The Story Of A Cummins Suburban (Lots Of Pics)

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by TheWhiteElephant

I love to read motivational threads like this. Great work here. One question--What size BFGs are you running, and what size Uniroyals? I apologize if you answered this before. I'm trying to decide on a size for my '73 K20 with 4" of lift and want to keep the tires semi-tame on the 16" OEM wheels. I'm leaning towards a 235/85/16.

Thanks!

Yeah, its in here somewhere, but I have no idea where. They are 255/85R16 on a stock 16 x 6.5" wheel.

Sorry for the delay here, but I was feuding with my computer and ended up having to let the smoke out of it and then get another one, then load all of the files and whatnot out of my laptop into my new desk top pc (still in progress right now). I have a bunch of pics and maybe something else to add, but the pics haven't made it into this unit yet (probably tonight sometime). Photobucket is sending me hate-mail saying my account is going to melt down, so we'll see what happens there once I dump my last couple runs into it--yeah, just some more boring trip photos...

[mosesburb]

Well, I had to let the smoke out of my old computer so my escapades have gone un-documented lately. I have gotten out but through wrestling with my computer and dealing with the newfound heat, I had not posted anything.

So, on a Saturday about a month ago I headed over to my machinist's house to kidnap him and take him out wheelin. All my plans were set, weapons were loaded, ordinace stowed and secured. Then it happened. My wife informed me that my boy was going with her to some something and not going with me out on the trail. Uh, what am I going to do without my door gunner?? Immediate adjustments were necessary. Oof.

So I headout at the crack of dawn and slink over to my buddy Russ's place (it was actually about 0900). Now, not having a door gunner created an issue for me. I had to lay down my own cover fire. I rolled up and in a hail of gunfire (I casually parked in the driveway and rang the door bell), I managed to get Russ loaded in the truck and took off in a barrage of bullets (It was probably just gravel bouncing into the wheel wells from the tires). I think I heard his wife yelling something about not bringing him back (might have actually happened), but I could be mistaken on that one--she was throwing a bunch of lead our way (wishing us a good time and come home safely).

So, we are on the road. I come to the realization that this is his first ride in the truck that his machine work helped finish to my specs. We were heading up to an area north of Lake Pleasant. The trail past the turnoff for the boat ramp was practically paved now, but further north it did go back to the typical gravel road that it had been.



It surprised me that the Saguaro cactus were still preparing to bloom this late in the year:



Gratuitous truck shot: I stopped here because most every rock around this area was sparkling like they were full of mica or bright quartz or something. It was kind of strange. Sedimentary, metamorphic all of them sparkled. It was just right here though, not other areas.



So I thought I knew where we were, but come to find out I thought we were about seven miles south of where we actually were. This is cool because I know where we actually were and we were on a trail that I thought was locked up by a private land owner. I was looking at a map and knew where I was on the map, but my brain was telling me that we were somewhere else. I listened to what the map said and we rolled through Walker Canyon:



After a while of driving and a few intersections of other minor trails, you come around a corner (still in the middle of nowhere) and you are greeted with this:



It is an old resort that was built back in the 1800's. It was famous for its hot springs. A fire started in the hotel and it burned down in 1976. It is so far out that bythe time fire crews could get on site it was too late.

This is a shot of the foundation of the old hotel.



There is a caretaker who lives in the old activites building now (yellow building in the first pic). He keeps everybody away. It can be viewed from the trail, but from what I have heard, the place is not too friendly to strangers.

On the way out, Lake Pleasant comes in to view:



The whole trip is mostly just a sight-seeing run, but it is so nice to get out and see some things that are not in town. The two best things that came out of the trip were figuring out that the trail that I thought was closed was actually open and the second was that I finally tried adjusting my shocks. I put Rancho RS9000's on and when I started driving it, I adjusted them up fairly stout and left them there. Well,somewhere during our trip I decided to try turning them down a couple clicks. WOW!! What a diffference. It didn't make it a Cadillac, but it softened the ride up noticably. It softened it enough that I could actually start driving it a bit aggressively on a few stretches of the low trail in the river bed. That was fun. It was the first time I had driven this thing beyond an "easy" drive. It was a blast. Not too soft, but soft enough to have some fun. I had not experienced the cresting of a hill and not being able to see which way the trail goes on the other side and having to prepare for either direction immediately. Fun, FUN!! That was cool. I do not know why I never adjusted the shocks, but I wish I had a couple years ago. It would have helped significantly on some of the trails we have run.

[FRENCHBLUE72]

Cool story and glad to see the burb getting used..

[vectorit]

Awesome day out with the burb!

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by FRENCHBLUE72

Cool story and glad to see the burb getting used..

Thanks!! Yeah, me too. I drive it every day, but this is the only driving that really counts.

Originally Posted by vectorit

Awesome day out with the burb!

It really was. What I had "planned" would have been a pretty short jaunt, but our misfortune or misdirection as it was, turned it into a real nice day.

[eagleuh1]

Some beautiful scenery out your way. Went looking for Apache tears near Tonapah, Saddle Mountain area couple times. Keep the weekend drive pics coming.

[1985-GMC]

I love reading about the adventures with the your awesome cummins burb, keep em coming!

[mosesburb]

This last run kind of wet the whistle for some more trail time, so I decided some camping would be a good thing to do for the next run. I found that there was a car show south of Chino Valley on 28 May, so I figured that was a good excuse to get out of town. We were going to camp somewhere but one of my wife's co-workers just bought a cabin out west of Prescott and offered to let us stay in their pop-up trailer there. Well that sounds easier than truck camping, so that's what we did.

We lit out for Prescott at a decent hour of the morning. It is probably pretty evident by now that even if I am going somewhere easily accessible on the highway, I usually find some less traveled way to get there. This trip is no exception. We swung off of 69 and ran Poland Road.



I like Poland Road alot because you are in pine trees almost immediately. Instant altitude.



One cool feature of Poland Road is there are two train tunnels on it. One is full of water but the other is still accessible. This was used when the roadbed we are traveling on was a rail road and the tunnels were used to alleviate problems associated with switchbacks or just cut distance off by going through instead of around or over the mountains. If you do not know where to look, it is almost impossible to find--it is still difficult even when knowing where to look. This is what the entrance looks like:



The tunnel is not too long and the other end of it has been almost completely back-filled. A person can still climb up and out of it, but it is not a wide open end like the entrance is. It is cool, the roof of the tunnel is still black from the soot of the steam locomotives rolling through it. This is looking back at the entrance from inside the tunnel:



Gratuitous truck shot from the "textured" side (all dents were provided by the original owner):



The road heads up and out from there through five points and on towards Senator Highway. This was taken somewhere after five points: This pic doesn't seem too special, but it is one of my favorite pics from my Suburban travels.



Heading past an old mine up on the left here:



Down the road a bit, down the side of the mountain, there was a big mining operation on the side of the mountain. There isn't much left of it, but there is still a building skeleton here:



I think it was a warehouse of some sort. Not much left on the site besides that.

I have not tried this before, but my wife stuck the camera out of the window and tried to take some video of what we were seeing. It didn't turn out so well, it is 90* off and I can't figure out how to turn it and it is pretty shaky because there is not stabilization in the digi cam, but I thought it was kind of cool because it caught some exhaust music in the process, so I thought I'd post it to show what this thing sounds like in the wilderness.

Click on the pic:

[hgs_notes]

Good stuff. Looks like a nice drive.

[FRENCHBLUE72]

Cool video you burb almost sounds like it s a diesel hahahhahhahahaha.. Kiddin it sounds great but very wierd you would not expect to hear that sound from a vintage burb.

[jbclassix]

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by hgs_notes

Good stuff. Looks like a nice drive.

Thanks!! Yeah, it really is a nice drive. Alot of it is graded and smooth, but there is enough slow-speed to feel like you got out on a trail, but not so much you hate the road before you get to the end--not to mention the great scenery along the way.

Originally Posted by FRENCHBLUE72

Cool video you burb almost sounds like it s a diesel hahahhahhahahaha.. Kiddin it sounds great but very wierd you would not expect to hear that sound from a vintage burb.

This thing makes it easy to pick the "car guy" out of a crowd. Say there is a group of people standing in a parking lot. I light this thing up and the one dude whose head whips around to look--that's the car guy in the crowd. Even driving down the road, driving past people standing on the corner or at a bus stop--same thing. It's just a raggety old Suburban, until it starts up (or is heard running). The it is obvious that something is not right with it. My wife says she likes the strange looks and tilted heads this thing gets.

Originally Posted by jbclassix

Thanks!!

[Dieselwrencher]

Very cool trip and pics as usual! The weird looks and comments are what I like the most about conversions.

[monte0185]

Originally Posted by mosesburb

Thanks!! Yeah, it really is a nice drive. Alot of it is graded and smooth, but there is enough slow-speed to feel like you got out on a trail, but not so much you hate the road before you get to the end--not to mention the great scenery along the way.



This thing makes it easy to pick the "car guy" out of a crowd. Say there is a group of people standing in a parking lot. I light this thing up and the one dude whose head whips around to look--that's the car guy in the crowd. Even driving down the road, driving past people standing on the corner or at a bus stop--same thing. It's just a raggety old Suburban, until it starts up (or is heard running). The it is obvious that something is not right with it. My wife says she likes the strange looks and tilted heads this thing gets.



Thanks!!

A buddy of mine had a BB mopar in his garage for a project he was working on and i came across this camaro real cheap so we got bored one weekend and yes there was beer involved but we got the bright idea to put the mopar motor in the camaro. Worked like a champ after some ingenuity and a welder. What was really fun was we would go to the memphis mopar meetings before they started and went in and ate and waited for them all to arrive. Once there was a big enough crowd we would go outside and start the camaro to leave and boy did we get alot of dirty looks and some colorful comments once they heard it start up with that oh so characteristic mopar starter wine. Seems to them that was some kind of sacraligious thing and we had commited a great sin. But hey it was well worth it!!

[CowboyProtectionUnit]

Subscribed! Gonna be doing this on my 87 Crew Cab Dually here asap

[hgs_notes]

I hope you don't mind if I add some pics from my trip. Your tales of adventure and pics of the wild west scenery inspired me and brought back a lot of great memories. Ones I wanted to share with my kids.

We left southern Minnesota a couple weeks ago, headed west to Idaho for my brother in laws wedding. That trip has been made a dozen times over the years and is not included in my pics, except for one shot.


Most of the time out there was spent visiting family and shopping. BUT, I did manage to get a couple days away from that. My mother in law lives close to the St Anthony Sand Dunes, and she has a yamaha rhino, which we were able to take for a couple hours of playing in the sand.



Thats the Teton range back there...


We also hit the road and headed NW towards Salman, ID. Most of that drive looks like this...


But some of it looked more like this...


We were headed to an old mining area around the site of a ghost town called Gilmore. Just south of there are some of the original kilns used to make charcoal for the mines in the valley.


My old trucks were not ready for the trip so we had to "settle" for my wifes 2003 Yukon Denali XL.


We drove into Gilmore and looked at some of the old abaned buildings. Some of it is for sale at $3499 a lot. A few restless souls have found their little piece of heaven out there, but it is a long way from anything. Up the hill from Gilmore is some of the old mining camp, and we actually found one of the shafts right by the road up the hill.



We explored just a bit, not really equipped for spelunking. That's my son heading back to the truck.


We kept going uphill to Meadow Lake, which has a very nice state campground, but we just visited for the day. It's fed by run off from the small glaciers and snow pack up there. One my previous visit, it was early July and the lake was still frozen and there was 2 feet of snow in the campground. This time was much warmer.



My son wanted to get into the snow...


I hiked around the area and here are a few of the things that caught my eye...



Looking down at the lake...


We headed back down the hill and here is a view looking down on Gilmore.


I liked this comparison...



When we left Idaho for home, we decided to go through Yellowstone. Here's a couple shots from inside the park...






We left the park through the NE entrance to Cooke City, MT. A few miles out we came across this...


And a few miles later this honey colored bear...


And here's a few parting shots out the few hundred I took between there and Sheridan, WY...

[Dieselwrencher]

Very cool pics and what an awesome trip! You guys are killing me!

[mosesburb]

Holy cow!! What a great vacation!! My ONLY complaint is that the Denali in the pics SHOULD be some for of vintage Chevrolet/GMC truck. Your post actually saved a weekend for me. I got to looking through your pics and some of my other post and saw that the car show at Watson Lake was around this time last year. Did some searching and found it was this weekend!! Oof. Some quick planning was in order.

Luckily the Suburban remains roadworthy, so no major operations are necessary to get it ready to go. I think I forgot to service the fuel filter on the last oil change. I try to do it every other oil change, but I think I missed the last one. I changed it Thursday night and holy cow--what a difference in power!! It had been running a little weak lately, but I had wrongfully attributed it to the high temps we have and running the a/c and having the fan clutch engaged almost constantly (for a/c pressures, not engine temp).

So Saturday arrives and we head out. We went around the north side of town which bypasses Prescott Vally and Prescott. Much quicker, but I think it is a bit longer distance wise. It is high desert up there which is kind of strange as only a few miles to the south are pine trees and big mountains.

This is the scenery on the road around Prescott:



Nice views and nice road. So we got to the venue and the guy collecting the money seemed rather surprised that I was going to put the Sub into the show. On Sunday it costs the same to show as it does to park, but on Saturday it is twenty bucks more to enter it. I figured it was a small price to pay for premium parking, two free t-shirts, a bag full of free stuff and to see the look on the attendants faces when I pull my non-pretty truck into the show lane.

I pay my money and get around to where I am told to park. I pull up into the next available spot and notice that the guy parked next to me is an old customer of mine from a previous lifetime. I yell at him and we have a nice chat catching up on old times. The rig he brought is a '59 Napco. No body or sheetmetal so far. The frame is licensed and insured and he drives it as such (wouldn't expect anything less from him).





Ironically, there was a complete '58 or '59 Napco at the show also:



This was parked behind us. Exceptionally clean.



We were wandering around the swap area and found this thing. It is a '48 Spartan.



If I was into campground camping and on-road driving, I probably would have brought this thing home with me. It was super-cool inside, but I couldn't get a very good pic of it.



That is the center of the interior and what looks like a view straight through to the back window is actually a mirror reflecting the front view back at the camera. To the left of the mirror is an original looking GM Frigidaire refrigerator--so cool. The unit has no center hallway like most travel trailers have today. The center hallway goes side to side instead of fore and aft like modern units. This side of the center side to side hallway/kitchen is a large "living room" area. The color was really cool, but once again, it was difficult getting a pic.



The bedroom was in the back. There was a little damage to the right rear corner area where it looks like they found a low hanging tree limb, but other that that, this thing was cool.

Saw this thing here and at the last show we went to earlier this summer. It is an interesting homologation of an early/mid 80's F-700ish frame and other equipment into a crew cab with a bed that would make a Longhorn bed look positively short:



They used everything except the body from the Ford. Gauges, HVAC, steering column, everything. Kind of interesting how they put everything together.

We wandered down by the lake and found that the water level was higher this year. We were walking around the banks and saw a plethora of little critters in the water:



So, that covers the show. I have some pics of the return trip (minimal pavement!!) that I will post up if anybody is intersted in seeing them.

[RatRod68]

Just went through this whole build, and i must say, what a read! This thing is fantastic.

One thing i did not see ANYWHERE in the thread was the 4th door... Do you have a build up on the 4th door mod?





On another note...

Originally Posted by mosesburb

Saw this thing here and at the last show we went to earlier this summer. It is an interesting homologation of an early/mid 80's F-700ish frame and other equipment into a crew cab with a bed that would make a Longhorn bed look positively short:



They used everything except the body from the Ford. Gauges, HVAC, steering column, everything. Kind of interesting how they put everything together.

This truck makes me all happy and gitty. My next build will be a Cummins powered, 4 door short bed, 71/72 lifted C20. (why not a K20? It will be just a tow rig, so I want to eliminate the mileage loss due to 4wd components, but i love the look of a lifted 4x4)

Thanks for the awesome read sir.

[Maxxd07]

I would love to see more of that sweet 68/ferd "thing"! That camper would have looked to shiny behind the burb anyways. lol Great pics BTW!

[Dieselwrencher]

That maroon C800 dually is awesome! Is it a gasser though?

[hgs_notes]

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

That maroon C800 dually is awesome! Is it a gasser though?

Looks like a cummins tag on the fender.

Moses, do you actually think anyone here would turn down the opportunity to see more pics of your trip? Glad you liked my pics and that it gave you the kick in the rear to get out there somewhere.

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by Maxxd07

I would love to see more of that sweet 68/ferd "thing"! That camper would have looked to shiny behind the burb anyways. lol Great pics BTW!

BUT(!!), keep in mind, if I was an on-road driving/campground camping kind of person, my truck would be straight and shiny too!!

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

That maroon C800 dually is awesome! Is it a gasser though?

Nah, it's a Cummins. I think it is a P-pump 5.9B but I really didn't look to close so it may be an 8.3C. My first impression of it was super-hack, but after seeing it again, I am intrigued by some of the out-of-the-box thinking that went on during the building of it.

Originally Posted by hgs_notes

Looks like a cummins tag on the fender.

Moses, do you actually think anyone here would turn down the opportunity to see more pics of your trip? Glad you liked my pics and that it gave you the kick in the rear to get out there somewhere.

Not so much of a kick in the rear as a wake up call alerting me to the fact that I had a legitiment excuse to hit the road.

[mosesburb]

So we bailed out of the show around 1230 and headed over to the west end of town. I wanted to take a different way out of town, but I couldn't figure out what road I was looking for because nothing was marked on my map!! I bought a new DeLorme map because my old one had some mold growing in it (its been around for awhile). Well, the new one has all these pretty and colorful maps with half of the roads shown and hardly any of the ones left were marked. Friggin' POS. Wait, it is actually a friggin' expensive POS. Grrrr. So I pulled into a parking lot, cranked up the rear A/C crawled in back and got my 4" PVC tube out that has all of my 7.5' quadrangle maps in it.

I figured out about where the road I was looking for was, but I did not want to waste time with a possible missed road, so I decided I would research it further and run it another day. We headed back into town and went down Senator Highway instead. It is kind of a run-of-the-mill deal anymore, but hey, it gets me out of town and on dirt to boot!! Anyways, the street that becomes Senator Highway is lined with old restored Victorian Era houses. Some really neat ones. Many of these were housing for mine executives for mines south of town.





So we get to the dirt. We head down Senator and come to the old Senator Mine. I asked my boy if he wanted to wander around and he did. I actually let him choose the order of events for the whole day. Now, I did reserve my veto power, but he made all the right choices so I did not have to use it. I have some pics of the mine area, but I think I am going to do something different with them so none of them for now. We took a little different route than ususal though. We turned on Walker Road. Now I had not been this far south on Walker Road (at least during the day) and we came across a little dam with a little lake behind it. I don't recall ever seeing that before. This area was pretty populated with cabins, so there is not too much to get out and see. Well, come to find out I missed a turn that I wanted to take and we ended up back in civilization. D'oh!! We pulled into another parking lot, cranked up the rear A/C and I went in back for some more quality time with my 7.5' quadrangle maps. I figured out that I missed a turn about six miles back. I offered two choices to my boy and he opted to go back (good choice).

So we head back down, find the road, turn on it and continue on. Around in there we found a trail (cough/cowpath/cough) that I had seen and wanted to check out. He thought that was a good idea. So we got some nice wheeling in on this two-track:







We were in there a ways and I decided we should turn around as the cowpath was getting narower--scraping both sides of the truck simultaneously--and it was getting later. Any problem at this time of day had the ability to turn into a situation before we knew it so I asked if we should head back to a more traveled trail. He thought that was a good idea.

So we are going down the trail and stop somewhere and while wandering around I found this guy:



Generic scenery:



Mines etc:



So this gets us back out to the highway. I get out and do a quick walk-around. Everything is cool so we boogie. We get down to Mayer and I ask him if he wants to run some more dirt. A resounding yes with a big smile (he thought we were on pavement for the rest of the ride home). I guess a little history is in order now. Once upon a time, many years ago, before I-17 connected Phoenix and Flagstaff, and before Hwy 69 met Hwy 79 (predacessor to I-17) in Cordes Junction, the Black Canyon Highway (dirt) ran through a town called Cordes. Well, when the realignment was approved and the highway moved, Cordes decided they needed to move also as they sold gas and food to travelers. So they pulled up stakes and moved to what is now Cordes Junction where I-17 meets Hwy 69. Well, the old road still exists--and what a great road it is. There are places where a raggety old Suburban can get up to highway speeds. Before long, we came into old Cordes:



That is the original gas station/store from the way-back. Pretty neat. The rest of the run was a high speed burn down through the Bumble Bee (an old stage coach stop) valley and around and over to I-17 where dirt is bid farewell and pavement is your future.

So we got back into town and stopped and got something to eat. While we were eating, I asked him what he wanted to do tonight. Car show?? I said sure and we ended up going to a local car show to finish the day. We had a blast.

[justcuz]

When you went around the north side did you go through Yarnell and hit 111 at Kirkland Junction? We went up that way earlier this month. Then came home through Prescott down 89 and got some serious thunder, lightning and rain. Once we hit the desert floor though it was around 110 to 113 all the way to Palm Springs. Our friends have a place above the golf course by the airport. Right close to Emory-Riddle College.
Keep up the travelogues, it is cool to see the Arizona high country!