2003 Chevrolet Suburban 2500 - Road Trips/Light Overlanding/Daily Driver

[skyphix]

A couple of weeks ago I picked up a 2003 Suburban 2500 - originally from Oregon, so minimal rust compared to anything I'd find in Maine. Really, I only purchased this to last until my mother in law is ready to sell her 2018 Yukon...

But now I really like it, and the kids love it, so we'll see what happens over the next 2 or 3 years. Until then, I'm making it mine.

Mechanically its in pretty good shape - 172,000 miles and previous owner did all new tie rods/tie rod ends/sway bar end links, and gave me the remainder of a MOOG front end kit (control arms, etc.) He also just did spark plugs and wires, and replaced the intake gasket. I noticed a small leak from the valley cover and possibly the power steering but I'm not concerned with either - I have a hydroboost powersteering pump in my parts stash and he gave me the rest of the top end gasket kit he didn't use. He also gave me 4 basically brand new Blizzaks. He'd also converted the second row to Captains chairs - which is perfect since I've only got 2 kids and I can take the 3rd row out to make the dog happy on long road trips.

Here he is, running 285/75/16 tires. I don't know if I'd go this big if I were the one buying them, or gone with these tires - they're just a lot more tire than I really need. I'll probably go with a less aggressive all terrain in 265/75/16 when I replace them. I have a Hypertech tuner that came with it to adjust the tire size but I'll also be retuning it with HPTuners eventually.




Tested out the rear seat entertainment - the kids love this and use it no matter where we go.




And all the tires/parts he sent me with. Whats not pictured is a brand new Radiator - the one in the burb works perfectly fine but he picked one up when he saw the oil cooler leaking externally - turns out it was just a loose fitting and its not leaking, but if it starts again, I've got the replacement ready to go.





Upgrades and maintenance up next...