The Double down AWD cargo build

[drsmonkey]

I've been a lurker here and occasional poster for years. I have used the info on Expo to build a couple expedition-light (i.e. camping/wheeling) trucks, though none have been unique enough to be build thread worthy.

Then I decided I wanted a trailer, so learned to weld and fabrifake (TM), then designed and built (with a lot of help from expo) an off road trailer with an RTT to tow behind my Tacoma. That might have been build thread worthy, but I never had the time to take pics and post them while building the trailer. Here it is as she sits today, soon to be for sale to fund the next project.



I also have little patience for taking good photos, sorting through them, uploading etc. so no trip reports yet either.

I figure it is about time to start fully participating, so this time am going to attempt to actually record the build as I go along.

 

[drsmonkey]

With a baby on the way, a 75lb dog that loves to sleep in the tent with us but is getting a bit old to get himself in and out, it was time to upsize the camping rig. We primarily use it to get to out of the way places to climb, and bike in the dessert, but also like to explore backroads on rest days.

The requirements are...
1) Must also serve as a DD, living situation allows for only two cars in the drive.
2) AWD or 4WD with some decent clearance, a minimum to even get to our house in winter.
3) Seat at least 4 including car seat + dog and gear when in DD mode.
4) Sleep 2 + the future midget + dog in camp mode
5) Enough space to hang out comfortably in bad weather
6) Reliable-ish
7) Cost less then what I can sell a Subaru, trailer, motorcycle, a bicycle, and other assorted goods for, plus about $7500 (I'm downsizing the toys)

Being an ex crawler kind of guy, I'd love an E350 with the full Ujoint and Colorado camper van treatment, but that fails on #'s 1 and 7. Plus I'm selling all my toys, so I'm going to need a new project.

Which brings us to this...



A 2008 AWD Cargo Van with 210,000 miles that I picked up for $7,500. Since she was so cheap and I plan to very quickly dump more than twice that amount into her, I'm calling this thread (and maybe the van) the Double Down.

The Good...

Clean title, decent shape, little rust.
Confirmed synthetic oil changes every 5k, Tranny, trans, and diffs every 70k or so.
2 sets of almost new tires. Blizzaks and Toyo HT's.
Recent brake pads.
Intake manifold gasket replacement triggered by lean bank engine code instead of a milkshake in the oil pan.
Nice stereo with all the doodads.
Ram mount, center console desk, cage and racks, cell signal booster, alarm.





5.3L has a solid reputation
G80 in the rear
PO said it has a 4L80 trans, build plate says 4L60 so I doubt it, haven't confirmed which yet.

The Bad...
210K miles! but they are almost all highway miles in MT and WY where she had two owners and was used as a service vehicle.
Has been very reliable for the previous owner, which means almost every thing that can break has not yet done so and will need to be replaced to meet #6.
Still throwing lean condition code off and on.
Some less-than optimal wiring of add-ons, easily corrected.
3.42 in the diffs, might need to be changed
No matter what I do to it, she will never go the same places my truck can go.

And so we begin with the build...

 

[drsmonkey]

...with trying to get her home.

On the way to the PO's shop to grab the summer tires the front right caliper started dragging and quickly got hot, hot, HOT.

Pulled the wheel, banged the caliper around with the lug wrench to free it up, then drove her to the nearest shop to have the caliper replaced on the sellers dime. I offered to pick up half the tab, but he insisted that I should be able to at least drive it away, so thanks to the PO for being an upstanding guy. :clapping:

I almost made the 2 hour drive home, almost.

Headlight output had been previously "improved" with supercool bulbs per the PO. High output bulbs = hot = melted plugs. One plug had been replaced with a ceramic plug, and a second ceramic plug (loose) came with the van along with the advise that it needed changing. Half an hour from home it began to get dark so I pulled into work to check on the headlights to make sure that they would get me through the elk and bison slalom course.

After a quick assessment of the headlight situation, I decided to poke a hole in it to let the headlight fluid out since it was only half full.



Time to head home in a different vehicle and leave Double Down at work for the night.

Needs a new windshield, VIN inspection, etc. done in town the next day anyhow.

So homeward bound and to the interwebs to order some 5"x7" Rigid Truck Lites overnight from Amazon, credit to Accrete for recommending those lamps.

 

[drsmonkey]

Quick update, pics to follow.

Windshield, plates, and headlights working.



Finally made it all the way home.

On the list for this weekend are...
1) Put her up on blocks so I can get the Blizzaks dismounted and take care of the rusty wheels.
2) Remove the racks
3) Remove the cage
4) Fix the interesting wiring situations
5) Clean and degrease the engine bay and undercarriage.
6) Start a list for ordering parts

 

[drsmonkey]

Got the shed re-arranged to fit the van and got it up on stands. The lugs on the wheel that had the caliper replaced took around 300ft lbs (i.e. 155lbs of me standing on a 24" breaker bar) to loosen. I guess the mechanic was in too much of a hurry to get home to use a torque stick.

Got everything pulled out of the back. This is how she sits now.



Cleaned the engine and under carriage. Looks like there is a front oil seal leak. Will have to decide what I want to replace while it is apart.

Tomorrow is fixing a whole bunch of jingus wiring.
7-pin is wired in the worst possible way. The yellow wire on top of the intake is power straight from the battery to the brake controller. The blue wire rolled up on the floor was the trailer brake wire that had been run bare through the frame and had ground out.



Need to solder and heat shrink the head light harnesses.
There is a cell signal booster installed that I need to look at and figure out if it works or not.
Need to figure out the aftermarket alarm system that is not hooked up and most likely remove it.

The original owner had the rear locks keyed separately from the front locks and ignition, and the front power locks cycle separately from the rear. There is a switch in the back with a sticker saying that the locks have been modified. Will have to figure that out as well and bring it back to factory configuration. I think the rear locks are tied into the alarm system.

Ordering shocks, new rear springs for a suburban, and keys for the lift.

Need to make a decision on the tires. I'm considering 235/85/16 duratracs, same as my Tacoma. Tempted to just move my Taco's tires over and buy some new 255's for it instead, but then I will want to re-gear the truck too. I have two new matching duratracs from the trailer, so only need 3 more if I stick with that tire on the truck and van.

Is anybody running 31-32" tires with 3.42s?

While looking at the trailer wiring I got some funny ideas about the hitch and bumper.

 

[Accrete]

Greetings DRSM and best wishes on the build !

Hey thx for the kudos on the Truck Lite suggestion. Those headlights are a great addition and upgrade from stock. We now also have a set of Hella fog lights in the front Aluminess bumper (link also shows the larger tires we are running you asked about below) that have come in handy : )

On your question:

...Is anybody running 31-32" tires with 3.42s?..

Our rig has both the GU6 (3.42) and G80(LS) in the mix. We now run 265/70/r17 which by the calculator are sitting at 31.7". We do run the ~3" lift and see ~2mph faster-than-speedo according to GPS and pace vehicle. We are not noticing any negative impact at this point (less than 6K on new tire size).

: ) Thom

 

[drsmonkey]

Greetings DRSM and best wishes on the build !

Hey thx for the kudos on the Truck Lite suggestion. Those headlights are a great addition and upgrade from stock. We now also have a set of Hella fog lights in the front Aluminess bumper (link also shows the larger tires we are running you asked about below) that have come in handy : )

On your question:


Our rig has both the GU6 (3.42) and G80(LS) in the mix. We now run 265/70/r17 which by the calculator are sitting at 31.7". We do run the ~3" lift and see ~2mph faster-than-speedo according to GPS and pace vehicle. We are not noticing any negative impact at this point (less than 6K on new tire size).

: ) Thom

If the 265's are working for you in OR, the 235's might be OK for me.

Continued to tear out the interior to expose wiring. Got the rear lock cut out switch deleted and original wiring re-soldered, but still no signal to the solenoids. Pulled the seats, flooring, step trim, half the dash, most of the trim, and the dog box so I could get a good look at everything and do some clean up. The power to the trailer brake controller and brake line ran across the top of the engine unsecured :Wow1: Luckily the PO left the wiring diagram for the alarm system in the center console. Going to work on deleting that next while I start soaking suspension bolts in PB Blaster.

I have pulled half a hardware store out of the nooks and crannies of this van, along with two dozen utility knife blades, and hundreds of zip ties. Bonus.

 

[drsmonkey]

I am awful at taking photos while I work. I'll edit later with some pictures.

This weekend I got the wheels stripped, de-rusted, primed, and painted black. Ordered some new tires for my truck so that I can swap the 235/85r16 Duratracs on the truck to the van. Trying out a Cooper-Mile Marker-Eldorado-Sigma-etc. Trailstar RT in 255/85 for the truck. Finding a 255/85 with a decent tread pattern for ice and packed snow is hard. Almost went the home siping route, then found these trailstars for $139ea +$34 shipping. For that price I'll try them.

Pulled the airbags off the rear axle.

Got all of the parts for the lift. Unloaded the P side torsion key and started alternating PB Blaster, heat, and hammer. No dice. I clamped the crossmember together so as not to pound it out of shape, then stuck the jack between the trans crossmember and the torsion key crossbar to take to keep the bushing from taking half the energy up from each swing of the sledge. Still no dice. The torsion bar did come loose from the control arm More soaking in PB and planning more extreme measures.



Swapped in the P side shock and new leaf spring, thought I had read that the u-bolts were just long enough for the suburban spring. Must have mis-read that...



...so on the way are new U-bolts (10.5" long, will probably cut shorter) and a brand new air chisel to try pushing the torsion bar out of the key before I start cutting stuff.

I've been avoiding sorting out the rear locks and alarm issue, but it is going to have to happen soon.

 

[drsmonkey]

Been busy working on van and selling some stuff to fund the project. Just sold my RTT.

Updates and a bunch of questions coming soon.

 

[wjeeper]

Been busy working on van and selling some stuff to fund the project.

Thanks for the hook-up with the airbags! They work awesome!

 

[drsmonkey]

I have tried to update a few times, but for some reason the entire expo site is not working too well on my macbook at home. I have a slow connection, but for some reason just expo is not working at all, hence the lack of updates. Should get some time after hours at work today to get some photos uploaded.

 

[drsmonkey]

Thanks for the hook-up with the airbags! They work awesome!

Your welcome.

 

[Colby Jack]

Any updates?

 

[Ngneer]

I like the way this is starting, I will be a follower, in the same sorta way as you, that's southern right there..

 

[drsmonkey]

My lifestyle changed over the last few years (job, kid, bought a home, now own 4 vehicles with close to a million miles on them collectively, a tractor, and 3 sleds). I got to busy and annoyed at photo hosting solutions so I stopped posting updates here.

I have continued to work on the van and take it on trips, and it has come a long way. I've recently been back on expo in the AWD info thread, so thought maybe I should get back to this thread and update, as I have done a lot to the van over the last 3 years, and have some more plans in the future.

First I need to find the old pics and figure out a new solution, then fix the broken links.