Papasmurf's not a tundra off-road "budget" build

Hey everyone!

So many of you are familiar with my work and shenanigans.

Well, I'm at it again, but this time something a little different...

Some back story on how this project came about.

I have a vacation condo in parker az, and a bunch of our family and friends also have condos, in the last two years, we decided to expand our uses past summer river fun to winter off-roading fun. I now am making yearly Parker 425 race trips as well as offroading weekends with friends. There are tons of trails, open desert and fun to be had. SOOOOOO... a bunch of our friends don't really have vehicles that support this shenanary, so I'm building something to fill the gap.

This started when a friend of ours rolled up in this.. an older ford explorer chopped up...its simple but freakin fun! Even though its a ford LOL




And this gave me an idea, how about that, but bigger...

So the search began. And I ended with this...

A 97 GMC K2500 Suburban 4x4 with a 454 big block.

I got it on a steal in running condition for 500$

so now the plan, parts and what I'll be doing.....

First was obvious a lift, wheels, and tires. Being a GM product there's tons of crap out there and much cheaper than what we are used to. After a bunch of reading and searching, I settled on this kit.

https://www.roughcountry.com/gm-sus...2500-k2500-suburban-4wd-396164&sid=Dtot02f3BJ

1000$ for a 6" drop bracket lift kit... this will help me clear big tires, comes with some nice shocks and remember this is for family and kids to ride in not go fast just cruise along in the dirt. I also added the RC steering damper kit. Due to the install of this kit, I have to mod the stock exhaust, so I'll be building a custom exhaust for it as well, nothing too crazy just a few Flowmaster mufflers and shorter pipes but I'll post pics as I build it.

For wheels and tires, I thought 37's should be good but didn't want to spend a bunch of $ so started some research and came up with this...

37 Goodyear wrangler Humvee tires. Got this whole set mounted on steel wheels for 200$ the damn tires are almost new... easy to find and cheap. SO yeah heres the shoes!


with the simple stuff out of the way time to address the maintenance items to get this truck running strong and reliable

Went on rock auto and started shopping... ended up with this stuff
Full tune-up kit (Plugs, Wires, fuel filter, coil, and distributor)
All new 02 sensors
All new ball joints
new pitman arm
new idler arm
new tie rods inner/outer
a couple of new sensors
all Energy suspension bushings for leafs, shackles and UCA and LCA bushings


Now onto the interior... let's face it, it's trashed, so the plan is off road seats. I found these for the front driver and passenger, for now, the rears will be stock seats with 4 point harnesses and a custom harness bar for all three rows


eventually, I'll replace those with 3 person PRP custom bench offroad seats, but those are not a rush...

gonna strip the carpet and panels out and Bedliner the whole inside, and the doors are coming off and I'm going to be custom fabbing half tube doors. like this...



as far as other stuff, I have some spare light bars and other lights I'll be adding on custom tube bumpers I will make too...

So that's my new project. I'm starting this weekend all the parts are here and ready to go. I'll update the thread with pics as I go along. Hope you all enjoy my non-Toyota project and thread.

Later,
Bruce
Savage Fabrication

 

I can't wait to see how this truck turns out.

 

hahaha thanks fellas, its gonna be not the prettiest girl at the party, but she will know how to party LOL

 

And a stump puller.

 

is there anything else LOL

 

That will be worth the family memories for sure! Cant wait to see the progression

 

tag !

 

Those old white burbs remind me of the harrison ford movie “clear and present danger”

Gonna be a sweet sweet project! The 2500 running gear on those trucks is very stout

 

Looks awesome... Great project.

 

yeah thats what lead me to it... i did some research before buying to make sure i was getting something that would hold up to some stupid abuse from drunken idiots off road

 

sounds like you're going down the same road me and my friends went down
01 tahoe 5.3 on 6" RC bracket lift with 35s. rolled it back in november of 2017 and decided to cut the roof off and fab up a cage in may this year. snaps cv axles like they're nothing but we can replace one in about 10 minutes now cuase of how many times we had to do it at an event

 

DDUUUDEEE That is awesome...

 

Ohhhh i totally forgot to add Ill be making custom rock sliders for it as well... cause well the truck will be high af and needs a step and also why not make them functional and useful

 

Now this should be fun!

 

it could be more awesome. right now it doesn't have the power to spin those 35s up a steep grade in 4WD. needs a running start majority of the time (which is a lot of fun but also the reason why we snap CVs). the rear suspension is a little too soft, found that out at the base camp while trying to carry around 14 people. and the old side steps get hung up on stuff too much and are falling apart but have saved the doors more than a few times

 

Its a lot of fun. my friend got it when he was 16 cause his mom wanted a jeep and knew he liked driving it. as soon as he got it him and his dad went to work and got it lifted with new wheels and tires and a flow master super 40. coolest truck in the school parking lot till he rolled it with all of us in it then we saw there was an off roading event coming up so we pulled it out of storage and got to cutting. he plans on fixing all the body panels but now we get drunk pretty often and go bomb around in the farm fields right out of his back yard so progress is slow to say the least

 

Bracket lift, huh..

 

The torsion bar suspension isn’t capable of out driving the bracket lift.

Another option would be cutting the fenders off and fabbing up some jeep style flat fenders with tube

 

It's a truck that cost $500 with a little more spent to put some military surplus tires on it; I don't think the point was to spend a lot of money on going fast or being able to crawl with tube buggies. Nor is he proclaiming a drop bracket to offer an increase in travel.

 

@Spvrtan ’s joke




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Everyone’s heads

 

Like this?

 

exactly that

 

Yup for a mild off road build for wheeling w children on fire roads its perfect ... and remember I wheeled a bds kit long and hard before you came along .. they have limits