2000 Suburban K1500 budget low lift with 37"s

[CrazyDrei]

Dear God that was a lot of reading haha. First I wanna say Drei you have a ************ Sub and have given me some ideas for my Tahoe. I'm thinking 35's or 285/75/17 (33.9ish) cause I feel 37's would be a bit overkill for what I want to do. I also love the raptor bumper idea. Cant wait to see more of your adventures

UltimaSanctus,

Thank you very much for going through the build, adventures and the running commentary. I am glad I was able to give you some ideas for your Tahoe, just as Rayra, BorbOne and 02TahoeMD inspired me.

At one point I did want to put 37s on a Tahoe but figured my Suburban would be more practical for the family.

I just had another kid so my adventures will have to be put on hold for a few months, but I do have some more fun updates and upgrades coming.

Stay tuned for more shenanigans!

 

[UltimaSanctus]

Hey Drei. Is there any chance you remember what all you did to get the raptor bumper on your truck? I may be picking one up this weekend

 

[CrazyDrei]

Hey Drei. Is there any chance you remember what all you did to get the raptor bumper on your truck? I may be picking one up this weekend

UltimaSanctus,

LOL, yes, it was a pretty straightforward install. However you need to have a 3" body lift otherwise you will have to make custom brackets.

I will try to get some pictures later this week. I removed all the FORD hardware off the bumper, had to make two cut outs in the Raptor bumper to clear the frame under the headlights and needed to drill two holes in the Suburban bumper bracket to line up with the Raptor holes to attach.

2000 Suburban K1500 budget low lift with 37"s

The oiled gauze filters do allow more particulate to pass than a paper filter. That's why they can offer more air flow. The only way to inprove paper filter flow capaity is to add more surface area. Paper is a better filter but more restrictive.

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Looks like I bolted it right to the bumper relocation brackets that came with the body lift.

If you do not have a 3" body lift you will have to make custom brackets from 1/4" steel to get it to fit. It should be the same amount of tweaking and tinkering as mounting a Landcruiser bumper onto our trucks. Lets see some pictures once you get it up and the process, I will try to get a couple pictures also.

Stay tuned for more shenanigans!

 

[CrazyDrei]

New toy: winch.

I am sure somewhere in this thread I mentioned that winches are unnecessary dead weight for southwest desert washboard trails and it was never in the books for me to get a winch for the Sub, however I am on the east coast now and between the mud and narrow and tight trails with an abundance of trees and good anchor points a winch is now a necessity.

After couple of months of searching ebay, craigslist, letgo and facebook marketplaces I accidentally stumbled onto this little gem at an estate sale.

Harbor Freight 12,000# winch with wired remote, synthetic rope, mounting tray and a roller fairlead. The price was too good to pass up and for virtually free I tossed it in the back of the truck.

Connected it to the battery and it actually works, $20 very well spent.

Now I need to visit Harbor Freight, get a 36" mounting tray, and figure out how to hidden mount it ans stuff it inside the Raptor bumper. And I will be looking for a Hawse fairlead on eBay too.

Stay tuned for more shenanigans!

 

[Overlandtowater]

Great buy on the winch. the thing I don't like about the hidden winch brackets for our trucks is they are made to sit level with the bottom of the air dam on the stock bumper...way to low if you actually use the truck for anything but ranch duties.

 

[rho]

Great buy on the winch. the thing I don't like about the hidden winch brackets for our trucks is they are made to sit level with the bottom of the air dam on the stock bumper...way to low if you actually use the truck for anything but ranch duties.

Agreed.

I spent part of my day yesterday crawling under our 2wd to get some ideas sketched out for some skid plates for ours. Tons of room with the chassis, but damn the plastic hangs low. it totally looks like there is enough space between the frame rails to put a winch tho. I have a better photo somewhere here of ours... with the solonoid box relocated i bet that winch would fit between the two tow hooks, kind of above my mock up skidplates here

 

[rho]

Here's a better shot.. Between the splash shield, bumper, air director from the holes in the bumper to the radiator, there is TOTALLY enough room for a winch and a plate up there.

Also, drei, I'm waiting on springs for this truck still but I'll start a build thread on our 2wd once all the parts are in for our coilver conversion and the madscience that you inspired us to look into for this thing. Its silly and its awesome.

 

[CrazyDrei]

Agreed.

I spent part of my day yesterday crawling under our 2wd to get some ideas sketched out for some skid plates for ours. Tons of room with the chassis, but damn the plastic hangs low. it totally looks like there is enough space between the frame rails to put a winch tho. I have a better photo somewhere here of ours... with the solonoid box relocated i bet that winch would fit between the two tow hooks, kind of above my mock up skidplates here


View attachment 528034

Rho,

Even if you stick with cardboard, you will have a much stronger front skid plate than the factory plastic, lol. Looks good, can't wait to see what the final product will look like.

I have plenty of room for a winch right between the frame rails/tow hooks. I think I have a little more room than stock trucks because of the 3" body spacers and the raptor bumper which is snugly bolted pretty much right against the bottom of the frame rail. Still have not had time to run over to Harbor Freight and get a longer universal winch channel mount, hopefully soon.

Also can't wait till you start your own build page and get the coilovers in, you will not recognize your own truck.

 

[rho]

Rho,

Even if you stick with cardboard, you will have a much stronger front skid plate than the factory plastic, lol. Looks good, can't wait to see what the final product will look like.

I have plenty of room for a winch right between the frame rails/tow hooks. I think I have a little more room than stock trucks because of the 3" body spacers and the raptor bumper which is snugly bolted pretty much right against the bottom of the frame rail. Still have not had time to run over to Harbor Freight and get a longer universal winch channel mount, hopefully soon.

Also can't wait till you start your own build page and get the coilovers in, you will not recognize your own truck.

Yeah, I'm looking forward to it!! The build page is coming.... I opted for the DS501 coilovers and a slightly lower profile upper mount, so, it should be interesting.

I also picked up some lift spindles for it... so those are gonna push the front track out a tiny bit, got some rear spacers for the rear track. We have some fender flares from my friends Yukon that they didn't work out for, so those are going to go on as well... I zip-tied the factory bumper back on till I get my skids going.

Y'all are a bad influence, lol

 

[CrazyDrei]

Do you have the exhaust leak yet?

Buddha,

I am sure I do have one especially since my exhaust manifolds are missing 2-3 bolts per side from all the desert running. I can't obviously hear it and it passed emissions with no problems couple months ago.

Stay tuned for more shenanigans!

 

[CrazyDrei]

Great buy on the winch. the thing I don't like about the hidden winch brackets for our trucks is they are made to sit level with the bottom of the air dam on the stock bumper...way to low if you actually use the truck for anything but ranch duties.

dirtdobberoffroad,

I have seen those brackets and actually put them on my buddie's Denali Yukn XL. They work great and are hidden in a factory bumper but will be absolutely way too low for my truck and drastically decrease my approach angle. I think I will be bolting/welding mine up to sit right between the frame rails hidden inside the Raptor bumper which sits 5-6" higher than factory GM bumper.

Stay tuned for more shenanigans!

 

[CrazyDrei]

Day Trip: North Maine Woods: Locomotives

It's been a long summer between taking care of a newborn, working on the new house and trying to find the time to go out and explore. Finally I got a chance to get out into the North Maine Woods to explore some of the dirt logging roads they had to offer and check out the two locomotives that are randomly parked along side a lake in the middle of a forest, miles from any civilization.

After 3 hours of blacktop we finally made it to a dirt road, time to air down to my magical 18.5psi.

One lane bridge over a raging whitewater of a stream. These logging roads are meticulously maintained to a point where they are smoother than most of the paved roads in Maine. Single lane bridges like this one often have signs to warn tourists that 80,000# big rig traveling at 40-50mph will probably not be able to stop if you are parked in the middle of the bridge taking pretty pictures.

$11 per adult for day use, $14 per night for camping and free for kids under 18 years old we finally made it into the legendary North Maine Woods.

Coming from the BLM run Southwest where public land is abundant and free for the public to enjoy, Maine does not offer public land, but rather allows the public to enjoy the private roads of logging operations to access the public lands and national forests that logging companies have the land lease rights.

So if I bushwack into this place it's free but if I plan on driving on the roads I have to pay.

Allagash Wilderness, pretty far north. most of Canada's population is south of this point.

Online directions to get to the trailhead of the locomotive trail is pretty vague, however there is a very straight forward hand out at the check point that gets you there without guessing or using a GPS.

36ish miles and 40 minutes later we arrived at the trailhead, the boys are fascinated by the outhouse.

Trail takes about 20-30 minutes to walk to the trains. It is better marked with blazes than the Appalachain Trail.

Boys lead the way, learning how to find blue trail blazes that were on every other tree.

We are getting closer.

First glimpse of overgrown railroad tracks.

Boys truing to balance on the tracks.

Looks like we arrived.

Don't know what part of a train or logging operation this is.

More railroad related debris.

More rail road tracks too.

And like magic, the towering locomotives appear in a forest clearing.

Two abandoned locomotives.

Continued in part 2...

 

[CrazyDrei]

Day trip: North Maine Woods Locomotives continued.

This is our east coast version of the abandoned cars we used to find in the desert.

Really cool sight for the kids.

Two coal burning locomotives were converted to oil burning and were used to haul lumber.

Kids are having way too much fun exploring the locomotives.

We arrived in later afternoon and the sun was not at the best angle to take pictures.

Rear end of these massive 90 ton locomotives.

Row of log hauling cars chassis.

Random parts are scattered everywhere.

Pretty gears.

Closer view of a log transport chassis.

Steering wheel?

Looks like this steering wheel was connected to a latching mechanism m between cars?

Wheels were made in Montreal.

Kids finally figured out how to climb onto the train.

Boiler.

This is the lever that controls the speed?

Inside the boiler.

Made it onto the second locomotive.

Parting shot.

Heading back to the truck.

This was a great trip, first time into the North Maine Woods which have some of the best maintained gravel roads I have ever been on. Many side trails and overgrown logging roads to play on and explore as well as numerous camping spots scattered all over that are accessible by car, hiking in or paddling to. Will definitely have to come back and explore this place much more as the kids get older.

Stay tuned for more shenanigans!

 

[pigsammy]

Looks like the boys are still having a blast on your explorations!
Unsure from the pics, but that "steering wheel" may be part of the handbrake system to keep uncoupled cars from rolling off.
Keep up the shenanigans!

 

[Overlandtowater]

Maine is awesome! I've always been intrigued by the north woods for some reason.