Trailblazer Build Daily Driver & Overlanding

[karo]

Current:

Chevrolet Trailblazer LTZ 2002
Bought in March 2002
Vehicle Engine: 4.2L I6
Drivetrain:
3.73 4X4 with G80 Locker
Upgraded to the 8.6 rear axle from the TB EXT
Performance Modifications:
Airraid Filter
pcmforless tune
Suspension Modifications:
BDS 2" Suspension lift,
..87 Front Springs
Z71 rear coils,
Airlift 1000 HelperBags in Rear Suspension
Old Man Emu Nitrocharger rear shocks N75 (extended 640mm closed 390mm, Load cont. 250KG per side)
Exterior Modifications:
removed running Boards,
WAAG Center Guard,
Clear Marker Lens with led turn signals,
VisionX Led Lights, Hella Lights on Roof and Front Guard,
H&R Wheel spacers,
Anti Rust protection for Frame and under Body, doors.. (2012)
265/70/17 General Grabber AT2 Tires,
Roof Carrier,
Redline Hood Lift struts,
Mike´s Oil Pan Skidplate
Rear Tire Carrier with HiLift Mount
Winch installed
FireStick II CB Antenna
Installation Solar Panel
Engine Modifications:
Airraid,
Muffler,
(LPG - Liquefied Petroleum Gas) Injection with Tank in Spare Tire Holder under the Car. Runs now with Gasoline and LPG
Interior Modifications:
Hummer H2 Shifter,
Fire extinguishers,
Zenec Head Unit,
LED Dome Lights,
Envoy Gauge Bezel,
Blue Needles (USSPEEDO),
Drawer Unit,
Chrome Interieur Handles,
Albrecht AE 6890 CB Radio
Engel Fridge
Switch Console with Carlington Switches on Dash for Winch & Compressor
Dual Battery Setup
Wiring up Ctek Dual 250 S
Audio/Video Modifications:
In Car Computer (Mac Mini),
Xenarc Display7",
Navilock GPS System,
Zenec 7" Audio System with GPS and rear view camera
Future Modifications:
Tree Sliders
Vision X Led Support Light for Rear View with Water Resistant MagCode Connector

 

[karo]

I wanted more light in the interior and also changed the shifter with the Hummer H2 Version. YES it was a bolt on! A new Headunit was also added

Shifter:

 

[karo]

BDS suspension lift installed with small tires.

After a little accident, i have installed the Waag Front Guard back again and added some hella luminator celis..
(the first one is only a cellphone pic, sorry):

after one leaking BDS shock:

i had upgraded my rear coils with Z71 Coils and old man Emu shocks:

also added some General Grabber AT2 tires:

 

[karo]

The spare tire is now in the back of my cargo area, i had to remove the drawer unit therefore. I´ll be modifying the drawer somehow in the future and installing it back. The tire stands on the left side and is tighten with some straps, picture here:

Some of you know that i had a leaking bds shock. Sending the devective shock back to bds is too expensive from germany. So i had to change the rear shocks and decided to go with some old man emu nitrocharger shocks. Many offroad guys are using them here. The y are compressed shorter than the original shocks and longer when they are extended, which is giving me a better articulation.
Here is a link about the shocks:http://www.rocky-road.com/omeshocks.html
And a Picture of them installed in my Trailblazer:

The roof lights i had installed in the past, had the problem that they were a little to low mounted to spent enough light. This was the installation in the past:

From reading here in the forum about the offroad roof carriers in different types, it was my wish to add one.. But I want the carrier a little bit longer, something like the gobi roof carriers. I researched for some products but they all had the problem that they would be really expensive. From that point i decided to fab my own. My parents had a really old carrier in the garden which was hanging on the back on a garden house.. Oh man that one was so rusty! I took the side parts from the carrier and sanded and grinded that 2 parts and saw that these 2 pieces had the correct length for may carrier. After powder coating them in black these ones are like new! For the crossbars i decided to go with some heavy profiles. For the front crossbar with the lights and the rear crossbar i took these profiles:

For the inner profiles i wanted something stronger and took these ones:

I decided mainly in these profiles because they are so strong that you could stand on them and because they had the chance to mount some nut inside the rails like these:

You can adjust them to any point in the rails where you want and bolt something like this to the rails:

After building the carrier, the problem was how to mount the carrier to the roof?
I came to this solution for the rear:

And to this solution for the front:

These parts are fitting inside the factory roof rails and are bolted thru the factory mounting points:

Here some pictures of the mounted carrier:
View from above

View from the front:

View from inside thru the roof window:

And finally from the left side:

Switch in overhead console for front lights and roof lights:

 

[karo]

I have installed some more gimmicks in the past:

Redline Hood Lift:

Speedometer Bezel from Envoy and blue Needles from USspeedo:

Okay time for some upgrades:
Removed grill guard and front bumper:


and then drilled some holes in the metal front bumper:


after that welded some metal and bolted it to the metal bumper:


then installed the front plastic part of the bumper with some additional holes:


after that installed the WAAG Front Guard back with some holes in it:


and tried to test fit the winch:


The work is still in progress, the Winch could be mounted from below through the Holes from the Carrier.

and after removing the rear bumper:


and drilling some holes in the plastic part of the bumper:


building the rear tire carrier:


work is still in progress.. hopefully at the weekend some more pictures.

Update, rear CB Antenna Mount:


Hella Lights back on the Waag + Winch:


Side shot:

 

[karo]

Short Update:
Added some Vision X Solstice to the Lightbar, and they are much brighter than the Hella´s :excited:
Pictures here:









I´ll take some nightshots later.

Heavy rain today, but i have painted my Zarges Box black. After painting i have installed it to the roof carrier.
The Zarges box is sealed so there comes not water in, it has the Dimension 80cmx60cmx25cm and is srewed from inside the box to the carrier.
Here are some pictures (only cellphone) of the work i have done:









Inside the box:


Next things to do:
Wiring up second battery, and ctek dual 250s with a kill switch.
Only teaser so far..




Currently in repair with ABS problem..

Some more progress pictures:

Above the compressor is the place for the second compressor, battery is secured by the profile rail from the lower compressor.
Yellow box has built in two battery guards, the black ports are some magsafe magnetic 12V connectors for fridge and so on. Red switch on the side can shut off the voltage gauge. Behind the cross profile rail comes the air tank (side to the window)

Below the yellow box and in front of the compressor is the place for my engel fridge:

Second compressor is mounted:

Enough space to rear seat, to prevent vibrations:

Location for the 6 liter air tank:

Enough space behind the profile rail:

By the way, easy to remove:

Next weekend i´ll do the installation of the air tank.

 

[karo]

Finding a different location for the Notebook was in my mind for a couple of months. The location on the passenger side seat was not optimal it has reduced the passengers leg room in the past. So i came from this:

to this:

First remove the panel from the dash an drilled hole in the plastic part near the passenger side speaker. After that mounted the "knob" on the dash.

Testing the installation:

From now there 2 possible positions, one for the navigator on the passenger seat

and one for the driver (when driving without the "navigator" :

Some detail pictures from the holder:

Finished:

 

[karo]

I said goodbye to my Airraid air intake and installed a 2 stage filter system from Mann&Hummel the Europiclon. The main reason was to get the air cleaner and to find a air filter case which is sealed. In this picture you can see a part of the intake from the airraid system:

The white bottle on the left is for the auto gas propane / butane system and is called flashlube. I had to find a new location for that bottle and placed the bottle near the a/c dryer.

After removing the washertank there was enough place for the Europiclon. Nicest thing after removing the washer tank was that there is no rust even after 10 years! Here are some different view shots:

]

There is still enough place for mounting a smaller washer tank:

You can see in the picture the air inlet on the left side of the Europiclon, i have placed the filter in that direction to maybe mount a snorkel later.. will see. In the middle of the filter is the holder, i´ll fab a bracket when the washer tank will be installed. So far there is no movement of the filter, but it will be better to have that sucker mounted.

For the washer fluid i´ll go with that system:

It´s mainly a small tank with 1.2 Liters, but it will fit between the fender wall and the air filter. If i find another location i´ll add a second one for the headlight washer and the rear wiper washer. I´m installing a Webasto hotshot system for the windshield washers and don´t need the original pump.

A nice part of the Mann&Hummel Europiclon is that it didn´t cost me much. A K&N air intake cost me here in germany about 300€ the Europiclon was only 100€ and is really a nice part. It has two filters and delivers 4-8m3/min so there is no loss of power! Hoping that my throttle body don´t need to be cleaned as much often as in the past.

Washer fluid tank installed.

 

[karo]

The Frame had already many scratches and rust. I had the idea long ago to prevent the TB from rust. So last weekend i painted the frame completely and filled the frame with a air spray gun with Fluid Film. All doors and all other hollows are filled with that grease.
Link to Fluid Film is here: http://www.kellsportproducts.com/fluidfilmfaq.html

Pictures before:

and after:

Grease comes out oft the frame holes:

Rear gas tank got a new coat too:
before

and after

 

[karo]

Rear axle upgrade (8.6 rear axle from the Trailblazer EXT) with airlift 1000 helper bags inside the rear coils.

Some pictures of the swap:

 

[karo]

Some pictures from my last trip to sweden

The complete Photo Album for that Day could be found here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/83431476@N05/sets/72157633481858249/

What a exciting Day! We drove around in the Forrest the hole Day, found a Summer Camp in the Woods and finally viewed a Moose! :excited:

The Cars were covered fully with Dust from the Trails. I had my Dashcamera installed and took many Films from driving through the Woods.

We found a nice Location for our Lunch:

 

[karo]

More photos from my trip to sweden
The complete Photo Album for that day could be found here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/83431476@N05/sets/72157633495780514/with/8739272800/

Took so many pictures during the last days, but it is difficult to load them all up to flickr.
During the last days we mainly headed to the middle of sweden. This night we stay on a camping ground in a small house. We got a good tip for a trail to the north from the loacal guy at the camping ground.
Some progress pictures:

We stayed on this sea over night:

Car is fully packed not much space for sleeping, for sleeping i have to remove my bags.

Found a steep uphill and decided to go that way, it ended on a 25 km Trail.

On our way to the top:

All things went good until we came to a tree that crossed our path: :excited:

We decided to pull it better out of the way, i think the Trailblazer could have driven over the tree but the Jeep XJ had no A/T Terrain Tires and was a bit lower than my TB.

So we pulled the tree out of the way:

Got that tree broken:

Both cars passed:

We found some skeleton of a moose:

Started our way to the camping ground tonight:

If it is possible i´ll post more updates. After the Trip I'll post some videos and update this thread.
Good night
Karsten

 

[karo]

More photos from my trip to sweden
The complete Photo Album for that Day could be found here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/83431476@N05/sets/72157633481133999/


This Day after Breakfast we had to plan our Route to a Viewing Point and to a Waterfall. Both Places are not marked on a normal map and the way to them are small forrest paths.
We decided to drive to the Viewing Point first and after that to the Waterfall. Fining that Spot was a little more difficult then we have thought. But we reached the Top and it was an amazing view from above.

On Top was a old Ski Lift and some kind of Radio Station.

After taking Photos and climbing in every House and the Tower we decided to go ahead to the Waterfall. It was a 3 Hours Trip on dusty Trails with many Seas right and left and of course we had to stop many times to take some Shots.

On our Way home:

I have to tell you there are so many more Pictures in my Gallery, you could check them out on the Link above.

 

[karo]

Some more photos from my trip to sweden

The complete Photo Album for that Day could be found here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/83431476@N05/sets/72157633487528623/

The nicest Picture ist both Cars together. I had to explain that my Cousin drives a Trailblazer too. :cheers:

 

[digitaldelay]

Wow! Those are some impressive upgrades! Nice trip to Sweden, too.

Jason