2000 Suburban K1500 budget low lift with 37"s

[CrazyDrei]

Why did you go back to the gov lock? It doesn't seem like the elocker was causing any problems?

2002maniac,

I did not like that fact that the eLocker failed within the first 500 miles and the failure has been documented by others on many other message boards and forums. I would love to have the eLocker in the truck and someday I will but I can not afford to spend that much until I find one that is working problem free, thus the G80 went back in untill I have problems with it.

 

[CrazyDrei]

Dirt bike adventure: Angel Peak trails.

Wife and daughter wanted to go for a challenging dirt bike ride for them, they have done session areas where they would start in one place and ride around returning to the truck, however this time they were looking for a longer saddle time one way adventure. I also wanted to test how well the front hitch and bike rack works. We picked the Angel Peak trails around Mt Charleston.

Bikes loaded on front and rear of truck both on Ultimate MX Haulers which are the absolute best dirt bike carriers ever made.

Better angle of the front rack with the bike on it.

My angle of this lunch spot does this area no justice, we are approximately 23 miles up the trail and gained nearly one mile in elevation from the pavement.

Bikes taking a break from their operators.

The truck did well, I did not have any clearance issues with either the front or rear racks sticking out 10" from the hitch. Best part of the bike carriers is that they can be removed if the terrain gets to technical to continue with them attached. Great solid setup, will have to do several more short trips before we embark on any longer journeys with two bikes hanging off the truck. This is a great alternative to dragging a trailer around or leaving it at the trail-head.

Stay tuned for more shenanigans!

 

[CrazyDrei]

Milestar Patagonia MT 5,000mile review

Had a busy month and a half on the Patagonia MT's and I am glad I got them.

This is an LT tire that I have and will always run at 50PSI for everyday driving on pavement and 20PSI when off road. With that said the 30psi difference virtually creates two tires with distinct characteristics.

HIGHWAY and DAILY DRIVING:

Approximately 4,000 miles and there is significant noise difference between Patagonias and the Toyo Open Country MTs they replaced. There is no MT or AT tire humming when driving. They are quieter than my old BFGoodrich KO2 on the highway. I can keep the windows down at any speed and keep a normal conversation without noticing the tire hum. Miles per gallon significantly increased also from the Open Country MTs, 16.5-17.2 up from 14.5 on the highway and 12.5-13.0 up from 10.5mpg.

It should be noted that I have also changed the gears from 3.73 to 4.10 at the time of tire install and the Sub runs in a more comfortable RPM range which also affect the increased observed mpg. My best road-trip of gas-pump-to-gas-pump driving covered 512miles with 2-3gal remaining in the tank whereas before the most I have ever covered was 460miles on a single fill up.

I have had one issue last week when I was driving on an icy road at approximately 7,000ft in 3rd gear, wanted to accelerate a little, truck downshifted and I spun the rear tires in 2WD at 40mph, did not have any more issues once I switched it over to 4WD.

OFF-ROAD:

Approximately 1,000mi unpaved road/trail covered. Running the Patagonia MTs at 50PSi off road is paint-shaker pleasant and fun. Traction is really good on sand stone and solid rocks. Doesn't do as well in loose dirt, mud, sand or snow at full 50PSI.

Once deflated to 20psi with my super awesome and amazing $8 eBay tire deflators Patagonia MTs take on a different persona. Common dirt roads and trails become smooth, pleasant and enjoyable at any speed as the 10" sidewall soaks up everything the the suspension does not. Bigger 4-8" diameter loose rock trail section are also very smooth. Just like 4Wheeler review I would agree that the Patagonia MTs stick to sand stone like velcro with absolutely no wheelspin as long as there is traction. Sand was fun and I was able to climb higher on the same hills than Open Country MTs. I did find the 4.10 gears to be a disadvantage for playing in the sand dunes in 4LOW due to a greatly decreased top speed.

Snow and mud performance was acceptable, with little wheelpsin, good predictability and excellent mud, rock and snow clearance out of the treads. Patagonia MTs were not as good in the snow as BFGoodrich KO2s or Dueler ATs. Mud performance was better than I expected but I did not get any pictures because I did not want to get dirty.

I do not have on-board air and never took the time to re-inflate the tires for the drive home. Driving on the highway at 20PSI is considerably smoother than at 50PSI and the sidewall does a good job keeping the tire from rolling off the rim even under hard cornering. It usually takes my entire 30gal compressor to get all the tires back up to 50PSI.

Overall I am very pleased with the tires. They are 20lbs per tire lighter than the tires they replaced. As quiet as a 4-season tire on the highway. Looks cool and you can not beat the $824 shipped for all 4 tires. Performance is good all around with great street drive ability and excellent traction on larger rocks. I am very excited to see how many miles I can get on these before I have to replace them.

Stay tuned for more shenanigans.

 

[chilliwak]

Thanks for the latest post on your tires Crazy. It sounds like you have the tires you need now. I run a Toyo MT, 37 E range and love them. Always good to hear the differance between 2 different brands. How many miles did you get out of your Toyos? I am also sorry to hear all the problems you had with your elocker. Do you think that if you went with good axels there would not have been a problem? Perhaps the cheap chinky axels caused the elocker malfunction? Who knows. Glad to see your truck back out there givin er on the trails. Your pics and write-ups are great. Now I know why I gave you a 5 star rating on your thread. Keep us updated and have fun out there. Cheers, Chilli..

 

[CrazyDrei]

Thanks for the latest post on your tires Crazy. It sounds like you have the tires you need now. I run a Toyo MT, 37 E range and love them. Always good to hear the differance between 2 different brands. How many miles did you get out of your Toyos? I am also sorry to hear all the problems you had with your elocker. Do you think that if you went with good axels there would not have been a problem? Perhaps the cheap chinky axels caused the elocker malfunction? Who knows. Glad to see your truck back out there givin er on the trails. Your pics and write-ups are great. Now I know why I gave you a 5 star rating on your thread. Keep us updated and have fun out there. Cheers, Chilli..

Chilli,

Thanx for the 5 stars, I wasn't expecting to see that the other day. I have no idea how many miles I got out of the Toyos, I bought it from a guy that had a flatbed F350 and used it to pull his 32ft 5th wheel trailer, he said that he had the tires for 2 years, no idea how many miles. I paid $120 for the 4 Toyos, they were great just loud on the street and held up remarkably all the way to 2/32nds and I even got to the belt in some spots. I just wanted something lighter an quieter and almost went with KO2s or Discoverer ATs but these popped up at a great price and I have absolutely no regrets.

I heard of people that had issues with their eLocker, I gambled that I would not. However I had issues with it from day 1 and after a couple days of trouble shooting I found it to be the loose pigtail connector. Even then it would not always engage when the button was pressed. I should have gotten chromolly axles to begin with but I found a pair of crappy ones for $150 where as the chromolly cost $175 each. I have always went with the cheapest in the past but this time it failed at a price.

I am sure that the elocker failure had something to do with the crappy axles and I will give it another shot later this summer.

I accomplished everything I wanted on a tight budget and have a couple more fun projects lined up in the near future that will not be part of the original low budget. Small upgrades coming up soon and big projects later this summer once my wife gets her new GMT900 suburban.

Stay tuned for more shenanigans!

 

[AlexCold]

Thanks for the review on the tires. I didn't know these were made in the USA!

 

[CrazyDrei]

Thanks for the review on the tires. I didn't know these were made in the USA!

AlexCold,

They are not, the company is a US based company but the tires are made in Indonesia. Sorry for the confusion the picture of the tire deflators are on the Toyo Open Country MTs.

Andrei

 

[CrazyDrei]

Oops, I broke it again: front differential

This Sub is my daily driver, commuter, family road-trip vehicle and adventure mobile (read overland vehicle). We use and abuse it without even thinking about it. The best part of having the Sub be our main vehicle is that when it breaks down it only spends one and absolutely no more than two days in the driveway on jacks waiting to get fixed no matter how much damage was done. With that said I kinda broke the 8.25 front diff and one of the CV axles, but this was completely my fault...

I acquired this front differential at a great price a while ago, it came from an east coast ruck with around 200k miles on it. 4.10 gears are a rare find and I got an extremely good deal on it, however I noticed that the top hangar bushing attachment had a nasty crack in it and it broke off when I put it in. Leaving me with one bottom mounting hole and two passenger side bolts. That should be enough for mild straight line off-roading in 4wd low without causing too much damage while I source a new front diff.

Completely broken off top mount. This was all theoretical and I run the truck like this for the last 2k miles with several trails and obstacles I should not have been on with no problems. I completely forgot about the busted front diff because it had no issues.

Last trip we went up a difficult trail that I have been on many times, however my friend who is a relatively novice driver freaked out and did not want to finish the steepest and most exciting part, at that point I was 1/4 mile uphill of him on a steep cliff mining trail. I did not want to crawl for the last two miles to the top and chose to turn around in one of the off camber switchbacks.

Not sure if this happened going forward of in reverse, but the torque of the weight of the truck, and the larger tires as well as the angle of terrain and size of the rocks caused the front differential to rotate forward along the low mounting bolt pivot and completely shear the passenger side of the the differential housing and rip apart the drivers side CV axle joint as it continued to rotate forward. I am glad that the super amazing skid plate was there to keep the diff from falling out completely.

Inner CV cup. I ended driving about 1/2 mile down the trail to figure out what happened and was a little bummed by all the damage I have done. I took the CV joint out, put it back together and tried to get the truck into 2wd high for the drive out.

I tried pressing the 2wd button but the truck would not go out of 4LO, I disconnected the front diff actuator motor and the transfer case actuator motor but still nothing happened. All of a sudden Service 4WD message came up.

I could not figure out how to get it out of 4LO and limped 24 miles to the nearest paved road in 4wd low with a completely busted front diff and non-existent CV joint.

Once I got home I checked all the actuator motors and everything worked but did not go into 2high or 4high. I pulled the broken front diff and swapped it out for my old 3.73 diff. Still would not go back to 2wd. Eventually I figured out that I busted the 4x4 fuse, once I replaced it everything worked just like it's supposed to and the truck was back on the road.

A week later I found a different front diff, ripped it apart, and rebuilt it with the 4.10 gears from the broken diff. Wasn't as difficult as most make it out to be and I will work on that write-up in the next few days.

Stay tuned for more shenanigans!

 

[Dusty_Tahoe]

Where can I get those fender flares?
I'm drooling just looking at them on your sub

 

[PA-MinuteMan]

Wife and daughter wanted to go for a challenging dirt bike ride for them, they have done session areas where they would start in one place and ride around returning to the truck, however this time they were looking for a longer saddle time one way adventure. I also wanted to test how well the front hitch and bike rack works. We picked the Angel Peak trails around Mt Charleston.

Bikes loaded on front and rear of truck both on Ultimate MX Haulers which are the absolute best dirt bike carriers ever made.

Better angle of the front rack with the bike on it.

My angle of this lunch spot does this area no justice, we are approximately 23 miles up the trail and gained nearly one mile in elevation from the pavement.

Bikes taking a break from their operators.

The truck did well, I did not have any clearance issues with either the front or rear racks sticking out 10" from the hitch. Best part of the bike carriers is that they can be removed if the terrain gets to technical to continue with them attached. Great solid setup, will have to do several more short trips before we embark on any longer journeys with two bikes hanging off the truck. This is a great alternative to dragging a trailer around or leaving it at the trail-head.

Stay tuned for more shenanigans!

What roof rack is that?

I been looking for a good rack for my '99 Burb and that looks nice

 

[rayra]

Like buzzards picking a corpse. At least acknowledge the man's adventures!


Man Andrei that's brutal. I am not above an 'I told you so' ;p CV finally went, too. I've never seen an axle housing busted like that on a Sub, quite the achievement. You busted about everything possible with those big tires, you ready to downsize them yet? Or just gonna upsize the rig they are attached to?


/ya see, there's this thing in Physics called a 'moment arm'...

 

[CrazyDrei]

Where can I get those fender flares?
I'm drooling just looking at them on your sub

Dusty_Tahoe,

I found them on eBay, they are usually in the $45-50 range shipped but sometimes they pop up for $20-30 range if you pick them up in a wharehouse, I got mine in LA while I was on a business trip. Below are a couple links for two styles of fender flares, if you look around enough on eBay you should be able to find them for less but this is still a great deal compared to the $600 Bushwackers.

Factory style: https://www.ebay.com/itm/FOR-99-07-...d=182412004612&_trksid=p2047675.c100010.m2109

Pocket/rivet style: https://www.ebay.com/itm/99-06-Chev...d=301456221047&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851

Hope this helps.

 

[CrazyDrei]

What roof rack is that?

I been looking for a good rack for my '99 Burb and that looks nice

PA-MinuteMan,

Thanx, that roof rack is something else. Your 99 OBS and my 2000 NBS Suburbans have exactly the same factory roof rack rails so this will work on your ruck pretty well too.

I started with 8 Yakima Low Riders, Yakima no longer makes them so you would have to find them on eBay, I am not a big fan of the Timberline towers that replaced the Low Riders. I initially paired them with 4 58" cross bars which were plenty wide for the cargo basket but not quite wide enough for the basket and ski box, so I went with the 66" bars.

I mounted the bars as close as possible to the points int he factory roof rack where the rack attaches to the vehicle, I also moved the factory cross bars so that they are between the Yakima rails for extra support.

There are several companies that make the cargo basket, Thule, Yakima, Curt, and Rola to name a few. I could not afford Thule and Yakima, Curt basket was too flimsy event though it looks cool. I went with Rola Vortex basket part 59504 and also purchased two extensions part 59505. The basket was around $120 shipped and the extensions were another $100 shipped. I attached with cargo basket to the roof rails with 2.5" marine grade stainless steel U-Bolts.

Finally the ski box I have had for over a decade before mounting on the roof.

I drove to Alaska and back two times with over 1,000lbs on the roof not including the rack itself, both times with this rack and it will support a couch with 4 people on it for tailgating with absolutely no problems.

Here are some close up pics.

Low riders, 66" bars and basket held on with U-bolts.

Factory crossbars under the cargo basket for extra suport.

Full cargo basket with 35" tire. Ski box opens unobstructed when the basket is loaded.

Entire setup has the lowest profile of any bolt on aftermarket racks.

Hope this helps.

 

[AlexCold]

They are not, the company is a US based company but the tires are made in Indonesia. Sorry for the confusion the picture of the tire deflators are on the Toyo Open Country MTs.

Ah, I was looking around and couldn't find it either. Thanks for the clarification!

What I appreciate the most from this thread is your go out and do it attitude and just a bit jealous on the time to do these adventures!

 

[CrazyDrei]

Like buzzards picking a corpse. At least acknowledge the man's adventures!


Man Andrei that's brutal. I am not above an 'I told you so' ;p CV finally went, too. I've never seen an axle housing busted like that on a Sub, quite the achievement. You busted about everything possible with those big tires, you ready to downsize them yet? Or just gonna upsize the rig they are attached to?


/ya see, there's this thing in Physics called a 'moment arm'...

Rayra,

Haha, thanx for your support but this corpse fights back. I was expecting the front diff to break and cause some damage while I was taking apart and re-building the correct front diff. The one that broke was damaged, top hangar was broken off when I mounted it and the entire diff pivoted around the axis of the rear/low mount eye. When torque was applied I knew it moved but it also snapped the passenger side housing of the diff, then the entire diff rotated so much that is ripped the drivers side CV. I expected that to happen and it was the product of my laziness and not the weak parts. 9.25" front diff would have caused much more damage if it was attached in exactly the same way.

I have rebuilt the front diff since with newer southwest parts I already had and cost me nothing but time. I do not plan on having any more drivetrain related issues with the truck for at least 100k miles. Can't say that with certainty about other parts.

Broke the drivers side rear door handle off while replacing the front diff, you can guess which side of the truck is facing south in my driveway.

Speaking of adventures, we got one coming up my next few days off.

Stay tuned for more shenanigans!