HARDTRAILZ
Certified
Do a 2 inch body lift and keep you cog low and retain factory suspension for your towing purpose. Cheap...simple...effective. Nice burb for great price.
post your Suburban pics
- Thread starter roostercruiser
- Start date
RockyMtnFamily
Explorer
Converting to the fold
I have been asking members of this sub forum for advice to help me find a Suburban to my liking and ended up bringing this 1989 GMC 1500 home this weekend:
IMG_0963 by RockyMtnFamily, on Flickr
IMG_0961 by RockyMtnFamily, on Flickr
The second owner of this has a ranch near Montrose, CO and purchased this in New Hampshire to put it to use on his ranch in 1995. After thirteen years of ranch use it was sold to the person I bought it from. It has 112,000 miles which was low in comparison to others I was looking at. The interior is in GREAT condition and it is mechanically sound. I had hoped for one with barn doors but felt I could not pass this up. I had a friend help me out by driving it to my place and found two surprises after I made the purchase. 1. On the 57 mile trip home, I only used 3 gallons of gas (19mpg!) and 2. The glove compartment held a stack of paperwork and dealer brochures from when this was purchased new in 08/1990 with only 6 miles on the clock. The service records were included with the paperwork.
I hope to put it to use hauling my wife, our 5 children and a camping trailer on our vacations. I plan on giving it a tune up and transmission flush soon. From there I will install a CB and some off road lights. A friend of mine offered me a lift kit for it, but I might hold off a bit on that as this is in great shape.
Kevin
I have been asking members of this sub forum for advice to help me find a Suburban to my liking and ended up bringing this 1989 GMC 1500 home this weekend:
IMG_0963 by RockyMtnFamily, on Flickr
IMG_0961 by RockyMtnFamily, on Flickr
The second owner of this has a ranch near Montrose, CO and purchased this in New Hampshire to put it to use on his ranch in 1995. After thirteen years of ranch use it was sold to the person I bought it from. It has 112,000 miles which was low in comparison to others I was looking at. The interior is in GREAT condition and it is mechanically sound. I had hoped for one with barn doors but felt I could not pass this up. I had a friend help me out by driving it to my place and found two surprises after I made the purchase. 1. On the 57 mile trip home, I only used 3 gallons of gas (19mpg!) and 2. The glove compartment held a stack of paperwork and dealer brochures from when this was purchased new in 08/1990 with only 6 miles on the clock. The service records were included with the paperwork.
I hope to put it to use hauling my wife, our 5 children and a camping trailer on our vacations. I plan on giving it a tune up and transmission flush soon. From there I will install a CB and some off road lights. A friend of mine offered me a lift kit for it, but I might hold off a bit on that as this is in great shape.
Kevin
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Erik N
Adventurer
They are like a big monster billy goat in stock form. Tight turning radius, enough clearance, great reliability. MAYBE lose to running boards, but with a family, I could see those being nice to have. That Sub will take your wife and family anywhere they would want to go! No mods needed. Don't be swayed by those on here who say you need to have a tricked-out rig to have fun, just go DO IT!
Attachments
RockyMtnFamily
Explorer
Thanks for your feedback. I really love this body style, it bears a resemblance to a Star Wars character. Given the similar efficiency of the newer Suburbans I was looking at, I knew I had to go with the older body style rather than spend 3-4 times more on something newer with more miles on it. The Tour companies in Sedona, AZ, Moab, UT and Silverton/Ouray, CO all seem to prefer this older body style for their reliability and off road prowess. I have even heard of tour guides taking customers over Black Bear pass where the driver has to drive forward on one section of road to one switchback then back down the next section to the following switchback.
Kevin
PMA4x4
Adventurer
Erik N
Adventurer
Some pics from a couple weeks ago:
Also here's a video you might like, displaying the massiveness of the Suburbanator:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Nh67QDkb-o&feature=youtu.be
Also here's a video you might like, displaying the massiveness of the Suburbanator:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Nh67QDkb-o&feature=youtu.be
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Larry
Bigassgas Explorer
The rear bumper is just a stock factory GM pickup rear step bumper. I pruned this particular bumper from a mid-80’s GMC truck at the junk yard for $40. Pickup step bumpers and factory Suburban rear step bumpers look the same from a glance but are a bit different as the truck bumper has a longer top section where it causes the bumper to set back a bit further when bolted to a Suburban. It would have taken a lot of cutting with a cut off wheel to trim back the top lip of the bumper to make it fit a little closer to the Suburban body but I think it will be fine the way it is and certainly better than the old wraparound Sub bumper. Stock Suburban step bumpers are rare and hard to find but they are out there on stripped down Suburban models like fleet trucks for Sante Fe Railroad, etc. I couldn't find one which is why I used a pickup bumper, plus that $40 price was too good to pass up.
I made the bumper brackets out of 3/8 plate steel that I had laying around then had to cut and extend the outer bumper brackets to reach the frame. The home grown bracket bolted the truck bumper to the Sub frame in the stock mounting locations of each. I didn’t have to drill any new holes in the bumper or Suburban frame but there is a section of the bumper mounting area that needs to be trimmed back to fit a Suburban.
Just got this one....
Previous suburban when I picked it up, dont know where any of my newer pics are of it. Towed it home 650 km in the rain at night. The pic in the dark is around 2:00 am Nipigon, ON (about 50 km from home). Sold it off a couple years ago, owned it for almost a year but was too hard on gas for me at the time and my wife hated it.
Previous suburban when I picked it up, dont know where any of my newer pics are of it. Towed it home 650 km in the rain at night. The pic in the dark is around 2:00 am Nipigon, ON (about 50 km from home). Sold it off a couple years ago, owned it for almost a year but was too hard on gas for me at the time and my wife hated it.
mkitchen
Explorer
So Larry, with two really nice choices of vehicles, how do you decide which one to drive. In fact which one will be at next years Expo? I am guessing the 78 since it has the camper? Love the barn door burbs though. It has to be a tough choice.
Larry can you steer me towards a good info source for older chevy trucks? I use Fordification a lot for my 71 F 250, but I am hoping to get my old 60 back and need to find some folks smarter than me to keep me going in the right direction.
Here's a shot of Buster.
Mikey
Larry can you steer me towards a good info source for older chevy trucks? I use Fordification a lot for my 71 F 250, but I am hoping to get my old 60 back and need to find some folks smarter than me to keep me going in the right direction.
Here's a shot of Buster.
Mikey