Got my new-to-me rig: '04 Suburban 1500 LT...

[rayra]

lol, if you consider a Tahoe the "usual"...

I think most Suburbans are not suited for off road trails, but for pure expedition use - covering large distances on off road ROADS, they're excellent with a mild lift and bigger tires.

Eh. The wheelbase is only 14" longer than the Tahoe/Yukon, but it's also longer in the butt AND with the towing package / factory receiver hitch installed the departure angle really sucks. Most of the trails out west they are just fine. You're just not going to do any rock pile climbing in one. Not for long, anyway. But that's not a fault. It was never intended to do such.

 

[rayra]

OK Martin,

You have had it for less then a day, but first things come before second things. It need a name! You could name it Snowflake or maybe Snowwhite? Liz is very talented and I am sure she will enjoy helping you!

Congratulations!

well it's in the snow, it's big and white and strong, and Star Wars has opened, so you are gonna have to name it 'Wampa'. Or Rusty the Snowman. Or 'The Space Shuttle', 'Enterprise', or for Super-geeks, the Shuttle Galileo

Way "down the road" it might be nice to wire in a dual battery setup, although I'm not sure there's room even under that gargantuan hood. With 4 12v power plugs (2 in the dash, 1 in the center console facing towards the 2nd row seat and one in the cargo area) I should have plenty of places to hook up all my electric gadgets.

There's a battery shelf of sorts up by the hood hinge in the passenger-side corner of the firewall. There's a factory tray available, mentioned in another topic around here, I'll have to look for the reference and part number. But I don't think a standard height battery will fit there. It's got to be something more squat. I'll looking to it for myself. As well as some more non-automotive type batteries for the power module section of my storage platform. I'm adding some inverter, solar controller, USB and Anderson power pole connectors for HAM radio Disaster prep / CERT mobile ops. Considering a solar panel setup either roof-mounted and deployed or roof stored and ground deployed. I'm planning a 'power module' that will fit along the driver side of the cargo area and remain when the 3rd row is installed. And in regular use I'll have two side by side drawer modules that run right up to the back of the 2nd row seats. Overall about 8-9" deep, 54" long and about 20" wide, each. It's about 9cu' of storage space in the drawers. Plus the 'power module'

 

[rayra]

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I'm a little concerned about this. Basically I don't want it to get worse. Any recommendations? The rest of the undercarriage doesn't look too bad, I think it's mostly surface rust. They don't use salt on the roads out here, although they do use mag chloride which is similar. Still, as dry as CO is, we generally don't worry too much about rust.

Well you are drafted into the Navy now. You're gonna have to attack that. Lot of wire brush / wheel work in your future, come springtime. Just do a section at a time. A few hours, wipe it clean and dry, and paint it over with an epoxy paint / POR15.

And in the interim, as in immediately, I'd get some oil on that rust. Not mineral oil or other petroleum-base oils, they'll attack the rubber hoses and bushings. Some vegetable oils. When I used to go mug-bogging or taking my ATCs in the mud, a common trick was spraying down the undercarriage and fenderwells with a can of PAM. Mud would fall right off. But that was ~25yrs ago. Nowadays there are dedicated automotive products out there like this -
http://www.amsoil.com/shop/by-produ...s-and-protectants/heavy-duty-metal-protector/

Get something on there right away to arrest / slow the rust that's there already, and act as a barrier going forward. And when things warm and dry up, start attacking that frame a couple feet at a time.

The doors, I'd be worried that rust is coming thru from the inside, rather than eating in from the visible side. You'll want to get a door skin off and get a mirror or camera in there and see what's going on in there. And oil that right now as well.

 

[Martinjmpr]

Well you are drafted into the Navy now. You're gonna have to attack that. Lot of wire brush / wheel work in your future, come springtime. Just do a section at a time. A few hours, wipe it clean and dry, and paint it over with an epoxy paint / POR15.

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Argh! Well, I kind of knew what I was getting into buying a WI vehicle. Good news is that here in CO it's not likely to get much worse.
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And it's still nicer than having a car payment every month. :sombrero:

 

[mjmcdowell]

New truck......

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Argh! Well, I kind of knew what I was getting into buying a WI vehicle. Good news is that here in CO it's not likely to get much worse.
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And it's still nicer than having a car payment every month. :sombrero:

X2 on car payments. Nice truck Martin!! enjoy it, I have had my new F 150 on some narrow trails and some with wash outs, full size works good for anywhere I would go including the DE adventures if you know how to drive.... which you do. MERRY CHRISTMAS!! Michael

 

[Martinjmpr]

UPDATE: First towing/camping trip...

After a winter that started off with a couple of big snowstorms and ended up with blue skies and warm temps, we got walloped with a BIG spring snowstorm that screwed up a couple of weekends for us. But the good news is that the warm weather is back and it looks like it's staying for a while now.
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The 'Burb did great in the snow, BTW, even with pretty "meh" Kelly-Springfield tires. I would imagine with a good set of BFG ATs or DuraTracs it would have done even better.
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I did tow a couple of times with the Suburban over the Winter but they were both very short trips - less than 5 miles and no highway travel at all. But this past weekend was our first camping trip of the season, and I was very interested to see how the Suburban would do, since it was primarily purchased as a tow vehicle for our ~ 2,000 lb (fully loaded) T@B Clamshell trailer.
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We went to Carter Lake which is a county park about 62 miles Northwest and that included about 40 miles on the interstate, at generally level elevations (I think the total elevation change was less than 500 feet.) Overall it was a great chance to get a "feel" for what the Suburban will be like as a tow vehicle and so far I'm very impressed. As you might imagine with only 2 people (plus one dog) and about 2k worth of trailer, the big Suburban hardly notices the weight. In fact, I noticed my MPG (as shown on the Scangauge) actually went up from 12.0 to 12.4 during the trip (the 12.0 came from long periods of driving very slowly in deep, wet snow in 4wd the previous week.)
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On the interstate, the Suburban felt smooth and comfortable, due to the long wheelbase. About the only thing I missed was being able to quickly downshift to ascend a steep (but short) hill. Instead I just mashed the accelerator and let the transmission do the work for me. The 5.3 seemed to have plenty of power towing after a few years of having the 4.0 (which does fine on the flat lands but really lags on hills or in heavy winds.)
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After 4 years of camping with the 4runner as my tow vehicle, the sheer size of the Suburban was almost an embarrassment of riches. On past trips we've had to make tough decisions of "do we take this or do we take that?" before a trip but now with the 'Burb it seems like it's going to be more like "hell, we have room, so why NOT bring it?" And all this was even with the spare tire taking up a considerable space inside the back of the truck (I haven't had a chance to replace the hoist yet.)
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So, overall I'm pretty happy with my choice. I went back and forth between a Tahoe or Sequoia sized platform or the bigger Suburban but ultimately I decided the extra room and extra fuel of the 'Burb made that the better vehicle for my intended uses.
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We have another camping trip in 2 weeks, but that one is to another lake just a little further away, so it will be similar to this last one. At the end of April will be the first real test of the Suburban's power, towing capability and range as we're going on a trip to the Northwestern part of the state, a trip that will take us over the Eisenhower Tunnel at 11,000' and Rabbit Ears Pass at 10,000'.

 

[p nut]

V8 should handle the pass with no big issues. Much better than the 4.0 anyway.

 

[upcruiser]

An embarrassment of riches, that sums up how we felt going from an FJ Cruiser to our Burb. That's a really slick looking camper who makes it?

We are departing Alril 28th and coming through CO on our way to UT for an 18 day trip. Curious to see how it does on Eisenhower and Vail passes towing our 23' camper. Eisenhower was always the litmus test for me with rigs. I have a long history of my rigs being underpowered and that stretch was always dreaded. The worst was an'87 Trooper with about 75hp I had when I lived in Crested Butte in the mid '90's. It could only pull 30mph and was terrifying going up out of Denver. 6 liters? Aw man, it's going to feel like a freight train. Haha

 

[njtacoma]

Martin,
I'm curious how everything went climbing the hill on I-25 southbound outside of Berthoud. It is a straight climb next to the motocross track. Trucks in the right line going 57, and cars in the left lane trying to go 80. It always creates a strange traffic flow, combined with the hill, it has taxed my tow vehicles in the past.

Maybe you didn't even notice, which would be telling to the suburbans prowess as well.

Thanks,

 

[Martinjmpr]

Martin,
I'm curious how everything went climbing the hill on I-25 southbound outside of Berthoud. It is a straight climb next to the motocross track. Trucks in the right line going 57, and cars in the left lane trying to go 80. It always creates a strange traffic flow, combined with the hill, it has taxed my tow vehicles in the past.

Maybe you didn't even notice, which would be telling to the suburbans prowess as well.

Thanks,

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Since we were coming out of Berthoud on our way home, we actually entered I-25 at the exit you mentioned (next to the motocross track) so we didn't even have any momentum to help us on the hill. No drama at all, I think near the top it kicked from 4th down to 3rd or maybe even 2nd - it was a major drop, I could feel it - but no issues otherwise. And the trans fluid temp as displayed on the Scangauge never got above about 160 - 170 the whole way.
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I'm interested to see where the trans temp is when we start going up long steep hills like the one just West of Georgetown.

 

[Martinjmpr]

That's a really slick looking camper who makes it?

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http://www.tab-rv.com/
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Here's the post I made last year just before we started camping:
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http://www.expeditionportal.com/for...es-quot-hello-quot-Livia-quot?highlight=livia
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Of course, the opening paragraph is now ironic - at least the part where I say we chose to go to a small trailer like this because "I didn't want to have to get a bigger tow vehicle." 14 camping trips (including a 5,400 mile trip to Niagara Falls and back) and 11,000 miles of highway were enough to show me that the 4runner was not an ideal tow vehicle. It was adequate - but just that. And I wanted more than "adequate."

 

[justcuz]

Good to know on the transmission temperatures. Does it still have the factory trans cooler or did you upgrade it?
I usually drop down to 3rd gear pulling long grades or steep climbs and use the tow haul mode.
Just about any way out of Southern Califonia you will be pulling a grade (Grapevine, Cajon Pass or Chiraco Summit) so I just slug it out in 3rd. Towing through Kansas in OD would probably be a piece of cake!

 

[Martinjmpr]

Good to know on the transmission temperatures. Does it still have the factory trans cooler or did you upgrade it?
I usually drop down to 3rd gear pulling long grades or steep climbs and use the tow haul mode.
Just about any way out of Southern Califonia you will be pulling a grade (Grapevine, Cajon Pass or Chiraco Summit) so I just slug it out in 3rd. Towing through Kansas in OD would probably be a piece of cake!

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Still on the factory cooler. As for tow/haul mode, I never used it. According to the manual unless I'm at or near 75% of GCWR it's of no benefit to me. I may try it on the big trip at the end of the month and see if it makes any difference going over the big passes.

 

[rayra]

IIRC the Tow mode electronically alters some shift points, which may be of benefit on a long steep climb. Or you could initially forego the tow mode and just manually put it in 3rd. But the mode would be better as it will upshift when it can and relieve some of the burden on the drivetrain. The mode works fine, take advantage of it.

Looking forward to hearing of the 11k' performance, I've never taken ours much over 4000' (grapevine)

This pic (of our Tahoe, same drivetrain as our Sub) was just in the foothills out of Kern River / Lake Isabella, 14' trailer stuffed full of household goods (sold the vacation house), hauled from there to Fresno, then about 1/2 full home to L.A. up the steep side of the Grapevine, zero difficulty at all in any of it.