My 02 Avalanche NFE

[chilliwak]

Thanks - much appreciated. More updates coming................................

I always liked those Avalanches Stryder. Henry J here oon the site has a pretty cool one too. What kind of prices are they going for in decent shape? Just curious as I would only want a 3/4 ton. Maybe you got some links to vehicles available? Cheers, Chilli...:Wow1::Wow1:

 

[Stryder106]

I always liked those Avalanches Stryder. Henry J here oon the site has a pretty cool one too. What kind of prices are they going for in decent shape? Just curious as I would only want a 3/4 ton. Maybe you got some links to vehicles available? Cheers, Chilli...:Wow1::Wow1:

I haven't really looked around for them. I know I looked at KBB on mine not too long and in stock form it was still at $12K - it's an NFE. I'm the original owner on mine. Yes - doing what I'm doing now - I wish I had gotten the 3/4 ton. Oh well, working with what I have as I love my Av. Yes HenryJ's is cool - he's done a lot of cool stuff to it.

The Rare Parts 1.5" tie rods just arrived. Installing those and the Cognito UCAs tomorrow. I also have the Cognito pitman arm and idler arm braces installed (forgot to mention that).

 

[Stryder106]

New front end parts have finally arrived. Install tomorrow...........

New Cognito upper control arms - 2" more droop and will allow for the exploration of a coilover front end......................


New Rare Parts tie rods - 1.32" thick - waaaaaay beefier than my stock 1/2" tie rods.


For comparison - well, there is no - er um comparison..........

 

[Stryder106]

Did a few other things to the Avalanche over the weekend. Installed a new K&N fuel filter and a new fan clutch. Reason for the fan clutch is: 1) It was the original (173K miles), and 2) Occasionally my A/C would blow warm at lower RPMs.

I also purchased a Factor 55 Pro Link for the winch as it is: 1) Much safer than the hook; 2) Doesn't stick out as far as the hook (I dug that into the dirt a few weeks ago); 3) Looks cooler and is lighter. Given I have the Smittybilt X20 Comp 12K winch, I had to use the angle grinder and cut the hook off.

 

[Stryder106]

I had promised some more detailed pics of the new rear bumper with dual swingout.

Here are the latches I got from EMS Offroad. While they are stout, I have noticed that they will come unlatched (not all the way, but the lever has been lifted after some serious bumping on a trail. If I were doing it over again, I would probably pay for the latches with the locking mechanism - but it was $40/ea vs $80/ea. I still might do it as this annoys me a bit - but I'm trying to see if I need to get better at adjusting the tension on thiem first.


We then took my Hi-Lift off of my roof rack, and reused the Smittybilt jack mounts by attaching them to the outside hoop of the left swingout. This got the weight of my jack off of my roof. The other items in this pic are the Rotopax. The carrier is from AllPro Offroad and the Rotopax are 3 gals each. The good news is this fully supports 3/3Gallon fuel Rotopax. The bad news is, this ONLY supports 3/3 gallon Rotopax. Rotopax does not make any other 3 Gallon (that I have found) can and these are a different height than the standard 2 Gallon cans. NOTE: There is a custom (from AP Offroad) plate and dual rod that goes through the center (there is a plate between each can) and you thread the Rotopax end onto it locking in your cans. There is no need to buy any of the extensions for the 3 gallon Rotopax. Of course, no one mentions this - so I now have 3 of those sitting in my garage.


Backside of the swingout so you can see the general design and the mounting plate for the Rotopax support. The cool thing is AP Offroad has 2 additional support options, 1 for 2 Jerry cans mounted sideways and 1 for a cooler. All three have the same mounting pattern and footprint so they are interchangeable. I have room between the tailgate and the siwingout tubing if I want to mount an additional 2 gallon Rotopack on the inside I can.


The tire side of the swingout so you can see how we did it. This is going to change as my buddy made it based on my spare tire - which is a street tire (oops). We will be correcting this in the next few weeks to fit a 35" tire. EMS Offroad Spare Tire and Latch kit.


The pivots were sourced from EMS Offroad as well - they are rated at 1000lbs each.


Rear bumper config - 1.75" tubing everything is welded to the frame. We do climb on the truck for various reason so I did not want to go to a 100% tube bumper. You can see the step plates - it also keeps more with the original lines of the truck.


Undershot of the tubing config on the rear bumper. Side plates serve multiple purposes: Keep with the general lines of the truck, added strength, and tie down point should I need it.


Relocated the receiver hitch and electronics receiver (still might move this up between the tubes), Air valve for the Air Lift bags is mounted to the inside of the license plate. Kept my original license plate light - so I'm still legal in CA. Comparing height differences, my receiver hitch is now 8" higher than it was with the stock bumper.

 

[HenryJ]

Could you fab a urethane , or teflon "handle keeper" for the latches? Something like the Highlift handle keeper on a smaller scale for the latches.
It would have a hole for the red handle and then a "C" that snaps over the horizontal lower bar.
Sure seems like it would be easy to make something like that up and give it a try.

The other idea is a doughnut that rides the vertical bar. Just the little weight should help hold the handle down. On a good bounce it would exert a little more pressure. Rubber would be nice, but even a foam pipe insulation, or pool noodle might do the trick.

Bouncing ideas

Love the AV

 

[mccustomize]

You'll be hard pressed to find a "35 inch" tire that measure out to 35 inches, nearly all are in the 34" range with a few measuring out to 34.5". Just passing along the info. Swing out looks great and I envy your snorkel setup, sad that nobody makes one for the GMT trucks.

 

[Arizona Native]

Nice, was just thinking about the cognito control arms myself, new shocks are allowing the UCA to hit the bump stop.
What will the thicker tie rods help with? I might have to add those to my ever growing list.

 

[Stryder106]

Nice, was just thinking about the cognito control arms myself, new shocks are allowing the UCA to hit the bump stop.
What will the thicker tie rods help with? I might have to add those to my ever growing list.

The 1/2" tie rods are a well known weakness on these trucks. Adding in the bigger wheels and tires the added weight of overlanding gear, and the added stress of being offroad - it's a weak point that I wanted to address.

If you buy these tie rods - go to alligatorperformance.com - by far the best pricing on them.

 

[chilliwak]

Stryder is right! Beef up those tie rods. A cheap and necesary fix.

 

[rayra]

On the swingout clamps, would the handles cam over further if you drill out the rivet at the top of the mounting plates? Is that rivet doing anything other than impeding the handle? It otherwise looks like the handles have a gap big enough to seat them down over that plate. And that they could even be drilled thru the handle and that rivet hole and padlock the handles down, if you wanted. Or just put a hitch pin cotter pin thru them to keep them latched.

 

[Stryder106]

A 35" tire is only going to net you about 3/4" more clearance under the diffs than your current 33" tall tire. Half of the gained height is under the hub, half is above that centerline. Is it still worth swapping, yes. As for the "other" lifts being made of thin plate I would find that completely false, I've installed several 4-6" diff drop kits on these trucks and all of them were 3/16 or 1/4" plate for the brackets and diff drops. Your current diff/axle should be fine for what you intend to do, I wheel my truck on 37s with a Dana 44 and factory 10 bolt. I would look into a Detroit or something similar for the rear locker to replace the G80, although I never had problems with mine, it's design is not the ideal for what we do with our vehicles.

Quick question I forgot to ask - which 4-6" lifts are you putting in? I'm seriously trying to figure this one out. I can afford to do it - just can't afford to be wrong about it.

 

[Stryder106]

Could you fab a urethane , or teflon "handle keeper" for the latches? Something like the Highlift handle keeper on a smaller scale for the latches.
It would have a hole for the red handle and then a "C" that snaps over the horizontal lower bar.
Sure seems like it would be easy to make something like that up and give it a try.

The other idea is a doughnut that rides the vertical bar. Just the little weight should help hold the handle down. On a good bounce it would exert a little more pressure. Rubber would be nice, but even a foam pipe insulation, or pool noodle might do the trick.

Bouncing ideas

Love the AV

Thanks and yah - trying to figure this one out. That's a good idea you have, I'll look into that. The other obvious option looking at these latches is some sort of U pin to go through both of the holes on the latch and base.

 

[Stryder106]

On the swingout clamps, would the handles cam over further if you drill out the rivet at the top of the mounting plates? Is that rivet doing anything other than impeding the handle? It otherwise looks like the handles have a gap big enough to seat them down over that plate. And that they could even be drilled thru the handle and that rivet hole and padlock the handles down, if you wanted. Or just put a hitch pin cotter pin thru them to keep them latched.

No - the rivet isn't impeding anything. At that point the handle is solid so it won't go down over the base. It looks like it should from the pics and just looking at it from the side - but once you get over the top of it - no dice.

What's odd is on the EMS website it states "Latches must go over 90 degrees" - but there is 100% NO WAY to get them to that point as they do not go down over that plate. I called them - they didn't answer. Trying again tomorrow.

 

[Bear in NM]

Stryder,

It looks like the latches need to be further out on the end of each bar, ie the gap between them smaller. This would give you more than 90 degrees between the clamp bar and locking mechanism. Not sure if this is even possible? I had a pair of similar style latches on my Jeep swingout, and they held well when the angle was more than 90 degrees. The idea being that the load pulls in such a way as to want to close the mechanism tighter, as opposed to opening it.

Craig