Even though the IFS was shot, we continued to run the rig as long as we could. This is the last trip she made up to the ranch- when we returned home from this trip, we barely made it. Front end wandering everywhere, engine with 207,000 miles struggling to make enough power to get up the hill to our house, pull into the driveway and she pukes. Last trip she made where she sat parked for months before finally deciding it was time...
We began to grow our family again and grew very excited at the chance to have another child. Unfortunately despite everything the doctors could do, we lost our new baby which was a devastating blow and nearly destroyed our family. At this point struggling to go on even, I decided enough with the idea of the project, sell off everything, including the Suburban and wind up where I may, let the chips fall where they will. Time went on and while we still struggle, I believe we are getting stronger. Once again, my good friends David and Chad at Hired Gun Offroad, and Josh at Baertrax talked some sense into me. They knew my family needed and depended on the rig, they knew it was a bad idea to sell everything off. At some point along the way the idea was mentioned to keep the rig, continue the build and do it up a bit better than originally planned. Rather than just tossing a leaf sprung 60 under like everyone does, why not do it up a bit better than that and make it a sort of "tribute" build for my family in memory of our baby girl. Our 6 year old daughter loves the Suburban and loved the idea so sales ads were pulled and onward I go with new plans once again.
At some point along the way, i stumbled onto a deal to trade for this- it was bone stock when I picked it up, here I've started working on it a bit:
This is a 14 bolt full float from a 2011 model GM 5500 (???) box van I'm told. This axle is a dually version, measuring 74" WMS-WMS, has 4" tubes 11/16" thick, removable pinion support, 10.5" ring gear same as prior FF14s, thick ribbed housing and big disc brakes. I knew immediately with my other gathered parts at this point, this would be a good fit for the Suburban. I wasn't happy with rear drums on my factory '97 14FF and wanted discs anyway. With the deep offset of the 12 bolt H1s, a dually rear meant no spacers needed and a direct bolt on fit for the most part. This seemed like a great idea to move forward on- swap out my existing rear factory 14 for the new 2011 big box van version for some added width and factory equipped discs.
Somewhere along the way I'd gathered a few parts from Ruffstuff as seen here:
Pinion guard, bridge, spring plates, etc. I had some 3/8" plate already and began to form a simple link bridge/truss to the big housing. I hate U-bolts with a passion so I incorporated a few things from Ruffstuff to fit the 70HD/D80 axles as I already had the 70HD from Gus, and they just so happened to be a perfect fit to the big tubes on the 14FF from the box van. I built my own version of a U-bolt delete kit and tied the link bridge/truss to the perches. The Ruffstuff bridge is designed to fit their truss which is too tall for my needs/liking so I cut and modified the bridge to suit a low profile bridge to keep everything tight to the housing. It's not finished yet but I drilled/tapped for ARB and fit a few supports. It will get tied backing plate to backing plate as well and at this point-undecided if I'll fully box it or leave it open. Regardless, here's a bit more progress on that:
Somewhere in between projects this happened:
My little girl wanted to help and as she's only 6, welding is a bit more than I'm comfortable with letting her do regardless of how much she wants to try. Instead, we tore into the 205 to see what needed done inside of it. I thoroughly enjoy the time I get to spend with my little girl, and very much enjoy her help out in the shop. Awesome times I cherish and hold on to that I'll never forget.
More to come...
Best of Luck,
Mike