Polar Bear Suburban

[mud.man.rj]

Lookin good Dirtylarry, oh ya you can have some of our snow and please take the -35celcius cold too.

Mudman, without mud right now.

[Dieselwrencher]

Larry, how do those swampers do in light snow and ice? The NV swap looks really nice you did last winter too!

[DirtyLarry]

Originally Posted by dieseldawg142

dam! thats a fine looking sub DirtyLarry

Thanks!

Originally Posted by mud.man.rj

Lookin good Dirtylarry, oh ya you can have some of our snow and please take the -35celcius cold too.

Mudman, without mud right now.

The snow would be okay, but no thanks on the - 31 F!

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

Larry, how do those swampers do in light snow and ice? The NV swap looks really nice you did last winter too!

They are horrible on snow packed and icy roads but they really go like mad in the deep snow.

[jbclassix]

Looking good Larry! I got some 2' drifts out here but I'll be selfish and keep it. How is the family life?

[y5mgisi]

Tough to say if I like it better with or without the hub caps. Either way is bad ass!

[jrdv]

Very sharp burb Larry! You've got a good eye for building a 4x4!

John

[83GMCK2500]

Excellent excellent excellent! Both the Suburban and the information that I have just learned. I have an early NV4500 waiting to go in my '83 and I've been wondering about length, driveshafts, etc when the SM465 comes out. That Suburban looks great! I am a huge fan of tall-&-skinny tires as well.

[DirtyLarry]

Originally Posted by 83GMCK2500

Excellent excellent excellent! Both the Suburban and the information that I have just learned. I have an early NV4500 waiting to go in my '83 and I've been wondering about length, driveshafts, etc when the SM465 comes out. That Suburban looks great! I am a huge fan of tall-&-skinny tires as well.

Thanks! The tall skinny's will be coming off shortly as it is almost that time of year to run the bald all-terrain tires again . I still haven't had a chance to run the Burb to the mountains and play in the snow yet this year

[DirtyLarry]

Well crap! I would like to be able to tell some elaborate story of how a Taxi cab bashed into me after it was highjacked by escapee spider monkeys from the local zoo but that didn’t happen. Ah, Nope! I backed into a pole a few weeks ago…. Errr!




I fixed the bumper the next day with a porta power and floor jack. It came out alright but it doesn’t look near as nice as the solid virgin GM step bumper that it once was. My buddy Coloradobill and I will be building a new one for it soon similar to what is on the K10.


The K10 felt sorry for the Polar Bear so it donated it’s tires to the Suburban for a while. It was time for a change as I am getting tired of the black steelies that were on it and the Super Swampers are not a realistic tire to run year around. I really like this tire and wheel combo on this truck more than any other. I'm actually thinking of leaving this set on the Burb and get a new set of wheels and tires identical to these to put back on the K10


Nothing new to report on the Burb other than I’ve been collecting a lot of 8.1L bits and pieces here and there. Hope to get the engine swap done this winter

[mud.man.rj]

Still looks great, bumper and all.

[Dieselwrencher]

Those wheels and tires look great on there. Man that is such a clean burb. Very nice Larry.

[Greenlee]

Nice looking Burb!

Looks like another great vehicle for one of your adventure trips!

[85k30]

The Suburban is looking good! Cant wait to see the 8.1 under the hood.

[86454k30]

Are those wheels 8" wide?

[Mr. 250r]

Larry you ever look at the eaton fuller 5spds? I figure probably not as they aren't popular especially compared to the 4500s but we use them at work and i always thought they would be an interesting swap

[duallyjams]

I vote to keep those wheels on the polar bear.

[DirtyLarry]

Originally Posted by 86454k30

Are those wheels 8" wide?

They're actually 8.5" wide.

Originally Posted by Mr. 250r

Larry you ever look at the eaton fuller 5spds? I figure probably not as they aren't popular especially compared to the 4500s but we use them at work and i always thought they would be an interesting swap

Yes, but not for swapping. As a side job back in ’96-‘97, I used to drive a ’95 Kodiak rollback wrecker (an official Brickyard 400 wrecker to boot) with a Caterpillar and Eaton 5 speed in college. That trans is the epitome of a dump truck transmission. I would not want to swap one off those into anything smaller than a medium duty truck plus there is no way to marry a tcase to one of those. International used to use a Eaton 5 speed with o/d in their pickup trucks back in the 60’s but I think it is a different model than what GM used in the medium duty trucks. International ran divorced tcases though.

Here is that exact roll back years later when it carried the blue truck to the exhaust shop after a BBC swap. Fun truck to drive but I wouldn’t want its trans in anything smaller.

Originally Posted by duallyjams

I vote to keep those wheels on the polar bear.

Yeah, that is the plan. I'm going to reorder these exact wheels from Desert Rat Off-Road again and get another set of Fierce Attitude tires for them to go back on the K10. The K10 is wearing Super Swampers at the moment, which is fine for local trips but not for the yearly desert trips. Next desert trip is May 2015.


Oh, here is a little something I've been working on for the Polar Bear . Still have lots of integration parts to buy so it will be a while before it actually goes in but may happen by the end of 2014.

[y5mgisi]

Man! I want an 8.1 so bad!

[ryanroo]

That's a cool thing to have hanging out in the shop! Hope all is well over there!

[Mr. 250r]

I see what you mean for how we use them behind 4-6cyl qsb cummins its easy to shift even with the hd clutches but after looking up the specs even for being average length there nearly 100lbs more than the 4500s so i think I've settled on a 4wd t56 swap lol going against everyone elses theories i believe it will work

[DirtyLarry]

Been a while since I’ve posted up any updates to the ole Polar Bear...

Last year one of my buddy’s bought a 2wd ’89 Suburban to pirate the engine and trans from to throw in another project vehicle. Lucky for me the donor Burb had the exact same color interior with a mint condition 3rd row seat. The Polar Bear was originally equipped with a 3rd row seat but it came to me with the seat missing. Cool to have a matching 3rd row seat now!



Mr. Dog really likes the third row seat. He likes to ride back there like a boss


The donor Sub also had a mint condition set of front inner fenders. As we all know, the squares are notorious for growing rust at the inner fender where it is double walled at the cab area. Even rigs from the desert grow rust in this spot.


Donor inner fenders all scuffed up and lathered in a fresh coat of tractor paint. Not just any paint, but the good ole cancer causing, lung clogging, ozone eating, baby bird killing oil based stinky arse farm paint. This stuff works great and is tough as nails. The brand of the paint is Van Sickle. Try it….you’ll like it!


Much better!




She is a clean machine at the cab supports where the square body rigs are also famous for rusting


Purdy!


Umm, really purdy! Also installed a factory battery tray for an aux battery while I was at it. It is amazing that for being 25 years old the factory jack and tools are still present. They look like they never even had been used either.


Also got another set of Strike 8 Desert Rattler wheels to pay the K10 back for the tires and wheels the Polar Bear stole from it a few months ago. Just need to order up another set of Fierce Attitude tires before next season.


And, we took the little monkey for her first camping/fish trip in the Bear a few weeks ago.




Camping here was certainly not an exotic destination away from civilization like I prefer but this lake is a great lake to take the wife and baby with conveniences the ladies prefer (bathrooms and it close to home). We just camped in my in-laws popup trailer.


That's it for now

[MTCK]

That's a great use for the back seat! Thanks for the update!

[DirtyLarry]

Oh, I forgot I hadn’t added anything about the clean power I added to the cargo area last fall. Last fall we had a little day trip over Medano Pass to the Sand Dunes which was the motivation I needed to wire up 12V power in the back of the Burb in order to run the National Luna refrigerator that usually lives in the Phoenix camper on the K10. I’ve gotten spoiled having cold pop and food in the K10 so I had to make accommodations for the fridge in the Suburban too because you know, you can’t go on a day trip without cold pop.

You would think stringing 12V power to the back of the Burb would be a short project….nope, not at this garage. 3 night’s worth of project

I am a junction block junkie! I love these junction blocks GM used on the firewall of 73-91 square body trucks as they are so useful to use everywhere. I added one of these junction blocks to the RH fender to carry the power to the rear of the burb. For this location I removed the cross bar and added a fuse. Since this picture was taken I had to move the headlight relays and junction box down about 2" as the hood hinge was running too close. In fact, the hood hinge rubbed a hole in the headlight relay then water got and I lost my headlights coming home from the airport earlier this summer. Errrr


Pinch mount stand-off bracket just forward of the RH wheel well as the power lead goes up into the cargo area. All the wiring is 10 gauge wire slid inside 7/32 vacuum hose. I like to run single power leads inside vacuum hose for added chaff protection.


Gave the pass through a good soaking of undercoating




Added another junction block in the right rear quarter panel just forward of the wheel well. I was able to gain access to this spot by way of a speaker hole. It was a tight hole to conduct business!




All that work for 3 damn sockets!


Oddball Hella plug for the National Luna refrigerator, 2 port USB outlet and regular 12V outlet


Also added some tied downs to the floor while I was at it. Can’t have that refrigerator bouncing around bonking people on the head


This is how it looked loaded for our day trip. Ah, had nice cool drinks all day long

[jbclassix]

Still the best V2500 I've ever seen! And only getting better!

[MTCK]

You can never have too much power! I had three ports on the short bed, and the crew cab is getting more. Is the power switched with the ignition or do you not want that with your fridge back there?