2000 Suburban K1500 budget low lift with 37"s

[CrazyDrei]

Lost a rear brake bracket bolt, its a GM thing

My kids and I have been running the truck on trails every week since the 37's came on. The I initially started the tires out at 35PSI and have been gradually dropping the pressure to find good balance between street drivability and off road comfort. Right now I am down to 25PSI and the ride is night and day from 32s at 70PSI. With the increased comfort our speed on dirt trails increased dramatically. And with the increased speed came some new revelations.

GM BRAKE BRACKET BOLTS MUST BE REPLACED WITH NEW FACTORY BOLTS ​

OR LOTS OF LOCTITE MUST BE USED​

One of my buddies at work saw all the Jeep owners post pictures of their trucks at Wheeler Pass and bragging about their off-road capabilities and how awesome and capable their Rubicons are. He asked me if there is a way his 2015 Nissan Fronteer 2wd 5spd, hand crank window model can make it up to the pass. We did a couple trails, and based on his off road driving skill I gave him a green light and we went up the trail. There are several ways up and we too the most popular easiest route. His truck made it.



While driving up, approximately 3miles from the top of the pass I heard a loud clunk like I lost a bolt, I disregarded it as unimportant because I have been loosing nutls and bolts on the road and trail from my vehicles for the last 15 years. Everytime I hit the brakes I heard loud screeching and occasionally my rear left would lock up. I continued all the way to the top to reassess and figure out what to do next. Upon the initial inspection I thought that I bent my awesome craigslist rim, nope, the rim was fine. Next thing that went through my head was that the wheel spacer broke and everyone on the form was right, nope, wheel spacer was normal. Next thought was that I should have feared the gear and broke my rear half axle, nope the wheel spun freely without a wobble. What the hell could it be.



I jacked the wheel off with the best bottle jack/jack stand available on the market for roadside off road repairs, it's not a hi-lift, they are useless cool looking accessories which are not practical for unmodified trucks off road. Powerbuilt unijack ($40 shipped at home depot) is the ultimate in the desert, loose, rocky or uneven terrain. And noticed that the brake caliper is sitting crooked and rubbing on the rotor.




This is not a bolt I expect to come undone or carry extras of in my emergency roadside toolbox. Found a long grade 8 bolt that was about 2mm in diameter smaller than the required bolt, found a spacer sleeve, couple washers, duct tape and zip ties, let the MacGuyvering begin.




I didn't take the pictures on the trail because it was hot and I needed to fix the truck quick, pictures were taken in my driveway. Bottom bolt came out, replacement bolt was too long to fit into the bottom hole, I took the top bolt, wrapped it with duct tape and threaded it into the bottom hole, I took my new 6" bolt with lots and lots of duct tape and threaded it into the top hole, it fit. I wrapped the zip tie around the washers and zip tied to something on the truck to keep the bolt from falling out. Couple layers of duct tape to secure the bolt enough to make it home.

Driving down the trail this quick fix worked beautifully, we made it to the dealer to get a new bolt, and then home (85 miles).

The cause: I put new rotors and brakes on the truck 15k miles ago, second set in 4 years and did not loctite the bracket bolts. Researching this problem apparently its GM thing, Silverados. Suburbans, Yukons, Corvettes all require either new bolts or copious amounts of loctite when replacing the bolts, who knew, now I know. 400miles of washboard at 45-65mph in the last month did not help the cause either. Now all the brake bracket bolts have loctite and caliper bolts have been re-tightened.

Stay tuned for more shenanigans.

 

[CrazyDrei]

Still on budget, kinda

Damages so far:
$250: wheels and 37" tires
$115: Skyjacker shocks
$33: 3" rear spacers
$18: Ford torsion keys
$20: 2" wheel spacers
$19: Tie rod sleeves
$50: 4.10 front differential (still sitting in the garage)
$50: 3" body lift
$120: 4 used Toyo Open Country MT tires 37x13.50R17
$40: 2 Toyo Open Country MT spare tires 35x12.50R17
$20: 17" aluminum Tahoe rim

TOTAL: $735

Remaining $265

I did not get a chance to take pics of the body lift but the 3" body lift is in as of a couple weeks ago. As well as running boards. A friend was selling his Tahoe barbie mobile that had a 3" body lift, found a buyer that did not want the body lift and told him that if he drops it back to stock he will pay asking price. As a joke I offered to help him since I wanted a body lift. He didn't remember where he bought the body lift or who made it. I downloaded Ozone Off Road body lift directions how to install their lift, and him and I pulled the parts off my truck to bring his back to factory height and used his body lift kit to raise mine. I was missing a few parts and bolts that I later bought at Home Depot and more or less finished the lift. 2k miles and so far it's holding up pretty good.




I do not have the spacers for the hitch so there is a huge gap between the hitch and the bumper, looks like I'll be getting a new lower profile hitch soon to fill the void.

Wife did not like how high the truck was sitting so I found a pair of running boards for the Suburban with mounting brackets on craigslist for $20 but since the guy had them for sale for over 6 months and I was the first one to inquire about them and convinced him that bolts and washers will cost me $50 at home depot his wife told him to give them away because she wanted them out of the garage, SCORE!




This is how the truck sits now with the 3" body lift and 3" level kit. Running boards required a lot of trimming to fit in but function perfectly, do not rub and hide the frame which looked redneck stripmall ugly.

Next steps:
Auxiliary fuel tank: on the back-burner for now because 400 mile range on trails is about 150miles farther than any of my friends can make it. Full size spare fits in the factory location so no room for a second fuel tank there. Another option is a 50-55gal Ram 3500, E250 or F350 midship tanks that way I use the 3" extra created by the body lift.
4.10 Gears: I got a dirt cheap 4.10 front diff, so now I need to either find a dirt cheat GT5 G80 rear end or buy new gears and master install kit. AutoZone rents all the tools needed to swap gears and I can borrow a friends air compressor and impact to drive on the pinion nut crush ring. Not sold on the gears yet. I have absolutely not use for them off road. 4x4 low and 1st gear has gotten me up anyhting I have thrown at the truck and will never need to go any lower. Truck struggles a little with the trailer on the highway, and that would be the only reason to gear lower. Have a 2k mile trip coming up next week with the trailer, will use that to decide about the gears.
Bit more fender trimming: Tires still rub a little when I turn all the way and completely compress the suspension. So that area needs a little more attention and then I can put fender flares on.
Hitch: factory hitch works great on a Southwest truck that hardly ever sees rain or salt but after the body lift it looks hideous and my departure angle is too low. Looking for a bolt on rear hitch that is lower profile such as from K2500s or even flipping it upside down to raise the receiver and make the truck look cleaner. Any feedback and pictures would be greatly appreciated.
Raise spare tire: Full size, more or less, spare hangs down at the level of the hitch, too low for my liking, need to get around to cutting the factory support, raising it 3-4" and welding it back on. If the hitch comes up-3-5" and the spare comes up 3-4" my departure angle will improve and the truck will look a lot cleaner.
Bigger front brakes: possibly a swap from 2007 GMT900 trucks. I can do a hydroboost setup really cheap however my power steering pump has been on it's last legs for last 4 years don't want to upgrade it to the K2500 pump until it completely craps out, it would not be fun to anyone on the receiving end if both the brakes and steering crap out on me.

My goal is is to keep the truck looking as stock as possible other than the big tires and the roof rack.

Going to keep on driving it for a while and enjoying the trails as the truck sits right now.

Stay tuned for more shenanigans!

 

[Bushcoat]

Everything is looking awesome! Maybe a tire like a 9.00R16 military tire would work well if you can find one, closer to 36" and much skinnier so it would tuck much better.

 

[Kyle Kelso]

I'm not quite half way through this thread, I can't take it anymore! At first I thought this would be "crazy but fun to watch" but now it's just crazy! Repeatedly putting 12000lbs behind a 1500 Burb is stupid. It doesn't get you bragging rights, it doesn't show what it can really do, and it's not up for debate, it IS stupid.
That out of the way, you made it sound like you wanted to cake walk off road trails with your 37s so naturally people pointed out the obvious concerns. Then you back pedaled into being able to drive the same easy trails you already have driven in 2wd with your old tires... I must be missing something here...


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[Kyle Kelso]

I got through it all and it looks like you pulled it off I guess. I still don't see the point and think a more practical approach would actually perform better but hey, it's your truck!
I will say though that difficult trails or not, you've gotten your family out into some really cool areas and seem to be doing it pretty often so that's super cool! I hope your Burb continues to get you all out there

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[chilliwak]

Goos to see you still rocking the trails Crazy, and that you put gaffa tape to good use. Looks like you are holding everything within your budget. Rock on. cheers, Chilli..

 

[Lykos]

How do you expect that to hold together without unobtainium lug nuts?

 

[CrazyDrei]

I got through it all and it looks like you pulled it off I guess. I still don't see the point and think a more practical approach would actually perform better but hey, it's your truck!
I will say though that difficult trails or not, you've gotten your family out into some really cool areas and seem to be doing it pretty often so that's super cool! I hope your Burb continues to get you all out there

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Kyle,

I think you nailed it, getting out and running fun trails and exploring new areas with the family is all that this is about. I wanted to make a trail capable rig more capable if need be and much more comfortable to continually go out and explore the southwest on a budget. There is virtually no aftermarket support for GMT-800s for overlanding and part of the excitement is to adapt my own touch to my vision. My initial goal was to make the Sub drive more comfortably on back-country roads where a sedan can make it yet capable of going through technical sections which require a heavily modified 4x4. But most important of all is to actually go out and explore on regular basis. And that is exactly what I'm doing and we have plenty more adventures ahead of us.

Stay tuned for more shenanigans.

 

[CrazyDrei]

How do you expect that to hold together without unobtainium lug nuts?

Lykos,

I actually had to google unobtanium, lol. Still looking for it or adamantium on craigslist and eBay, when I find them I'll be sure to get a set. Until then then zip ties and gaff tape will do.

Andrei

 

[CrazyDrei]

VIDEO: Mormon Well Road through Desert Wildlife Refuge

Fun road I have been wanting to drive for some time now. 47 miles pavement to pavement of Mormon Well Road from Corn Creek SR95 to SR95. We started at the Desert Wildlife Refuge visitor center which has been rebuilt and greatly improved several years ago with great educational exhibits about the desert. We continued through the Yucca forest, then Peek-a-Boo canyon, onto Desert Pass campground, through Sawmill canyon area to SR95. Fist five miles was washboard, than the road became smoother and much more scenic.







Big Horn Sheep at the Desert Wildlife Refuge visitor center and the wildlife we can expect to find along the trail at the Desert Pass Campground.



Pretty desert flowers and a lizard that came to hang out with us for lunch.



Yucca forest.

Stay tuned for more shenanigans.

 

[CrazyDrei]

VIDEO: Carpenter Canyon NV

Beautiful drive just outside Las Vegas in the Spring Mountains starting from SR160 to the end. First five miles are washboard road to access the beginning of the canyon. Actual canyon starts at 3:45 and the last two miles are through a creek starting at 4:25 to the end. 106 degrees int he Valley and beautiful 72 degrees at the end of the canyon. Kids had a blast playing in the creek. Once again timelapse shot once per sec and rendered to half the actual speed. Enjoy!



Stream at the end of the trail.


truck at the end of the trail.

Truck did really well, I can tell that the 3.73 gears are struggling with the 37" tires. 1st gear high has been the best gear for easy to moderate trails. 4x4 low has only been needed for the most difficult and technical sections to pull this 6,000lbs beast through. I am tempted to put 4.10 gears in but I have yet to find a trial or obstacle that I was not able to conquer easily. Also the 33gal tank is plenty sufficient for 300-450miles of off road driving and commuting, however with the extra space from the body lift I am toying with a possibility of stuffing a 45 or 50gal tank from F250 or RAM3500 in the factory location.

Stay tuned for more shenanigans.

 

[chilliwak]

Beautiful drive just outside Las Vegas in the Spring Mountains starting from SR160 to the end. First five miles are washboard road to access the beginning of the canyon. Actual canyon starts at 3:45 and the last two miles are through a creek starting at 4:25 to the end. 106 degrees int he Valley and beautiful 72 degrees at the end of the canyon. Kids had a blast playing in the creek. Once again timelapse shot once per sec and rendered to half the actual speed. Enjoy!



View attachment 408226
Stream at the end of the trail.

View attachment 408227
truck at the end of the trail.

Truck did really well, I can tell that the 3.73 gears are struggling with the 37" tires. 1st gear high has been the best gear for easy to moderate trails. 4x4 low has only been needed for the most difficult and technical sections to pull this 6,000lbs beast through. I am tempted to put 4.10 gears in but I have yet to find a trial or obstacle that I was not able to conquer easily. Also the 33gal tank is plenty sufficient for 300-450miles of off road driving and commuting, however with the extra space from the body lift I am toying with a possibility of stuffing a 45 or 50gal tank from F250 or RAM3500 in the factory location.

Stay tuned for more shenanigans.

Thanks for posting that video Crazy. Sure lots of gravel road but I guess its worth it in the end. It should be interesting to see you install a larger gas tank. Keep us posted with details. Cheers, Chilli..

 

[CrazyDrei]

Yosemite

Last week we packed the truck, hooked up the camper and headed out to Yosemite for a week of rest and relaxation. Tioga pass was closed on our drive up but opened the day before we headed home. We always stay at Tamarack Flat camp ground because it's higher elevation deters whimpy tent campers and a three mile single lane twisty mountain road is supposed to deter RVs and trailers. Perfect place for our little hard sided pop-up.

We did get a chance to visit Hetch Hetchy reservoir and hike around it this trip. Both Wapama and Tueeulala waterfalls were spectacular.

We also got several quiet hikes in near Glacier Point as well as down in the Valley. We got lucky with our timing, arriving Monday evening and leaving Saturday morning as the 4th of July crowds were rolling in.



Entrance to Hetch Hetchy and our spacious spot at Tamarack Flat campground, and yes we were the only camper in the campground.



Morning sun shining through the breakfast campfire smoke and somewhere in the picture is the two year old walking through the tunnel tree in Touloume Grove of Giant Sequoias.



Standing on top of the fallen sequoia and putting the roof rack to good use by collecting firewood outside Yosemite Valley for a night long campfire.



Tioga Pass is open for the summer! Our setup with the camper and about 1,000lbs of camping gear in the back of the truck and in the ski box.

Drive up to the park from Las Vegas took nearly 13 hours going through Barstow, Tehachpi and taking the scenic route from Merced to bypass all the construction traffic. Drive back was a brisk 6 hours across Tioga Pass, with a mandatory stop at Eric Schatz for lunch in Bishop and up and over Guardsman pass to Rt 95. Truck managed to run from Yosemite to Vegas pulling a 2,500# trailer over 7,000ft hills with a struggle while running AC on a single tank of gas. I started with nearly a full tank in Yosemite and the low fuel light just turend on by the time we rolled into Vegas. Trip meter showed ~325 miles with approximately 30 gallons of gas used putting the loaded MPG at 10.83. Google maps puts this trip at 397 miles, and with the same 30 gallons of gas used the corrected MPG is 13.2. Not too bad considering that with the same load I drove to Alaska several years ago and averaged 11.5MPG with 32" tires.

All the uphill driving was in 3rd gear, just about all sub 45mph driving was in 2nd gear. Flat and downhill highway was in 4th. The truck could definitely benefit from 4.10 or 4.56 gears in the near future. With more efficient gears I will be driving faster, burning more gas, thus a larger fuel tank will have to be fitted in.

Stay tuned for more shenanigans.

 

[CrazyDrei]

Gears: the only thing we have to fear is gear itself.

There has been a lot of debate from pseudo experts in this thread regarding gears. Just about everyone but two members fear the gear and are flipping out why I'm running 37" tires on stock 3.73 gears. There are two camps here: re-gear and don't fear the gear. Both sides are speaking from experience and both camps are absolutely correct. This past week I just found out how this can be true and where this overwhelming fear of the gear comes from.

Before I started this project I sat down and crunched some numbers and did a little bit of research. Traditional overland vehicle is a Japanese underpowered and overpriced budget beater. We are talking Tacomas, Hardbodies, Frontiers, Monteros, Troopers. They are known for reliability and ease or working on when they break down on the trail. 100-200hp I4s or V6s that are barely able to propel an empty truck down the road and need to be run in 4x4 low to make it up just about any obstacle off road more difficult than 2-3 steps. This traditional underpowered setup has evolved to much more powerful and efficient powerplants in more heavy duty setups. The same popular Japanese trucks have also grown up big time. 2015 Tacoma is the same size, weight and horsepower as a 1990 full size Ford, GM or Dodge pickup. Even though the vehicles became more powerful and capable, most owners are still stuck in the 1980s and 1990s mentality brainwashed into the consumers by aftermarket parts manufacturers.

A good friend of mine has a 2015 Frontier and was impressed with what my Sub has done and wanted a similar setup on his 4cyl 2015 Frontier. I had absolutely no issues with my truck so I agreed to help him out so he can join me on the "dirt roads" I have been exploring in timelapse.

We put a 2-3" lift kit on the Frontier: rear shackles and strut spacers, then 33x12.5" tires. The truck looks fantastic, it looks so good that Nissan should send them off the assembly line looking like this.


Stock height with front right wheel on jack making front left look higher.


2-3" lift/level kit with stock tires


33s are on with the lift, damn the truck looks sexy.

And for the record for anyone that has a frontier that wants to do this, we had to remove the front spoiler/wind deflector, there was no trimming and nothing is rubbing. And yes we are running the stock steel rims with the 33x12.5s and they work perfectly at above 30 PSI.

Frontier did a 2-3 days of street driving and there was no significant difference in on street performance and the truck looks so sexy unlike my Sub.

Frontier is 2wd only and since I run all the "dirt roads" in the Sub in 2wd we went up Rocky Gap Road, video in earlier posts, only to the top, we didn't want to take the Frontier through the technical section. My buddy has been four wheeling for over a decade and swears by his manual transmission. 2 miles into the trail we reached the first obstacle, small rock garden and that was the end of the line for the Frontier. I hooked up my tow rope and pulled him through (I stayed in 2wd). 1/4 mile later we got to the next obstacle: couple dips and a sharp turn. All my Rubicon owning friends put their Jeeps in 4x4 low, lock all the diffs and disconnect the sway bar for this obstacle. I have always went through it in 2wd high with no problems. After 20 minutes of attempts from various angles and speeds the Frontier was done, could not make it through the section. We parked it to let the tranny cool down and I took my buddy all the way to the top in the Sub to show him what the rest trail looks like.

******, why does the Suburban able to efortlessly glide up this "dirt road," all my Jeep friends switch into 4x4 low and lock the diffs and the Frontier threw in a towel completely? GEARS, it's all about the engine power output, transmission, differential components, gears and tires. All of you naysayers were absolutely correct, your little underpowered Japanese overlanders MUST have different gears for any tire size increase from the factory or even if you want to keep the factory size tires and actually go off road. (This is what all the aftermarket parts manufactures brainwashed everyone with.)


We parked it to cool off, but damn the truck looks sexy with the 33s.

2000 Suburban weight ~6,000# engine ~300hp and ~300ft/lbs of torque.
2015 Frontier weight ~4,000# engine ~160hp and ~170ft/lbs of torque.

Frontier is 30% lighter than my Suburban and has 50% less HP and torque. It looks like a world traveling overlander but if you look at the numbers it's all just the looks without any substance. Frontier's 4.08 rear gears and the 160hp are not strong enough to push a 4,000lbs truck on 33s over any obstacles. Now we are trying to figure out what to do with the Frontier so he can keep up with me on the "dirt roads" which I got made fun of in earlier post for calling "Jeep trails."

So the moral of the story is that non V8 full size truck owners need some serious gears or a larger power plant in their rigs to power the larger tires, making 31x10.5 such a popular tire size in that community. Full size trucks, if driven with any common sense off road and on, function perfectly and reliably with stock gears and oversized tire. I have 15k miles with this setup without any problems.

Do not fear the gear, get out and run what you have, try what you have before you buy what you don't need.

 

[UHAULER]

My main concern would be burning up the transmission. Are you able to run in 2wd low ?