The Story Of A Cummins Suburban (Lots Of Pics)

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by dhaymaker

As always, mosesburb, great story telling and excellent photography to support the story! Thank you, so much, for sharing with us!

Thanks!! Glad you enjoyed it!!

Originally Posted by justcuz

We're you able to see the perimeter of the Yarnell Fire or was it too far south? I can't recall if it actually made it to Peeples Valley or they just evacuated it in anticipation of the fire movement. Last time we came down the hill through the forest we experienced thunder, lightning and a downpour! Really was kind of neat to have all that happening as you are moving down the road. I usually head out through Peeples Valley to Yarnell and down the hill to head back to California. The drive through the forest was a first and the weather made it a real treat.

I'm not sure if it could be seen or not. I didn't notice it if it was. Sounds like a nice drive you had there.

[mosesburb]

At the end of October another wilderness first aid training deal was arranged. This time it was up north of Sedona overlooking the valley to the south.

A view from camp when we arrived:



Shortly after we arrived, we split up into groups. One group:



The other group:



Shortly after we began, we were visited by the Forest Service's finest:



It seems we weren't following one of the new Forest Service rules to a "T". Meh.

So we learned all kinds of different things that need to be known in a backcountry emergency situation. It actually illustrates what can't be done very well and very often the best option is to secure the injured and transport to a real medical facility. A lot of what is covered is how to prepare the injured for transport and how to diagnose some of the more common conditions that can arise in the wilderness--like dehydration.

After dinner, we were treated to a fire starting demonstration. This guy can start a fire with two sticks and a shoelace faster than I can start one with a Bic:



The next morning we packed up and a few of us traveled down the trail a ways to a place where we could park and proceeded to hike out to a point to find an airplane crash site. A view on the way out:



The site is the final resting place of a Stinson Reliant SR-9C that belonged to and was piloted by Gerald Vultee and his wife Sylvia was his only passenger. Unfortunately, they both perished in the crash. There is a great article about the crash here: http://verdenews.com/main.asp?Sectio...rticleID=43609 and of course there is the usual Wiki link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vultee_Aircraft . The Wiki is more about the Vultee Company, but it has a good timeline of the company and who bought and sold it throughout the years.

Most of the aircraft is gone having been salvaged after the crash and scrappers over time reducing the total amount of remains to nearly nothing, but still pretty good compared to many wreck sites throughout the state/southwest. There are, however, still some pieces of the airframe still visible.

The tail section/elevator/rear wheel mounting:



A piece of exhaust manifold with a chunk of engine exhaust port on it:



A general overview of the site:



We found some local wildlife on the hike out; the infamous horny toad:



A look back over to where we camped. We were right above the white cliff off to the right:



All in all it was a good trip. Learning about how to keep people alive in emergency situations is a very good thing to know. Seeing a crash site and learning some history about it was right up my alley. I'm not much on hiking, but in the end it was well worth the effort.

[1985-GMC]

Man those are some awesome views! Some day... some day. I think I'd have to bring a dirt bike along with me though to do some more off-trail exploring.

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by justcuz

Oh Oh,
All your Photobucket pictures are no longer visible!

"Look who's popular.
Is this your photo?
Upgrade to plus with
Additional bandwidth"

Is the message that comes up.
It is a shame to lose all your beautiful pictures Nick.

Photobucket only allows so much usage (bandwidth) of their site for free per month. When people view the pictures, bandwidth is used, sometimes to a point that the usage exceeds the allowed amount which is what happened this month. They have options available for purchase to allow unlimited bandwidth, but unfortunately the unwanted free time that I now have to post all of these new pictures also means I have no extra money to spend on things like more bandwidth. It will reset itself sometime in the near future all of the pics will become visible again. I figured it would happen with all of the pics I was posting lately, but I figured it was a good use of my time at that point. I have a bunch more pics to post, both travel and modifications, so stay tuned, we'll be back on the air shortly here.

[ryanroo]

Alright, who forgot to pay the bill?

[justcuz]

I hope "unwanted free time" means lack of overtime and nothing more serious.

Does the Overland Expo charge to just come in and look around and if so are advance tickets cheaper than at the door?
I really want to come out and see some of this, I think I may have a scheduling conflict but maybe I can send the wife and come to this.

I am going to call their info line tomorrow.

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by justcuz

I hope "unwanted free time" means lack of overtime and nothing more serious.

Unfortunately, it's a lack of overtime and regular time. With any luck, I should be back at it soon.

Originally Posted by justcuz

Does the Overland Expo charge to just come in and look around and if so are advance tickets cheaper than at the door?

Yes, and yes. Day passes are available (these are what I get) and then there is a fee levied upon arrival for camping on site. Not camping, then no additional fee. I have a link to a 50% off advanced purchase deal. I'll see if I can find it.

Originally Posted by justcuz

I really want to come out and see some of this, I think I may have a scheduling conflict but maybe I can send the wife and come to this.

I am going to call their info line tomorrow.

It really is a neat deal. There are vendors on site selling their wares, but I think there could be a lot more of them. It really breaks down into a tradeshow for the overland/camping crowd. There are some great people to meet and vehicles to see. I like wandering the camping area just to check out all the cool rigs parked out there. So much cool stuff. The main event seems tailored to the "accepted" vehicles; i.e. Land Rovers, Toyotas, Jeeps (not rock crawling type), Ford Sportsmobiles etc, but there are plenty of "other" makes out there that don't fit the "build it out of a catalog" category to make it really interesting. Then there are the mega-dollar, hugh jass trucks that wouldn't fit down half of the trails we go on. Those are way cool too. If you think you'll make it, let me know and I'll get you my contact info. I'll be out there with Larry, Lance and a few others not from this site.

[justcuz]

Nick,
I am going to be there on Saturday the 17th.
I am bringing 2 friends from the Prescott area.
I pm'ed you my number so we can get in contact when we arrive.

I hope you are back to work now.
I have to go back to Michigan in July again to finish settling my Stepmom's estate. I may not get back home before September. Hopefully we can do a fall trip this year.

Was in Sedona last week for a couple days did a couple little loop trips outside of town, but was not there long enough to hit any real dirt, just a few miles of unpaved road.
It was beautiful though and the weather was perfect, wish I had about 4 more days there.

[justcuz]

Took Route 66 from Seligman to Kingman also.
Saw a Travelall setting in a yard going through Truxton that looked like it needed some love.
Don't shoot me but I like Traveall's They are built on a 120" wheelbase, have four doors, a huge engine compartment and easily swappable running gear.
A Chevy 5.7 roller motor or an LS engine, NV4500, NP241, 14 bolt with a Detroit and a Ford high pinion 44 or 60 would be a perfect vehicle.
I like Travelall's because they are right in between a Wagoneer and a Suburban in size.

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by justcuz

Nick,
I am going to be there on Saturday the 17th.
I am bringing 2 friends from the Prescott area.
I pm'ed you my number so we can get in contact when we arrive.

I hope you are back to work now.
I have to go back to Michigan in July again to finish settling my Stepmom's estate. I may not get back home before September. Hopefully we can do a fall trip this year.

Was in Sedona last week for a couple days did a couple little loop trips outside of town, but was not there long enough to hit any real dirt, just a few miles of unpaved road.
It was beautiful though and the weather was perfect, wish I had about 4 more days there.

Sounds good. Yeah, I'm back at work as of a couple weeks ago.

[hgs_notes]

Nice. Man thats a big hole in the ground. Is there a path to the bottom? Bisbee looks cool.

[Dieselwrencher]

Great work on Lance's rig, and sweet pics. That hole is crazy, and what cool scenery! Those street lights are cool, those doors are way cool. Thanks for sharing the trip with us.

[Average Joe]

Thanx for sharing another cool adventure.

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by hgs_notes

Nice. Man thats a big hole in the ground. Is there a path to the bottom? Bisbee looks cool.

I would guess there is, but it is still owned by the mine, so I'm sure there is no admittance. Bisbee is a cool little town. In all my years of wandering, I'm not sure how I missed it.

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

Great work on Lance's rig, and sweet pics. That hole is crazy, and what cool scenery! Those street lights are cool, those doors are way cool. Thanks for sharing the trip with us.

Yeah, there was a ton of cool stuff like that all over town. A lot of history everywhere you look.

Originally Posted by Average Joe

Thanx for sharing another cool adventure.

Thanks for posting up!!

[mosesburb]

We had kind of a lull in adventures for awhile. In the beginning of May we went to a location that we were sworn to secrecy on so I can't post pictures of where we went, but we stopped by a place on the way back that had a bunch of old vehicles out back. We didn't talk to anybody, just walked the fenceline and took some pics.

Good use of an International:











Nothing too exciting, but some neat stuff out there nonetheless.

[mosesburb]

We did go to Overland Expo again this year, but I didn't take too many pics. I like walking around looking at all the cool stuff, but I end up not taking many pics. Here are a few from this year:

MAN truck:



Cool old LandCruiser:



Sunset Friday night:



Here are a few from last year at OX that I guess I didn't post:

Back when Land Rovers were real vehicles:



I'm not normally one of those people who post up pictures of food, but my buddy Bill makes some insanely tasty fried chicken and everyone else contributes side dishes that add up to a crazy good meal:



Met Rick Pewe from Four Wheeler Magazine and he took a bunch of pics of the truck for the mag out on the Land Rover test track:



It's not the flexiest rig around, but it gets the job done:



Now I've done some strange things to "get the shot" with a camera, but this one might just take the prize for weirdest:



It didn't end up making the magazine but that's ok. The best part of the deal was hanging out with Rick, both at the shoot and the evening prior eating fried chicken. It's real cool when someone like Rick, who has literally seen it all, expounds how he loves the simplicity of your vehicle which is like a blunt object swimming around in a sea of high-tech, high-dollar rigs that often rarely get used for anything.

[ryanroo]

Sweet!

[Dean'smeanmachine]

nice!

[tune_1]

Just finished reading through the complete post. Liked all the modifications that you made to the suburban but really liked all of the trip post where you were using the truck. Thanks for taking the time over the years to make it more than just a build but also to document the use and enjoyment of it.

Dwight

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by ryanroo

Sweet!

Originally Posted by Dean'smeanmachine

nice!

Thanks!!

Originally Posted by tune_1

Just finished reading through the complete post. Liked all the modifications that you made to the suburban but really liked all of the trip post where you were using the truck. Thanks for taking the time over the years to make it more than just a build but also to document the use and enjoyment of it.

Dwight

Thanks for posting up. It's posts like this that make it worthwhile. These picture posts take a bunch of time to put together--partially because I'm slow as hell, but partially because I like to give details of the pic or details as to why I'm posting the picture and not just making a giant photo-dump post. At times I wonder if anyone is actually looking at them or if it's worth continuing doing them, so I appreciate the feedback. I'm glad you like them.

[Average Joe]

Originally Posted by mosesburb

Thanks!!



Thanks for posting up. It's posts like this that make it worthwhile. These picture posts take a bunch of time to put together--partially because I'm slow as hell, but partially because I like to give details of the pic or details as to why I'm posting the picture and not just making a giant photo-dump post. At times I wonder if anyone is actually looking at them or if it's worth continuing doing them, so I appreciate the feedback. I'm glad you like them.

KEEP THE ADVENTURE PICS COMING!!!! I have shown your build thread and journey pics to the guys at work and they digg it. I think lots of people really enjoy seeing a different part of the country. The fact that you are driving a Cummins powered Burb that YOU YOURSELF built is cool x infinity!

[ERASER5]

I keep telling my wife about "this guy" that has a Suburban.. hint hint... that goes camping and site seeing at old mining towns out in the desert. I need to get her to look at the pictures. I mean, doesn't everyone need a custom 'burb to go camping? I think they do.

[ejn74]

I greatly enjoy the pictures of your adventures, keep them coming!

[hgs_notes]

Don't stop posting the pics. Even if most people are just lurking I'd bet most love how you have tied the build to the follow up use of the vehicle. There are hundreds of build threads on the site. Most of the threads die without a completed project. Too many give up and have never, nor will ever drive their trucks. If all everyone wanted to see on here was another post of a painted chassis or rocker/floor replacement there would be no need for another thread to be started. Most want to see whats new and different. Yours is unique and the scenery is always great.

[Palf70Step]