shovelbill
Observer
with all these deep water fording snorkel equipped vehicles i read about, only once so far have i hear anything mentioned about the fan :Wow1:.........nobody ever mentions the breathers down under either, why is that? :snorkel:
I bought this Suburban early January on Craigslist.
It’s an 1989 half ton with a 350 engine (5.7L V8) 4 speed auto with overdrive and TBI
I wanted to get a ¾ ton but got a good deal on this one, because it has a rebuilt engine and transmission both with less than 30k miles on them. Maybe doing an axle swap in the feature? Also I wanted a red one with grey interior.
I have owned a 2000 Dodge Durango before that I modified as my overland vehicle but used it as a trade in to buy a Dodge challenger. I have been to Yellowstone with it and many other camping and road trips. However it was a little too small to sleep 2 people and haul all our gear (I am 6’7”).
I always liked the older body style Suburbans (1973-1991) and have had an 86 ¾ ton suburban that I just sold. I used that one mainly for hauling fire wood and large materials.
I chose the 89 to 91 model suburbans above any other year because it has TBI (the fuel injection gets me about 2 to 4 miles more than my 86), has overdrive and has the newer grille and some newer interior and these are the last years with solid axels.
Here is a picture from when I bought it.
This is after I did some modifications.
I took the ski box off, took the running boards off (better clearance) and installed 2 Bully aluminum steps up front so my wife can get in. Took off the ugly spoiler and installed a LED 3rd brake light.
This picture is from late January
I bought black 17” rims and 33”Dean mud terrain tires (just in time before the snow), also got a 2nd battery for dual battery set up. (still have to get everything hooked up and decide what system to use)
Future modification I plan on doing:
-finish dual battery setup
-winch bumper with brush guard
-12000 pound winch
-rear bumper with gas can mount and tire carrier
-custom full size roof rack
-4” suspension lift
-Snorkel (like the Suburban in Dante's Peak)
-Fog lights, spot lights and backup lights
-emergency lights (as I am a volunteer fire fighter and will be using this as a rescue rig also)
-upgrade the front bench seat to bucket seats
-and who knows what else
I will post pictures and keep you guys updated of the progress.
It will be slow as I have limited money and time to work on it.
There is lots of great info on this site and I am glad I found it, (I wish I knew all this when I build my Durango) thanks to everyone for sharing this…
So here is the 3rd brake light I installed it is nothing fancy but works great and looks like it is supposed to be there.
It is an LED light, that I took it off an 92-99 model Suburban at pull-a-part and paid only 2 dollars for it. This light can also be found on some other GM vehicles, so pretty much every junk yard will have one.
The installation was fairly easy, I drilled 3 holes, one for the wires and one on each side of the light for the mounting screws. On the bottom of the light is a gasket to seal it to the roof, I coated that and the screws with some silicone sealant to make sure it does not leak around the holes.
Then I grounded the negative wire to the frame and the positive to the right brake light wire. Right now it works but it will flash when you turn on the right blinker because there is only one wire for both the brakes and blinker so I have to find out where the brake light switch is located and then wire it to there instead of the light.
with all these deep water fording snorkel equipped vehicles i read about, only once so far have i hear anything mentioned about the fan :Wow1:.........nobody ever mentions the breathers down under either, why is that? :snorkel:
I got the Safari snorkel for the FJ80. I know I will have to do a lot more modifications for it to be useful but at least it will look cool until I get that all done.
I'm guessing you already know a snorkel is not all that is needed for fording, or heavy dust environment.