are you coming back through or is this it?
CK5
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Moving a suburban across the country. (Just drove it)
- Thread starter 83ChevyK5Blazer
- Start date
That is it.
Coming down into Trinidad Co.
You are making good time.
Dang man, you’ve still got a ways to go. All the way tonight or stop somewhere and go in tomorrow am?
3 hours or so left, we are getting a hotel tonight, moving in tommorow
A blurry picture of Casper last night.
We made it! Breakfast and moving in.
We made it! Breakfast and moving in.
You either did not get the hotel or did not spend long there. Congrats on making it without any issues.
You give me new hope that my 2017, 94K ram will do 4600 miles towing the Jimmy. I always sweat long drives.
You give me new hope that my 2017, 94K ram will do 4600 miles towing the Jimmy. I always sweat long drives.
Welcome to Wyoming.
So synopsis of our drive,
1606 miles of wiggles and wobbles.
The 454 in the suburban sat over 10 years in a motorhome, parked in the yard of a member.
It got thrashed together and driven 150 miles before we left, each night i had a list of things to fix and adjust.
It now rides on a set of used 38 14.5 mtr's
Leaving our last home town i broke a serpentine belt. 15 minutes in, swapped it out getting gas after waking to autozone.
West of Monroe La, day 1, the bolt in my exhaust hanger rattled out, muffler fell and broke the weld at the y, directly under my floor board. It was removed from under the truck.
All of day 1 I fought engine temps, and am ashamed to say I ran that joker hot all day.
Day 2 i started the morning by removing the air conditioning condensor and 8 inch lights from the bumper.
Then we went thru Texas, that was a truly miserable day, it started with expansion joints in La. My truck has a light rear suspension with way to light of a shock for the top heavy suburban. So it has a good amount of body roll unloaded, and when loaded to the roof, it gets worse. We discovered that when the truck hits an expansion joint and isn't square to it that it starts to wiggle side to side, and then it makes the trailer start to sway quite violently. Let's just say people gave us a wide berth. As a side note, I will continue to say Dallas is the city I most dislike driving thru. I now have more gray hairs thanks to the construction zones and constant wiggles.
My left side now has a darker tan than the right thanks to Texas.
Day 3, we left Dalhart Tx. About 4000ft in elavation, with less humidity and a rich tune, we had good temps in regards to my coolant, but the floor boots board continued to burn my heel. We got a ways into New Mexico when the return line from my power steering rotated into the pulley and decided to no longer hold fluid. I cut the line and bypassed the cooler and on we went.
In Raton NM we topped up the power steering pump, added a qt of oil, leaned the carb as much as i could and went over the Ratom pass into Colorado, it chugged along over 7k feet and back to 5k.
Day 3 we started with the wobbles, with my steering fluid now hot it started to be susceptible to the death wobble. First it was raton pass, at the summit they were doing construction, and the front passenger tire dropped into a drain and that started the wobble.
The wiggles and wobbles continued thru Colorado, especially in Denver with the construction and slow downs. Around Denver the seal on my output shaft decided it didn't like hot fluid and started to leak. I topped it up periodically.
Finally arround 11pm we rolled into our hotel in casper.
I'm very happy and thankful we made it, my wife was very patient and drive behind me the entire way so someone else wouldnt follow to close lol.
1606 miles of wiggles and wobbles.
The 454 in the suburban sat over 10 years in a motorhome, parked in the yard of a member.
It got thrashed together and driven 150 miles before we left, each night i had a list of things to fix and adjust.
It now rides on a set of used 38 14.5 mtr's
Leaving our last home town i broke a serpentine belt. 15 minutes in, swapped it out getting gas after waking to autozone.
West of Monroe La, day 1, the bolt in my exhaust hanger rattled out, muffler fell and broke the weld at the y, directly under my floor board. It was removed from under the truck.
All of day 1 I fought engine temps, and am ashamed to say I ran that joker hot all day.
Day 2 i started the morning by removing the air conditioning condensor and 8 inch lights from the bumper.
Then we went thru Texas, that was a truly miserable day, it started with expansion joints in La. My truck has a light rear suspension with way to light of a shock for the top heavy suburban. So it has a good amount of body roll unloaded, and when loaded to the roof, it gets worse. We discovered that when the truck hits an expansion joint and isn't square to it that it starts to wiggle side to side, and then it makes the trailer start to sway quite violently. Let's just say people gave us a wide berth. As a side note, I will continue to say Dallas is the city I most dislike driving thru. I now have more gray hairs thanks to the construction zones and constant wiggles.
My left side now has a darker tan than the right thanks to Texas.
Day 3, we left Dalhart Tx. About 4000ft in elavation, with less humidity and a rich tune, we had good temps in regards to my coolant, but the floor boots board continued to burn my heel. We got a ways into New Mexico when the return line from my power steering rotated into the pulley and decided to no longer hold fluid. I cut the line and bypassed the cooler and on we went.
In Raton NM we topped up the power steering pump, added a qt of oil, leaned the carb as much as i could and went over the Ratom pass into Colorado, it chugged along over 7k feet and back to 5k.
Day 3 we started with the wobbles, with my steering fluid now hot it started to be susceptible to the death wobble. First it was raton pass, at the summit they were doing construction, and the front passenger tire dropped into a drain and that started the wobble.
The wiggles and wobbles continued thru Colorado, especially in Denver with the construction and slow downs. Around Denver the seal on my output shaft decided it didn't like hot fluid and started to leak. I topped it up periodically.
Finally arround 11pm we rolled into our hotel in casper.
I'm very happy and thankful we made it, my wife was very patient and drive behind me the entire way so someone else wouldnt follow to close lol.
Wow, what a list! Props to ya for keeping the convoy moving. I hope y’all got moved in today. Now that it’s all done, the trip is over and you’ve unloaded everything…. enjoy your “first” day at work tomorrow. 
Yep, right back at it tomorrow, I'll live tho, I didn't even break a sweat unloading today. It was nice.
And I'm going to have a cup of hot coffee in the morning. I haven't enjoyed that in the summer in years lol
And I'm going to have a cup of hot coffee in the morning. I haven't enjoyed that in the summer in years lol
I stand corrected. I figured that with the time you made and posting problems you sailed right along.
No AC had to have been rough. Death wobble sucks.
No AC had to have been rough. Death wobble sucks.
That sounds awful lot like my kind of trips, just patch an keep going.
I have been through the kind of sway you had and got the trailer behind me to go all over, not a happy feeling
Glad you made it in one piece. What an adventure of sorts. Sound like you were white knuckling it for a good chunk of the run.
It's a hell of a way to shake down the truck though. Should have a pretty good punch list to go through once you guys get settled in.
It's a hell of a way to shake down the truck though. Should have a pretty good punch list to go through once you guys get settled in.
That trip reads like an episode of roadkill. Glad you made it in one piece.
I mean, for no real mechanical issues i consider it a win. We didn't have to stop much except to fuel and eat.
Glad you made it safe.
it wouldnt be an exciting road trip if you didnt have to overcome challenges. Props for fixing on the fly and getting there safely!
it wouldnt be an exciting road trip if you didnt have to overcome challenges. Props for fixing on the fly and getting there safely!
@Wes Harden
So rear bumper. It was made with junk in the yard mostly.
Main piece is 2x4 c channel, i then added 1.5 by 2 rectangular tube to the bottom tapered at the ends, a 2 inch reciever welded to all of it. The mounts are 1/4 inch and bolted down, i tied the corners back to the mounts with tube.
The hinge is a double shear surface mount, and the arm is 1.5x1.5 tube stacked . 1.5 x1.5 for the tire mount. Tube piece going from the tire mount to the end of the arm houses a get off my ass light, and will eventually have a fold down table on the inside and 2 can mounts on the outside.
Latch is from ruffstuff if i remember right.
The arm lands on a angle iron ledge.
Tire is a 37 12.5 17 on a steel wheel for reference.
It still needs to be finished along with everything else lol.
So rear bumper. It was made with junk in the yard mostly.
Main piece is 2x4 c channel, i then added 1.5 by 2 rectangular tube to the bottom tapered at the ends, a 2 inch reciever welded to all of it. The mounts are 1/4 inch and bolted down, i tied the corners back to the mounts with tube.
The hinge is a double shear surface mount, and the arm is 1.5x1.5 tube stacked . 1.5 x1.5 for the tire mount. Tube piece going from the tire mount to the end of the arm houses a get off my ass light, and will eventually have a fold down table on the inside and 2 can mounts on the outside.
Latch is from ruffstuff if i remember right.
The arm lands on a angle iron ledge.
Tire is a 37 12.5 17 on a steel wheel for reference.
It still needs to be finished along with everything else lol.
