97 Chevy Suburban- The Adventure Rig

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Widgeonmangh

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Enthusiast III

Hi Everyone,

This is my second thread on this forum. Thought it should be sharing my project. I am getting into it enough that it might provide some creative inspirations to others doing some builds.

There are all sorts of styles of overlanding so I think at the front end it is important to establish the goals for the build. I am not interested in building a rock crawler that will do highly technical trails. Nor am I interested in driving through mud for the sake of driving through deep mud till something new breaks. Cool if that is your deal, but my goals fall along some different lines. I am a hunter and fisherman and the rig I build reflects what I am passionate about doing. I am particularly passionate about duck hunting and bow hunting. It was the bow hunting that made me realize I wanted a rig that was much more capable. I decided I wanted to build a vehicle that could do 2 weeks completely off grid in the woods. It needed to be offload capable (with in reason). 4 season capable, and have the capacity for not only the 2 week stay but also the quick weekend get away. It also needed to transport my Wavewalk Kayaks for fishing and hunting and be a good highly mobile basecamp for the archery hunting adventures. Those were my goals. Not a big budget but a long time frame. I figure it will take me 5 years to get the rig to completion. I will put probably about 5-7K miles on it a year. My daily driver is a Nissan Leaf because most of my work is close to home. Sub does the heavy lifting on trips. My goals also influence what I choose to do first . So I may not go in the typical order of those who build up their rigs.

The platform: 97 Chevy Suburban 1500
I chose this year and model of suburban for a couple of reasons. One it had barn doors. Once kids (4- now grown with families) got out of car seats we graduated from the minivan to the Suburban. Have owned 4 this is the 5th and last one. Suburban went away from the barn doors so your year options are limited. In addition some of the later years (99s in particular) had electrical gremlins. I found this one which had been garaged and used mostly for the grocery runs and the occasional trip. Here is the picture from the craigslist ad that I bought it from. I picked it up for about 3K and it had about 173K miles on it. Why not a 2500? I looked for one but what I found was VERY used vehicles. Most people pulled big trailers with them. I decided that I would do better with a 1500 since I was probably going to do a bunch of suspension work anyway. After the fact, I have actually been happy with my decision. I wasn't keen on the red color but have learned to appreciate it. I will make each post the progress I am making.
107310
 

Widgeonmangh

Rank II

Enthusiast III

First Mod the Roof Rack!
For me the goal is capability. The standard roof rack on the suburban was ok, but I needed a much larger platform. I wanted to be able to carry 2 kayaks and potentially some version of a roof top tent. While my goals have evolved the rack was the place to start.

Inspired by some awesome roof racks that the internet is so wonderful to provide, I devised a plan to replace the stock rack with a full sized ladder/wood rack.

I initially bought one off of craigs list for a $100. Took it to the local fab shop and said how can we put this on there. The welder suggested that we tig weld some plates with bolts on there and then cut it down and bolt it on. I wanted to be able to remove it just on the odd chance that something would go wrong and I had to total the car. (old person in a roundabout comes to mind) I didn't want to have to start completely over.

So I chopped off the old one and let the fab guys do what they do.

Oh yeah, I forgot to let you know I have a Youtube channel (Northern Tribe Outdoors - we are the northern tribe of clan Henderson lol) and I am documenting the progress.

Here is the video 1

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="NTO Suburban Build - YouTube" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
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Widgeonmangh

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Enthusiast III

That was the beginning of the process. Here are some of the results after the fab shop.

Added a 10' piece of MDO 3/4 inch. Yes it was a little bit heavy but I will be stiffening the suspension anyway. In looking at the other options it was actually comparable to some of the steel options and the Aluminum was too spendy at this time. I may change that in the future but for now this is how it has gone and I love it.

I treated the wood with a sealer and then raptor lined the entire thing. For some reason when I did the video I had rhino liner in my head. There was no way to go back and edit. So there it is.

 

Widgeonmangh

Rank II

Enthusiast III

Now that I had the roof rack and I was able to transport the kayaks, next was to start to address the camping. ARB awning and awning room was our choice. We added it with the intention of getting some sort of roof top tent as well but having used it for a year, we like it so much that we may not get something for the roof!

 
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Widgeonmangh

Rank II

Enthusiast III

Thanks! I am having fun. Doing wiring right now. Not my favorite. I will keep making the update videos, but coming to the end of this years modifications. It all ends with the Truckfridge being delivered on Friday! Money budgeted for overloading (and a bit more) is now spent! Camping/vacation season is upon me!

Future plans (will take another couple of years)
Tires/wheels - 33" nothing radical
suspension (just better shocks springs etc)
Swinggate for the spare and more room for internal storage
30 gallon water system
Communications
I am sure there will be more (lol)
 
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JoeSmith1696

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Awesome I'll be watching the progress as well as starting my own thread soon hopefully. For the swing gate have you already got your mind made up on something? Theres only one I've found and it is very very pricey but looks to be built well
 

Widgeonmangh

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Enthusiast III

I have a guy who I am going to have build it for me. I think they are way too pricy. They are not that complicated and there are a ton of build videos out there.
I also forgot bumpers and a winch should also be on the list. :)

I look forward to seeing what you do! A lot of folks start with the suspension tires and wheels. But my thought was that I would stick with stock and invest in some recovery gear in case the compost hits the fan, and spend my money on the things that will make it more usable first. More than one way to skin it.
 
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JoeSmith1696

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I have a guy who I am going to have build it for me. I think they are way too pricy. They are not that complicated and there are a ton of build videos out there.
I also forgot bumpers and a winch should also be on the list. :)

I look forward to seeing what you do! A lot of folks start with the suspension tires and wheels. But my thought was that I would stick with stock and invest in some recovery gear in case the compost hits the fan, and spend my money on the things that will make it more usable first. More than one way to skin it.
I actually have the same thought process plus in my eyes if I do the weight adding upgrades first I can see where I need to beef up the suspension rather than do what I think I need add my roof rack, bumpers, recovery gear, emergency medical gear, etc then have to spend more money when the suspension I thought was good enough isnt
 
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Widgeonmangh

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Well here is the latest video of a walk around of my rig. I will not be doing anything else this season. Now it is time to use it!
It also has video of a local car show that I took it to. We are hoping to get more overlanders to come out! links are being weird on here. So if you hare having problems seeing them check out my channel on Youtube. Search for Northern Tribe Outdoors.

 
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Widgeonmangh

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Enthusiast III

Well I haven't had a lot of time an money to put into the Overlander but adding a few things this spring/early summer. First thing is I got some Waterbricks as my water storage system. Compact, stackable, and will make transporting water much more secure and useful. So far I really like them. Then I added the Wraptor 2500 to the other side of the rig along with 3 of the wall kit walls. Got it all installed and ready to go! Vacation in two weeks and hoping I will get a chance to use it! Next up is some suspension work. Going to do a small lift in the front and Firestone airbags in the back to stiffen things up to handle all the extra gear and get rid of the Suburban sag in the back. Also anticipating wheels and tires at some point in the future. 285-75 R16 KO2 s and haven't figured out the wheels yet. That probably won't happen this year but we will see.

Here is the update.
 

tjZ06

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Cool build, and tip 'o the hat to you for knowing what you wanted, and finding the right platform for that. I'll have a look at some of your vids this evening!

-TJ
 
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Widgeonmangh

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Here is a video of our first real vacation in the Overlander. We had plans for about 200 miles in the national forest but got to the first destination and felt so comfortable and the fish were biting, so we stayed instead of moving on. Needed the rest more than the adventure. But here is the set up and you can see the practical ways we are putting the rig to use. Couple of additions are coming soon. Wilco Hitchgate XL and a Battleborn 100 ah battery. We need the space in the back (where the spare is) for gear. In addition, if we were to have a flat it would be a yard sale of epic proportions to get the spare out. The AMG battery has done ok. But in this camping spot there was not direct sun handy so it was a game to keep the battery up high enough. With the new battery that won't be an issue. Composting toilet worked awesome. Some design tweaks to improve everything, but getting there. Installing Firestone airbags today... I will do a separate update on that.

Enjoying the ride...