2000 Suburban K1500 budget low lift with 37"s

[CrazyDrei]

This is my favorite thread so far. Love what you did and showing that a little crazy isn't doomed to fail and common internet "knowledge" isn't always what is cracked up to be. I love taking my basically stock truck where people say it'll never make it.
Can't wait to see that thing make it all the way to 54" tires!!

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direwolf82,

Thank you, I really appreciate it. It's pretty amazing how far a stock truck will make it. Most people are just scared off by the extensive marketing gimmicks of aftermarket parts manufacturers saying that you must have this part to go on this trail, and just about everyone fall for it, mostly because they want to.

I might have mentioned this before too but what the world calls a world class race: Baja 1.000, locals call it their daily commute and run it in 30-40 year old Civics and Corollas and have been for decades.

I am still trying to justify slapping some 40s on the Sub. Unfortunately 54" tires are out of the question at this point.

Stay tuned for more shenanigans!

 

[direwolf82]

direwolf82,

Thank you, I really appreciate it. It's pretty amazing how far a stock truck will make it. Most people are just scared off by the extensive marketing gimmicks of aftermarket parts manufacturers saying that you must have this part to go on this trail, and just about everyone fall for it, mostly because they want to.

I might have mentioned this before too but what the world calls a world class race: Baja 1.000, locals call it their daily commute and run it in 30-40 year old Civics and Corollas and have been for decades.

I am still trying to justify slapping some 40s on the Sub. Unfortunately 54" tires are out of the question at this point.

Stay tuned for more shenanigans!

So very true sir and glad to see it in print, the aftermarket companies definitely push a whole bunch of extraneous stuff as mandatory.
I know I've taken my truck to some pretty gnarly stuff, the locals said turn around, my friend tried to force me to not try and at the end of the day I was smiling pretty big while they were admitting they were wrong.
The most modified part of my Toyota is the sleeping area and that's pretty basic, haha.
Other parts are people on the internet armchairing the heck out of the situation, and others trying to keep up with every picture on the internet they see.
Yes, rock crawlers are cool. No, you don't need 3 grand worth of suspension and 500 pounds of armor to go on a lot of trails.
The rigs I tend to favor are like yours, no nonsense functional with a touch of try it and see what happens. I've also found that many things people say don't do are actually feasible if you think things through. I've been told a million times that hammering on a driveshaft to change u joints just destroys them, and if you do it incorrectly I agree, if you support the ears appropriately I have had zero issues over the years.
I find it funny that people were telling you to just get a bigger heavier truck early on in the thread. I bet you could break a lot of parts and learn how the thing wants to be driven before you equaled the cost of buying and upfitting a whole new heavier rig.
Keep it up!!! This world needs more people to experiment and try things out instead of following the leader. And if those people are on a tight budget that usually means more ingenuity, or so it seems to me.

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk

 

[twodollars]

Crazy, I spent the day under my daughter's 2007 nitro, which I believe should be real close in build to your liberty. One question, have you tried changing the oil filter? What a giant bag of poo that design is. I had to remove the coolant and windshield solvent tanks to be able to reach down.

Still I'm surprised by how fun the little thing is. Little tight for me but decent little rig. When shes ready for something new you have inspired me to get the sawzall out and make some stuff fit.

 

[CrazyDrei]

Crazy, I spent the day under my daughter's 2007 nitro, which I believe should be real close in build to your liberty. One question, have you tried changing the oil filter? What a giant bag of poo that design is. I had to remove the coolant and windshield solvent tanks to be able to reach down.

Still I'm surprised by how fun the little thing is. Little tight for me but decent little rig. When shes ready for something new you have inspired me to get the sawzall out and make some stuff fit.

twodollars,

I have the older Liberty, before the Nitro came out. My oil filter is not too difficult to reach, however i have heard that 07 and newer Liberties and Nitros are a pain to change.

I have always like the bubbly look of the Nitro. Hopefully I can find one thats cheap enough to turn into some sort of a monstrosity like I did with the Liberty.

 

[CrazyDrei]

Sub slowly turned into a yard truck/tractor here in New England. Finally I replaced it with a Jeep Liberty pickup and this is how they stack up.

JEEP Liberty pickup pulling down a big pine tree.


Suburban pulling down a big pine tree.


6,000 lbs weight of the Suburban made pulling down trees effortless. Jeep is less than half the weight and needed the pine tree pre-cut with a chainsaw to pull it down and redirect the fall away from me.

If I also take into consideration the foot of mud that the Jeep was in, Suburban would not have had the traction that tractor tires provide. I am glad that I have a dedicated yard toy now.

Stay tuned for more shenanigans!

 

[CrazyDrei]

North Maine Woods weekend getaway!

Kids are on spring break so what better way to spend it than a trip to one of the most remote wilderness areas on the East coast: Allagash Wilderness Waterway for some camping and canoeing.

Sub is ready and packed, camper is packed and hooked up. On a side note looks like my rear coils are showing their age, they are sagging more than I like them to, time for new ones in the near future.

Mt. Katahdin in the distance, that's 200 miles down and another 100+ to go in to the wilderness.

Telos checkpoint is closed for the season, have to self register online.

I took this picture of the checkpoint sign on the way out, thus for the snowflakes.

Last I checked but out West public land is free for the public to enjoy, out here the roads are private and have to pay the land leasee for the land use privileges.

Apparently #1 outhouse was out of order so I had to go to #2

60 some miles past the checkpoint and a couple really fun detours later we arrived at the campsite that I randomly picked a week before our trip.

This is the view from the actual campsite, after 1/4 mile on a twisty trail that's inches wider that the truck and camper, 50ft long and 2ft deep mud puddle, and cutting 4 large pine trees that fell across the road, all well worth this amazing welcome view.

Even the kids kinda stood still for a few seconds for a picture.

Campsite from the waters edge.

The rest of the campsite

Wind calmed down, sun came up, warmed up to a toasty 40F and this is what I saw once I stepped out of the camper.

Just for fun, but what if I told you that this picture is upside down, mind blown....

Getting ready for an early morning canoe trip.

Life jackets: check, paddles: check, excitement level: way up there!

About to take off.

The kids picked an island that was right in front of us for me to paddle to, it was only a mile away.

As we landed, a goose flew away from the island, boys discovered a goose nest with 6 eggs.

We then headed across the lake, and back to the camper.

Breakfast was delicious, the eggs are not goose eggs, 3 goose eggs would have filled the skillet.

To be continued...

 

[CrazyDrei]

North Maine Woods weekend getaway, part 2.

We continued our day with a quick drive to find a couple abandoned locomotives.

In the summer the road to locomotives is clearly labeled at every turn. In the off-season, this is the only sign pointing to the Trains.

Funny how this works, but if you leave trash in the forest after a hundred years that trash becomes a historic landmark.

First large piece of train, not sure what this is.

This piece has been here for so long that a tree is growing through it.

After a pleasant and extremely well marked 1 mile trail we made it to the trains.

Kinda cool that these trains used to transport lumber from the area a hundred years ago.

These locomotives were left in place because coal powered trains were getting phased out and electric trains were getting phased in.

Some history of the locomotives and logging operation.

I am fascinated by random things, today was the fact that just about rail car wheel was made by a different company.

Only found a couple that were made at the fame place.

Other side of the wheel above

Another company

Other side of wheel above

1928, this is one of the older wheels.

OK, last of the wheel pictures.

Primitive boat launch ramp, with snow on the ground.

We drove around a few more trails and headed back to camp for a sunset cruise.

Warming up by the campfire.

Next day we packed up and headed home as the snowflakes began to fall.

Half way out of the Wilderness the snow started sticking to the ground.

Had a great weekend of camping, canoeing and exploring with the kids. Had some great adventures on the drive home as well which I will get to soon. We are looking forward to getting back to North Maine Woods soon.

Stay tuned for more shenanigans!

 

[CrazyDrei]

So the last trip in the Sub was fun and full of semi-expected unpleasant adventures.

Two months ago I lost 1st gear in the tranny, I drove it nearly 3,000 miles without 1st gear and it did just fine. Even pulled a stuck big rig out of a snow bank last month. However this adventure into the depths if the North Maine Woods took a toll on my transmission. We packed up, hooked up the trailer and headed home. It was 32F and snowing. After approximately 405 miles 2nd gear started slipping even with the torque converter locked. I pulled over a let it cool for 10 minutes. Continued with no problems for about 10 more miles. Same thing, 2nd and 3rd started slipping. Pulled over for 10 minutes. I played this game for about 3 hours.

I finally got to a place where I could unhook the trailer.

This is Telos Checkpoint in the North Maine Woods. 260 miles from my house. I unhooked the trailer here and after letting the tranny cool off for 30 minutes decided to just go for it with a lighter load and see how far I can make it in the snow in the middle of nowhere with 3 kids.

I made it exactly 1.8 miles before the transmission completely gave out in all gears. So I neatly parked the truck completely across the roadway and went inside. Luckily the first and only truck that drove by was a game warden an hour after I stopped!


So I reunited with the camper, got the kids set back up in it and gave my AAA card to the ranger who was kind enough to drive home, call AAA for me and come back two hours later to let me know that someone was on their way. About 4 hours later AAA showed up and took us 116 miles to the nearest place that had a rental car so I could drive the kids home.

Getting unloaded near the rental car place.

The next morning I took the rental car back, brought my 2500 Suburban out with a tow dolly.

With a 200 mile tow on the dolly I had to take the 37" tires off because they are too wide to fit onto the dolly.

31" tires up front look tiny compared to the 37" in the rear.

So how do you get a non operational truck up onto a dolly.....

I used my ultimate go to: Unijack to jack up one side of the Sub and Harbor Freight jack on the other side, then backed the dolly under the front wheels.

I emptied out the black Sub to keep the weight of the towed vehicle as low as possible. When I put the canoe on factory cross bars of my 25500 I got very nervous, I don't think they were ever designed to actually carry any weight.

And 200 miles later we arrived back to the house. I forgot to mention that in order to tow a RWD truck on a tow dolly without causing more damage to a fried transmission I disconnected the rear driveshaft.


Easy way to unload a non running/driving vehicle off tow dolly.


Closer look at the tight fit of a full size truck on a tow dolly as well as the disconnected and secured rear drive shaft. I also thought about pulling it out all together but did not want to leak any fluid out of the transfer case.

Next adventure will be to go back to North Maine Woods and retrieve the pop-up camper.

Stay tuned for more shenanigans!

 

[CrazyDrei]

Tough decision: TO FIX OR RETIRE

I started building this tuck about five years ago and quickly turned it into an extremely reliable and capable off road monstrocity and daily driver. Other than a couple upgrades I spend virtually nothing on maintenance and repairs and it is starting to show. Transmission just went out and it needs a replacement along with a whole bunch of other parts that need replacing.

Transmission: $200 in fluid/filter and misc parts (4L60e itself is free)
Front QUA1 shocks: $350
Rear Bilstein 5160 shocks: $400
Windshield: $200
Front rotors/pads: $150
Rear rotors/pads: $100
Radiator electric fans: $100
Steering wheel clock spring: $50
4.56 gears: $450

$2,000 and that doesn't include the time I will have to spend wrenching away.

I really like the unique beast I have created and all the adventures I have had in it however it might be a good time to think about taking the money I want to spend on fixing it and put it down towards a newer Suburban with fewer miles if I am able to find one at a reasonable price.

This is the realistic part in the truck's life where I have to decide if the sentimental value is worth dumping ridiculous amounts of money into it or if I am better off making a financially sound decision and purchasing a newer vehicle.

Stay tuned for more shenanigans!

 

[ratled]

Just because you get a different vehicle there is no garuntee it won't need the same or worse. One thing to consider is what you have already have in hand and what has already been done when making that decision

Best of luck!

 

[CrazyDrei]

Just because you get a different vehicle there is no garuntee it won't need the same or worse. One thing to consider is what you have already have in hand and what has already been done when making that decision

Best of luck!

ratled,

Yes, I agree that a different and a newer vehicle will not guarantee anything. I have a GMT900 2500 Suburban, I have take it on a couple "overland" adventures and it was absolutely horrible, to a point that I would be more comfortable in a 1990s Wrangler. I am so happy with how this 1500 is dialed in that a replacement would have to be a GMT800 or GMT900 1/2 ton Suburban just with a lot less miles.

One thing I need to take into consideration is how much of the modifications that I did to my current truck will be transfer over to the new truck, thus saving money. How much I would have to spend on parts that do not transfer over. And finally how much I would be able to sell or part out this old truck to offset the cost of the new one. And then again it's about finding a new truck that I think will actually be worth buying.

All I know is that the next truck will have:
37" tires
Rear Detroit locker
3" body lift
Front coilovers
My current roof rack setup
My current onboard air setup

Not quite sure what I am doing just yet, but when I figure it out I will update!

Stay tuned for more shenanigans!

 

[skrypj]

Unless you buy another vehicle that is already built, your gunna have to do half of that stuff anyways.

Not sure i would replace it unless you simply don’t trust the truck anymore. Thats what happened to my Liberty CRD. It blew up on me and I finally threw my hands up and decided i couldnt trust the thing to safely tote the family around. I already didnt trust it but that was the final straw. I parted it out and never looked back.

 

[skrypj]

North Maine Woods weekend getaway!

Kids are on spring break so what better way to spend it than a trip to one of the most remote wilderness areas on the East coast: Allagash Wilderness Waterway for some camping and canoeing.

Sub is ready and packed, camper is packed and hooked up. On a side note looks like my rear coils are showing their age, they are sagging more than I like them to, time for new ones in the near future.

Mt. Katahdin in the distance, that's 200 miles down and another 100+ to go in to the wilderness.

Telos checkpoint is closed for the season, have to self register online.

I took this picture of the checkpoint sign on the way out, thus for the snowflakes.

Last I checked but out West public land is free for the public to enjoy, out here the roads are private and have to pay the land leasee for the land use privileges.

Apparently #1 outhouse was out of order so I had to go to #2

60 some miles past the checkpoint and a couple really fun detours later we arrived at the campsite that I randomly picked a week before our trip.

This is the view from the actual campsite, after 1/4 mile on a twisty trail that's inches wider that the truck and camper, 50ft long and 2ft deep mud puddle, and cutting 4 large pine trees that fell across the road, all well worth this amazing welcome view.

Even the kids kinda stood still for a few seconds for a picture.

Campsite from the waters edge.

The rest of the campsite

Wind calmed down, sun came up, warmed up to a toasty 40F and this is what I saw once I stepped out of the camper.

Just for fun, but what if I told you that this picture is upside down, mind blown....

Getting ready for an early morning canoe trip.

Life jackets: check, paddles: check, excitement level: way up there!

About to take off.

The kids picked an island that was right in front of us for me to paddle to, it was only a mile away.

As we landed, a goose flew away from the island, boys discovered a goose nest with 6 eggs.

We then headed across the lake, and back to the camper.

Breakfast was delicious, the eggs are not goose eggs, 3 goose eggs would have filled the skillet.

To be continued...

Those roads look familiar. My grandmother is from Brownville Jct and we had family camps on Sebec Lake so spent a lot of time up that way when i was younger.

 

[CrazyDrei]

Unless you buy another vehicle that is already built, your gunna have to do half of that stuff anyways.

Not sure i would replace it unless you simply don’t trust the truck anymore. Thats what happened to my Liberty CRD. It blew up on me and I finally threw my hands up and decided i couldnt trust the thing to safely tote the family around. I already didnt trust it but that was the final straw. I parted it out and never looked back.

skrypj,

Yes you are correct, I would have to build half the stuff anyway, but I also thoroughly enjoy building and customizing my own rig, helps me troubleshoot quicker when something goes wrong on the trail.

I have a couple electrical gremlins that are lurking around that I can not find. Won't let the truck start sometimes unless I disconnect the battery and hook it up backwards for a few seconds, like positive on negative terminal and vice versa. I know thats really bad but so far it has worked at least half a dozen times.

I'm a big fan of Liberties. never owned a CRD but have a couple right now.

My Liberty tractor/side by side

In the process of becoming a Liberty convertible, LOL!

Stay tuned for more shenanigans!

 

[Overlandtowater]

And after getting used to the suburban it'll be hard to go smaller...if I get the chance to start over it will be a van or excursion.