2004 suburban build

[jonb8]

I built a offroad teardrop last winter to pull behind my xj, just to run around the mountains of WV and explore. Now after camping in it for 3 weekends and a 5 night vacation we have decided we want to travel with it, and that means I'm going to have to get a different Tow rig since the xj isn't going to be up to all the interstate miles. Since I already own a 2004 suburban I'll use it, seems like everyone is happy with them as a exploration vehicle. Here's the set up now..

I did pull the teardrop to a jeep ride with some buddy's and I used the suburban and man was it nice, that's when I decided that the little xj just worked to hard and comfort of the suburban at 70 mph on the interstate was the ticket..

 

[jonb8]

I'm going to start with a 2/3 key lift and some 285 tires, roof rack and some drawers built in rear and go from there....

 

[Martinjmpr]

Nice to see another one for the ExPo Suburban Mafia! Mine is an '04 as well. Yours looks like an LT?
.
Nice trailer too! But people are going to point out that you have more interior room in your tow vehicle than you do in your trailer!
.
Anyway, welcome to the board. By the 2/3 lift I presume you mean the spacer lift in the back and the key lift up front? You might want to consider replacing those tired old springs. On mine instead of putting spacers in I just put fresh Z71 springs to replace my tired old LT springs and it gave me almost 3" of lift at the back. I run 285/75/16s as well.

 

[rayra]

That's a good setup. Some of those trailers are really sweet. And yep, Subs tow light / medium trailers like they aren't even there. Scarcely any difference in the MPG, too.

 

[M35A2]

Let's see what those 'burbs look like with 285s on them.

 

[jonb8]

Yea it's an LT, I'm not a fan of sunroofs or leather interior so it took me forever to find a suburban that was a dark color and cloth seats. I've built alot of jeeps of all kinds but this will be my first IFS vehicle. I've heard the z71 springs will lift the burb but I was worried it would be to much, I'm already sagging a little in the front...and I'm with M35A2 let's see some lifted burbs... WOOT WOOT

 

[rayra]

You'll want to look up Jelorian's build, and Stryder and Geron / Burb One's for 285s and CrazyDrei for some 37s stuffed in without sufficient lift. There are more folks with some real nice builds as well. Boll_Rig's in particular. Apologies to the folks whose names I've left out.

The top link in my sig has a bunch of stuff you can look forward to with your Burb and it's the closest thing to a build thread I've got. I did a leveling kit and then swapped in a 2" steel spacer for the kit's 3/4" poly and put a little more crank on the leveling kit's torsion keys, got some nice usable height on mine but have remained with 265/70-17 tire size.

/maybe I'll start a 'Suburban Mafia Roll Call' of links in my 'Hey' topic ETA no maybe about it. I'm going to compile this over the weekend, would be a real handy reference.


And here's my storage drawers / platform build.
http://forum.expeditionportal.com/threads/161631-Storage-Drawers-Platform-for-my-GMT800-Suburban-WIP

There's a related 'aux power' topic in the 12V subforum too, the latter portions show the extra heavy cabling and power distribution setup. The early portion just people showing their asses (mine included)

 

[chilliwak]

Nice :drool:looking set-up Jon! Did you build that trailer? Thanks for posting pics of you rig. Cheers, Chilli...

 

[jonb8]

Yea chilliwak, I have a build thread in the jeep section I'll link it here. http://forum.expeditionportal.com/threads/164582-XJ-and-offroad-teardrop Thanks rayra, I love reading material....

 

[jonb8]

Wow, super wright up on the drawers rayra, EXACTLY what I was looking for. What we are lacking is clothes storage, so a split cabinet with clothes drawers in the rear and safety equipment in the front would work perfectly. I would also like the top to double as a sleeping platform in case my son wants to come with us on a long trip..

 

[rayra]

thanks. If you have any design questions or 'what's behind that panel' type of stuff, just hit me up.

 

[wvracer821]

I'm glad I found you on here, we will have to do some wheeling and camping this year! I just got a 05 chevy for a new project.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Tapatalk

 

[jonb8]

Right On !!! I've sold 2 of my project vehicles so I got time to explore this year. I don't need anymore vehicles anyway....:sombrero:

 

[boll_rig]

Awesome work on that trailer Jon, just read through your build. Thing looks factory - if not better!

And welcome to the burb club. I'm currently doing something similar to rayra's drawers, its a great design and could definitely be mixed up to add some sort of clothes cabinet. I might be doing something like that on my drivers side rear inside panel here soon.

 

[jonb8]

Thanks boll-rig, Thanks... I'm reading on your build thread now, awesome job on the pop up roof..