jharris said:
I am a freshman in college at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. I enjoy off roading, Mountain biking, climbing, hiking, camping, and many other outdoor activities. I have been reading the forum lately but what I am trying to figure out the most important gear for expedition travel. I plan to take a trip to Moab this spring or summer to do some off-roading, a lot of mountain biking, and some hiking. Also in the near future is a trip to Colorado to hike and climb a 14er. The question I have is what gear you would suggest to take trips. I only have around 2 thousand to spend. If you can leave me suggestions on possible modifications to my truck. I have noticed there is not as many people who use full size trucks such as this.
2005 Silverado 4x4
Regular Cab Long Box
Ill try and add a picture but it not letting me now and i dont have time to fix it since im sitting in lecture class for biology
Size of the truck is more personal preference. The smaller trucks do get better MPG. They also tend to be shorter wheel base as well as narrower. This means what we can do with 33's and 2-4 inches of lift, because of our wheel spacing, you would need 36-38 and 4-8 inches of lift. Then we get into the whole weight issue....You with gear will be near 6k where a smaller truck will be 4500. That’s the biggest difference.
As far as a vehicle goes....great truck. I have a 04 Z71 Extended cab short bed for my work truck. Being a work truck I have a ARE double rear door and side opening canopy and a bed slider. Put some screen window in it would be the first thing I would do if it were mine.
If you don't have a toper try
www.craigslist.org. You may be able to score one for e pennies on the dollar. Really can’t beat a topper in my opinion. Keeps your gear dry and if you get caught out in bead weather you can always sleep in it if it is to nasty to set camp.
Suspension wise...not a bad truck out of the box. How much you do, if anything, suspension wise really depends on the trails you want to run. The average FS/BLM main road it will have no problem on stock. It’s the poorly maintained that you need to decide who much modification you want to do to be able to traverse them.
One of the nicest outfitted trucks on the forum Is Brian89's rig.
http://www.brian894x4.com/ is his web site and he has some great build write ups you can get some ideas from. He has the bed converted into a mini camper complete with Reefer and water.
Welcome to the Forum!
