2000-2006 Suburan/Tahoe owners: How easy to remove 2nd row seats?

[Martinjmpr]

Couple of questions for the owners of GMT800 Suburbans or Tahoes:
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First, How easy can the 2nd row seats be taken out? On my 4runner taking the seat bottom cushions out is a 5 minute job with a 14mm socket wrench. Want to know if it is possible to maximize storage this way.
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Second, I know the seats are a 40/60 split. Is it possible to remove the "40" and leave the "60" in place? Or vice-versa?
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Thanks in advance.

 

[rayra]

Easy but awkward. You have to remove a bunch of small screws to remove the snapped-on plastic covers over the actual mounting bolts. Those nuts are odd / unevenly shaped but an 18mm socket works ok. Easy enough at that point. Be careful taking them out the door and putting them back in, as the brackets stick out and are sharp edges, they'll gouge whatever you hit by accident.

Just did it a few weeks ago, have to take them out to remove the rear half of the carpet / liner.

eta didn't we talk about this a week or so ago? Someone had a question about whether the Tahoe rear area was long enough to sleep in. I was doing some math about the Tahoe being 22" shorter than the Suburban, and the Sub having 98" between the back of the front seats and the inner face of the rear hatch. So ~76" for the Tahoe. And then I pointed out there was a loss of some of that as the 2nd row stowed position was bottoms tipped up and forward, backs folded flat, so one loses 6-7" to them, then the question was how hard to remove just the bottoms and I replied that it was just a set of pivot bolts on each seat bottom, and not terribly diificult is setting up the back to sleep.

 

[Martinjmpr]

eta didn't we talk about this a week or so ago? Someone had a question about whether the Tahoe rear area was long enough to sleep in.

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If there was I must have missed it. My 4runner is barely long enough for me to sleep in IF I remove the seat bottom cushions. Problem is that even with the seat bottoms removed and the seat backs laying "flat", they still angle up about 10 degrees so it's not a truly flat load bed. I fixed that on mine with a sleeping platform but it's still tight. A 'Burb would give me almost an embarrassment of space and from what I've seen the difference in MPG between the Tahoe and 'Burb is negligible (and the Burb has a 31 gallon tank vs 26 in the Tahoe.) Interesting note is that on the used market, at least where I'm shopping in Denver, 'Burbs go for less than Tahoes of the same year/miles, either because there are more 'Burbs being traded in or because more people want the smaller Tahoe over the long Suburban.

 

[rayra]

Yes very much comparable in MPG and used prices, with the Sub having about about 20cu' more storage room behind the 3rd row than the Tahoe. Really makes a difference if you have more than 4 people/dogs to haul. Found the same relative difference in pricing when I was scouring the north half of L.A. county for mine last Fall. Tahoes were $500-1000 more. I also noticed that the GMC Yukon variants ran about ~$1200 less than the Chevy-branded versions, everything else being the same. I noticed the Yukon/XL ads seem to linger longer. Not sure if it was lesser demand or people just not considering them.

on a related tangent I found a similar trick a few years ago while planning a trip to Albuquerque for their Hot Air Balloon Festival. Hit all the travel sights for hotels in Albuquerque, everything all booked up. Looked at some maps and tried again plugging in their 'Rio Rancho' NW suburb and bam plenty of bookings available. So maybe searching for 'Yukon XL' instead of Suburban is the way to go.

I'm getting about 13.4mpg in my sub, the missus gets a hair over 14 in her Tahoe. But her commute is mostly highway driving and I'm a leadfoot with a lot of local driving. Switch vehicles and we'd likely get the same numbers or close to it. Same 5.3L/4L60E drivetrain in both. Hers is 3yrs newer but has 25k more miles on it.

The Sub will give you a full and flat 90", with the 2nd row stored. The Tahoe a tight 72". 2003-on the 2nd row headrests fold back / up when you drop the seatbacks, about a football-sized lump in your way on that 72". 2000-2003, the headrests pull out manually they fit in the tiny 3rd row footwell and are covered by a flap board on teh backs of the 2nd row when they are folded down.


the Sub

 

[07SilveradoVA]

Has anyone with the 2nd row bucket seats ever removed them? I'm having trouble getting the passenger side seat out and was wondering if there were any tips on getting the back bolts out

 

[rayra]

The second row passenger side seat actualyl has a sliding mechanism in the base, the whole seat moves forward a few inches. Not sure if it's to give more foot room to the third row passenger side, or to move the 2nd row passenger seat forward enough for the driver to reach a baby seat strapped in it.
IIRC I had to slide that seat chassis forward a bit to gain better access to the nuts on the rear bolts. I don't recall any other trouble in taking that seat out when I did it last year.