2006 Suburban Build

[XJLI]

This thread is great, but, don't drive yourself crazy. 3" of lift with an aftermarket UCA, 4.10s, and 34-35s gives you a lot of capability. Remember, a Burb is looooooooong so if you wanna get silly you need to lift it big, swap tons, and run 40s. The more you mod, the more you become 'unreliable' and less comfortable. It's pretty easy to go off the deep end and get yourself a bulletproof platform, but if thats your goal you should start with an Excursion and take the small MPG hit. Keeping a 1500 relatively stock keeps you in that "well it almost get 20 mpg highway if I baby it" frame of thinking, and its so nice to have that kind of range.

The coilovers are AWESOME but IMO I'd skip them unless you plan on doing desert stuff. Why complicate it? Save the money for fuel for a trip. The best part about these platform is how cheap and easy they can become very comfortable and reliable explorers; but they get expensive when you get silly. If you love it, great, go for it; but make sure you LOVE THE TRUCK and not the idea of whats in your head. When I bought my second XJ I was fresh off a 5 week cross country off road road trip, and built it to do everything my old Jeep couldn't, and ended up getting bored with it real quick after only a few months after I dumped about $20k in it. After that I bought my Land Rover Discovery saying I wouldn't spend money on it, but I ended up loving every second I spent in it and under it, and still regret selling it. I find myself going down the rabbit hole with modifying a GMT8 or 900 Tahoe as my next truck, but by the time I finish the mods in my head I've spent so much money I should have just started with a Cruiser or LR3, and saved the mod money for fuel and/repairs.

 

[zoomad75]

Phantom Canyon and 11 mile must mean you are in southern CO.

Pretty easy stuff that a stock sub could cruise without any issues. I've had a customer run phantom Canyon to Cripple Creek in a newer Corvette and while I didn't recommend it, his car survived.

Most of the trails on this end of the state are pretty basic that a stock sub of your type could do with a little more tire and smart driving would survive. It might drag on rougher sections of some trails but that's where the smart driving comes in. I could see it going up many pass trails like tincup, Reno Creek/Italian divide rd, mosquito pass to name a couple.

I've hit a lot of them around here and drive a K5 with a camper on the back so it may not be as long as a burb, but it's taller and just as wide and know where it can go and where I shouldn't.

Stay off Indy/patriot/Liberty trails outside of Penrose. That system isn't far from phantom Canyon but they are pure rocks. Your sub won't look the same if you enter.

 

[Burb One]

Agreed- 33's, keys and a 14 bolt (a 10 bolt g80 WILL fail eventually )is a great cost effective way to get you 99% of the places you want. With keys and crank just make sure you keep the CV angles reasonable and carry an extra CV or stub axle. Other than that just explore!!!!

If modding is also part of this, or if you want to go basically anywhere 18x7 feet of truck will fit than the GMT800 is a great option and mods are cost effective and make the truck highly reliable if you look around at what has been working for people and what hasn't. Read the early parts of my posts on CrazyDrei's thread and then where he is now- all the weak points of this platform have been worked out and everyone who keeps them eventually finds themselves in the same boat with similar mods. Some mods work, some don't. Look around at what does and what doesn't- sometimes it's pay once and cry once.

Front UCA's don't do much for these trucks IMO until a coilover kit. The front torsion bar setup just never flexes enough to make any difference and on the stock/keyed setup you shouldn't be cranked enough to have the angle on the aftermarket UCA's to make a difference. The ideal setup is a diff drop lift kit and coilovers or cranked around 5.5 inches of lift. The CV axles on most kits will be parallel with the ground at that height and you can fit 35's. Then the aftermarket UCA's help with flex and IMO more importantly (even though I've never had one fail) a bolt in rather than press in upper ball joint- which means trail serviceable.

Also Lockers- forget about the front locker (at least for now). You can add it later if you ever feel the need. I was thinking the same thing and it just has not ever become a need. Our three Burb's all don't have front lockers, and it is rare where a front locker would have stopped us from needing to use the winch anyway. You will need a front 2500 0 9.25 for a front locker too. They do not make them for the 1500 8.5's and if they did they the CV's or case would blow up by looking at them wrong.

I disagree about the excursion. You can make these GMT-800's more reliable and MUCH more capable for much less than a decent Excursion. Trust me. Been there done that. If $ was no option, of course the Excursion is a great choice, but if it's a 6.0 you are a 3-5k just into the engine to get it reliable. The 7.3 is great, but still has it's own issues and good examples of both are now so expensive. Every 5.3, 6.0 and 8.1 GMT engine has the capabilities to go 300k+ miles stock. The 4l60E in the 5.3's is a weak point but a good rebuild in CA is 1-1.5k.

The "Drivetrain" mods on Burb 1, 2 and 3 (except for interior stuff) cost about 15k including the truck all said and done. Of course, I've spent a decent amount on other crap (mostly my own fab/welding) like winches, awnings, rock sliders, bumpers, etc., but anything will need those or are just preference.

Truck (high end of the range) 6k- you should be able to get a good one with 150k miles for 4-4.5k, at least in CA with no rust.
Lift kit- 1.5k
Coilovers- and kit 1.2k(qa1)-2.5k(fox, etc.)
2500 diffs (1-1.5k)
Sphon rear end and home made links (1k)
This gives a few k for odds and ends-UCA's, diff cover and the maintenance items (idler/pitman etc.) you should probably do when you're in there.

You can't touch an Excursion that will do all this for those prices. Land Rovers are a huge money pit, and Burb Two was a convert from one of those rolling mechanical disastrous. How many times we had to pull him out barely fits on two hands and he is an OCD maintenance freak.

With all that said, 2-3k including getting the truck up to snuff in maintenance will get you 99% of the places anyone has any business going. After that- the mod list is a slippery slope, but for around 10k you can make most GMT800's 1500's into more capable rigs than a leaf sprung 2500 ever can be, that has an IFS front that is suited to most trails, and is just as reliable.

 

[Burb One]

Also on sway bars-

I drove it on the street without any swaybars- It didn't feel too bad, but I for sure would not want to drive 2k miles on road like we sometimes do.

I fabbed up some quick disconnect's myself. Basically just thick wall tubing, welded RH and LH nuts , quality heim RH and LH joints and some pins. I have disconnected the front a grand total of twice off road. I disconnect the rear regularly and it helps with articulation a lot. Cost me about $150 all said and done.

If you can't weld you can also buy the welded tubing and nuts. I think Pac racing Springs has them on their website (Burb2 bought them pre-made)- I can't find them right now but it's something like this- Most local off road fab stores have them too.

5/8" Steel Sway Bar Tubes

Swaged D.O.M. steel tubes are black anodized. 3/4" o.d. tubes are .065" thick.

www.bigshocks.com

 

[Burb One]

Here are some crappy pictures of the sway bar disconnects, you get the idea.
(Ignore the non-threaded nut on the rear was test fitting and needed a longer bolt and another washer)

 

[Burb One]

For the BCD and Rough Country-

I don't think the BCD is worth x2 the price in a million years. Of course the BCD kits I've seen have a slightly nicer finish, etc. I do like that the BCD boxes the front box more(easy fix to the RC kit) and is probably stronger all around, but Idk the RC is pretty nice itself. I don't see anything worth another $1+?k

We've been very happy with the Rough Country kits. No failures at all from the RC and we have a lot of miles on the three suburbans.

 

[CrazyDrei]

Did you ever run it without a sway bar in the rear?

teddyrevenge,

Lol, unfortunately yes I have. I run a quick disconnect for the rear sway bar. The 3" coil spacers snap the rear sway bar links when the suspension articulates at it's full range of motion +3" that I get with the coil spacers. Usually takes me 1-2,000 miles to figure out that there is no rear sway bar. The truck does a funky death wobble at around 55-58mph and it's much worse when I pull my pop up trailer.

This is with Atomic Fab coilovers up front, 3" body spacers, 3" rear coil spacers and 37" tires at 50psi, both sway bars connected. Stump is approximately 24-26" tall, all 4 tires are touching the ground.

 

[CrazyDrei]

Here are some crappy pictures of the sway bar disconnects, you get the idea.
(Ignore the non-threaded nut on the rear was test fitting and needed a longer bolt and another washer)

Burb One,

I must have missed it in your write up, but why the rear coilovers instead of rear shocks?

 

[Burb One]

They aren't. They are cheap Monroe load adjusting shocks from Pep Boys. I was playing around with them to see if it made a difference when towing my tongue heavy trailer. They are trash and blew the seals on the first trip and I returned them.

What isn't trash is firestone- in coil airbags. They work great and allow me to tow my trailer with a ~1200 tongue weight and/or carry a crap ton of stuff, and then take air out when I have a lighter trip or off road

 

[60beforetruck]

Good to see another suburban.

 

[fnjeep314]

Im glad to see another Suburban too. Awesome!

Can I ask you to post some pics in this thread about Suburbans?

Expedition Portal

Largest and Oldest Overland Forum

www.expeditionportal.com

Thanks and look forward to your build!

 

[CrazyDrei]

They aren't. They are cheap Monroe load adjusting shocks from Pep Boys. I was playing around with them to see if it made a difference when towing my tongue heavy trailer. They are trash and blew the seals on the first trip and I returned them.

What isn't trash is firestone- in coil airbags. They work great and allow me to tow my trailer with a ~1200 tongue weight and/or carry a crap ton of stuff, and then take air out when I have a lighter trip or off road

BurbOne,

I figured that much about the cheappo coilovers, and yes Firestone air bags are freakin awesome, I run air bags on my 2500 Sub to tow.

 

[teddyrevenge]

Man has it been a weird year and a half. I almost forgot I had an account on here. All I wanted to do was build a suburban out for offroading, and then COVID hit, and during that time Ol' Betsy had a lifter go bad. It took 6 months just to get some heads shaved and finished. But since a lifter went bad, I did the only thing one would do in that situation. I rebuilt the entire top end of the engine and installed the Summit Racing 8719R1 cam. Its a Stage 1 Pro LS Truck Cam, High-Lift version, and if you're on the fence about doing it, I say absolutely go for it. I don't even have the truck tuned yet, but its already an extremely noticeable increase in power. So much so that I'm going to put 3.73 gears in it instead of 4.10. Currently with 3.23's and 34 inch tires, I'm getting 14.3 mpg mostly city driving and have no problems at all turning those tires. With it being the high lift version, it doesn't have as much low end power that the 8712 or 8718 does, but around 2300rpms, you can absolutely feel it start to come to life and it stays alive all the way up through the RPM range. It also gives it a noticeable lope, but even without a tune, it has no affect on daily driving.

Starting to work on a custom roof rack that should be done in the next couple of weeks. Also have a bunch of steel left over from a furniture build, so toying with making a front and back bumper. But Im also getting sent to southeast TN at the beginning of the year, so the lift is on hold until I get down there and figure out what I want to do. Keys and some Bilstein 5100s are going in there for the time being. Probably going to end up doing that around the same time I replace the CV axles, which have decided to go out as well.

Besides from that, I replaced the AC compressor, orifice, etc and fully cleaned out the lines. But now Im having a problem that is perplexing me. The front will only blow cold when Im driving, but the back blows ice cold all the time. Its not a stuck actuator and the hi/lo gauge are spot on. So far the only thing I've been able to come across on the internet is the actuator. Any hints or suggestions on that would be great.

 

[03tahoe]

I'm also having some AC problems. AC was slugging and making a chatter/clicking noise sometimes about 20 seconds after getting going. I just replaced the tensioner (it was looking damaged) and the belt. For good measure I also replaced the main serpentine belt tensioner, idler pully, and belt. Use all OEM parts and the HD AC belt. I hope this fixes things atleast for the rest of the summer. It's been a hot one and I don't want the AC to go out.

Your comments on the cam upgrades make me want to consider this, as I found towing a XV-2 trailer over 9,000-ft passes has me looking for more torque.

 

[teddyrevenge]

I'm also having some AC problems. AC was slugging and making a chatter/clicking noise sometimes about 20 seconds after getting going. I just replaced the tensioner (it was looking damaged) and the belt. For good measure I also replaced the main serpentine belt tensioner, idler pully, and belt. Use all OEM parts and the HD AC belt. I hope this fixes things atleast for the rest of the summer. It's been a hot one and I don't want the AC to go out.

Your comments on the cam upgrades make me want to consider this, as I found towing a XV-2 trailer over 9,000-ft passes has me looking for more torque.

When I took off my ac compressor, there was alot of rattling around inside, so I figured replace it then while I had that much room to work with. Of course it worked just fine before I replaced it and now Im having those problems.

If your wanting more towing power, Ive heard the 8712 is a solid upgrade for torque in the low range. I rarely ever tow, which is why I went with the 8719. More power overall throughout the rpm range, but it doesnt really start kicking in until 2500rpm.

Summit Racing SUM-8712R1 Summit Racing™ Pro LS Vortec Truck Swap Camshafts | Summit Racing

Free Shipping - Summit Racing™ Pro LS Vortec Truck Swap Camshafts with qualifying orders of $99. Shop Camshafts at Summit Racing.

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Another plus with the 8712 is you dont have to do anything else to the engine. In order for the 8719 to function properly, I had to put in LS6 springs.