7 day overland build. OK, so I sold my last big Quigley van a few months ago to pay off another chunk of my land. I wanted to take a trip up to see my Dad in Bonanza CO for fathers day. I have a huge Duramax turtle top van, lifted with big tires, locker etc, usually towing an outback trailer but I miss running "light" (2 kids, 3 dogs, the term light is relative) and havent used my RTT in a long time. I felt like my girls were spoiled with the trailer versus tents and old school camping. I had just bought an ultra clean loaded low mile 05 burb from a neighbor. It was bone stock, boring and I started thinking about all the parts I had in the shed. How quick could Amazon and eBay deliver with Covid? A cabinet maker friend of mine put together a 5ft long birch bed platform with full length drawers. I removed boards, installed cross bars, RTT, Yak rack, heavy duty rear springs, shocks, keys, 285/70/17 10 ply tires, front hitch, winch, trusty shovel, an aligment and away we went. The morning we were leaving I slipped in the gravel walking by and put my elbow into the rear window, tape held it together long enough to drive 55 miles (each way) from Durango CO to Farmington NM for a fast replacement at the salvage yard. The rig worked great, my girls, dogs and I had a great time, averaged 16.4 mpg with Wolf Creek Pass in the middle which is pretty impressive for 7600lb burb. Am buying an 02 8.1L 2500 burb as I type this and Ill have to build it all over again lol.




