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Seems to be how most builds go. A few months of furious building and then crickets. 
Kind of testament to the build. Takes a crazy long road trip, wheels it and drives home. No major repairs to make.
Now a trip report would be cool though.
Now a trip report would be cool though.
I guess now that it’s entered into a new season of life, not much happens during a week anymore, lol. Until the next deadline.
It’s certainly been a drastic change of pace.
Eh, not that slow
The planning and daydreaming never stops.
Seems to be how most builds go. A few months of furious building and then crickets.
Calm before the storm?
Kind of testament to the build. Takes a crazy long road trip, wheels it and drives home. No major repairs to make.
Now a trip report would be cool though.
And you’ll get one. My attentions have diverted to other things around the house that were neglected during the build, and generally just taking time to rest and relax. I have a few irons in the fire though, but the trip report comes first.
Trip report is coming guys. My house flooded last week, so I have been consumed with that for several days. But I’ll get started on it soon.
Sorry you have to deal with that.
The first thing I did when I got my house was to make sure that can never happen.
Unless I have a leak in the house
Well, it wasn’t a broken pipe, it was my son. He was playing in the sink with the stopper closed (which he knows he’s not allowed to do) and walked away and left the faucet running. We were all outside for an hour before it was discovered. Flooded half the house in that time.
Oh so not a natural flood, so no mud inside the house
Nope, water came from within, rather than without.
Alright here we go with Day 1 of the BB20 trip report.
Way back earlier in the summer, my plan had been to have everything done that was going to get done on the burb the week-prior (to departure), so that I could have the week-of to pack and get organized.
Well that didn’t happen. Mainly because of having to yank the drivetrain out just 5 days before departure to redo the rear main seal, which also meant there were some things I wanted to get done that didn’t get done (which ended up not being necessities anyways). The winch is still in its box.
Our plan was to be packed and driving away by the time I clocked out at 4pm ET on Friday September 4th. In typical fashion, I was still working on the truck Friday morning, and didn’t really start packing until I clocked out D-Day.
Once 4pm came though, I employed my best Tetris skills with ferocious tenacity and fervor and by 7:30PM, we were loaded and pulling away.
Our first stop was just a short 3.5 hour 220-mile trip to my sister’s house just west of Tallahassee, Fl.
These first miles were the make-it-or-break it of the trip. I barely had 100 miles on the truck since finishing the Magnum 205 install and dual exhaust, and I only had maybe 15 miles on the truck since redoing the rear main seal just a few days earlier; it was tested just enough to know the rear main wasn’t leaking at highway speed. To add to the risk factor, I was pulling an unloaded light utility trailer behind me. I had borrowed it from my dad 6-8 months earlier to use to haul away all the scrap steel from the wreck rebuild, which I hadn’t done yet because I was waiting until I had the 4 rear doors replaced (they are rotted out). Well he needed it back, so this was prime opportunity to return it since I was passing their way. We were also carrying a significant amount of extra weight in the cargo area. Given that this was the maiden voyage, and a significant one at that, I wasn’t willing to take any chances and wanted to be totally prepared to deal with whatever came my way, so I packed every bottle of extra fluid (enough for a full fluid exchange on the engine, transmission, and cooling system, and some extras for the tcase and axles), as well as ALL of my hand tools and some power tools, jack/Jack stands, etc. and camping and luggage for 2 adults and 2 children. We were loaded.
So here we are, a freshly built truck with just a short 120 random collective testing miles, taking off on its maiden voyage, pulling a light trailer behind it, for 220 nonstop highway miles, averaging 70mph, and HEAVILY loaded. If anything was going to go wrong, it would be now.
Would we make it, or would we be returning home on the back of a wrecker?
I don’t know that I was ever really concerned about how the truck would perform offroad. As I’ve built this truck, I’ve paid careful attention to other builds, consulted frequently with other builders who have come before me, and meticulously chose only the parts that I knew were proven to work. In fact, prior to departure, I had not tested the truck offroad AT ALL. The only testing was engaging the Magnum 205 on my street to make sure it engages as it should, and some brief articulation tests in the driveway.
The biggest challenge of this trip, in my mind, wasn’t the rock crawling, it was making the distance, because the truck not only had to perform on the trails, but it also had to perform on the pavement, and get me and my family three quarters of the way across the country and back, safely, and in decent comfort.
Well the first leg of the trip proved to be a success. We made it to my sister’s house late that night September 4th without issue. The truck didn’t care for the extra weight of the trailer though, and was glad to shed that weight upon arrival.
We were glad the first 220 miles went off without a hitch, because the next day required significant distance crossing, as I had a Sunday appointment to keep.
Stay tuned for Day 2 coming soon.
Andy
Way back earlier in the summer, my plan had been to have everything done that was going to get done on the burb the week-prior (to departure), so that I could have the week-of to pack and get organized.
Well that didn’t happen. Mainly because of having to yank the drivetrain out just 5 days before departure to redo the rear main seal, which also meant there were some things I wanted to get done that didn’t get done (which ended up not being necessities anyways). The winch is still in its box.
Our plan was to be packed and driving away by the time I clocked out at 4pm ET on Friday September 4th. In typical fashion, I was still working on the truck Friday morning, and didn’t really start packing until I clocked out D-Day.
Once 4pm came though, I employed my best Tetris skills with ferocious tenacity and fervor and by 7:30PM, we were loaded and pulling away.
Our first stop was just a short 3.5 hour 220-mile trip to my sister’s house just west of Tallahassee, Fl.
These first miles were the make-it-or-break it of the trip. I barely had 100 miles on the truck since finishing the Magnum 205 install and dual exhaust, and I only had maybe 15 miles on the truck since redoing the rear main seal just a few days earlier; it was tested just enough to know the rear main wasn’t leaking at highway speed. To add to the risk factor, I was pulling an unloaded light utility trailer behind me. I had borrowed it from my dad 6-8 months earlier to use to haul away all the scrap steel from the wreck rebuild, which I hadn’t done yet because I was waiting until I had the 4 rear doors replaced (they are rotted out). Well he needed it back, so this was prime opportunity to return it since I was passing their way. We were also carrying a significant amount of extra weight in the cargo area. Given that this was the maiden voyage, and a significant one at that, I wasn’t willing to take any chances and wanted to be totally prepared to deal with whatever came my way, so I packed every bottle of extra fluid (enough for a full fluid exchange on the engine, transmission, and cooling system, and some extras for the tcase and axles), as well as ALL of my hand tools and some power tools, jack/Jack stands, etc. and camping and luggage for 2 adults and 2 children. We were loaded.
So here we are, a freshly built truck with just a short 120 random collective testing miles, taking off on its maiden voyage, pulling a light trailer behind it, for 220 nonstop highway miles, averaging 70mph, and HEAVILY loaded. If anything was going to go wrong, it would be now.
Would we make it, or would we be returning home on the back of a wrecker?
I don’t know that I was ever really concerned about how the truck would perform offroad. As I’ve built this truck, I’ve paid careful attention to other builds, consulted frequently with other builders who have come before me, and meticulously chose only the parts that I knew were proven to work. In fact, prior to departure, I had not tested the truck offroad AT ALL. The only testing was engaging the Magnum 205 on my street to make sure it engages as it should, and some brief articulation tests in the driveway.
The biggest challenge of this trip, in my mind, wasn’t the rock crawling, it was making the distance, because the truck not only had to perform on the trails, but it also had to perform on the pavement, and get me and my family three quarters of the way across the country and back, safely, and in decent comfort.
Well the first leg of the trip proved to be a success. We made it to my sister’s house late that night September 4th without issue. The truck didn’t care for the extra weight of the trailer though, and was glad to shed that weight upon arrival.
We were glad the first 220 miles went off without a hitch, because the next day required significant distance crossing, as I had a Sunday appointment to keep.
Stay tuned for Day 2 coming soon.
Andy
Awesome!!
Yay pictures! 
Aren't burbs amazingly capable? For all their clumsiness, that massive cargo bay is quite handy.
I'd need to get better at packing before I could fit the whole family into an XJ.
Aren't burbs amazingly capable? For all their clumsiness, that massive cargo bay is quite handy.
I'd need to get better at packing before I could fit the whole family into an XJ.
This is the mark of a true road warrior. The "I need to drive this back home" mentality.
Agreed. It's a totally different mentality, but so rewarding to be able to complete a trip like this. It takes a whole other level of reliability to pull it off.This is the mark of a true road warrior. The "I need to drive this back home" mentality.
I read the Day 1 trip report to my wife and she said I needed to update it and tell y’all all about what happened the week prior. So here goes the BB20 Pre-Trip Report.
It starts with the 24-hour episode of yanking the drivetrain on Saturday to redo the rear main and stabbing it all back together on Sunday. Im getting too much experience with that.
Actually, the week prior to that, my wife’s truck blew a head gasket. I did not have time to deal with that, so we dropped it at the mechanic shop and they had it that whole week prior to D-Day.
My wife’s grandparents loaned us a car while both trucks were being worked on the week of D-Day, and then THAT car developed a vacuum leak on Wednesday and got towed to the same mechanic. By this point, I had my truck moving so it became our one and only that my wife used to take my son to school and run errands.
That same Wednesday, my youngest son developed a fever. This is normal for him as he always gets sick like this this time of year. However, with all this Covid stuff going on, we felt it prudent for all of us to get tested to be sure we weren’t bringing something with us. Go figure, my son’s fever was gone the next day, but we still had to wait for the test results.
It’s really wild to think about how much was happening all at once that could’ve kept us from going. Vehicles were dropping like flies. The only one we had to rely on for the balance of the week was THE truck we were taking, which I kept working on in the evenings, and this Covid scare.
And then it all came together ....
We got the test results back, on all four of us, about midday on D-Day. We all tested NEGATIVE, thank God, so the trip was a go. By 2pm, my wife’s truck was ready to be picked up, so we brought it back to the house and parked it for the next two weeks. Then the packing began at 4pm and at 7pm we burned rubber peeling out of the driveway heading for Tallahassee.
Man, I forgot all about that drama leading up to the trip until she told me about it.
It starts with the 24-hour episode of yanking the drivetrain on Saturday to redo the rear main and stabbing it all back together on Sunday. Im getting too much experience with that.
Actually, the week prior to that, my wife’s truck blew a head gasket. I did not have time to deal with that, so we dropped it at the mechanic shop and they had it that whole week prior to D-Day.
My wife’s grandparents loaned us a car while both trucks were being worked on the week of D-Day, and then THAT car developed a vacuum leak on Wednesday and got towed to the same mechanic. By this point, I had my truck moving so it became our one and only that my wife used to take my son to school and run errands.
That same Wednesday, my youngest son developed a fever. This is normal for him as he always gets sick like this this time of year. However, with all this Covid stuff going on, we felt it prudent for all of us to get tested to be sure we weren’t bringing something with us. Go figure, my son’s fever was gone the next day, but we still had to wait for the test results.
It’s really wild to think about how much was happening all at once that could’ve kept us from going. Vehicles were dropping like flies. The only one we had to rely on for the balance of the week was THE truck we were taking, which I kept working on in the evenings, and this Covid scare.
And then it all came together ....
We got the test results back, on all four of us, about midday on D-Day. We all tested NEGATIVE, thank God, so the trip was a go. By 2pm, my wife’s truck was ready to be picked up, so we brought it back to the house and parked it for the next two weeks. Then the packing began at 4pm and at 7pm we burned rubber peeling out of the driveway heading for Tallahassee.
Man, I forgot all about that drama leading up to the trip until she told me about it.
Day 2 Trip Report is a bit short. The day was long, but the details are short. We left the Tallahassee area at a reasonably early time Saturday morning, 9/5, beginning the day with a top off of the fuel tank. It seemed like it was destined to be my luck that I would catch every diesel pump that was slow as dirt, but we got where we needed to be.
Every mile that passed without drama (from the truck) was another mile that gave me more confidence in the truck’s reliability.
With the first 220 miles safely behind us, we felt positive the miles ahead would be just as easy. And that’s a good thing, because our destination on this day was 798 miles in front of us: Dallas, Texas.
I’ve visited Texas a few times, and I can tell you it’s on my Top Five list of places I would move to purely based on location. I love that state.
I don’t have a lot of photos from this leg of the trip, because anyone who’s driven this leg knows there’s not much to look at. Everything, from Jacksonville, FL to Dallas, TX looks exactly the same. At least on the route we took.
But here is a brief stop for dinner in Shreveport, Louisiana (and by brief I mean we got the food and got back on the road, ate while we drove, which was how the whole day went).
I will say that after a few hours on the road, I experienced an interesting phenomenon: the truck quieted down and functioned much smoother. My only guess is that once the drivetrain got all nice and hot throughout, the harmonics balanced out and quieted down, and the truck drove better. Not sure if anyone else has ever experienced this. My dad always told me when I was a kid that diesel trucks were meant for being on the road, not driving in the city. I guess this is proof that he was right.
Still, knowing this was the maiden voyage, I was watching everything like a hawk. I even brought my temperature gun and every time I stopped the truck I got out and checked the temps of the trans case, magnum case, 205 case, and the 14bolt housing. And every time, temps were in pleasant 160-195 ranges.
Anyhow, that’s about all there is to say about Day # 2. We averaged about 13mpg, which I thought was pretty good for as heavily loaded as we were and running AC most of the time. We made it to our destination trouble free (with the exception of some erratic behavior from my oil gauge, which seemed to be a gauge issue as the engine ran fine) and were hosted by some of my wife’s friends from college.
We got some good rest and I was ready for Day #3, which wasn’t a travel day. Instead, I had an appointment with our friend David at Willomet Motor & Fab (@AgDieseler) to install a significant piece of Willomet gear on my Rusty truck.
Till then,
Andy
Every mile that passed without drama (from the truck) was another mile that gave me more confidence in the truck’s reliability.
With the first 220 miles safely behind us, we felt positive the miles ahead would be just as easy. And that’s a good thing, because our destination on this day was 798 miles in front of us: Dallas, Texas.
I’ve visited Texas a few times, and I can tell you it’s on my Top Five list of places I would move to purely based on location. I love that state.
I don’t have a lot of photos from this leg of the trip, because anyone who’s driven this leg knows there’s not much to look at. Everything, from Jacksonville, FL to Dallas, TX looks exactly the same. At least on the route we took.
But here is a brief stop for dinner in Shreveport, Louisiana (and by brief I mean we got the food and got back on the road, ate while we drove, which was how the whole day went).
I will say that after a few hours on the road, I experienced an interesting phenomenon: the truck quieted down and functioned much smoother. My only guess is that once the drivetrain got all nice and hot throughout, the harmonics balanced out and quieted down, and the truck drove better. Not sure if anyone else has ever experienced this. My dad always told me when I was a kid that diesel trucks were meant for being on the road, not driving in the city. I guess this is proof that he was right.
Still, knowing this was the maiden voyage, I was watching everything like a hawk. I even brought my temperature gun and every time I stopped the truck I got out and checked the temps of the trans case, magnum case, 205 case, and the 14bolt housing. And every time, temps were in pleasant 160-195 ranges.
Anyhow, that’s about all there is to say about Day # 2. We averaged about 13mpg, which I thought was pretty good for as heavily loaded as we were and running AC most of the time. We made it to our destination trouble free (with the exception of some erratic behavior from my oil gauge, which seemed to be a gauge issue as the engine ran fine) and were hosted by some of my wife’s friends from college.
We got some good rest and I was ready for Day #3, which wasn’t a travel day. Instead, I had an appointment with our friend David at Willomet Motor & Fab (@AgDieseler) to install a significant piece of Willomet gear on my Rusty truck.
Till then,
Andy
Time to play catch up.
The last month has been crazy with house stuff and more work on the truck getting done, holidays, and then I’ve been sick this last week, but let’s see if we can get back on track.
The day is Sunday, September 6th, 2020. It’s an early Sunday morning in Dallas, Texas, and I’m fueling up to go meet up with a guy that, quite frankly, I have looked up to for a long time.
See, David (@AgDieseler) really deserves a lot of credit for the existence of this build thread. He’s the one who convinced me to start it. Way back when, I don’t even remember, I stumbled across his build thread and read the whole dadgum thing through and through (it was only 80 pages then). Aside from the sheer awesomeness of what he’d done with his truck, we really had a bit in common here. His dad had bought that K10 6.2 suburban brand new in 85. Just so happens that my dad also bought a C10 6.2 suburban brand new in 85.
But really, that’s where that part of the commonality ends. Early in my twenties my dad gave me the truck and I foolishly let it go for chump change. David was wise and kept his. I was not. But my love for diesel suburbans never died. And just about everything David had done with his rig was the same direction I wanted to go with mine. So I reached out to him, we talked for a bit, and he convinced me to start this build thread so that I could glean and learn from the rest of y’all. And boy have I.
So you can imagine the sense of gratitude I was having that morning and really this entire trip. The best part of this trip was getting to meet so many people that have influenced me and this build. And being in his shop was like being inside a live YouTube video
.
Still, there’s an undeniable cool factor about two diesel squarebody rock crawling burbs side by side getting worked on.
As for the piece of gear I was getting, it was those fancy-pants very-hardcore sliders David built not too long ago. See, way back in the Spring, when David knew the frame mounts for the sliders would interfere with the frame mounts for his Rev5 suspension, he decided it would be easier to pull the sliders and build a new set than to try to modify these. So he called me up and asked me if I was interested. By that time, I had just finished the bumpers for my rig and knew I wasn’t going to have time to build my sliders before the trip to Moab. So when David called me, it was an immediate yes. I knew the quality of the work that went into these WM&F sliders so there was no question as to the durability. A deal was struck.
There were some minor modifications necessary though. The center frame mounts for the sliders interfered with the frame mounts for the traction bar crossmember I had recently installed. We had a quick easy solution though. Cut the frame plates off the center mounts for the sliders and weld the tubes to the frame plates for the crossmember. While I worked on drilling the frame for the rest of the mounting points, David continued work on his
burb, and then took care of the welding part when the time came. It was pretty neat to work with him and also neat to know that I have some WM&F TIG welds on my rig.
Notice the expert welder beneath the rusty truck:
It was great meeting David and his wife and getting to know them. I’ll never be able to say it enough, as exhilarating as this trip was, the best part was the people.
The next day we hit the road and beat it to our next destination: Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Till then,
Andy
The last month has been crazy with house stuff and more work on the truck getting done, holidays, and then I’ve been sick this last week, but let’s see if we can get back on track.
The day is Sunday, September 6th, 2020. It’s an early Sunday morning in Dallas, Texas, and I’m fueling up to go meet up with a guy that, quite frankly, I have looked up to for a long time.
See, David (@AgDieseler) really deserves a lot of credit for the existence of this build thread. He’s the one who convinced me to start it. Way back when, I don’t even remember, I stumbled across his build thread and read the whole dadgum thing through and through (it was only 80 pages then). Aside from the sheer awesomeness of what he’d done with his truck, we really had a bit in common here. His dad had bought that K10 6.2 suburban brand new in 85. Just so happens that my dad also bought a C10 6.2 suburban brand new in 85.
But really, that’s where that part of the commonality ends. Early in my twenties my dad gave me the truck and I foolishly let it go for chump change. David was wise and kept his. I was not. But my love for diesel suburbans never died. And just about everything David had done with his rig was the same direction I wanted to go with mine. So I reached out to him, we talked for a bit, and he convinced me to start this build thread so that I could glean and learn from the rest of y’all. And boy have I.
So you can imagine the sense of gratitude I was having that morning and really this entire trip. The best part of this trip was getting to meet so many people that have influenced me and this build. And being in his shop was like being inside a live YouTube video
.Still, there’s an undeniable cool factor about two diesel squarebody rock crawling burbs side by side getting worked on.
As for the piece of gear I was getting, it was those fancy-pants very-hardcore sliders David built not too long ago. See, way back in the Spring, when David knew the frame mounts for the sliders would interfere with the frame mounts for his Rev5 suspension, he decided it would be easier to pull the sliders and build a new set than to try to modify these. So he called me up and asked me if I was interested. By that time, I had just finished the bumpers for my rig and knew I wasn’t going to have time to build my sliders before the trip to Moab. So when David called me, it was an immediate yes. I knew the quality of the work that went into these WM&F sliders so there was no question as to the durability. A deal was struck.
There were some minor modifications necessary though. The center frame mounts for the sliders interfered with the frame mounts for the traction bar crossmember I had recently installed. We had a quick easy solution though. Cut the frame plates off the center mounts for the sliders and weld the tubes to the frame plates for the crossmember. While I worked on drilling the frame for the rest of the mounting points, David continued work on his
burb, and then took care of the welding part when the time came. It was pretty neat to work with him and also neat to know that I have some WM&F TIG welds on my rig.
Notice the expert welder beneath the rusty truck:
It was great meeting David and his wife and getting to know them. I’ll never be able to say it enough, as exhilarating as this trip was, the best part was the people.
The next day we hit the road and beat it to our next destination: Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Till then,
Andy
We were sure glad to host you and your family on the brief Dallas pit stop, and it was good to see the sliders get used on your fine truck. I have really enjoyed following your build here, and drawing my own inspiration from it.
David
David
Thanks for that man, I appreciate it. And we are really looking forward to seeing everyone again soon.
I’ll slam the next two days into one post. After departing Dallas, we made a brief stop in Fort Worth for a drive-thru visit of the seminary my wife attended, and then we beat it on to Albuquerque, New Mexico, pulled in at nearly midnight Monday, September 7th.
The next day, we met up and had lunch with another squarebody suburban enthusiast (though I don’t think he’s on CK5): @g_square.d on the IG. He’s a real cool dude, with a real cool family, and a real cool suburban. I’ll say it again, the best part about this trip was all the people we met along the way.
After lunch, we embarked on our final leg to our final destination: Moab, Utah. There were a lot of cool sites along the way, even drove through an Indian reservation. About 7pm MT on Tuesday the 8th, we finally pulled into camp in Moab.
Till next time,
Andy
The next day, we met up and had lunch with another squarebody suburban enthusiast (though I don’t think he’s on CK5): @g_square.d on the IG. He’s a real cool dude, with a real cool family, and a real cool suburban. I’ll say it again, the best part about this trip was all the people we met along the way.
After lunch, we embarked on our final leg to our final destination: Moab, Utah. There were a lot of cool sites along the way, even drove through an Indian reservation. About 7pm MT on Tuesday the 8th, we finally pulled into camp in Moab.
Till next time,
Andy
