Campy, 3 pages no time and you are getting overloaded with info. Keep this in mind, you said you wanted off road comfort, overlanding, forest road capable, not full blown rock crawler. I may be burned at the stake around here as a heritic for saying this, but you don't need to swap to 52's up front or cross over steering to get the goals you want for ride quality.
Get Tuff Country springs or spring for the ORD custom stuff. Do a shackle flip out back with the stock 52's out back. Spring for the bilstiens. Get the raised steering arm for the front 10bolt and get ORD swaybar disconnects. The disconnects pull if you want, but really do a great job in correcting the angle the sway bar sits at with 4" springs. With the angle corrected the sway bar works like it's supposed to.
It's a proven setup for sure, simple and effective. Outside of the front springs it's how I've got my new 91 setup. I do need to upgrade the shocks for sure though. Now if you want more proof to the overlanding ability, look at Larry's K10 and see where he's been across the desert southwest with it. IIRC he's running tuff country's now, but was running skyjacker softrides before. I've ridden shotgun in this truck on and off road and can attest to the almost supple ride quality on the road for a 8,000 pound rig (truck/camper + gear). Off road with the tires aired down it's just stuck to the ground. Since the camper was put in, I don't think I can recall him ever getting stuck. But he's pretty smart behind the wheel too. He needs to upgrade shocks as they begin to fade pretty rapidly after 30-45 minutes off pavement in the desert. Still, for stock length springs up front and push/pull steering he's not had a need or want to go cross over. No bumpsteer, no death wobble. It's a very nice solid truck at 80mph on the highway or creeping along in low range.
The whole goal is to drive out to the fun, spend a week or more off pavement in some awesome country with some techincal trails and then drive back.
You don't have spend more money to start getting into the tradeoffs that each addtional modification brings. Going 52's up front dictates loss of swaybar and you have to run cross over. Well if it's still a 1/2 ton with a 10b you got to find a D44 right side knuckle to get machined or buy one already done. Don't forget probably needing to change the upper shock mounts out for the extended travel the 52's are going to give. The MAW bug will bite you worse when you start moving away from a factory design. Each step adds up to more moolah to spend.
Let's keep it realistic too, as far as the actuall installation of these items. I've read through a few of your threads and if I understand right from your struggles on getting the NV4500 reinstalled in your other truck you are doing this stuff outside on a dirt driveway. Weather is a factor. As a fellow driveway builder (garage is too full to play inside here) I've got to plan my work around the weather and what I can effectively get done in the driveway. Big stuff, I coordinate time in the Bigassgas Garage over at Larry's place. Timed right with help, we've accomplished a full lift with front springs/rear flip in a weekend to swapping my blown 6 banger out of my trailblazer in the same time. What I'm getting to is that going with stock length springs is much easier to accomplish in the driveway. The shackle flip is bear as you'll be cutting rivets out and pulling the rear tank might be required, but it's been done. I'm not saying you can't do 52's up front in a driveway as others have done it, but your time to completion is going to be quicker if you limit the need for major changes.
Keeping in that mind of sticking with what you got, you don't NEED a D60 to do what you want to do. I've wheeled the piss out of my D44 and haven't had a problem when it was left open. Still followed right behind Larry when he was running the tru-trac and Detroit in his. Up until that NOS surplus CUCV D60 fell in his lap a couple of years ago he did multiple desert runs, mountain runs with his D44 equipped with the tru-trac. He just wheels smart, no heavy right foot.
One last thought on the need for cross over steering.. For stock to mild lifts used in mild off road and pavement, it's done just fine. Yes it's limited if you really cross the front axle up since the drag link ends up a big angle effectivly killing steering in one direction. But for what you want to do, forest roads, mild off roading I don't think the expense and modifications required to go to cross over makes sense. Look at it this way did Big Blue do what you wanted on the Yooper trip? By what you said earlier it did. The Suburban is the same, you just want to give it a little clearance for some more agressive/larger tread and take you to the same type of places. Sure if somebody else is paying for the build it's great to say get 52's, go cross over and this, that and anything else that is the thing to have on a top shelf build. Do your cost/benefit review of the suggested modifications that have been listed out and I think you'll see you can get the ride you want without spending a mint on major changes. Spend wisely on the springs and shocks and you'll get what you were looking for.
Get Tuff Country springs or spring for the ORD custom stuff. Do a shackle flip out back with the stock 52's out back. Spring for the bilstiens. Get the raised steering arm for the front 10bolt and get ORD swaybar disconnects. The disconnects pull if you want, but really do a great job in correcting the angle the sway bar sits at with 4" springs. With the angle corrected the sway bar works like it's supposed to.
It's a proven setup for sure, simple and effective. Outside of the front springs it's how I've got my new 91 setup. I do need to upgrade the shocks for sure though. Now if you want more proof to the overlanding ability, look at Larry's K10 and see where he's been across the desert southwest with it. IIRC he's running tuff country's now, but was running skyjacker softrides before. I've ridden shotgun in this truck on and off road and can attest to the almost supple ride quality on the road for a 8,000 pound rig (truck/camper + gear). Off road with the tires aired down it's just stuck to the ground. Since the camper was put in, I don't think I can recall him ever getting stuck. But he's pretty smart behind the wheel too. He needs to upgrade shocks as they begin to fade pretty rapidly after 30-45 minutes off pavement in the desert. Still, for stock length springs up front and push/pull steering he's not had a need or want to go cross over. No bumpsteer, no death wobble. It's a very nice solid truck at 80mph on the highway or creeping along in low range.
The whole goal is to drive out to the fun, spend a week or more off pavement in some awesome country with some techincal trails and then drive back.
You don't have spend more money to start getting into the tradeoffs that each addtional modification brings. Going 52's up front dictates loss of swaybar and you have to run cross over. Well if it's still a 1/2 ton with a 10b you got to find a D44 right side knuckle to get machined or buy one already done. Don't forget probably needing to change the upper shock mounts out for the extended travel the 52's are going to give. The MAW bug will bite you worse when you start moving away from a factory design. Each step adds up to more moolah to spend.
Let's keep it realistic too, as far as the actuall installation of these items. I've read through a few of your threads and if I understand right from your struggles on getting the NV4500 reinstalled in your other truck you are doing this stuff outside on a dirt driveway. Weather is a factor. As a fellow driveway builder (garage is too full to play inside here) I've got to plan my work around the weather and what I can effectively get done in the driveway. Big stuff, I coordinate time in the Bigassgas Garage over at Larry's place. Timed right with help, we've accomplished a full lift with front springs/rear flip in a weekend to swapping my blown 6 banger out of my trailblazer in the same time. What I'm getting to is that going with stock length springs is much easier to accomplish in the driveway. The shackle flip is bear as you'll be cutting rivets out and pulling the rear tank might be required, but it's been done. I'm not saying you can't do 52's up front in a driveway as others have done it, but your time to completion is going to be quicker if you limit the need for major changes.
Keeping in that mind of sticking with what you got, you don't NEED a D60 to do what you want to do. I've wheeled the piss out of my D44 and haven't had a problem when it was left open. Still followed right behind Larry when he was running the tru-trac and Detroit in his. Up until that NOS surplus CUCV D60 fell in his lap a couple of years ago he did multiple desert runs, mountain runs with his D44 equipped with the tru-trac. He just wheels smart, no heavy right foot.
One last thought on the need for cross over steering.. For stock to mild lifts used in mild off road and pavement, it's done just fine. Yes it's limited if you really cross the front axle up since the drag link ends up a big angle effectivly killing steering in one direction. But for what you want to do, forest roads, mild off roading I don't think the expense and modifications required to go to cross over makes sense. Look at it this way did Big Blue do what you wanted on the Yooper trip? By what you said earlier it did. The Suburban is the same, you just want to give it a little clearance for some more agressive/larger tread and take you to the same type of places. Sure if somebody else is paying for the build it's great to say get 52's, go cross over and this, that and anything else that is the thing to have on a top shelf build. Do your cost/benefit review of the suggested modifications that have been listed out and I think you'll see you can get the ride you want without spending a mint on major changes. Spend wisely on the springs and shocks and you'll get what you were looking for.
).
so I guess I'm one of the odd balls lol
