I'm on 2" front Tuff Country springs with ORD crossover and 37s. When I was buying parts from ORD they just told me crossover at 2" requires the high clearance engine cross member. So that's what I did. Been working great for 6 years now.
CK5
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One Piece at a Time: My 1985 Diesel Suburban
- Thread starter AgDieseler
- Start date
I’m still stock crossmember.
Yeah, it is a fun reminder of what it looked like when I was 5, and as it turns out, probably a useful reference for paint selection.
I think GM called it midnight blue, so the darker one.
Just high lining and paint.
Unlikely. I’ve retired it from heavy trails, and want to keep it in its original-ish shape (-ish is doing a lot of heavy lifting in this sentence), so no need for a cage. The waggy gets the nod for cage-worthy escapades.
David
And back to the truck in this build thread.
@AgDieseler I believe that I saw in your IG post that you limited the rear suspension travel. I wanted to ask if you just used limit straps on the shocks, or how did you do that?
@AgDieseler I believe that I saw in your IG post that you limited the rear suspension travel. I wanted to ask if you just used limit straps on the shocks, or how did you do that?
I set a limiter for how far the shackle is allowed to fall. It's just a piece of strap across the shackle mount, and seems to have worked just fine with several full extensions, though I confess I will add limit straps that run from the frame to the top of the axle tube.
David
You were five in 1985 ? ?
That’s crazy, I was 4 or 5 when we got my truck
Your teeth won’t when they are hitting the roof of your mouth.
I call dibs on the current front axle 
A Triton Eng front end would be amazing.
People will shit.
It's probably going on the jeepI call dibs on the current front axle
Some will not like it. Most casual viewers won't notice. Folks like us will dig into the build details and some will think it's cool. Whatever the mix, it'll get eyeballs.
The suburban has never stopped evolving, so a 2500HD chassis and powertrain with as many ORD goodies as I can cram in it sounds pretty good to me. For our squares, chassis swaps are only going to get more popular. Currently, it's a high end shop thing, mostly, but the trickle down effect is pretty real, so I'm not plowing any new earth here. I envision a swap that has ~10" of travel while sitting several inches lower than the current setup and have a workable track width. It'll still have 39s or 40s since the fenders will be cleared for it.
This is all a couple of years away.
First, the truck has to be made SEMA-worthy. It'll sit in Seymour's booth in '25 and we'll make a bunch of content around it for about a year. While the charger spends a year in paint jail, I'll rob parts from the suburban to build the wagoneer into a legit trail truck. Then, the suburban and a yet-to-be-purchased LB7 or LLY or LM-whatever duramax and its chassis will get married. In Texas, I can delete everything and continue to register it as an 85.
I can only imagine the effort to scab that onto my suburban frame, and the side eye Igor would give me for doing it.
Hey, the only way to fix that wagoneer is to make it into a chevy.
David
One of my dream builds was to put a square burb on an AWD 08 Denali frame, and lower it.
Beef the engine, and add a very subtle but there wide body.
AWD canyon carving pro touring square burb
That's almost be the way to start that, is start with a newer 2500hd frame and build off of that for your suspension and graft your body on.
Beef the engine, and add a very subtle but there wide body.
AWD canyon carving pro touring square burb
That's almost be the way to start that, is start with a newer 2500hd frame and build off of that for your suspension and graft your body on.
That's what I did with my wagoneer. All chevy.
As for IFS, I am with you.
I am enjoying my stock 2500 suburban right now.
I am working on marrying a chevy van with a 2003 avalanche frame to 4wd it.
At some point I want to have one of my square Suburbans on a modified, longer travel IFS, and maybe IRS too
I so want to pick your brain on the ifs setup, I have envisioned a ttb front end square for years. The desert racer in me has always wanted a low COG.
