Poor mans hummer gmt800 2500 yukon xl

[Panthers64]

Nice job finding a GMT800 2500 for a reasonable price, so many people are asking double that. H2 rims look fantastic. If you drop down below 65mph you should be able to get 600-650 miles on a tank!

Thanks! @CrazyDrei your build has pretty much been one of my favorites on the forum and a lot of inspiration has come from it. yea I wasnt sure how id like the hummer wheels on it but now that its done i agree i think they look great.

 

[CrazyDrei]

Thanks! @CrazyDrei your build has pretty much been one of my favorites on the forum and a lot of inspiration has come from it. yea I wasnt sure how id like the hummer wheels on it but now that its done i agree i think they look great.

Panthers64,

I really like the H2 rims, had a set last year on my GMT900 Sub 2500 but they were too wide for me, so I sold them. If I will ever get around to building the 2500 to be similar to my 1500 Sub, H2 brushed aluminum rims will go on.

 

[dvn4life1972]

I love my H2's on my Jeep. Picked 4 up for $250, not so much as a scratch on them or the caps.

Now y'all have me looking for some for the burb!

 

[Panthers64]

Alright so i got a little bit done this past weekend. The only interior that had issues was the middle row bench seat was very tore up. ended up finding a set of 2nd and 3rd row leather seats in great shape for 50$ so i swapped the second row in.

third row will go in the shed untill i need them. next on the agenda was removing the running boards which between the mounting design and the rusty bolts proved to be quite the task it took about a full 6 hours to get both sides off...


Also was able to snag a full set of flares of a z71 at the local junkyard for $20 only installed the front for now gonna save the rear for once i get some of the rusted paneling handled.
the offset on the H2 wheels with these tires and the depth of these fenders couldnt be any more perfect in the front. I think once i do the rear i will need about an inch spacer or so.



So the next day i decided to throw on my lift keys and 2" blocks. started on the rear and got the blocks put on and lord am i glad i did as all four u bolts looked like this... yikes. all it took was a 1/4 turn of the ratchet and every single one sheered right off.


finally i went to do the front keys on, and spent the whole Sunday attempting to get the old keys out but the bars are so rusted in each the keys and control arm that i had no luck. Also idk if its just the yukon xls/ suburbans or just a 2500 thing but directly behind the torsion bar crossmember was another cross member that was riveted in that made it difficult to get to the hole in the back of the torsion crossmember that allows you to get a punch on the keys and knock them out. so after a day and a half of using multiple BFHs, pb blaster, and come alongs i was still not able to get them free and with a trip coming up i decided to just throw everything back together and ill revisit those in the future.

 

[Overlandtowater]

yes the way the running board where bolted on was a PINTA to take off. looks great, scary find on the ubolts...where did the truck spend most of its life????? OHIO????

 

[Jacobm]

Man I'm so glad stuff in Idaho doesn't rust. I've had a bare spot on the front fenders where the previous owner's bug guard rubbed the paint off and it's still shiny.

Do you get any rub with the bigger tires at full flex like that? I'm thinking I'd like to go bigger than 235/85/16s for my next set and H2 wheels with 285/75/17s seems like a good size. I know that's smaller than what you've got but I don't plan on putting blocks in or lift keys just yet.

 

[Martinjmpr]

finally i went to do the front keys on, and spent the whole Sunday attempting to get the old keys out but the bars are so rusted in each the keys and control arm that i had no luck. Also idk if its just the yukon xls/ suburbans or just a 2500 thing but directly behind the torsion bar crossmember was another cross member that was riveted in that made it difficult to get to the hole in the back of the torsion crossmember that allows you to get a punch on the keys and knock them out. so after a day and a half of using multiple BFHs, pb blaster, and come alongs i was still not able to get them free and with a trip coming up i decided to just throw everything back together and ill revisit those in the future.

I had a similar issues with the keys on my 2004 1500 'Burb. After hammering away at them for hours we finally gave up and took it to a shop where I presume they used a power hammer to remove them. Although I live in CO, the truck spent the first 8 years of its life in Wisconsin and had moderate rust on the underside, hence the keys not coming out.

I think I paid $130 for an hour or so of labor at a local shop and they even put the new keys in for me. Well worth it to avoid the headache.

 

[Panthers64]

yes the way the running board where bolted on was a PINTA to take off. looks great, scary find on the ubolts...where did the truck spend most of its life????? OHIO????

from what ive found paperwork wise it looks like it spent the majority of its life in Iowa

 

[Panthers64]

Man I'm so glad stuff in Idaho doesn't rust. I've had a bare spot on the front fenders where the previous owner's bug guard rubbed the paint off and it's still shiny.

Do you get any rub with the bigger tires at full flex like that? I'm thinking I'd like to go bigger than 235/85/16s for my next set and H2 wheels with 285/75/17s seems like a good size. I know that's smaller than what you've got but I don't plan on putting blocks in or lift keys just yet.

i havent really gotten to test it for rubbing off road as of yet but on the font currently my keys are just cranked and the front valance trimmed and i have no rubbing in normal street conditions, but i do believe the offset of the H2 wheels has a good bit to do with that as the offset seems to be just about perfect.

 

[Panthers64]

I had a similar issues with the keys on my 2004 1500 'Burb. After hammering away at them for hours we finally gave up and took it to a shop where I presume they used a power hammer to remove them. Although I live in CO, the truck spent the first 8 years of its life in Wisconsin and had moderate rust on the underside, hence the keys not coming out.

I think I paid $130 for an hour or so of labor at a local shop and they even put the new keys in for me. Well worth it to avoid the headache.

Yea ive got a buddy that works at 4 wheel parts says generally even for them it takes an air hammer and a lot of patience when its that rusted so im gonna give that a go and go from there.

 

[Panthers64]

Alright I’m terrible at keeping this updated so I’m gonna try to catch things up. We’ve taken a number of trips so far and man I love this truck.

So first trip we took the fiancé and I wanted to do a quick weekend beach trip so I tossed in my old drawer bed setup from the Tahoe and we headed down.

Was a good first trip. After getting home I wanted to get a few more things handled and get back out. My buddy and I had a trip to land between the lakes on the tn/ky border planned 2 weeks later so that was the next deadline. The spray bedliner job the previous owner did was driving me nuts as it was flaking everywhere. So that was on the list.

Before:

Midway:

After: (bad pic)

Very happy with how it turned out.
Also finally got my new keys in as well as new ball joints. And got a mrs radio installed.

We went out the next week and had a blast.

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[Panthers64]

It was a wet and rainy weekend but LBL was great. Unfortunately the weekend we went was turkey hunting weekend and a lot of what we had mapped out to look at was closed but we still found some really cool spots. After getting home from this trip I realized how much a roof rack was necessity for me and needing a quick solution for a camping trip the following weekend with my fiancé and daughter I decided to cut 2 sticks of unistrut in half and mount them to the stock rails with u bolts. It worked out even better than I thought and may be more permanent than I had originally intended.


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[Panthers64]

The next weekend I took my daughter to big hill pond state park and pretty much left my phone in the truck the whole weekend so I didn’t get many pics but we had a great time

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[Panthers64]

The following week we had an camping trip in the ozarks planned with some friends. I decided to reorganize how we stored things and added some plano 1919s to the roof and some smaller planos inside for camp gear.

This bring things up to current, I have a trip planned back to LBL next week and hope to start being better about updating this thread lol.


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[Overlandtowater]

LBL is on my hit list as soon as I get the SAS done, I hope to have it done in time to make it back to the rendezvous in the Ozarks in October.