General vehicle thread

[Martinjmpr]

Martinjpr great summary. One nagging thing on my 05 is the bulbs in the switches, AC and the radio are going out.
I also heard the trans can be rebuilt into the stronger version by swapping out the sun gear when doing the clutches etc.

Im at 100k and the front suspension will need some love, but if uou are handy Moog offers an almost complete kit for $500. Will do it if I decide to stick with it, car ADD is a thing though.

BTW, would love to see the lift you did. Got pics?

This is how she sits now. Tires are 33's (285/75/16.) I have a set of 2" lift spacers for the rear springs I'm thinking of putting on since it still sags a bit too much for my taste.

Suburban small.jpg

Mine came with every option I wanted (which was almost all of them) and none of the ones I didn't (sunroof, 2nd row captains chairs and DVD player.) It has the towing package, leather seats, G80 rear locker, rear AC and heat, premium sound (although I replaced the head unit with one that has Bluetooth) etc. It does have some rust on the frame courtesy of it spending its first 8 years on Wisconsin.

If you get one, the absolutely FIRST thing you need to do is make sure you can get the spare tire down. Most of the GMT800's used an unholy contraption called a "secondary latch" that will often rust shut and 100% prevent you from removing your spare. Even if you cut the cable holding the spare in, it still won't come down. I had to take an angle grinder and grind off one of the sides of the "bell" holding the spare in place and then catch it as it fell. I replaced it with a spare tire hoist that has no "secondary latch."

The good news is that I discovered this on a sunny day in my driveway, and not in the middle of a blizzard by the side of the road at night. But be warned!

[SideShow Bob]

Deleted, Danged double post I say there, are you listening to me there son ?

[SideShow Bob]

If you get one, the absolutely FIRST thing you need to do is make sure you can get the spare tire down. Most of the GMT800's used an unholy contraption called a "secondary latch" that will often rust shut and 100% prevent you from removing your spare. Even if you cut the cable holding the spare in, it still won't come down. I had to take an angle grinder and grind off one of the sides of the "bell" holding the spare in place and then catch it as it fell. I replaced it with a spare tire hoist that has no "secondary latch."

The good news is that I discovered this on a sunny day in my driveway, and not in the middle of a blizzard by the side of the road at night. But be warned!

^^^This^^^ I?ve read some horror stories about people having not been able to get the spare down/off when needed.
And yet, I procrastinated another summer & fall away without putting the fix on my 06 GMC 1500.
Here?s a you tube video to explain it better if you are having a hard time wrapping your mind around the problem.



Tell me if you think this guy reminds of you of Foghorn Leghorn.......

[Martinjmpr]

^^^This^^^ I?ve read some horror stories about people having not been able to get the spare down/off when needed.
And yet, I procrastinated another summer & fall away without putting the fix on my 06 GMC 1500.
Here?s a you tube video to explain it better if you are having a hard time wrapping your mind around the problem.



Tell me if you think this guy reminds of you of Foghorn Leghorn.......

Yeah, he does!

The only thing I would quibble about is whether this was something that was "mandated by the government." I doubt it. I owned 4 other vehicles that had a nearly identical hoist/ratchet system for lowering and raising the spare tire (99 Ford Ranger, 99 4runner, 04 Tacoma and 07 4runner) and NONE of them had any kind of "secondary latch."

The secondary latch is supposed to keep the spare tire from falling to the road if the cable breaks, but I've never heard of that being a serious problem on other vehicles that don't have the secondary latch so I'm not sure why GM put it on there. And the replacement part - which came from GM - is absolutely identical to the original EXCEPT it has no secondary latch.