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The Story Of A Cummins Suburban (Lots Of Pics)

ah, rubber flooring. I thought that "carpet" looked awfully clean for what I know you do with your burb. lol I like what you did with the seatbelts too.
 
ah, rubber flooring. I thought that "carpet" looked awfully clean for what I know you do with your burb. lol I like what you did with the seatbelts too.

I despise carpet in vehicles. I have scraped and scratched clay-like mud out of carpet in other vehicles I have and wished they had rubber floors in them so when I planned this truck out, carpet was never a consideration. Now, with that said, I am planning out some interior mods that may involve some automotive carpeting for covering, but not where shoes/feet will get to it.
 
I went through the "4th door" recently. I replaced the window run channel, the belt moldings, the run in the division bar, cleaned and lubed the regulator and added some sound deadener to the inside of the quater panel and the inside of the interior metal. It turned out good. The metal has a real dull thump instead of the sheetmetal sound. While I had the seat out, I decided that having the ability to put a smaller seat in the back would be a good thing. The bench is nice, but when we are rolling out with just the three of us, we don't need a whole bench seat in back there. I had shopped for a single bucket to match the fronts a few times since I bought the front seats, but had never even seen a similar pattern, much less the same seat. This time I lucked out--sort of. I found a bucket seat that matched the front seats in style and fabric. The drawback was it was a little dirty.

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Now nobody in their right mind would buy this, much less pay full price for it, but I did for the reasons stated above. The front seats I have now were pretty nasty when I got them (not quite as bad as this one) and they cleaned up almost perfectly, so I knew this one would clean up pretty good. Now, I forgot to take a picture of it, but you can see in this pic the seat is pretty bright. There is only a small area that still retains a very slight discoloration--very slight. Very impressive that a seat that funky could get even remotely clean, much less almost spotless.

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This will give me room to trasport the fridge here instead of in back. I need to figure out a mounting system that does not require drilling more holes in the floor.

I picked up a laptop to run navigation programs on. It is a little Acer 10.1" that I have OziExplorer and Delorme Topo programs on. I then needed to come up with a laptop mount. Lance turned me on to a company called Jeniko. This company does mounts for industrial applications, but has some fantastic prices. If you have ever shopped for laptop mounts, you know something simple is a ton of money. I bought a floor mounted unit that had a six-hole mount that screwed to the floor. I don't like sheetmetal screws so I was going to use nuts and bolts. A problem arose when I looked under the body where the bolts were going to come through and found they were going to come through inside a body reinforcement channel with no way to put nuts on the bolts. I can use the sheetmetal screws, but I don't want to. I came up with a different idea that required no holes to be drilled in the floor. I made a bracket out of 1/4" flat stock and mounted it to the passenger seat frame with some 3/8-16 header bolts. Then I was able to drop the laptop base into it and go from there.

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Once I got the upright in the bracket I found the second arm was not going to be long enough for what I was doing. I picked up a couple pieces of aluminum rems at the steel yard and one of them fit the bill nicely. I countersunk a socket head capscrew in it and made my own nut apparatus for the computer end and it worked out nicely.

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The computer can be easily rotated for the passenger to view the screen.

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In this pic you can see my mounting solution for the fridge on the floor.

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A closer pic of it.

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A little on the simple side, but it works great. I hook ratchet straps in the holes and run them around the ends of the fridge and hook them on the seat brackets on the passenger side. No movement whatsoever. It mounts into a seat bracket hole for the bench seat, so no new holes.
 
I like your "keep my 205 shifter quiet solution". :waytogo:

Pretty nice eh?? I forget where we were, but that was all I had within reach to silence the monster. It goes away when I grease the pivot bolt, but then restarts again after awhile, so I just leave that on there. Maybe I should actually fix the problem. Maybe I should just get a tan one?? :haha:
 
Ok I am confused, 205 shifter noise? It may just be the rest of the noise from my rotted carcas, but I have never had an issues with noise from my 205 shifter.

By the way, I like the work you are doing and of course I love that you are still using it.
 
I like your "keep my 205 shifter quiet solution". :waytogo:
lol, I noticed that too. :D

I like how you mounted the laptop. I hate drilling new holes in the floor and running the mount off of the seat bracket is a great solution. I've only had my welder a short time, so I still forget that those kind of solutions are possible for me now. seeing other people doing it helps me with ideas of my own. :thumb:
 
Any thoughts to a cable crimper brand (Pliers or hydro pliers) ?

No. I use one of those staking tools that you smack with a hammer. It works great and is easily stored. At one of the stores we had one of those crimpers that looks like a set of bolt cutters. It worked ok, but I did not like the appearance of the lug when finished. It was functional, but more de-formed looking than I care for. The staking tool does a nice job and the lug looks good when finished. It's all about the looks, right??

Ok I am confused, 205 shifter noise? It may just be the rest of the noise from my rotted carcas, but I have never had an issues with noise from my 205 shifter.

Some do and some don't. The later trucks had a different knob that weighs a pound or two. Real heavy compared to the old knobs and the shifter was thicker, heavier and straight. These traits help dampen vibrations through the stick. Mine is not too bad (I've dealt with much worse), but the truck is pretty quiet inside (all things being considered) and the noise was grating on my nerves. I have a plan to deal with it to eliminate the vibration damper (A.K.A. bungee cord), but as with everything, it seems I am drawn to more important things.

By the way, I like the work you are doing and of course I love that you are still using it.

Thanks. It is nice to be able to use it for what I built it to do.

lol, I noticed that too. :D

I like how you mounted the laptop. I hate drilling new holes in the floor and running the mount off of the seat bracket is a great solution. I've only had my welder a short time, so I still forget that those kind of solutions are possible for me now. seeing other people doing it helps me with ideas of my own. :thumb:

Yeah, I try everything I can to not drill more holes in the floor. Sometimes it is unavoidable, but whenever possible, iwill try to find a plan B or C or J, Q or Z.

Having a welder does indeed open up a whole new realm of possibilities. For many years, everything I did was bolted together. I had access to any kind of welder I needed (MIG, TIG, stick and gas), but they were not HERE. I had to travel to use them. A couple of them were at work, so that was no big deal as I went there anyway, but having them here and ready to go makes life a whole lot easier and quicker.
 
Ah that might be the difference, mine is a fairly heavy straight stick. Keep it up, I always enjoy seeing your updates.
 
I like the old wack a mole cable crimper myself...however the po of the Jimmy added a aux battery along with a big ole rotary switch to isolate said batteries and since he errored and used a drivers side aux tray from a 98 gm product....which of course i had to replace and make it right....there is a cable reach issue. Was thinking the big ole bolt cutter style would save some time in the repair process as Dave has his hands full swapping all the 79's parts into the new Jimmy.
 
I like the old wack a mole cable crimper myself...however the po of the Jimmy added a aux battery along with a big ole rotary switch to isolate said batteries and since he errored and used a drivers side aux tray from a 98 gm product....which of course i had to replace and make it right....there is a cable reach issue. Was thinking the big ole bolt cutter style would save some time in the repair process as Dave has his hands full swapping all the 79's parts into the new Jimmy.

Well, I'd offer to help with the cable fab, but I am booked up for the next month or so. Hell, it would be three weeks before I could get to the supply house for the cable. BUT, if this works for you, get me some dimensions and specs and I'll whip up a set for you.
 
Here is the deal, I am waaay behind on posting pics of pretty much everything, but we did a run of about 370 miles this past weekend and I decided to post the pics. Now normally, I spend a fair bit of time editing the pictures for this or that, but this time I decided not to edit them as I take too long to do that, thus not posting them for a long time, so here are my un-edited trip photos.

This is near the start heading down Perkinsville Road. That is Sycamore Canyon off in the distance there:

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A short while later we came to the Perkinsville Bridge over the Verde River. This is Lance's Suburban rolling across it:

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A short distance after that, we came to a small bridge that crossed this little wash:

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This truck is sooo cool:

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This truck is cool too (even though it has one of those stinky gas engines in it):

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Some scenery viewed off the west side of a shelf road. Probably looking north of Paulden here (just an approximate guess)

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Shortly after that we were treated toa HAM radio display by the trail leader Mark. Lance and Brian also contributed valuable information to the demonstration:

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Shortly after this, we stopped for lunch and were treated to a tear down of Mark's very impressive first aid pack by our resident ICU RN/wilderness EMT Lance. All of the contents were shown and the pros and cons of each and their uses were discussed. VERY valuable information was presented by Lance and Mark. They dispelled many myths and half-truths about necessary contents for first aid kits.

We saw quite a few nice meadows/praries on the drive. I was surprised at how green everything was up there:

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Lookout tower atop Round Mountain:

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Nice view to the east off of the tower. Sycamore Canyon:

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JD cabin:

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A neat old stew can at the cabin site:

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After we left here we went over to Pomeroy Tanks. They were a neat series of pools in a small canyon. Unfortunately it started raining a little when we arrived, so I decided to leave the camera in the dry truck. We were not but a few hundred feet down the trail and the rain stopped and I missed the opportunity for some great shots there. Maybe someone else got some?? Anyways, after hiking out to the tanks and back, most of the group rolled out headed to points unknown, but being that Lance and I (and my boy) were far from home and rarely miss a chance for some camping, we headed down the trail looking for a spot to call home for the night. We went down the road a ways (probably a couple miles) and found a real nice spot to set up camp. It was level, had nice views, nobody around, the basic parameters for a good spot. So we set up shop:

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When we set up, there was a very slight breeze blowing. It really didn't seem like much, but it was a breeze. Well, once the sun started going down that ever-so-slight breeze blew away and left us with totally still air. Not a problem other than the mosquitos came out in force. Now I come from mosquito country and know how evil those tiny creatures are, but I don't think I have EVER seen mosquitos so thick. My palms were literally covered in blood from swatting them off of me, my boy, out of the air etc. It was ridiculous. Unbelievable. Awful. We tried sticking it out, but it was too much for standard humans to handle. We did a quick tear down and headed down the road to somewhere else. While we were driving to somewhere else we drove past miles and miles of sunflowers:

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We eventually found somewhere else and it was a great place:

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We hung out by the fire and shut it off later to watch the meteor shower. Got to see a few good ones before retiring to bed. We got up the next morning and headed out to the Lava River Cave:

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It is really dark in there and much climbing and balancing is required, so I did not drag my camera with--this time (been thinking about next time...). We hiked/climbed in about half way, seeing some really neat things along the way. We got out of the cave and headed down the trail and aired up when we got to 180. We rolled into Flagstaff and refueled at a Subway, then pointed the trucks down the big hill toward home. On the way we saw a neat spot of rain in the west end of the Verde Valley:

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There was a definite beginning and end to it. Pretty neat. We continued down the hill and the air continued to get warmer and warmer until finally metal was too hot to touch and we realized we were back home already.

It was a fantastic trip and the last hurrah before my boy went back to school today.
 
I would like to thank sponsoredbydad for the nomination for GM Truck Of The Month. I received an email from a friend letting me know my truck was nominated in case I didn't know. That is very cool. Thank you!!
 
AHA! Another fine weekend trip. I have been following your adventures for a while now and the funny thing is I have always read your name as moosesburb but now I see it's not with 2 o's. So now I gotta know is your name moses? Your welcome for the nomination I just hope enough people think your rig is as cool as I do.
 
I love these trips you take...:waytogo::waytogo:
 
AHA! Another fine weekend trip. I have been following your adventures for a while now and the funny thing is I have always read your name as moosesburb but now I see it's not with 2 o's. So now I gotta know is your name moses? Your welcome for the nomination I just hope enough people think your rig is as cool as I do.

Meh, win or lose, I still consider it cool. It's an old truck that fits my style and takes me to fun places and the fact that it got nominated and got the votes it has gotten is really cool by me. In my opinion, the only award to win is a people's choice award and that is what this is 100%.

No, not Moses. It is a long story, but it dates back to a Fuddruckers in Milwaukee years ago and a healthy lack of creativity when creating a username..

I love these trips you take...:waytogo::waytogo:

Thanks!! Me too!!

I always follow along .:thumb: :popcorn:

Hope you're enjoying the ride!!
 
Great pictures as always :bow:

One of my favorite builds here, I always look forward to seeing pics from your latest trips, and you got a vote from me as well :waytogo:
 
Makes me wonder where time has gone. I am getting jealous...missing out on all the wanderings i used to do with zilla.

I don't think i can field a ride until next summer though. Paying up the 16k i owe for this year in taxes....jimmy build...dodge injectors...etc. is holding me back.

What are your thoughts on those townhouses on the corner of 43rd and greenway...or is it thundybird heading to your place...NE corner? They look just like my old place on 43rd and northern. Thought process is 5th wheel toyhauler for here.....and then an affordable townhouse for there and call life good. Just thinkin out loud right now.

Next big thought is a cascadia vehicle tent for the jimmy or have a chalet camper restored as a one off for the jimmy by coyote rv in denver....i find it rather hard after all these years to Not have a K5 with a camper...

The night camping picture is very moving....i think cam and justin would have a blast...

DW
 

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