4 tons of fun is never good in soft sand. Well, until you stop at least.
Still there is a great story behind the awesome photo.
Looked like an awesome trip. Thanks for sharing with us.
CK5
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One Piece at a Time: My 1985 Diesel Suburban
- Thread starter AgDieseler
- Start date
Still there is a great story behind the awesome photo.
Looked like an awesome trip. Thanks for sharing with us.
Awesome Job David, I am currently doing very similar rear suspension setup, I had a few questions.
Did you grind out the pocket on the factory rear spring hanger at all to allow for more travel before welding in your little metal strap to limit down travel?
Do you wish you would have stuck the shocks on the outside of the frame? I guess with Coilovers it would be tougher because of the Diameter, I'll just be running B5125 rear 14", didnt know if you might think i can get away with these on the outside of frame and just outside spring perches on axle side or if articulation would probably hit the shock. What backspace are you running, im assuming those are 17"x9 wheels
Is this swaybar the 37"x17" ORD sells for the front with coilover conversion? Do you plan on putting a swaybar in the front aswell or is one good? I'm currently running the QD one in the front with leafs, but am considering building this one in the rear, what size tube is used for the housing of the bar? I was thinking of basically copying your design without having to buy the rear bar yet, (using the 17" arm dimensions and just putting a dummy bar for fitment) so i can have it setup for later, (slide it in and install links) and also incorperate all the strength of it, like how you tied it into the crossbar for the shock bar if that makes sense.
you say the factory profile gives up about 3" of travel? So by this you mean it would still travel 16.5" roughly without milling out the corner of the rear hanger, because you got 19.5" by doing so, with the Extreme Shackle, correct?
Are you happy with the adjustable remote resevoir shocks? or if you did this again do you wish you would have went with a 3" Bypass shock? just curious
Thank you for putting all of this information together, I am going to try and document and share my build aswell, even though i have some already done, i may just take pictures and backlog what i can so it may help others get more information.
Thanks,
Patrick
Hey, Patrick. Thanks for the detailed list of questions. Take these answers and what you've seen in my build in the context of the rest of the top flight builds on here. Lots of good resources from which to draw (as I did).
Hope any of this helps with your project!
David
I milled out a pocket from the factory reinforcement ribbing and plated it closed. Photos should be somewhere in this thread.
Outboard shocks placed close to the end of the axle is the optimal position. There's just not a lot of space between the spring and the frame for a 2.5" or bypass. If I were doing it again, I'd narrow the spring perch width, use K30 brackets or just make my own, and make a bit more room to run an outboard shock. In my kind of application, inboard shocks give up a noticeable amount of control in one-wheel bump with the same valving, so some specific adjustment is required. It's less of a problem when both wheels are in bump. If you can place them outboard, do so. If it doesn't package quite right, some good valve adjustments and a bypass will work inboard quite nicely. Rear links have none of these packaging problems.
I think it's 4.75". Pretty normal for a 17x9.
Yessir. A front bar is possible, and I might work one in when I yank the engine for some upgrades. I have an idea to run the sleeve on the top of the frame, right over the steering box and in the slim space between the crank pulley and lower fan shroud. We'll see. It handles darned fine right now, but flexible swaybars on both ends with very good valving is always what I've had in mind.
ORD sends you a 1.75x.120 tube.
Sort of. Without milling the hanger rib (or just smash the easy button and order ORD's hanger), the shackle can't fall fully flat, leaving at least a few inches of extension. For my 65" springs, I gained 3" of droop with the bolts pretty much level and with the limit strap welded in. It would droop a good bit further, but that would likely get into over-extension where the spring would extend rearward, lock in place, and thus refuse to compress. I set the hardware at about 1/2" past level.
I am. Bypasses would be a fantastic upgrade, and there's plenty of room for them. Stephen and I spec'd all this stuff just as the pandemic was kicking off, these were on the shelf, and King had no consistent line of sight to incoming materials for the parts and pieces needed to make a set of IBPs or even more conventional bypasses. That's better now, but I don't have a good feel for current lead times, and if you can spend for bypasses, by all means go for it.
Hope any of this helps with your project!
David
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Thank you for the reply,
Pretty sure you just pushed me over the edge to try and outboard them.
Just hoping i can get 15” travel out of my extreme shackles with 52” ord springs and be able to mount some 14” shocks outboard.
I might have to end up pushing the ez button.
In the future ide really like to run bypasses. But ide really like to get it looking a little cleaner, and engine swap, and probably evaluate how badly i really need the bypasses after that or just go all out do a link and coil setup with bypasses.
But im really on the same line as you and dont want to poke through my bed in the rear.
Thanks again for your help, this is a great community and I hope to start contributing more to it.
Pretty sure you just pushed me over the edge to try and outboard them.
Just hoping i can get 15” travel out of my extreme shackles with 52” ord springs and be able to mount some 14” shocks outboard.
I might have to end up pushing the ez button.
In the future ide really like to run bypasses. But ide really like to get it looking a little cleaner, and engine swap, and probably evaluate how badly i really need the bypasses after that or just go all out do a link and coil setup with bypasses.
But im really on the same line as you and dont want to poke through my bed in the rear.
Thanks again for your help, this is a great community and I hope to start contributing more to it.
A 52” spring delivers about 12” of travel, on average.
I do not, but it’s still smart to have some wrap control. I have a 2 link in mind.
David
I'm running 5" lift 64" Tuff Country springs with a stock shackle setup and extended ORD shackles. I outboarded my rear shocks up through the floor and I can max out a 12" travel shock no problem.
I’ve never had an oil pump fail, until today.
It started out as a great morning and afternoon in the shop with @Greg72, doing a bit of skill share. I brought my welding gear and we talked TIG, and he schooled me on the English wheel, and had even scored me a leftover unit via a series of mis-shipments and other events. I took delivery and headed home.
Good day.
30 minutes north from the MAW shop, I notice oil pressure is a bit low (35ish) but it recovers. A minute later, the engine sounds different. I look down at the oil pressure gauge, and it’s way low (22-25). I reach for the key, but it’s too late.
BAM!!!
Dead stick.
Drop to neutral. Roll for a few hundred feet. Brakes have reserve pressure. Truck stops and is safe and off the highway. Volts are good.
Roll the key. Nothing.
Shes locked. Dead.
Crap, and other words.
My buddy owns a roll back. I make the call.
So here I am. One half mile south of exit 301 on 35E, updating my off-road club friends, and frustrated, but not too terribly so. I can build another engine, sure, but can someone help me with exactly how to spell “Duramax?”
I’ve got the time.
David
It started out as a great morning and afternoon in the shop with @Greg72, doing a bit of skill share. I brought my welding gear and we talked TIG, and he schooled me on the English wheel, and had even scored me a leftover unit via a series of mis-shipments and other events. I took delivery and headed home.
Good day.
30 minutes north from the MAW shop, I notice oil pressure is a bit low (35ish) but it recovers. A minute later, the engine sounds different. I look down at the oil pressure gauge, and it’s way low (22-25). I reach for the key, but it’s too late.
BAM!!!
Dead stick.
Drop to neutral. Roll for a few hundred feet. Brakes have reserve pressure. Truck stops and is safe and off the highway. Volts are good.
Roll the key. Nothing.
Shes locked. Dead.
Crap, and other words.
My buddy owns a roll back. I make the call.
So here I am. One half mile south of exit 301 on 35E, updating my off-road club friends, and frustrated, but not too terribly so. I can build another engine, sure, but can someone help me with exactly how to spell “Duramax?”
I’ve got the time.
David
Damn Dave, that sucks. I know you’ve Done a lot of work on that engine. How old is it?
Man that sucks to hear, with your attention to detail and style of building I'm sure the next engine will be killer. Wish we were closer to help.
It’s about 20 years and 125,000 on this engine. It was all new when we built it, and the original 6.2 went 300,000 bone stock.
It’s a gut punch. I have more than a handful of parts on hand and incoming for the truck’s winter refresh.
David
This is a hard one to swallow, but knock-downs are just opportunities for bounce-backs. You’ll come back from this in a jaw-dropping way. I just know it.
I obviously think a duramax is the way to go now but if you still want to stay with the 6.2 platform, I have a 599 block you can start fresh with, also have the crank with it.
You might even want to punch to 6.5?
Been there, done that, have the receipts for it. Definitely sucks for sure. Obviously staying with a 6.2 is the easiest and would be a bolt in affair. But being down does give one the opportunity to upgrade . Would a Duramax be awesome in your burb, 100% it would be. Would you have to redesign 99% of the engine compartment, probably.
Definitely a tough call of which way to go. Back on the road sooner or serious power upgrade but a ton of extra time and labor to make work.
Definitely a tough call of which way to go. Back on the road sooner or serious power upgrade but a ton of extra time and labor to make work.
I have a government rebuilt 6.2 still in the aluminum shipping container. I actually think it was built with all new parts. I opened the crate when I got it and it all looks brand new. It has a tag that has the machining specs and they are all standard.
However, I have put several duramax engines in square bodies and it is way easier than you would think. If I was in the same situation as you are in and had my 6.2 sitting in the floor next to it, I would still but the duramax in it.
However, I have put several duramax engines in square bodies and it is way easier than you would think. If I was in the same situation as you are in and had my 6.2 sitting in the floor next to it, I would still but the duramax in it.
Wow. Sorry to hear the oil burner went belly up. Pros and cons to either way to go. In the end it really comes down to what you want to do.
I’m betting though there’s a part of you that wants to take on the packaging challenge to stuffing a dirtymax under the hood. There’s another part that wants to get the truck back on the road fairly quickly.
Decisions.
I’m betting though there’s a part of you that wants to take on the packaging challenge to stuffing a dirtymax under the hood. There’s another part that wants to get the truck back on the road fairly quickly.
Decisions.
