The BroBurban - A 2002 2500 Suburban

[rayra]

Boy that looks a helluva lot like Santa Clarita fringes. Castaic-ish. Looks much the same on the other side looking down on Canyon Country, too.

By handling, do you mean the rear end roll and the need to slow down a bit on huge sweeping freeway transitions / ramps? If so, yeah, that's a Suburban.
Change your sway bar mount and end link bushings, it will stiffen up a bit on the roll. Take the slack out. Your shocks should have helped a good bit with the roll.

 

[fl0w3n]

Boy that looks a helluva lot like Santa Clarita fringes. Castaic-ish. Looks much the same on the other side looking down on Canyon Country, too.

By handling, do you mean the rear end roll and the need to slow down a bit on huge sweeping freeway transitions / ramps? If so, yeah, that's a Suburban.
Change your sway bar mount and end link bushings, it will stiffen up a bit on the roll. Take the slack out. Your shocks should have helped a good bit with the roll.

Good eye. I was at the massive grading project going on in Mint Canyon, between Sierra Highway and Whites Canyon.

That's exactly what I'm talking about in regards to handling. It's extra frustrating because that's the complete opposite of how my Duramax was, and not that I'm an advocate of reckless driving... but on quite lonely stretches of the 5 freeway through Central CA, that thing just craved speed and at about 120mph it just felt extremely solid and planted and inspired a lot of confidence. Through turns or on ramps, sure there was body roll since it was such a big truck, but it was extremely predictable and very manageable, essentially you could take a turn as fast as your cajones would allow. So, it bums me out to go from that to this, but to be fair I had ~6k into suspension and steering alone on that truck.

I haven't done shocks yet on the Suburban, but that is definitely on the list. I didn't run a swaybar or steering stabilizer on the Duramax, and planned on trying that out on this Suburban once I get more suspension work dialed in, but I'll also obviously compare to with it on as well to see what works best. I'm thinking some bigger tires will actually help by making it feel a little more weighted and planted.

 

[rayra]

hah. Nailed it again. Been living up here since '95.
Last time it was a guy in a rocky river-side spot up in the Sierras and I spotted it within the campground it was in, named the campground. We had a house north of Kernville for 11yrs, the campground was right up the road from it.

you'll still have the slight top-heavy roll, nature of the beast. Had the same problem when I went from my longbed C-10. Had to back off ~10-15mph on some of the huge high speed highway sweepers / transition roads around here. You feel the *** start to roll like things are about to depart, particularly north of 70mph. Straight-line they're a pleasure cruiser. Winding roads and stop and go braking they start needing more attention. Almost did roll it, first time I hit the 210 E -> 15 S transition in my Sub.
The bigger tires / more unsprung weight might help keep it on the ground, but the weight and traction would probably be offset by the higher center of gravity. Wheel spacers might help more. But that big butt is still gonna roll. It's a 6-7 person bus, just can't be whipped around as hard as a pickup or car.

Much less than $100 to put all new sway bar mount bushings and end link bushings front and rear, off of rockauto.com, as a short-term improvement. And there are beefier sway bar options available, but they start getting expensive.
Also check your panhard bar and particularly its mounting brackets, you might have a crack or damage there that might contribute to some instability.

 

[boss324]

Boy that looks a helluva lot like Santa Clarita fringes. Castaic-ish. Looks much the same on the other side looking down on Canyon Country, too.

By handling, do you mean the rear end roll and the need to slow down a bit on huge sweeping freeway transitions / ramps? If so, yeah, that's a Suburban.
Change your sway bar mount and end link bushings, it will stiffen up a bit on the roll. Take the slack out. Your shocks should have helped a good bit with the roll.

When I put on my sumosprings bump stops this by itself kept the truck leveled on corners then with the sway bar bushings gave me even more control and road feel. I was up in Pacifica this past weekend lots of switchbacks burb handled it great. Even went up to Alice Restaurant in Woodside tight one lane windy roads burb did great. Long fast sweepers on the hwy no problem very stable and compliant. It's a joy to drive.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N920A using Tapatalk

 

[fl0w3n]

hah. Nailed it again. Been living up here since '95.
Last time it was a guy in a rocky river-side spot up in the Sierras and I spotted it within the campground it was in, named the campground. We had a house north of Kernville for 11yrs, the campground was right up the road from it.

you'll still have the slight top-heavy roll, nature of the beast. Had the same problem when I went from my longbed C-10. Had to back off ~10-15mph on some of the huge high speed highway sweepers / transition roads around here. You feel the *** start to roll like things are about to depart, particularly north of 70mph. Straight-line they're a pleasure cruiser. Winding roads and stop and go braking they start needing more attention. Almost did roll it, first time I hit the 210 E -> 15 S transition in my Sub.
The bigger tires / more unsprung weight might help keep it on the ground, but the weight and traction would probably be offset by the higher center of gravity. Wheel spacers might help more. But that big butt is still gonna roll. It's a 6-7 person bus, just can't be whipped around as hard as a pickup or car.

Much less than $100 to put all new sway bar mount bushings and end link bushings front and rear, off of rockauto.com, as a short-term improvement. And there are beefier sway bar options available, but they start getting expensive.
Also check your panhard bar and particularly its mounting brackets, you might have a crack or damage there that might contribute to some instability.

I like the area, I am up there often for work.

I'll get to the suspension overhaul eventually. Need to recoup $$ after the first round of parts thrown at it.

Panhard bar? This is a 2500 with leafs in the rear.

When I put on my sumosprings bump stops this by itself kept the truck leveled on corners then with the sway bar bushings gave me even more control and road feel. I was up in Pacifica this past weekend lots of switchbacks burb handled it great. Even went up to Alice Restaurant in Woodside tight one lane windy roads burb did great. Long fast sweepers on the hwy no problem very stable and compliant. It's a joy to drive.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N920A using Tapatalk

I have been contemplating what to do about my whole lack of bump stops, and I think I'm going to still go with the Camburg control arms and fox shocks I wanted, use a limit strap on down travel and possibly some 2.0 air bumps for the up. It cost me I think $800 to get the factory style bump stop fabricated back into my Duramax frame. But that also included a little bit of other welding work.
It sucks to have to spend the money on that, but I don't know what else to do.

 

[boss324]

I like the area, I am up there often for work.

I'll get to the suspension overhaul eventually. Need to recoup $$ after the first round of parts thrown at it.

Panhard bar? This is a 2500 with leafs in the rear.




I have been contemplating what to do about my whole lack of bump stops, and I think I'm going to still go with the Camburg control arms and fox shocks I wanted, use a limit strap on down travel and possibly some 2.0 air bumps for the up. It cost me I think $800 to get the factory style bump stop fabricated back into my Duramax frame. But that also included a little bit of other welding work.
It sucks to have to spend the money on that, but I don't know what else to do.

The Cognito leveling kit comes with the UCA and if you go with the Fox Shocks you won't need the straps as this is handled by the shock itself. I'd ask Camburg if their Fox shocks do the same.

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[dfarm]

My 2001 suburban 2500 had similar oil leaks to what you are describing. I replaced the lifter valley gasket, oil pressure sensor, the plate for the oil cooler, and was positive that the valve covers weren't leaking. It still looked like the starter was getting oil on it from somewhere. It ended up being the rear main. It's not a bad job to do, but be aware that the transmission won't come out of the truck with the transfer case attached. You can push them back far enough to do the job though.