Awesome, and thanks for sharing. I want to travel down and just go on a week or two tour with ya
Three or four times a year of course.
Three or four times a year of course.CK5
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The Story Of A Cummins Suburban (Lots Of Pics)
- Thread starter mosesburb
- Start date
Thanks!! Really I don't get as much time as I would like, but believe it or not, these are pretty much all just day trip type stuff. I would actually have to go back through this thread to figure out the last time we camped besides the last one which really wasn't. Get a map out, drop a penny on it, then go there. You have a bunch of good stuff pretty close to you.
The eyes are on the sides of its head so it doesn't have to turn its head too far to see behind it. I had to kind of chase it off as this pic was taken under the back of the Sub and I didn't want to drive over him when I backed out.
Awesome, and thanks for sharing. I want to travel down and just go on a week or two tour with ya
Ok. Just let me know when. The boy and I are always up for driving on dirt.
y5mgisi
1 ton status
Am i the only one who didnt notice the lizard? i thought we were looking at the black piece that looks like part of a blown out tire!
lectric80
3/4 ton status
Yes you are the only one.
Only kidding, it took me a few minutes to actually see the lizard, I thought the same thing as you.Those are some great pictures. If I can ever get Krusty back on the road I may have to take the same attitude and just drive to see what I can find. There are huge amounts of old roads/trails around, and I have probably only covered about 10% of the local ones.
lol, same here. I didn't see the lizard until someone commented on it. I couldn't for the life of me figure out what was so special about the black thing.
lol, same here. I didn't see the lizard until someone commented on it. I couldn't for the life of me figure out what was so special about the black thing.
Yeah me too!
Love the pics... keep them coming!
Yes you are the only one.
lol, same here. I didn't see the lizard until someone commented on it. I couldn't for the life of me figure out what was so special about the black thing.
Yeah me too!
Love the pics... keep them coming!
That's funny. I kind of figured this would happen, but I got it too as it was a real bitch taking a pic of that thing because I didn't have a DSLR so I'm trying to zoom in on it while looking at the LCD screen on the back of a little point and shoot camera. We'll just say I had a few misses myself. It was really cool though. It was probably only three maybe four inches long and as it was sitting there an ant came strolling up and BANG, lizard got a snack.
That's the name of the game. Get out there and see what you are missing. Hell, I'm at the point now where I have my trail stuff in ammo cans and I just leave them filled and throw them in the truck (if I took them out the last time we went somewhere). Keep it simple. You would probably be surprised how much can be seen by your DD. I used to wheel my '71 Nova. It would get into places that I never would have thought it would. I did cave the trans pan on a rock once, but other than that, never had any issues. I hear station wagons make great trail vehicles and we all know the super powers that rental cars have.....
So I kidnapped my machinist a couple weekends ago. It wasn't as difficult this time as I had my door gunner with me. We dragged him up to a very scenic trail so as not to be located by some super-secret detection equipment. Shortly after hitting dirt we came upon this guy:
He was stretched across the road and my machinist being a friend to all snakes (the reptilian sort--not the greasy-human type), he got out to guide it off the roadway. The snake did not appreciate the assistance, but eventually understood it was best, but not before taking a swipe at him.
So, off we go. One snake saved and we are only a couple miles in on the dirt. We passed an area that i had mentally marked for future exploration. I found a good place to park and we started looking around. I had never really done much looking at this area before, other than looking at it as we drove by. It appeared to be a mine dump, but I couldn't see a mine around. Well, come to find out there was more up the hill from where we were. We got up to about the third "level" and we found some foundations of some type of processing buildings:
We could only guess at what they were as much of the supporting evidence had been scrapped or back-filled. Kind of neat wandering around looking and guessing though. Once we got up to the upper level of the workings we found a road. Sweet. We *thought* we were on a trail the way we went up, but come to find out we were not. The road goes this way and that way. How about that way.
It led over to a tunnel. There was some good air moving out of the tunnel and it appeared dry so we checked it out a little way.
The floor was dry, but it was sticky. Strange. Kind of like in front of the soda fountains at the Kwik-E-Mart. Not enough for your shoes to pick up mud, but enough to feel the adhesion to the soles of your shoes. A little further in:
I like the colors in this pic:
So off we go. We end up over on Senator Highway and we head up towards Senator Mine. On the way we stop at this area. I have heard it referred to as Maxton's Store, but of the pics that I have seen of Maxton's Store, this doesn't look like it. So with that, who knows. Here is a bit of what we saw: Better be careful on the stairs (or what's left of them)
Walls at the back of the structure:
Remnants of an oven maybe?? Shelves??
Kind of interesting trying to figure out what the remnants are and what they were used for back in the day. Kind of like modern day, or recent past archaeology.
I am in the process of figuring out some new camera equipment. As I get it figured out, the quality of pictures should inprove. So until then, we all suffer. Anyways, this takes us to about the half-way point of our trip. I have some more to load yet, but sorting through them is taking some time as I shot about 300 pics on this trip as opposed to probably 70ish on the last one.
He was stretched across the road and my machinist being a friend to all snakes (the reptilian sort--not the greasy-human type), he got out to guide it off the roadway. The snake did not appreciate the assistance, but eventually understood it was best, but not before taking a swipe at him.
So, off we go. One snake saved and we are only a couple miles in on the dirt. We passed an area that i had mentally marked for future exploration. I found a good place to park and we started looking around. I had never really done much looking at this area before, other than looking at it as we drove by. It appeared to be a mine dump, but I couldn't see a mine around. Well, come to find out there was more up the hill from where we were. We got up to about the third "level" and we found some foundations of some type of processing buildings:
We could only guess at what they were as much of the supporting evidence had been scrapped or back-filled. Kind of neat wandering around looking and guessing though. Once we got up to the upper level of the workings we found a road. Sweet. We *thought* we were on a trail the way we went up, but come to find out we were not. The road goes this way and that way. How about that way.
It led over to a tunnel. There was some good air moving out of the tunnel and it appeared dry so we checked it out a little way.
The floor was dry, but it was sticky. Strange. Kind of like in front of the soda fountains at the Kwik-E-Mart. Not enough for your shoes to pick up mud, but enough to feel the adhesion to the soles of your shoes. A little further in:
I like the colors in this pic:
So off we go. We end up over on Senator Highway and we head up towards Senator Mine. On the way we stop at this area. I have heard it referred to as Maxton's Store, but of the pics that I have seen of Maxton's Store, this doesn't look like it. So with that, who knows. Here is a bit of what we saw: Better be careful on the stairs (or what's left of them)
Walls at the back of the structure:
Remnants of an oven maybe?? Shelves??
Kind of interesting trying to figure out what the remnants are and what they were used for back in the day. Kind of like modern day, or recent past archaeology.
I am in the process of figuring out some new camera equipment. As I get it figured out, the quality of pictures should inprove. So until then, we all suffer. Anyways, this takes us to about the half-way point of our trip. I have some more to load yet, but sorting through them is taking some time as I shot about 300 pics on this trip as opposed to probably 70ish on the last one.
I love your adventures, always exciting to read about them and see the pics.
Thanks!! I'm glad you like them.
lectric80
3/4 ton status
In that 5th picture it is rather interesting, and I think there was or is another entrance further up the hill. The tailings pile is too high above the entrance, at least for most every mine I have ever explored. Normally the tailings will be piled below the entrance and to the side, allowing the rail cars to come out, dump, and go right back in. I could be totally wrong though, since my mine experience is dealing with stuff here in Utah.
y5mgisi
1 ton status
Always love your posts! Seems like your one of the few of us that actually use there truck as an "off-road" dual purpose vehicle.
There is another tunnel up there. We did not see it while we were there, but I actually inadvertently captured it in a picture I took. We debated going up there to look around (knowing there was more up there), but we had a fairly long down hill walk ahead of us and another area later in the day to hike, so we decided to head on down the trail.
Thanks!! It does seem to be a novel concept to drive it on dirt. We should start a pool when someone new post up with their "new" K5 and their ambitions for it to see how long it will be until it is drivable again. I am guilty of it too and mine was down so long, the staute of limitations on the pool would have run out before it moved under its own power. Although, I *did* buy mine without an engine. I know, weak excuse, but it's all I've got.
Anyways, your post made me realize i forgot the gratuitous truck shot to prove that the Suburban actually took us where we went.
The truck doesn't have as much rake to it as it appears to have, but it actually has less now as I lowered the rear an inch last weekend.
Someone PLEASE explain why I can't see pics in this thread anymore! Getting red Xs on this and one other thread.....
lectric80
3/4 ton status
That would be something on your PC. Clear your cache, and try a different browser if that fails.
mosesburb, I love seeing updates to this thread because you are out using your burb. And yes, my Krusty is down for a while, getting ready for a body swap, so I am down to using the Toyota I just picked up and it won't fit the family (legally). Looking forward to actually getting started on Krusty and getting her back on the road.
Awesome truck, i was planning a cummins swap into my 91 burb, but after seeing all your pictures, now i'm looking for an older burb. A couple questions that i couldn't find, what did you use for motor mounts? any fit issues? any mpgs numbers? I have a 91 non-intercooled i will be using, how much clearance to the hood do you have? Thanks for any help.
Mounts are 1st gen Dodge units sitting on a crossmember that I fabbed. Tons of fitment issues in the swap. Mileage numbers are in a few places in here, but I am averaging about 19mpg, in town, in summer with the A/C and fan clutch on constantly. I set my motor pretty low in the frame and I needed every bit of it for hood clearance to the air intake plumbing from the filter to the turbo. It rubs just slightly on the reinforcement rib on the underside of the hood. This can be alleviated by creating a different intake hose assembly (or modifying the reinforcement rib), but I don't want to, so I say a slight rub is ok.
There is another cat doing a Cummins swap on a 71 K20 in this forum. It has Bertha's Cummins Build in the title. Check it out. He has some real good info in his thread also.
We interrupt your regularly scheduled trail photos for some actual fab work.
So, we didn't go wheeling this weekend. I was planning on it, but the weatherman said it was going to rain. It didn't. It was a bit cooler, so I decided to work on the transfer case skid plate that I have been casually fabricating for a little while now. I have been carfully choosing trails we traverse because there was nothing protecting the bottom of the transfer case. Now I am not very concerned about the case itself because it is cast iron and heavy, but I am very concerned about the aluminum housing on the transmission that it mounts to. The case will take a good hit, but the aluminum housing is extremely delicate in comparison. So, with that, I decided long ago that a skid plate would be necessary before running trails with sharp drop-offs or bigger rocks so as not to destroy the fragile aluminum.
So what to do about a skid plate?? I had looked at many factory applications as possible donors, but none really fit the bill. Most were around 1/4" thick aluminum. That would probably work ok if I had another crossmember to support the rear of the aluminum skid. I really didn't want another crossmember, so I started envisioning other options. I ended up with some 1/2" plate. I figured it fit the whole theme of this light-weight, high-speed project. I started laying out the steel to see how it would work.
I put a couple four inch wide pieces side by side and welded them together. Then I took a couple pieces about one inch long and wleded them on the ends at a slight angle upward. I also welded a tab on one side to act as both a mounting point and a spacer to keep the plates where they need to be.
Then I ground a nice gradual radius on the ends of the plate. I also drilled and tapped a couple holes in the plate on the right side so the mounting hardware could come in from the top and not create a point of possible hang-up below. I tapped them to 1/2"-20 and used a couple of those gnarly International tractor crossmember bolts. It keeps the whole light-weight theme going.
I added another little "wing" to it to keep the left edge of the case covered. I painted it and installed it and it ended up looking somehting like this:
In this pic you can see the ends of the mounting bolts that are ground fluch on the toward the leading edge of the plate:
It doesn't need a jack to be installed, but it would probably help. Hopefully it offers enough protection to keep the aluminum housing on the trans intact after an encounter with a rock.
I do have several more pictures from our last adventure, but I haven't loaded them yet. I figured I'd post these up in the mean time to prove I actually do something other than just drive it.
So, we didn't go wheeling this weekend. I was planning on it, but the weatherman said it was going to rain. It didn't. It was a bit cooler, so I decided to work on the transfer case skid plate that I have been casually fabricating for a little while now. I have been carfully choosing trails we traverse because there was nothing protecting the bottom of the transfer case. Now I am not very concerned about the case itself because it is cast iron and heavy, but I am very concerned about the aluminum housing on the transmission that it mounts to. The case will take a good hit, but the aluminum housing is extremely delicate in comparison. So, with that, I decided long ago that a skid plate would be necessary before running trails with sharp drop-offs or bigger rocks so as not to destroy the fragile aluminum.
So what to do about a skid plate?? I had looked at many factory applications as possible donors, but none really fit the bill. Most were around 1/4" thick aluminum. That would probably work ok if I had another crossmember to support the rear of the aluminum skid. I really didn't want another crossmember, so I started envisioning other options. I ended up with some 1/2" plate. I figured it fit the whole theme of this light-weight, high-speed project. I started laying out the steel to see how it would work.
I put a couple four inch wide pieces side by side and welded them together. Then I took a couple pieces about one inch long and wleded them on the ends at a slight angle upward. I also welded a tab on one side to act as both a mounting point and a spacer to keep the plates where they need to be.
Then I ground a nice gradual radius on the ends of the plate. I also drilled and tapped a couple holes in the plate on the right side so the mounting hardware could come in from the top and not create a point of possible hang-up below. I tapped them to 1/2"-20 and used a couple of those gnarly International tractor crossmember bolts. It keeps the whole light-weight theme going.
I added another little "wing" to it to keep the left edge of the case covered. I painted it and installed it and it ended up looking somehting like this:
In this pic you can see the ends of the mounting bolts that are ground fluch on the toward the leading edge of the plate:
It doesn't need a jack to be installed, but it would probably help. Hopefully it offers enough protection to keep the aluminum housing on the trans intact after an encounter with a rock.
I do have several more pictures from our last adventure, but I haven't loaded them yet. I figured I'd post these up in the mean time to prove I actually do something other than just drive it.
lectric80
3/4 ton status
I can't see anything wrong with just driving it, although the skid plate is a nice addition. Very nice work!
Thanks!!
Nothing at all wrong with just driving it, but this will open up a few more trails to me and, to be honest, I kind of enjoyed doing some fab work again.
