I stand corrected it's a suburban platform, at first I thought the rear door was notched like the Tahoe but I just saw better angle it's a suburban.
Cool, who's is that?
CK5
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'89 R3500 Crew Cab 2wd to 4wd conversion & beyond
- Thread starter mrk5
- Start date
Started out with 2wd TBI350 with SM465 to current 4wd with 454, 700r4, NP241
Cool, who's is that?
It technically belongs to Nate @Raggedy_Ann, but we take turns driving it. It is a 93 Suburban that the previous owner cut the back off of. Nate added a back wall to the cab area to help reinforce it because the top would sway back and forth. He Lincoln-locked the rear axle and aside from that it's all factory 3/4 ton running gear. We take it out from time to time and basically just slam it down the trails. It has taken an unbelievable amount of abuse and drives home every time. We took it to Blazer Bash a couple years ago and did Hell's Revenge with it including Hell's Gate.
Yeah I like my 3/4 ton suburban but with full body.
7.4 and gov loc rear makes it go anywhere I have pointed to. It's my camping rig
That thing impressed the hell out of me at BB in ‘22
It started life as a Suburban then it was turned into the Savalanche. GMC didn’t make an Avalanche model and we decided it was savage so the Savalanche was born.
The back story is that it started life as an ambulance for one of the mountain ski resorts. It was then bought by a neighboring fire chief. Later it was hit while parked on the street and the side window busted out. A local YouTuber then purchased it and he was the one that cut the top off. He used it for his YouTube channel for awhile then @Raggedy_Ann bought it. We put a decent amount of work into it to make it what it is today. We have had a blast the last few years in that mess of an automobile.
Put together some video highlights from a recent wheeling trip.
I need to redo my sliders. They keep getting bent up and I was thinking, why did I do such a questionable job of welding them in? Then I remember, oh yeah the gas tanks used to be in the way! I don't have that issue anymore so I can weld them in better.
I've been thinking about tying the sliders to the frame. If I weld tiebacks from the sliders to the frame, I would effectively be welding the cab to the frame. I'm wondering how this would work out. It seems like it should be fine. Maybe it would help the cab out some as you can feel it twist with a lot of suspension articulation. Or would it make it worse.
The other thought I have is to put bushings in the tiebacks to the frame. I'm worried this might overly complicate things.
I'm going to use 2" x 6" x 3/16" for the sliders.
I've been thinking about tying the sliders to the frame. If I weld tiebacks from the sliders to the frame, I would effectively be welding the cab to the frame. I'm wondering how this would work out. It seems like it should be fine. Maybe it would help the cab out some as you can feel it twist with a lot of suspension articulation. Or would it make it worse.
The other thought I have is to put bushings in the tiebacks to the frame. I'm worried this might overly complicate things.
I'm going to use 2" x 6" x 3/16" for the sliders.
I think you are at the point where having the cab tied to the frame with the sliders would be just fine. And stronger.
How do you have them attached now? I have wondered how to get around the gas tanks.
I cut off the rockers at the radius were it starts the curve down under the doors and then cut at the bottom of the back side of the rockers so it left the back piece in place. Not sure if that makes sense. Then I welded the full length of the sliders on the outside just under the doors. And I welded the back side of the tube to the sheet metal left from the back side of the rockers. Those welds aren't great and I couldn't weld much where the tank was. A lot of those welds have just torn off the sheet metal. I don't have good pictures because I was never proud of the work. I used 3"x3" tube for the sliders I have now.
On a regular cab you're not going to get much welded on the back side. On the crew cab at least the area under the front doors is clear since the gas tank is only intruding on the rear door area.
Part of my issue is the round tube I have added on that sticks out further to make the steps. That area hits more and the tube adds leverage to push the sliders up. The full weld down the length of the cab under the doors acts like a fulcrum point tearing the back welds and bending the sliders up. When we were in Sand Hollow I had to grind some of the steps down to clear the door. Later when it was on the trailer I used a strap down to the trailer to bend them back down.
Switching to 2" rectangle tube will give me an extra inch of clearance versus the 3"x3" square tube in there now. My only concern is having to stretch my foot up higher to get in, but I have an ideal for adding a step.
Here's a picture that shows what I cut out.
That makes sense, I thought about doing flat tube to create a belly under the tank and up to the rockers. Doing that I think would take a lot of clearance and would hit everything.
Hard to get anything welded to sheetmetal to be strong.
I often thought about just using a piece of 3/16" plate a little wider than the tank that ran the length of it and weld that to the brackets that hold the tank. Even if a rock bent the plate up, it wouldn't do much damage to the tank.
I welded my sliders into the rocker panel area just like yours, but I do have extentions down to the frame as well. I was worried about tension between that and the body mounts, but so far I haven't noticed it being a problem.
To be fair, my body mounts are basically useless as far as providing flex anyway. My cage is tied to the frame as well.
To be fair, my body mounts are basically useless as far as providing flex anyway. My cage is tied to the frame as well.
My only concern would be tearing the rocker sheet metal with the only frame tie in's being at the slider, is there anything else stiffening up the frame from twisting
I vote bushing mounts.
Lots of bushing mounts are going to create too much force anyways. You're at the point now where you need to just cut the rockers off, and weld in real sliders, and direct weld them to the frame. Then you need to add good crossmembers, and a cage directly welded to he body and solidmount body pucks.
This way when you link it you've already got a good platform. Crewcabs are the new hotness.
This way when you link it you've already got a good platform. Crewcabs are the new hotness.
Having frame - body - sliders effectively all one unit makes everything more rigid and gets rid of all the body twists. I remember hearing all the body panels groan and thunk under articulation, none of that anymore.
