The Story Of A Cummins Suburban (Lots Of Pics)

[mosesburb]

We got up in the morning packed up our hoopties and rolled back up to the main site to do a little more aimless wandering. Off in the distance there were a couple cool old Suburbans (one is probably low on gas):

This is the pipeline road heading out of Swansea. Lots and lots of uphill and downhill: (That first little "dip" in the road is actually hiding a Suburban)

If you wheel an old full-size truck, this is a sight that becomes very familiar very quickly: Hood and sky--lots of both, but no trail in sight.

This is just another pic showing how everything is a different color from everything else: (The white things are the supports for the cable spans on the pipeline bridge)

Cool looking rock:

Here is an underside shot of the pipeline bridge. Pretty massive structure out in the middle of nowhere:

This is an engine-in-a-shack that I was checking out near the bridge. It is an Arrow engine which are designed for 100% duty cycle, 24/7/365. It looks very similar to an old hit and miss agricultural engine:

Rolling hills, all different colors: grey, red, tan.

After we left the anti-scenic Alamo Lake, we rolled through a cool patch of Joshua Tree:

 

[mosesburb]

So a little further down the road we come into Signal. This car looks like the Bluesmobile when Jake and Elwood finally reached the Honorable Richard J Daley Plaza:

This rock looked like it had some kind of web over it, but it didn't--it was all rock:

These dry-stacked walls were super-cool. Nothing holding the rocks together except gravity. All of the rocks were cut to fit or just stacked accordingly, but with no mortar.

Cool fence surrounding the cemetary.

Here is something we saw alot of. Can dumps. There was one spot coming out of Swansea that had, I bet, 10,000+ cans on the ground. This area was not so populated with cans, but it is the one I got a picture of. I am theorizing that these areas probably had more than just steel cans. There was probably organic material (food wastes, etc) and maybe even paper products, but all of that stuff has decomposed or blown away leaving rusty can dumps as the sole survivor:

So we headed out of Signal and did another small water crossing and we were off to the highway and our eventual return to modern times and civilization as we know it. I grabbed one last pic after the inevitable gas stop and before the scenic place Lance's Sub decided to take a breather and rest for a few minutes.

It was a fun trip. Very cool doing some trail running with a similar vehicle to mine--especially when it is so rare to see one on the road, much less on the trail.

 

[gotblazers]

Thats pretty strange to find a cemetary unkept and abondoned in the middle of nowhere. Must have been quite an experience, But hell every single one of your trips seems to be quite an experience. Makes me wanna give up hardcore wheeling and just make a expedition rig and go exploring the countryside.

 

[y5mgisi]

Although i LOVE every adventure, i hate you cause 1) you without fail, make me want a cummins real bad and 2) you make me realize that im not out there adventuring!

So i gotta ask, are you just poking fun at the other burb for needing so much gas or was yours so much more efficient that it was actually annoying to stop for gas that much?

 

[mosesburb]

Thats pretty strange to find a cemetary unkept and abondoned in the middle of nowhere. Must have been quite an experience, But hell every single one of your trips seems to be quite an experience. Makes me wanna give up hardcore wheeling and just make a expedition rig and go exploring the countryside.

This cemetary has actually been maintained. Someone has been through recently trimming trees and marking/re-marking graves. But cemetaries are pretty common as most towns had them.

It was a great trip. I would have liked to wander around Siganl a bit more, but we were running out of time and daylight.

Although i LOVE every adventure, i hate you cause 1) you without fail, make me want a cummins real bad and 2) you make me realize that im not out there adventuring!

You don't need a Cummins for this. The Suburban that ran with me was pretty much bone stock. Now the fact that you are not out here, well, I can't help with THAT one...

So i gotta ask, are you just poking fun at the other burb for needing so much gas or was yours so much more efficient that it was actually annoying to stop for gas that much?

Yes, I am just poking fun at him and yes, we did stop for gas quite often. Being stock, it has the original 20gal tank in it. He gets about 10mpg. That equates to a 200mi MAXIMUM range, wheras I have a 31gal tank and get about 20mpg. That is about a, say, 500mi PRACTICAL range. He would stop for gas and say aren't you going ot top off?? Then I would laugh and say my needle has not come off of full yet. That would usually net me a dirty look or some non-repeatable comment. I topped off when we got back on pavement just for grins, and he filled up for the third or fourth time. I razz him about it now because I still can. We recently put a 41gal tank in his truck so the next run I won't have the ability anymore. I will still have more range, but he will have more gas.

 

[mosesburb]

So I think I am caught up to February now. Somewhere along the way my buddy with the blue Suburban bought a donor Suburban with a Banks equipped 6.2L, 700R4, NP208, 40 gal gas tank and a bunch of other goodies. Before he pitched the carcass, he asked if I wanted anything off of it. I mentioned the front drive shaft and a couple other things for my buddy Russ.

I wanted the front shaft because it was a Saginaw CV shaft. I have a Spicer CV shaft with a Saginaw adapter ring on it. The Saginaw is much stronger than a Spicer joint and figuring that I have it bolted to a flange on a 32 spline front output on the '205, I figured I should have a better double cardan joint on ther too. I had the shaft re-tubed and brought it home and washed it before painting it.

I have a feeling this shaft had been gone through not too long ago as the cv was real tight as were the splines on the slip yoke. This was a good thing as both of those parts on my old shaft were showing signs of wear. I painted it up and threw it in:

Some of you may remember that the smoke got released from one of my auxilliary electric fans awhile back. That left me with one functioning fan which is fine for cool temps, but Summer will come eventually and a second fan will be a good thing.

Before I installed them I installed the same factory fan connectors and terminals that I had onthe old fans so they can be easily disconnected and swapped out if necessary.

I decided that I needed a different mounting configuration than I had so the next time a fan fails, I don't have to tear the front of the truck off to change it. I came up with a hard mount on the top and a couple pieces of aluminum angle on the bottom--one welded to the bottom of the intercooler and one bolted to the bottom of the fan then both bolted together. This allows the fan to be dropped out the bottom without having to diassemble the whole front of the truck.

I also did something else that is visible in the pics, but I am not saying what. I'll see if anyone notices.

 

[mosesburb]

While I had the front of the truck off to change the auxilliary cooling fans I got a used fender, painted it and installed it. I used flattening agent to match the sheen of my old paint. The color is not exact (it is actually a whole lot closer than this pic shows), but it is pretty close considering what I had to work with. After a summer or two it should be good.

It's funny, I had this fender on for less than thirty hours before it got dragged through the brush and scratched to pieces. That part of the deal was a perfect match. ::

I did something else too...

 

[azblazer]

Wow...no dents! Not gonna recognise the old gurl...

 

[folkenheath]

Nice pictures, and good work.

I was thinking, it's obvious, you changed the fender! Then I realized it was something besides the fender. How about that shiny pipe on the building behind the fence? Or the new u-bolts on the drivers side of the front axle? How come the parking light is loose behind the front bumper? ha ha

 

[mosesburb]

Wow...no dents! Not gonna recognise the old gurl...

The dents are still in every other panel on the truck, so it shouldn't be too tough to recognize.

Nice pictures, and good work.

Thanks!!

I was thinking, it's obvious, you changed the fender! Then I realized it was something besides the fender. How about that shiny pipe on the building behind the fence? Or the new u-bolts on the drivers side of the front axle? How come the parking light is loose behind the front bumper? ha ha

Shiny pipe is not my creation. Like they did not have a saw or something?? Jeez. U-bolts went in with the axle whenever it went in. They got a nice wash-job in the snow and sleet and rain and hail so they look shiny. Parking light is loose because the bumper was going back on in that pic and had not been installed yet.

The dirtier the fender gets, the better it matches.

 

[folkenheath]

OK, well al my guesses failed so someone else will have to guess what else you did. I'm sure you did it well whatever you did.

 

[y5mgisi]

Intake? Rear heat/ac? New intercooler mounts?

 

[mosesburb]

No intake, already has rear a/c, no need for rear heat in this desert, same intercooler mounts as before.

 

[y5mgisi]

The grill bezel?

 

[mosesburb]

Yeah, that got replaced with a used piece when I did the fender, but not what I was referring to.

 

[y5mgisi]

Or the shocks?

 

[mosesburb]

No, they've been on there for a couple/few years.

 

[y5mgisi]

Bagh! Ok well then I give up!

 

[ashman]

new dual batteries?

 

[mosesburb]

Nope, those went in during the conversion.