1989 GMC Suburban "Trail Boss" conversion

[warrpath4x4]

Picked this suburban up today, Its a 1989 GMC SLE that was a conversion by a company called Trail Wagons in Yakima WA (just up the freeway from here). The company has been out of business for several years now, they mainly did van conversions, were the creators of the Chinook campers that were installed on Toyotas, and created an H1 camper but i cannot find much info on the Suburbans. I can see extra wood trim, lift kit, fiberglass running boards which incorporate the fender flares as a one piece unit (not sure i like that or that they will stay), a roof rack of sorts, 3" magnaflow exhaust but not sure if that was a conversion part or just added later, and there was a TV at one point judging by the switch labeled TV lol. other than that it is a regular SLE with a TBI 5.7, 700R4, NP241, i need to look at the gearing as it feels like it has pretty good get up and go compared to other suburbans ive owned. It is a low mileage unit with 82K original miles, the previous owner started to sand it down for repaint then passed away, so now it has bare metal and surface rust going on as it was last registered Jan 2020.

Plans are to start maintenance on it, and use it to haul scouts and go camping.

only dent I have found so far is in the rear bumper

Looking at that pedal, im gonna say the mileage is original

roof "rack"

its got A/C but no rear A/C and not sure yet if it works

 

[borison]

Saw a ton of these GMC Suburbans sold while working at a GMC dealership in E. Washington in the late 80s and early 90s. Very popular.

 

[warrpath4x4]

I have a basically new set of 33's on black steel wheels to install, ordered a bunch of maintenance parts for it, and some upgrade parts. just playing the waiting game right now. also found a 14 bolt 6 lug to install just as added insurance.

 

[warrpath4x4]

Parts are starting to roll in for it, cleaned out the glove box and center console, found a bunch of receipts for battery, tires, stereo, and a ton of fuel receipts with the mileage wrote on them. found out the lift was installed by Les Schwabs Tire so probably not done as part of the conversion. The sticker is still on the rear springs though and they are 4" lift springs in the rear and 2" lift springs in the front.

the driver window doesn't roll down

It still doesn't roll down but the new switch at least looks better lol

 

[ThundahBeagle]

Nice find. I love that generation Blazer, and the GMT400's that came after them

 

[(none)]

Cool project. I like those aluminum wheels! you should try to keep those, they look like they'd clean up nicely.

 

[Arjan]

Nice !

 

[warrpath4x4]

Swapped out the tires today, threw my 37's on bead locks on the stepside and the 33's on black steelies that was on it went on the suburban. Also did the pex tubing trick on the door strikers of the suburban and the stepside, the doors shut way better and the pex is better than the electrical tape I have used before. The Set Power fridge I have just barely fits between the rear doors and the back of the 3rd row seat, still waiting for more parts to arrive.

just because lol

better tires

They look bigger on here than the suburban lol

mounted the "roof rack" basically just to plug the holes that were letting water in and ruining the headliner board.

 

[trbon8r]

Cool truck!

Those 350 TBI engines can run a long time when taken care of, and many times even when not taken care of!

 

[warrpath4x4]

Changed out all the exterior lights to LED's except the headlights which were the wrong size, I ordered a different set of headlights that changes it to a "sealed" housing that accepts an H3 bulb. Had to rewire most of the rear driver side light housing and the plate light. Still need to change out the interior lights.

I bought a used Warn look a like winch bumper of marketplace only to find out its tweaked and bent when I went to install it. I was trying to just quickly bolt a winch bumper on without having to build it or wait for one to be built... guess that shows me lol. I should have the new winch mount/bumper done and installed this weekend.

The tune up parts finally all got here so I need to do that and get some miles put on this thing to make sure its ready for the maiden scout voyage next weekend.

 

[warrpath4x4]

So heres the bumper I got hosed on. At first I was pretty mad about it, and I could make the excuse that it was at night, but theres times where you just have to accept when you get hosed.

I stood there for a while trying to decide how to fix it, and none of the options were that appealing at the time lol, SO I just started building.

Winch mount

the receiver runs the full depth of the mount, with a cross plate under the rear and the cross plate in the front, theres 10 bolts holding it on (4 in each side and 1 in each top frame rail)

It sticks out a bit but I didnt want to cut the grill on this one, it sits higher than the stock bumper, and I think less than the Warn knock off would have.

planning on de-fanging it

But now I need to finish the bumper, I am going to run some 1.75 tube (red) out to the sides and wrap it a little but teying to decide if I want to put a hoop (blue) over the top and maybe leaned out a little bit or put a second tube (yellow) that would go behind the red one and plate the top of it? I have two 5" or 7" lights I want to mount on the front also.

Please dont be jealous of my mad artistic skills lol

 

[warrpath4x4]

I was out this morning doing some CAD work and think I like this idea better than the tube work, not to say I wont possibly add a tube over the top anyways.

I will cap the end also when completed

 

[warrpath4x4]

Well last week did not go as planned with 3-4 days with 20-30 mile an hour sustained winds made it a little hard to work on stuff outside so I didnt get any work done on this and had to just take the Tacoma camping with the scouts. The suburban does quite a bit of wandering on the road and there was a new drag link in the back when I bought it. Had the kid shake the wheel back and forth and there was a bit of wiggle at the pitman arm so I went ahead and replaced it.

It helped but wasnt the cure, It still wants to wander but now only above 45-50. I have a weld on steering box brace and an XJ steering shaft to go in, still need to check the rest of the steering components and do an alignment/castor check.

We did have nice weather for camping though, 70 during the day but chilly at night (35-40 degrees)

 

[SDDiver5]

What an awesome find!

 

[warrpath4x4]

So there was a little bit of rust in the front fenders (all ive found so far)

driver side

passenger side

but not anymore

finished up the wings, capped them off, still deciding a few things.. where to put the front plate, do I want to add a hoop over the winch, do I want to add flush mount fog lights into the bumper.