1997 K2500 Sub- Expedition Build

[Yroundrdn]

I've been lurking around here for a while and after selling the go anywhere XJ was looking for something we could sleep in and live out of for at least a week. There are some great builds and a ton of great ideas in this forum.

Just picked this up for a couple hundred from a friend. Previous owner had issues getting it to pass smog so that makes a vehicle in the Peoples Republic of California worthless. Looks like I resolved the issues so now it's time to plan the build.

It has the 7.4 liter motor with the HD trans. 187k miles but all seems very tight and it appears it was well cared for over the years. Plan is to put some lunchbox lockers in if I can find some, build a custom bumper for a winch, build some sliders and see how it does. Hope not to lift it but if needed, I will do so. I've built an XJ and a YJ in the past so this is a huge land yacht compared to them and I certainly wont be crawling over rocks to get places. Hopefully it will get us in some very excluded places and allow us to live out of it for at least a week at a time.

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[spc15t]

It seem we had the same idea. I bought a 96 GMC Suburban earlier this year that I haven't been able to do anything with until now. I look forward seeing your progress.

 

[Mag71]

I've been lurking around here for a while and after selling the go anywhere XJ was looking for something we could sleep in and live out of for at least a week. There are some great builds and a ton of great ideas in this forum.

Just picked this up for a couple hundred from a friend. Previous owner had issues getting it to pass smog so that makes a vehicle in the Peoples Republic of California worthless. Looks like I resolved the issues so now it's time to plan the build.

It has the 7.4 liter motor with the HD trans. 187k miles but all seems very tight and it appears it was well cared for over the years. Plan is to put some lunchbox lockers in if I can find some, build a custom bumper for a winch, build some sliders and see how it does. Hope not to lift it but if needed, I will do so. I've built an XJ and a YJ in the past so this is a huge land yacht compared to them and I certainly wont be crawling over rocks to get places. Hopefully it will get us in some very excluded places and allow us to live out of it for at least a week at a time.

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Looks like a good looking rig, I am also trying to sell my XJ for the same reasons and build my blazer for more room and for a better expedition vehicle versus a crawler.

Good luck with the build!

 

[Yroundrdn]

Finding some great ideas on this site but waiting for title before I proceed. I found a great VIN Decoder for the GM products if your interested.

http://chevroletforum.com/forum/vindecoder.php?vin=1GBGK26J8VJ342404

It provided a very detailed report about my vehicle. Unfortunately it listed two options for transfer case and rear gearing so I'll have to get that info off the door plate I assume.

 

[aardvarcus]

You should be able to get all the RPO codes off of the sticker in the glovebox. Alternatively you can contact GMC/Chevy customer assistance with your VIN number and they can give you a build sheet with all the RPO codes. I did that with my 1994 K2500 Suburban I got earlier this year which had the GT5 code which means 4:10 gearing.

 

[Yroundrdn]

Build codes show a G80 Gov-Lock by Eaton with 410 gears! Great news!

Did some cleaning up of the front getting it ready for a hitch receiver and winch tray. Finally looking more like a truck than a grocery grabber

BEFORE

AFTER

 

[Yroundrdn]

Winch project

A winch was probably one of the most important additions given much of our time off road will be out there alone. At work several of our vehicles have the Warn 12k winch. I had to take an off road course since my assigned vehicle is a 4x4. The course was as joke especially in a Raptor but I was still able to get it stuck after pushing the limits of clearance and traction. I was amazed at how easily the winch was able to yank that huge heavy truck off the hill it was stuck on. Then a few weeks ago I winched out some crazy guys who were axle deep in mud in an XJ. Again I was shocked at how easy the vehicle came right out. I also learned about the block and tackle set up, a must for these big rigs.

So, I found this 12k Warn XD9000 attached to a Trans4mer Mounting System that had come off another Burb on CL. I paid the guy $600 for this old CL find. Once I got it home and re-wired it, I cleaned it up and spend the next month trying to figure out how in the world I was going to mount this. After talking it over with some friends better at this stuff than I, we came up with the following solution.

Since I wanted as much of a stock look as possible for this build, I opened the center of the bumper first.

 

[Yroundrdn]

I decided to build a steel plate that would attach between the frame rails using the mounts already there for the recovery hooks. This would provide additional lateral support and a skid plate for that front area. Later I will mount some lights on the sides and corners of the plate.

 

[Yroundrdn]

I welded 2 pieces of 1X3 angle iron from front to back for support and to attach the winch mount. Over did the weld but mig wire is cheap. Then I ground it down and attached the winch mount push guard and welded that in place. Once this was done, I painted it and bolted it to the frame.

 

[Yroundrdn]

Once it was all ready I dropped in the winch, hooked it up and all worked great. Plan to add some brackets to the middle of the mount later today but glad this project is done!

 

[Yroundrdn]

Next project is the rims and tires. Turns out the 90's wanted the custom rims back so I picked up some steel rims for $100 that will get black paint and some BFG 285's this week.

 

[chilliwak]

Good looking surburban you have there. I look forward to seeing what you do with your truck. Thanks for posting pics. Cheers, Chilli...

 

[Bojak]

Nice rig. I'm glad you are not dead set on the saw blades wheels. I love these body style GM vehicles, probably the last that I consider a classic. Keep up the good work.

 

[Yroundrdn]

New Kicks and Fender Trimming

Discount Tire had a deal I couldn't pass up, 4 BFG's 4 Rims, $970 out the door after a $200 rebate. So I sold off the steel wheels I planned to install and went with the wider rim and tire. These are 285/75/16 and of course rubbed front and back. Soooooo, time to cut.

I cut the front and the back and removed the plastic fender trim. I also cut the bumper and removed some useless pieces of plastic. Once done I followed the old fender trim line along the top and painted them black to match the rear.

This my test rock and the clearance is fine! The rear tires clear just fine so no trimming needed there.

 

[Yroundrdn]

Overall I'm very happy with the look. Doing this one different than all my other builds. I'm not going to lift it so I can keep the same geometry for the drive train and I want it to have as plain a look as possible, thus the black rims. Next project will be the bed and drawers. Design is done, wood purchased, time to get busy.