Our Dual-Sport GMC Sierra

[chaos616]

Hey toyotech, yeah it will be an exciting day, hopefully get my axles back in the next two weeks then on to putting it all together. Thanks,

mccustomize, yeah, after some thought i came to the same conclusion, of course room is sparse, but i found a good path and i'm using removable hoop doohickys (can't remember what they're called) but i will be able to remove. Also going to tie it to the front for stability of the bar over rough roads. If you have a picture of yours feel very free to post.

Worked on the back a bit, hopefully the rear end is almost done sans paint. Just need to finish a few things off. Squeezed the 12" travel shocks in there and I think it will all fit very well. will post pictures soon!

Cheers,

 

[chaos616]

Ok, UPDATES!!! finally, what kind of slacker is updating this thread anyway... So I have since recieved both axles, pretty much mounted the rear axle, need to get my height correct, mounted the front axle, unmounted the front axle, cut a bunch of stuff, welded a bunch of stuff and thats where I'm at now. I have updated pictures as of yesterday, I don't have tonights modifications, those are to come soon. So here is the important part...Pictures!!! Enjoy...

This is the rear axle, I have assembled the emergency brakes and painted it, That diff cover will be going on the rear and I have another one already painted black for this:



Here is the axle just placed with jacks. Not a final placement as it will need to drop some.



Another:



Here is the fun part. The front suspension, at rest not modified yet:



glamour shot:



Across the axle, pinion angle not completely set yet, orange links just in time for halloween:



Another:



Closeup, bumpstops, coilover:



Rear, just need some blocks or deaver springs, etc...



Another:



Ok, so thats it for now, I will try to keep updated. I was going to have someone do my exhaust too, but now I am doing it myself. Well see how it goes, I have full stainless steel headers, exhaust mufflers, etc...

Cheers,

 

[locrwln]

Looks like some great progress. I bet you are getting anxious to get it done.

Jack

 

[chaos616]

Hey locrwln, yes you are correct. It so close I can taste it, just some things to still hash out such as brakes and some final fitting. Then comes the testing and I'm sure a slew of more changes, hopefully not major. Of course a project is never really done, but at least I will be able to drive it. I also go to work at 4am, and all i have currently is a couple motorbikes, which is fine normally, but its starting to get pretty cold pretty quick. yesterday morning was 25 degrees...brrrrr. Luckily its only a 10 mile drive but once the snow starts flying itll be nice to have a truck again.

Cheers,

 

[justcuz]

I see your going to still run the G80 Gov Locs. Remember what I said in post #91, you can pull the flyweight out of these and add frictions and shims to make a tight LSD. How tight can you make it? How about tight enough to bark a set of 14" wide Hoosier dirt track tires going around a corner. Food for thought.
All your work is looking good, glad to see you have been in touch with Leroy, can't wait to see this done and some photos of the completed project.
As for the snow flying, hasn't that happened already? It was *** biting cold in Yerington the other day.

 

[chaos616]

Hey justcuz, Thanks for the comments. yeah, for now I will not be touching the gov locks. For what I'm doing they lock up quick enough without much issues. My real concern is running the front gov lock essentially backward, don't know if its an issue. going to find out real soon i suppose. If so I will get a locker for that first and then for the rear. That being said if i do plan on keeping the gov lock i might do it later. Yeah, leroy has some cool toys, pretty jelous. It did a little bit but nothing in the valley. I ride my motorbike to work everyday...ish and its getting real cold real quick. I leave at 4:20 am and don't get back until 6, so its dark and cold both ways. Looking forward to haveing the truck back again.

Cheers, and more updates as soon as I can get back to uploading more pictures.

 

[justcuz]

You got more nads than me. I hate being cold. Guess it must be part of getting older!

 

[justcuz]

Been busy with home projects and cleaning an repacking my gear after returning from Death Valley.

Your worries about the G80 running backward may be unfounded. The flyweights are driven by axle and carrier rotation and I would think that centrifical force would trump the forward motion of the vehicle preventing the flyweights from engaging. Besides the design of the system is to kick itself out above a certain RPM, so you only have a locker during low speed operation, after that it is a loose LSD. Even at that I would beef up the LSD, but you are going to have to drive it first and build the axles to suit your needs.

 

[chaos616]

hey justcuz,

Yeah, doing some more research myself i came to a similar conclusion, I don't think it will be a big issue. The nice part about the 14 bolt is if I want to mess with the LSD later it should be easyish. I guess I will report how it reacts driving, but I know that carrier and LSD would really only lock up if you were climbing for example and the one tire spun but it never really locked up on the street much so it should be tame.

 

[calicamper]

Characters:

View attachment 151294
Ehren (a.k.a. the Squatch), originally from northern MN. First truck was a 1983 Chevy S-10 (with a 2.8L V6). While driving to school one day, said engine blew head gaskets.. tore down motor, found a new one and got the truck going again. In the meantime bought a '97 F150 single-cab longbox with manual transmission and no AC. Sold the Chevy before leaving for college. Went to college in Duluth, MN for geology. Studied abroad in England my third year of school (07-08) and met Brittany at a bus stop in Birmingham. Had to sell a beloved F150 to finance the trip, but upon return was still a poor college kid and ended up buying father's old truck on the cheap. Father's old truck was a green 2001 GMC Sierra 1500. Also owned a 1996 KLR650 during this time.

View attachment 151295
Brittany also grew up in northern MN, about two hours away from the Squatch. Drove her mom's old '95 Windstar in high school and had to leave it behind for younger siblings when she left for college, also in Duluth. Did not own a vehicle during the first part of college. Went on the same study abroad program as Ehren. Upon arrival back in the States, learned how to ride motorcycles and used a 2002 Kawasaki Vulcan 800 Custom as a daily driver.

Together spent the remainder of our college years in Duluth. In the summer of 2009, we took a 8-day motorcycle trip around Lake Superior.. Ehren on his KLR and Brittany on her Vulcan. In the summer of 2010, we took a 6-week motorcycle trip to Alaska using the same bikes. Six months after graduation, Ehren got a job as a mine geologist out in northern Nevada and after Brittany graduated six months later, moved out west to join him.

Ehren packed all his worldly belongings (including the KLR and a '99 YZ250) into the back of the GMC and moved to Winnemucca, NV in January 2011. Brittany came out with furniture and her Vulcan later that year in June.
View attachment 151292

In November 2011, just two days before Thanksgiving, we were driving back home from Safe Haven Rescue Zoo (an animal sanctuary that we volunteer at), about a 40 minute drive. It was about 5:30PM and dark outside with no moon. We were driving down Hwy 400 at 70 mph when we hit a black cow standing in our lane head on and completely destroyed the GMC, just ten minutes after leaving Safe Haven.
View attachment 151296

Needless to say, we were down a truck. A week later we ventured up to Boise, ID, to go truck hunting and found our current rig, a completely stock GMC 2007 2500HD Classic 6.0L V8.
View attachment 151297

A fresh canvas ripe for modification! To be continued...

Wow!!! Glad you guys are OK! Really good friend hit a Moose many years ago they were not so lucky! Looking forward to reading about your adventures!

 

[mccustomize]

http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/116830-2003-Silverado-Z71-solid-axle-build

Pictures on the first page of the hoops and engine cage. I just recently lowered mine and removed my bodylift. Are your headers longtube or shorty?

 

[chaos616]

calicamper, hey yeah, we did alright, sorry to hear about your friend, moose are much worse i believe than cows, cows are big but low. Thanks!

mccustomize, i have read through your thread a few times now, still impressed how clean your setup is, i feel like mine came out a bit chunkier but i will refine as time allows. The headers are shorty, and i still barely had enough room for the cats and the rest of the stuff in there. I am seriously thinking of moving the lower link mounts up a little for clearance, have you had issues with yours? Also what did you use for your upper link as far as tubing, i see its square, 1/4 wall? I have some reservations about my upper link and its strength, i don't want it to break under hard braking or decents etc...

Cheers, and I will try to update soon!

 

[mccustomize]

It came out ok but I would change a few things if I had it all to do over again. I would have spent more time on mockup and packaging everything nicer. Like one mount for multiple parts for example. I'm finally getting close to where want to be with the front end, I had to really reinforce that upper link mount since it's hard to get in that small area to weld it all in. I have shorty headers as well, with NO cats, into a single 3 inch and it is still very tight but all tucked up. The only downside to all that is I have a lot of resonance from the exhaust being so close to the floor. I plan to dynamite the floor and that should take care of some of that. I simply plated my trans crossmember and mounted my lower links to that. It has held up great and I wouldn't change that at all. I used 2x2 1/4" wall for all my links, it's actually a lot stronger than you would think and I haven't had any issues.

 

[chaos616]

Hey mc: Yeah, i feel the same now but theres always time to do that later. I might have to dynamat too.

OK, finally an update. there was some stuff and things happening in between, but as per usual pictures were forgot about. Pretty much bolted some things together and got it all set up. But we are now to the testing phase!!!

So without delay here are some cool photos!

on our local mountain:



Underside shot:



Of course upon completion i couldn't resist to drive over things and flex it out a little:



looks kinda like i knew what i was doing (to be fair i kinda do now, but I kinda didn't then)



Again, because a different location makes it better (actually i couldn't really get it to flex out so I kept trying different spots):



More:



Close to full drop:



Then we found a nice little twisty section:







It flexes pretty well but could use some tuning:





These pictures are as far as we could get it flexed with the available terrain, but we had more to go, neither bump stop was being used and only the front was close to flexed out:



mmmm, nice:



With her driving i could really check the suspension movement:





Even with this spot we couldn't get it flexed all the way, I figure we have 2" more bump on each corner and could get about 2" or 3" of droop on the rear. The front droops really well though.

So there it is phase 1 testing complete,

Issues:

1: the main springs in the dual rate system are a bit stiff making it difficult to flex fully, will try softer springs

2: added a leaf in the rear, also a bit stiff, will get the rest of the stuff added and see how stiff it still is

3: transfer case (np261 with Northwest fab SYE) started making some noise like a clicking on rotation, not sure will investigate ore tomorrow

4: may need some tuning on the fox shocks to get the damping correct, will fix with time and testing

5: abs (need to get tone rings and stuff to complete)

6: 4x4 auto system needs to be shut off but I need to figure out the wiring for the 4 lo to get it to work proper

7: yukon hardcore lockouts work but don't engage smoothly like they are just stiff

Otherwise it was a fairly successful test and well work through the issues.

 

[ober27]

Wow! Pretty impressive, you should be proud.