04 Tahoe Z71 Project

[LTG515]

I’ve been posting my progress in a Tahoe forum, but figured I’d also share here for anyone interested.

Here’s the link and I’ll start updating here from now on too.

04 Tahoe Z71 Project

04 Tahoe Z71 Project

Thought I would slap together a little thread for the work I’ve been doing, and will be doing, on my 04 Tahoe Z71. I got it with 142k miles on it as a daily driver and am wanting to turn it into a light off roader. I don’t have any pictures of it stock when I first got it, but I had to replace...

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[rayra]

welcome aboard. Looks like a good start. There's a lot of GMT800 owners here. You'll find a lot of useful info in the 'hey vortec guys' link in my sig, as well as links to about 25-30 other GMT800 owners' build topic in this forum

 

[LTG515]

Thanks! It’s been a fun project so far and a surprisingly capable vehicle.


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[Jacobm]

Looking forward to seeing more pictures of the sliders, I'd like to put something more substantial than the stock running boards on my Yukon but I'm short and I like having the step. Looks like a fun rig!

 

[LTG515]

Looking forward to seeing more pictures of the sliders, I'd like to put something more substantial than the stock running boards on my Yukon but I'm short and I like having the step. Looks like a fun rig!

Does the link work? I tried linking the other forum but when I clicked on it, it didn’t seem to work.

Here are the sliders though. I’ll be plating in the kick out portion and painting it all black. Likely going to be running a 0 degree angle so I can utilize them as a step as well.

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[Jacobm]

Yupp, I read through your thread. I'm excited to see them mounted up, I'll probably go with a similar design. I'm not sure if anyone I know has a tube bender or notcher though, so I'll have to go make some new friends I suppose.

 

[LTG515]

Yupp, I read through your thread. I'm excited to see them mounted up, I'll probably go with a similar design. I'm not sure if anyone I know has a tube bender or notcher though, so I'll have to go make some new friends I suppose.

Haha yea I hear you on that. For my bumper I had my brother in law help me and for the sliders, I found a guy on OfferUp who makes sliders for Tacoma’s and 4runners. I basically just told him that I like the design he does and asked if he could make that in the length I needed. Not sure where you’re located but OfferUp was a good resource for me for the sliders.


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[rayra]

One caution, the front inner tie rod ends. They're spindly little things. 1/2"O.D. Look to beef those up. I went cheap with sleeves. But there are some big forged parts that are supposed to be much better. Cost about 5x-6x more, too. But the first time you put a wheel crossways in an erosion ditch with too much vehicle momentum behind it, they're probably gonna bend.

 

[LTG515]

One caution, the front inner tie rod ends. They're spindly little things. 1/2"O.D. Look to beef those up. I went cheap with sleeves. But there are some big forged parts that are supposed to be much better. Cost about 5x-6x more, too. But the first time you put a wheel crossways in an erosion ditch with too much vehicle momentum behind it, they're probably gonna bend.

Ok great advice! I’ll look into getting those stronger


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[XJLI]

I have the sleeves, theyre definitely good insurance. I'd rather carry a spare set of OEM ones than buy the Cognito or whatever aftermarket brand that cost like $600 a pair. Takes only a few minutes to swap out, and you REALLY have to beat on them to break em with the sleeves. They usually bend/break where they tread into the outer, I've only seen them bend with the sleeves installed diesel on pulling trucks.

 

[LTG515]

UPDATE:

Sliders are on and am stoked on how they came out! I have them at 0 degrees so that I can use them as a little step as well. I also plated in the back kick out with a hole cut mesh type sheet. Came out nice! You’ll see in the pictures the design we did allowed us to brace the legs as well as clear the parking brake cable and wiring loom. The passenger side was more simple but kept the same support design for strength.

Front driver

Rear driver.

Still need to paint the welds. It was dark and late.

Anyways, real happy with how they came out and will have to put them to the test soon! This is most likely the last major thing I do to the Tahoe for a while.


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[Overlandtowater]

More on that bumper! Sliders look great too.

 

[LTG515]

More on that bumper! Sliders look great too.

What would you like to know? My brother in law helped me fab that up. There aren’t any nice bumpers out there for Tahoe’s, let alone one that kinda fits my style. I wanted to have a little bit of the prerunner look and a little bit of the hybrid bumper style that’s popular now.


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[Overlandtowater]

Just some pics I'm trying to see how others have built their bumpers.

 

[LTG515]

Just some pics I'm trying to see how others have built their bumpers.

So the top tube is mounted to 2 short tubes straight to the frame behind the bumper. You can see the 2 tubes to the frame better on the picture below.

The bottom tube is obviously bent in such a way to mount to the top tube but it’s also on the same plane as where the old tow hooks used to be. To further support the lower tube there are 2 tubes going to the front crossmember. This is also what I have my skid mounted to with tabs. For added strength and to provide a place to plate in the front to give the “hybrid” look, we added 4 vertical tubes.

Then you can kinda see on this picture, we added smaller 1” tubing to the corners of the top tube down to the crossmember for added rigidity. Then painted it all up with bedliner.

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