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Question about 89 suburban v1500

J

jamacee

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Been awhile since I last posted but y'all seem to be the best place to ask questions like this.

Our family wagon/DD is a 2nd owner 89 burb - 350,700r4,241,10bolt fr and rear nothing super special and no mods except stereo, re did the liner this winter, and manual warn hubs.

Its mostly my wifes truck and long road tripper.

I am in the process of updating a few things. Seats, new seat belts, trim, etc.

However when I get to the point about thinking of tires and what not then my mind starts turning.

I don't wheel the truck and at best it may see fire roads. However can't help but thinking of upgrades and then you think about MPG etc and whether it makes any sense to mess with it or leave it stock.

Ideally I would like to do a very mild build to get it up off the ground just a little. Like a 4" lift and some 33's and then just do the basic recovery stuff. Bumpers, sliders,winch. My wife drives my kids around in this thing so I can justify a little extra armor to the 'cause'.

My questions is:

Does it make any sense to beef up my 10bolt axel w/ the stuff from ORD and put the disk break conversion and will Auburn Ected Locker make sense or cause those axels to fail?

I know a 60/14ff is ideal but is it necessary for a DD that seldom see any real use.

I already get decent MPG's but its drivetrain is bone stock and I got to thinking about all this b/c of the rear disk conversion and which size tire I wanted to go with.

Any wisdom is appreciated.
 
If you're only doing fire road type stuff, i'd say leave it alone. I have a 4" lift with 35" tires, and the older parent has alittle difficulty getting in and out of mine, not super high, but just not as easy as a stock height truck.

Back when mine was still that stock, it would go places i thought for sure i'd have problems with, it'll go alot more places as is, than you think.

Just get a nice set of tires for it and run it as is.
 
I know it needs new springs and shocks since both are still original. Will 33's clear on fresh springs? Still that begs the second question of will I need to change the gearing for 33's?

Then when you follow that rabbit trail does it make sense to polish the turd a little further and beef up the 10bolt a little more.

I do plan to do the rear disks for better stopping power and found www.tsmmfg.com had decent prices on the 10 bolt conversion but when I was reading about the conversion didn't know if I should go ahead and replace the inners of the axels too?
 
unless you plan on doing serious trail runs, or anything, don't mess with it. You should either have 3.42 or 3.73 gears in the rear diff, they should be fine with 33's.

Only reason i am saying leave it alone, is from what you are describing, it doesn't sound like anything that will be a problem for what you currently have. the only reason i started upgrading, is i started going on harder stuff and finally breaking things.

If you really want to give it alittle more capability, then do something like a 2.5" spring lift and the 33's, won't be a pain for the entire family to get in and out of, and still be capable of getting where you want to go without being too extreme.

these are just my personal opinions, after driving this truck around for the past 7 or so years, there are times when it's size gets alittle annoying.
 
you start beefing things up, it will go from this
Burb.jpg


to this, and i don't even have any recent pictures of the extra damage that's on the driver side from the last wheelin' trip:p:

PC230042-r-1.jpg


There was only one small dent in the front passenger fender when i got this truck, not the complete driverside rear quarter panel is totallt caved in, bumpers are tweeked, dented, every bit of rocker panel is dented, i honestly don't think there is a single panel on this thing now, that doesn't have a dent of some kind in it :D but it was fun.

REALLY, it all boils down to what you want to do with the truck, if you want to make it seriously more capable, upgrade what you can, as you can, hell i still don't have a Dana 60 in the font yet, but it's more than capable of doing alot more stuff than i ever thought this big of a truck could do.:crazy:
 
Your before pic looks like mine now. Though I hate those running boards on my truck they sure do help when loading and unloading babies.

Like I said wifes truck that drives us on our long trips to where ever b/c we can take kids, dogs, and all the crap that comes with kids.

Thanks for the heads up on the springs. Will look into the 2.5's since I need them anyway and new shocks.
 
Since it's the kid wagon, and you're interested in keeping fuel economy numbers up, I would recommend keeping it stock. Get new springs all around, shocks, 265/75-16 tires equal about a 32" tire, beef up the 10-bolt with chromoly shafts and discs and whatnot, and leave the rest alone. A 4" lift with 33" tires will kill your economy, as you'll now expose the whole undercarriage much more, and other problems result from that.

Based on your intended usage, a lift would be worse than worthless. Don't believe all the hype that 10-bolts are crap and 14 bolts are the holy grail. They aren't, and they are. If you're going with 40's and big block power on the rocks, a 14bff is the low end of beef. You'd be amazed at how much a 10b will take, heck the original one is still in there after 21 years ain't it?

A non-lifted stock Suburban will go down many, many trails before it get's bested. Between my dad and I, we've driven Suburbans to the tops of mountains and through some really rugged terrain. 95% of my offroad experience has been done in stock vehicles, and I don't see the justification in the amount of money it will cost to modify a rig to go that last bit.

So, keep it stock, but beef up what you have and call it good. That Suburban has many a good mile left in it as is.
 
Hey thanks guys for taking the time for my newb questions. Sounds like a plan.
 
i can also vouch for the increased fuel useage, my MPG dropped 5-8 mpg after the lift and bigger tires.

If ya want to build on it, hey, it's your truck, but as mentioned since it's the one the whole family uses and gets used for trips, i wouldn't go too hog wild with it, or maybe see about something in the same size in a 2wd model.

I just commented about the certain issues with mine after all this stuff i have done, actually the axles and tires are not the real issue, it's honestly the height, i know it's only 4" but also with a 3-4" taller tire, it gets to be a pain most of the time working under the hood, it's not as easy to get in and out, well in anyways :p:. IS much easier working under it though :D.

Get ya some 32" tires, maybe the new shocks like you mentioned, and if the springs are that wore out, i'd stick with something not much over the 2.5" lift height.

I had actually considered going to a shorter lift and back down to 33's for mine, since i really don't do the type of wheelin i used to do anymore.
 
I agree with NoJeeps about lift kits.....for the most part. Most of the offroading I've done has been in a stock rig. I had an 83 F-150 4x4 on 31" BFG's and that truck went everywhere I wanted it to go. I've got an 88 Suburban now that's a kid/wife/dog/camping rig that see's mostly fire roads as well and it's stock on 31's.

But, I was given permission to throw on a 2.5" lift on Fillmore this fall or maybe winter so I can clear 33's. I just like the looks and the stance a mild lift gives a Suburban or Blazer. In the end, it all comes down to personal preference.
 
And when it comes down to fuel mileage, I look at it this way. I bought the biggest family hauler that GM has produced. If I had been concerned about fuel mileage, I would've bought a Toyota 4Runner or a smaller family hauler. Poor fuel economy is just part of the game when it comes to these land yacht's.
 
Yea I have been trying to be real honest with myself about its use. I mean I wouldn't even know about this forum had I not really really wanted a great crawlin/expo machine. However frankly I barely have enough time to play with my kids or read a book let alone do alot of wheeling anymore.

I was going to do fr (ORD) and rear (Blazen swing out tire carrier) bumpers, Winch - for keeping it able to self recover from where ever. But wanted to get a better ride from it.

I was toying between 31 and 33 (especially when I saw the new general tires)

I'll be looking around for a good 2.5 package then.
 
To tell ya the truth my burb gets as good as my 95 4runner in MPG's thats why I am selling my 4runner and investing the funds into the burb. Hence why I started the thread.
 
jamacee said:
To tell ya the truth my burb gets as good as my 95 4runner in MPG's thats why I am selling my 4runner and investing the funds into the burb. Hence why I started the thread.
Click to expand...




The previous owner swapped in a TH350 tranny when the 700R4 died on him. I really wish I had the OD, but even without it I still get about 13-14mpg's @ 65mph. I believe with OD, I might be able to tickle 16 mpg's.

But let's face it, even if I got 8 mpg's like I did with my F-250, I'd still drive it 'cause it's so damn cool.
 
Ok so I am getting the prices for all my parts together but had a few questions for you more knowledgable folks out there.

Per your advice I am going to bring my burb back close to stock and refresh what I can.

Questions:

1) Whats the difference between a 2.5" spring and a 3" or are they the same?

2) What are the pro's and con's of doing this: 2.5" spring up front and 4" in rear VS. 2.5" up front and doing a shackle flip in back.

3) Whats the stock spring size normally on the 89 v1500 burb?


I decided to run 31x10.50's for now.
Gets some Bilstein HD shocks all around.
Refresh all the bushing w/ poly: energy suspension kit unless there are others that could be recommended.
Tighten up my stock steering with new drag link and tie rod ends.

Then I was going to take my time and build my list for the suspension upgrades. Alcan springs are expensive but they are nice. So I was thinking about building my list around those and some of the ORD greaseable stuff.

Unless this is overkill and not necessary but I like my truck and have a lot of good yrs from her as the family expo ride. I just want to get her slightly modified over stock. If this makes sense. (mall crawler)

Opinions welcome I am learning here.
 
The lift I would do/will do someday is the ORD 3"+ kit you can find on this site. It is engineered for GM K-trucks by a GM truck nut that real world tests his stuff. It's a bit more pricey, but not prohibitively so. Can't really answer any of the spring questions though. Make sure that if you lift it, to install crossover steering so you don't get horrible bump-steer.
 
noJeepshere I have a quote from them/ORD on it. Its darn near the same price for their kit as it would be to just re spring it with new shocks.

I think this is why I will just get tires, bushings, and new shocks for now.

I really like the ORD folks they are real pleasant to deal with.

I'll keep researching but if anyone can answer any of thos spring questions I would like to understand it better.
 
So on the ORD kit it has the drop pitman arm. It was my understanding that you could maintain the OE steering with a good stabilizer and not have bump steer on the 3" and under kit.
 
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