Shortened 2001 Silverado w/ 40s, Doubler, 14FF, & D60

[DMANbluesfreak]

Next was to install some ORD Super Shackles front/rear. When my old shackles really articulated, they rubbed the shackle flip brackets - the ORD shackles have more clearance and they now sell them with the Kevlar bushings which I hope will last longer and are easy to grease with the greasable bolt.

Up front, they'll be a lot stronger than the factory GM shackles (which are designed for tension, not compression):

Since Skyjacker is a sponsor, I snagged some shocks and swapped them out for my Bilsteins. They're firmer valved on compression than the Bilsteins so we'll see how they feel with the truck loaded down - hoping for even better control.

And the last piece of maintenance (aside from the front wheel bearings) I did was replace the radiator/coolant hoses as they were looking fairly weathered.

Oh and don't forget this bad boy :D

 

[DMANbluesfreak]

It's a big hoss compared to my old Smittybilt.

Fitting it requires a relocation kit since they come without wires to the control box from the factory. Easily sourced and I made a neat little bracket to relocated it under the hood, and easily accessed (lessons learned from my old winch).

Rubber hose works great to soften those sharp edges:

I also fused it. Max current draw of this winch is 469A and the fuse is rated for 75% of the rated current for 4h. Should be fine since I'll only be at 469A in extreme situations and it won't be constant since the load on the winch line varies as the truck moves forward.

I also had to relocate the clutch handle and this will be permanently mounted to the truck (again - lesson learned about my last winch, since it was a separate piece that stayed in the cab).

Subtle and easy to access. I'm quite happy with it.

 

[DMANbluesfreak]

That brings me to last night. I planned on rebuilding the hubs with fresh bearings and grease since it's been a couple years and the last time I did them was in an AutoZone parking lot in the rain en-route to Moab with Duralast bearings. The bearings actually looked okay but I figure I'll take the opportunity to replace them with Timken.

However, disaster (somewhat). The spring retainer on one of the Yukon hubs was damaged. Most likely I installed it wrong, but I'm going to take my sweet time reinstalling them and making sure there's no interference once I get the replacement part. I talked to Stephen Watson at ORD and he and I determined it's likely that the spring was getting caught on the hub nut lockplate wings. Pretty confident it wasn't installed backwards.

Randy's R&P will be sending me new retainers and springs by Monday so sadly I'll get fewer miles on the truck than I wanted to before I depart on 9/9, but I'll make sure to drive it a bunch in the 1.5 weeks before I depart to shake down any gremlins.

The part in question is the one with the orange arrow and the parts are sort of arranged from center of the truck outward.

This is the last big thing I need to square away before departure. The only other things I need to handle are greasing all the steering and suspension components, doing a quick bolt check, reinstalling the belly skids, rerouting the transmission cooler lines to clear the winch, which will be squared away this weekend (belly skids may wait until next week).

 

[wvracer821]

As always, great work on the truck. I'm happy your getting the opportunity to go on UA. I know its been a goal of yours for a long time and your truck is defiantly well suited for the trip. Who did you pick for a Co-driver?

 

[DMANbluesfreak]

As always, great work on the truck. I'm happy your getting the opportunity to go on UA. I know its been a goal of yours for a long time and your truck is defiantly well suited for the trip. Who did you pick for a Co-driver?

Thanks for the kind words! It definitely has been a dream of mine for a while, so I'm glad to have the opportunity to realize it. My best friend since childhood and Best Man from my wedding will be my codriver. He's the one with the black LBZ with Tim_ZR2's kit that I helped install a few years ago (BigLBZPower08 on Pirate). He lives in SoCal, so I'm excited to spend a week and a half with him.

 

[azdirt3.0]

Congratulations on UA! Been watching this build for a long time from back when I had a Chevy 1500 I wanted to build like this. Excited to watch the event coverage.

 

[DMANbluesfreak]

Congratulations on UA! Been watching this build for a long time from back when I had a Chevy 1500 I wanted to build like this. Excited to watch the event coverage.

Thanks! I'm excited for the trip. I just wish I didn't have to wait the whole weekend to get my hub parts back so I could put more miles on the truck before departure!

 

[Shaunlyo]

I love this build. So much motivation!

 

[DMANbluesfreak]

I got the shipment on Monday and - oops, they sent the wrong part. I got ahold of Allen Booher at Yukon and he was able to overnight me the correct parts. Very thankful for having industry support like that!

On Monday though I got tired of waiting and packed the damn bearings with marine grease.

And put them in the hubs.

And then put the hubs together without the locking hub internals, so I could start driving the truck again.

Then, Tuesday, I got the right parts. It looks like even the 'good' side had some wear that I didn't notice when taking them apart (because I didn't have a fresh part to compare to). I'm thinking that the grease I used before (Moly grease) was too thick or I used too much (or both) and caused the spring to spin at a slower speed than the hub, slowly wearing into the softer stainless steel spring retainer... at least that's my hope. This time, I used minimal marine grease putting the hubs together. Dan Strubbe reached out to me on IG and said that he actually uses 90wt gear oil to lube his Hardcore Hubs so I may go that route next time. Not sure how that'll affect the wheel bearing grease though.

Put it together (checking clearances a few times on each side) and did a quick highway stint with the hubs disengaged and then a couple blocks around my house with the hubs engaged and NP205 in front wheel drive. Seems to be working fine so far!

 

[DMANbluesfreak]

Last step of mechanical truck prep was to do the nut/bolt check (with only tools from the truck), replace the fuel filter (in case any crap got in the fuel tank during the recoating fiasco), and bolt the belly skids back on. Looks good with the trans skid now.

Then started packing. There's obviously a lot left to do, but I wanted to make sure I had everything I needed without overpacking (too much). Reorganized the bed drawers for better use of space and access to common items, first.

While doing so, I pulled out a bunch of stuff I really didn't need. In the case of the floor jack, I replaced it with a screw-type bottle jack which weighs significantly less. I still have the hi lift for soft terrain work. In the case of the jumper cables, they're replaced by my hybrid jumper cable/dual-battery stick welding setup, which is still slightly lighter and definitely more compact. Every pound and cubic inch matters!

Here's all the crap I pulled out:

 

[DirtRoads]

Been watching your build for a long time and man I am jealous, for two reasons.

1. UA. Can't wait to apply next year, I havent really had my rig close to ready until recently, but I think it's finally at a point where I could give it a shot.

2. I had that exact same truck in silver for years and years. I put like 170k miles on it in the time that I owned it and I've been kicking myself for getting rid of it about 5 years ago. In hindsight, I should have built it like yours.

Good luck on UA. It looks like you are well prepared.

 

[McBastard79]

I’ve been following your build on Pirate for a while and recently here. Solid truck dude, congrats on UA!

 

[DMANbluesfreak]

Much thanks to both of you guys! Looking forward to it now that the big stuff is out of the way!

 

[DMANbluesfreak]

I'm back and (mostly) unpacked from UA2020 and while I intend to make a much longer and more detailed trip report, here's a teaser for those who don't follow me on IG.

The bottom line is the truck did amazingly all week and the only issues I had were a leaky transfer case seal on the drive out (changed in a hotel parking lot), air locker solenoid power wire rattled loose (easy trail fix), and the exhaust weld broke in front of the muffler on the drive back (stuffed some earplugs in and finished the last 8 hours with loud exhaust). The truck performed amazing, only needing to winch on a few really tight obstacles on the last day.

 

[montrose818]

badass.

 

[McBastard79]

 

[06h3]

Congrats on a successful UA!!!

 

[Penetrode Offroad]

Truck looks great!

 

[DMANbluesfreak]

Thanks! I got a little bit of body damage, but it still resembles a truck more than it does a raisin, so that's a win!

 

[backchat]

Color me green. Excited for the write up!

 

[DMANbluesfreak]

Well, I've been lazy about writing my trip reports for UA, but definitely check out the overall content here: http://www.fourwheeler.com/ultimate-adventure/

And for day-to-day recap, check these two articles. I think these are more or less what will make it into the Fourwheeler printed magazine.

Part 1:
https://www.fourwheeler.com/ultimate-adventure/2020/ultimate-adventure-2020-part-1/
Part 2:
https://www.fourwheeler.com/ultimate-adventure/2020/ultimate-adventure-2020-part-2/

Since UA, I've changed the oil on the truck and added a head shield to the exhaust below my spare axle shaft storage. I noticed that the PVC had started to deform after UA, so hopefully this solves that issue. The large black tube is the PVC storage.

Otherwise, I went on a day-trip to Badlands for a meet-up with the other listeners of the Total Offroad Podcast. A couple buddies of mine started this podcast and it's just a light-hearted podcast that's easy to listen to and mostly talks about offroad stuff. This was both of their shakedowns after one of them built an S10 truggy the past 4ish years and the other lowered and put 40s (from 38.5s) on his XJ in the past year or so. 20+ rigs showed up ranging from a mostly stock Durango and Ranger, both on 32s to the S10 truggy on 43" stickies.

I had two obstacles I wanted to conquer. No pictures of either, but someone did get video of both. I'll get the videos uploaded soon, but the first obstacle I've tried 3 or 4 times in the past and been unsuccessful. I tried a new line this time and finally made it. The other one, I'd only tried once before and forgot to unhook my sway bar so it was lifting a tire way more than shown in the screencap.

They've been clearing some new obstacles around the Quarry at the Badlands which I'm happy about. I tried a few new obstacles I'd never seen before and got up, as well as a few new obstacles that I wasn't able to get up. The rest of the day, we spent driving around the wooded trails in the park as a few small groups and it was good to just spend some time trail riding.

I had no issues on the way home, but I did have to leave early on Sunday as my wife slipped and hit her head. She's okay, but you can't be too careful with head injuries so I wanted to make sure I got home as fast as I could. The truck still needs to be unpacked but it's otherwise ready for the next adventure. I'm quite happy with how it's performing!

Some more pictures from the weekend:

These are the rigs of the podcast creators:

They have a couple small issues to shakeout before the next trip, but listen to the podcast to hear those details ;) https://www.totaloffroadpodcast.com/ They're also on Spotify and other platforms.

Some of the other rigs in attendance:

(Photo by Steve Summers)

(Photo by Steve Summers)

(Photo by Luke Kennedy)

(Photo by Chirs Willey)

(Photo by Luke Kennedy)

(Photo by Kyle Meng) This one ended up with a broken axle shaft, thanks to that undercut.

(Photo by Brad Pavlovsky)

 

[_stucky]

How am I to recognize snowday without the smiley face diff cover?

 

[DMANbluesfreak]

How am I to recognize snowday without the smiley face diff cover?

I told him he needs to bring it back!

 

[stan1688]

Now that you’ve been wheeling this thing for a while now, is there anything you would change on it? Specifically on the SAS.

I’m in the planning stages of SASing an ‘02 1500 and I’m scouring your build thread for inspiration and tech.

 

[DMANbluesfreak]

I love answering this question because it makes me think about what's next!

In reality, the only major thing I don't like about the truck's performance is the weight. It's a HEAVY rig. Near 8000lbs in non-UA trim - probably north of 8500 in UA trim with both driver and codriver. There are times I'm sure if I shed 1000-1500lbs that I'd not be denied certain obstacles - but that is really the only major downside of the weight, as it doesn't really have breakage issues now that I'm running chromos up front.

Advice for a new build - leaves used to be simple and cheap for the swap, but the 78-79 Dana 60s are getting tough to find (expensive) which offsets the cost of the leaves being cheap. Now that the 05+ Dana 60s are so prevalent (cheap), I'd seriously consider linking the truck from the get-go. It's next on my 'big purchase' list after beadlocks.

Otherwise, they're pretty easy trucks to SAS. Depending on your goal for the rig (driver, trail rig) NP241 transfer cases swap in mechanically and are pretty stout, and you can keep the ABS if you get an adapter harness for the Ford tone rings. Keep the rear driveshaft short and up high if you can (if it's a wheeler), as I constantly bent shafts before I went to a 2-piece - this depends on if you've got a short or long wheelbase setup.

 

[Dan_Goodwin]

Pretty neat to see you and your truck on the UA coverage.

 

[DMANbluesfreak]

Checking it out now! I knew the videos came out today, but wasn't sure if they had yet haha.

 

[Firetwig]

Whose in the Caddy?

 

[DMANbluesfreak]

@delgrangos on IG.

 

[DMANbluesfreak]

For those who haven't yet seen the UA coverage videos, check them out on Motor Trend OnDemand or Youtube (links below for YT). My interview is on Day 7 but there's not really a whole lot of my truck outside of Ep1 and Ep5. I should be glad I even got an interview, the guys in the black scout didn't get one at all!

Episode 1: https://youtu.be/p-JSH7_Gr3A
Episode 2: https://youtu.be/vRRAbarZK_c
Episode 3: https://youtu.be/GR2Bxqipb5Y
Episode 4: https://youtu.be/armb8CCaRy8
Episode 5: https://youtu.be/mrNXlVCsQWE