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