GMT800 People - Opinions wanted on upgrades/mods

[bknudtsen]

Great thread stomper. Not sure if some of you guys have seen his (stomperxj) work but he is a great fabricator. I picked up a 03 z71 burb over the summer and am interested in similar mods. Great platform and powertrain in these trucks. Ive got the keys and spacers and im going 285 70 17 as well. Unfortunately a adv motorcycle ride cost me a few months as I shattered my wrist 3 weeks ago. So no more bikes for me and when I get my right hand back I plan to dive in to the burb.

Keep the mods and pics coming.

Thanks for the arb bumper info as well.

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Sorry about the bad break. Hope you heal up soon.

Brad

 

[JSwanson]

I would also be interested if you make a run of roof rack mounts/brackets

 

[ejwebb]

If a flat rack is on your list check which way the slats run and what you want to put on it, different companies run the slats different ways. One way might be better for what you want to put on it, I like the Rhino rack with the slats running front to back to mount my RTT on.

 

[02TahoeMD]

I have an Expedition. As equally pitiful aftermarket support as the GMs.

I would be remiss in not complimenting your rig Tom- nicely done. On one of my trips out West in 97 or thereabouts we rented that body style Expedition and I loved it. Did a lot of exploring of the Arizona Strip between Page and GC North Rim and it did just fine and held a ton of gear. Much like my Tahoe, I appreciate that body style of Expedition as still being a proper SUV with metal bumpers and durable build quality. Once Ford, GM, et al started going to these "soft" bodies with integrated plastic bumpers they lost my interest entirely.

A shame there is not more aftermarket support for these vehicles.

 

[Martinjmpr]

Here's some pics I found online. The secondary tank has its own pump that triggers when the main tank gets to a certain level. Supposedly 11 gallons from what I have read but I'm not 100% sure on that.

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I'd love to fine one in the wrecking yard and pull it to check fitment. That would be cool if it fit in a Tahoe.

Eh, seems like an awful lot of effort, expense and weight just to add the equivalent of a couple of 5 gallon cans strapped to the roof.

 

[rayra]

It's having the option to put so much more up there that excites. As does the laser scan and CAD modeling. Got my attention for sure. A bigger flat rack would ruin my soccer-mom suburban camouflage, but the increased shade area sure would be nice.

/planning to use one of my rear rack bolt holes as a pass-thru for my solar panel wiring, once I start cutting into that rear shoe for the bulkhead wiring connector. Rack's pretty strong as is, I don't think one bolt at the tail corner will be missed.

 

[Jelorian]

Just stumbled upon this thread. Be interested in a full length roof rack as well and whatever else to make our rigs better. I haven't been here in ages, but BurbOne has a dual tank setup on his rig.

 

[stomperxj]

Just stumbled upon this thread. Be interested in a full length roof rack as well and whatever else to make our rigs better. I haven't been here in ages, but BurbOne has a dual tank setup on his rig.

My neighbor has 2 burbs so I need to scan the roof of one of his. Then I can develop a bracket kit for burbs too.

I'm currently working on a platform style rack design using some aluminum planks for decking and some interesting tie down solutions.

 

[rayra]

I had trouble rigging my roof deck, trying to keep it low. Height was a concern as I have a couple multi-level parking garages in my usual routine. And the Sub has enough crown in its roof side to side and fore-aft that there really wasn't a lot of room left in the middle. I went with flat straps as crossbracing and that's a mistake for any real loads, but I was mostly interested in making a flat second roof skin to keep the sun off the vehicle.
My Mk1 idea was to make the deck in two long halves with a lot of handholds / tie-down points so they could be removed and used as backboards.
Mk2 omitted the handhold holes and extended the nose, working to eliminate wind noise.
I hope soon to make a set of 3/4" square tubing cross braces for greater rigidity / strength. But figure I will some day invert the brackets and go to a 3/16" aluminum skin / deck that's flush-mounted with the top of the Z-71 rack rails. Creates a bigger air gap underneath. And I'm really not putting much of anything on the roof. Working on roof-mounting a portable folding solar panel ground kit right now. But having a laser scan / CAD resource for designing such decks would be really helpful. I was using brown paper and newsprint to work out the curves and fit when I did my deck. 'Old skool' pain in the butt.

eta that's 'Mk1' above and this is MkII and the panel mounting frame in progress.

I hope to finish the mounting frame this weekend and get the panel and some temp wiring up there.


A suggesting for your aluminum plank design - maybe work in some slotted extrusions at the outer edges or midline which could fit some sliding / locking tie-down anchors

 

[stomperxj]

A suggesting for your aluminum plank design - maybe work in some slotted extrusions at the outer edges or midline which could fit some sliding / locking tie-down anchors

I am working on some slot type tie downs.

Got some prototype brackets back from the local cnc plasma cutter. Need to put them in the press brake soon and mock them up.

 

[Pacific Northwest yetti]

Looks great! following

 

[stomperxj]

Avalanche and Suburban with the 8.1 big block.

Luckily us GMT800 guys have plenty of options for fun with the powertrain and suspension .....so there's not much $$$ left for trinkets to hang off the truck like the Jeep, Rover and Yota guys.

My neighbors 6.0 2500 suburban has one too.

I'm finding that the GMT800 crowd is pretty resourceful and not into all the crap the Jeep, Rover and Yota guys are into

 

[rayra]

Well the 'resourceful' part comes in because there's not a lot of stuff made for our vehicles, so we have to fab our own solutions. As you are demonstrating.

 

[496bb]

Stomper, I'd be interested. Been thinking and figuring on a rack for my 05 2500 Burb. I love this truck, got 8.1 stump pulling power, had the trans rebuilt with a billet torque converter and upgrades to make it bulletproof. Yes, it only gets 10 mpg, but it doesn't care if that's loaded down with a full 39 gallons of gas and packed to the gills with stuff and people - still gets the same and I can pull out and pass like a banshee (well, a fat banshee - but still better than a 5.3 or 6.0!!)

My only concern or question for you guys is wind noise/ I drove in a friends Xterra with a straight led lightbar mounted up top, and the wind noise was horrible. Anybody experienced excessive wind noise with any of the aftermarket roof rack setups?

 

[stomperxj]

Stomper, I'd be interested. Been thinking and figuring on a rack for my 05 2500 Burb. I love this truck, got 8.1 stump pulling power, had the trans rebuilt with a billet torque converter and upgrades to make it bulletproof. Yes, it only gets 10 mpg, but it doesn't care if that's loaded down with a full 39 gallons of gas and packed to the gills with stuff and people - still gets the same and I can pull out and pass like a banshee (well, a fat banshee - but still better than a 5.3 or 6.0!!)

My only concern or question for you guys is wind noise/ I drove in a friends Xterra with a straight led lightbar mounted up top, and the wind noise was horrible. Anybody experienced excessive wind noise with any of the aftermarket roof rack setups?

As soon as spring gets here I plan on getting the suburban brackets prototyped. I'm not a fan of cold so not much has been done for a few months