Arizona Native
New member
Been reading this forum for awhile and decided to join.
In Arizona as name states, and have a family of 5, with 3 kids under the age of 4, so that's 3 car seats in the Suburban. We have done car camping mainly, but thinking about a 'camping plan/goal' that involves going as far as we can with the Suburban, than possibly backpacking a bit further. We probably will never tow with it, so that hasn't been a concern. Obviously not a rock crawler, but needs to handle some pretty rough roads.
I can do quite a bit of work myself, but build work is slow since I live in condo with no garage.
As a note, because of the condo, my roof rack and overall lift options are limited, since I have a low hanging car port to park in. I have under 4 inches to work with before I hit a fire sprinkler.
One of my lofty goals is to take the family down Cherry Creek Road (FR203) in the distant future. I know it might be impossible in the Suburban, but whatever, not letting it stop me--yet.
Current Technical details:
2001 Chevy Suburban 1500 LS 4x4
- 'Towing package'
- Bought used about 6 months ago, had maybe 212,000 miles. 213,000 miles on it now.
- Mostly Arizona vehicle with minimal rust (for 213,000 miles, that is).
- 4L60E with cooler
- 10 bolt rear axle
- I installed keys and spacers (approx 40" to rear fender, 39" to front fender)
- I installed moog OEM rear springs
- Realized torsion bars are sagging since I had to max the leveling keys, and still only got a few inches of lift.
- 285/70/R17 Cooper Discoverer MTPs (a little over 32" diameter maybe)
- New sealed battery from autozone
- Stock radio and sound
- Supposedly newer 70,000 mile engine and trans replacement (what the prev. owner told me, probably lied to sell at higher price, I was dumb and I'll never really know)
- 4x Bilstein 5100s
Confirmed Upgrades (research completed):
- Airlift 1000 airbags (will work with spacers)
Current Ongoing Research:
- Cognito UCAs
- Need to find decent AZ fab shop for custom bumper, or looking at wilco tiregate for spare tire holder
- Researching how to replace 10 bolt axle with 14 bolt 6 lug, and if I can do it in my carport
(09222016 - everything looks good on this so far, have to find and get an axle from a 2007+ GM similar style vehicle)
- 4l60E to 4l80E trans swap, I've done A LOT of research on this, since the trans right now could go out. It seems it might be doable by myself, but more research needed. I also like the idea of the 4L65E spec.
- B&M (some have stated that tru-cool is the same but cheaper) transmission cooler
- Some lights that go on the liftgate when open.
- Create and install custom intake for snorkel, and custom fiberglass snorkel
- Painting it over with plastidip, maybe forest green or something, pretty low priority though.
- Torsion Bar delete with coilovers (09222016 update, after a lot of research, I'm leaning away from this, cost issue, but also want to keeps things simple)
- Differential drop
Build Design Guidelines:
- No major engine mods, unless a better OEM part is available, keeping it stock.
- No intention on towing
- Not sleeping inside vehicle
- I like to have a sort of simplicity/reverse-ability in all other mods, nothing too crazy. Snorkel would an exception.
- Some of the roads I've been on, I feel like having a lift much larger than what I have would not help, especially when looking down 1,000-2,000 ft drops on single lane dirt roads.
- Transmission conversion is another exception, since reliability is key in that area.
- In the state of Arizona, if you don't already know, we have any and all weather conditions (no, its not all desert). Mud tires might seem weird, but even in Phoenix flash floods can be an issue. On our recent trip to the 'rim', it hadn't rained for days, but there were still 2 foot deep puddles in the road every few hundred feet or so. A few years ago, there was snow in Scottsdale, which is normally in the 100's in summer time. Desert, Dust storms, Mud, Snow, Floods, Rocks, Mountains, etc.
Boring stuff:
- Newer brakes all around and just bled brake lines, brake fluid was almost black and replaced rear pass. caliper because bleeder broke
So, seeing as I am naive and new to all this, I will now go back to stalking everyone else's awesome builds (right now eyeing geronracing's build).
In Arizona as name states, and have a family of 5, with 3 kids under the age of 4, so that's 3 car seats in the Suburban. We have done car camping mainly, but thinking about a 'camping plan/goal' that involves going as far as we can with the Suburban, than possibly backpacking a bit further. We probably will never tow with it, so that hasn't been a concern. Obviously not a rock crawler, but needs to handle some pretty rough roads.
I can do quite a bit of work myself, but build work is slow since I live in condo with no garage.
As a note, because of the condo, my roof rack and overall lift options are limited, since I have a low hanging car port to park in. I have under 4 inches to work with before I hit a fire sprinkler.
One of my lofty goals is to take the family down Cherry Creek Road (FR203) in the distant future. I know it might be impossible in the Suburban, but whatever, not letting it stop me--yet.
Current Technical details:
2001 Chevy Suburban 1500 LS 4x4
- 'Towing package'
- Bought used about 6 months ago, had maybe 212,000 miles. 213,000 miles on it now.
- Mostly Arizona vehicle with minimal rust (for 213,000 miles, that is).
- 4L60E with cooler
- 10 bolt rear axle
- I installed keys and spacers (approx 40" to rear fender, 39" to front fender)
- I installed moog OEM rear springs
- Realized torsion bars are sagging since I had to max the leveling keys, and still only got a few inches of lift.
- 285/70/R17 Cooper Discoverer MTPs (a little over 32" diameter maybe)
- New sealed battery from autozone
- Stock radio and sound
- Supposedly newer 70,000 mile engine and trans replacement (what the prev. owner told me, probably lied to sell at higher price, I was dumb and I'll never really know)
- 4x Bilstein 5100s
Confirmed Upgrades (research completed):
- Airlift 1000 airbags (will work with spacers)
Current Ongoing Research:
- Cognito UCAs
- Need to find decent AZ fab shop for custom bumper, or looking at wilco tiregate for spare tire holder
- Researching how to replace 10 bolt axle with 14 bolt 6 lug, and if I can do it in my carport
(09222016 - everything looks good on this so far, have to find and get an axle from a 2007+ GM similar style vehicle)
- 4l60E to 4l80E trans swap, I've done A LOT of research on this, since the trans right now could go out. It seems it might be doable by myself, but more research needed. I also like the idea of the 4L65E spec.
- B&M (some have stated that tru-cool is the same but cheaper) transmission cooler
- Some lights that go on the liftgate when open.
- Create and install custom intake for snorkel, and custom fiberglass snorkel
- Painting it over with plastidip, maybe forest green or something, pretty low priority though.
- Torsion Bar delete with coilovers (09222016 update, after a lot of research, I'm leaning away from this, cost issue, but also want to keeps things simple)
- Differential drop
Build Design Guidelines:
- No major engine mods, unless a better OEM part is available, keeping it stock.
- No intention on towing
- Not sleeping inside vehicle
- I like to have a sort of simplicity/reverse-ability in all other mods, nothing too crazy. Snorkel would an exception.
- Some of the roads I've been on, I feel like having a lift much larger than what I have would not help, especially when looking down 1,000-2,000 ft drops on single lane dirt roads.
- Transmission conversion is another exception, since reliability is key in that area.
- In the state of Arizona, if you don't already know, we have any and all weather conditions (no, its not all desert). Mud tires might seem weird, but even in Phoenix flash floods can be an issue. On our recent trip to the 'rim', it hadn't rained for days, but there were still 2 foot deep puddles in the road every few hundred feet or so. A few years ago, there was snow in Scottsdale, which is normally in the 100's in summer time. Desert, Dust storms, Mud, Snow, Floods, Rocks, Mountains, etc.
Boring stuff:
- Newer brakes all around and just bled brake lines, brake fluid was almost black and replaced rear pass. caliper because bleeder broke
So, seeing as I am naive and new to all this, I will now go back to stalking everyone else's awesome builds (right now eyeing geronracing's build).
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