Above 1200 Sq/FT The Salvage Garage

[harley jim]

That's a good looking burb.

 

[Strouty]

It is a 50 footer, the guy painted it and did a decent job, but he didn’t prep some areas as well as he could have, so there are a couple rust blisters, some runs, and some wavy bondo from dent repair. It is the perfect DD though, it isn’t so good that you don’t want to use it. I think with a few tweaks and some repairs, it will make a great truck and should last for a long time. I figure I will end up having to rebuild the transmission and rear rend at some point, I haven’t had a trailer behind it yet, so far the trans and rear feel fine, but a loaded trailer will show any signs of weakness. It definitely doesn’t seem like a 25 year old truck with 350k on the clock, previous owner took good care of it and repaired anything that needed to be done. It is also the first blue one I have and the first 1996, so my parts supply is not as good as it would be had it been a 1997-1999.

 

[1Garageman]

That is a nice BIG suburban already, and you are adding bigger wheels to it . What is the horsepower and torque?

 

[bulletpruf]

What trans does it have? 4L80E? Has it been rebuilt once already?

 

[Strouty]

Trans is 4L80E and it is original, no rebuild.

Bigger tires to me is going to 265s from 245s, not a lot of difference, but enough. Engine is lower power about 200 HP, but has almost 400 foot pounds of torque, plus it is a true torque, not something created by huge boost from a turbo. The stick turbo is like 6 PSI.

 

[Strouty]

Spent half the day in the water with my Cousin removing docks, still have to go back and remove Dad’s side, definitely took longer than installing them. Didn’t help that the water is still really high and that it was cold, plus the waders were MIA, luckily we both brought shorts, but it wasn’t fun.

New Burb has trailer plug wires, but no brake controller, didn’t much matter with the dump trailer, the brakes don’t work anyways. So another thing that needs to be installed is a controller. It hauled the trailer fine, posi rear definitely works, didn’t even need 4x4 and the ground was covered in leaves with a dusting of pine needles. Transmission shifted just as smooth with the trailer as it did without a trailer, same for loaded and unloaded. Since I was wet and cold, not having real heat sucked, need to address that ASAP, it will be an issue with the frost on the windshield soon.

 

[Allenw]

It is a 50 footer, the guy painted it and did a decent job, but he didn’t prep some areas as well as he could have, so there are a couple rust blisters, some runs, and some wavy bondo from dent repair. It is the perfect DD though, it isn’t so good that you don’t want to use it. I think with a few tweaks and some repairs, it will make a great truck and should last for a long time. I figure I will end up having to rebuild the transmission and rear rend at some point, I haven’t had a trailer behind it yet, so far the trans and rear feel fine, but a loaded trailer will show any signs of weakness. It definitely doesn’t seem like a 25 year old truck with 350k on the clock, previous owner took good care of it and repaired anything that needed to be done. It is also the first blue one I have and the first 1996, so my parts supply is not as good as it would be had it been a 1997-1999.

Had a 50 footer in awhile back was letting the lift down after draining oil and seen the grand canyon running across the roof. At least it was painted all the way to the bottom.

 

[Strouty]

This guy was better than that, he pulled the roof rack and did a decent job, there are just prep problems and runs, I don’t think I would have done any better, but I don’t paint things like that.

 

[mybigwarwagon]

That sounds better than my son's Honda that appears to have been painted with a broom.

 

[xtremek]

Sounds like you finally have a winner.

 

[harley jim]

I'm glad it's working out for you

 

[Strouty]

Let’s talk again and November and see how things are going….

 

[Strouty]

You guys would be sooooo proud of me, there was another rust free truck for sale closer to me, bad transmission, decent price, that I passed up. I did talk to the owner and he brings stuff back from Texas, so I may have made a contact for some rust free stuff, guess that is good.

 

[rvieceli]

Congratulations Strouty.

Ron

 

[harley jim]

Kind of like a self induced 12 step program!

 

[bulletpruf]

Trans is 4L80E and it is original, no rebuild.

Bigger tires to me is going to 265s from 245s, not a lot of difference, but enough. Engine is lower power about 200 HP, but has almost 400 foot pounds of torque, plus it is a true torque, not something created by huge boost from a turbo. The stick turbo is like 6 PSI.

4L80E with all those miles is impressive. Probably on borrowed time now, of course.

I'm with you on the bigger tires. If you put some 40" puppy squashers on it, it might look really nice, but then your overdrive wouldn't be useable, you'd beat up your suspension and brakes, kill acceleration, etc., etc. I'll need tires for my 93 F350 and I suspect I'll do the same thing - a few sizes up from stock and I'm good.

 

[xtremek]

I think you did the right thing passing up another project. Kuddos.

 

[steaks&anvils]

Kind of like a self induced 12 step program!

You mean never being more than 12 steps from a 'burb? no matter which direction you go?

 

[Strouty]

I think burbs are at 14 steps now??

 

[mybigwarwagon]

I think burbs are at 14 steps now??

I am laying in bed and I am less than 4 steps away from 2 burbs - if I crawl out a window.

 

[Strouty]

I only have one that is close enough to walk to easily, the rest are spread out at the SG and at the Hill. The Hill has six and the SG has seven and a half. So that makes 14.5 (including the new blue one), but I am counting the Yukon, so you could take that away, except it is a true diesel, so I kind of feel it should count.

 

[mybigwarwagon]

So you have menon quantity. I have you in accessibility.

 

[steaks&anvils]

I only have one that is close enough to walk to easily, the rest are spread out at the SG and at the Hill. The Hill has six and the SG has seven and a half. So that makes 14.5 (including the new blue one), but I am counting the Yukon, so you could take that away, except it is a true diesel, so I kind of feel it should count.

Sounds like bar closing time hookup logic. If you can't tell the "difference" in the dark, then it doesn't matter.

Don't ask, don't tell.

 

[Matias]

That burb is looking nice, hopefully will get through the DD with ease.

Heh, just out of curiosity, did a quick look at what running burbs here would cost. Just the daily tax would be over $4 per day, the insurance is high and diesel is currently around $7 per gallon. You could register as a light truck (to reduce the tax amount quite a bit), but then you need to have the truck drivers licence and the insurance would be about x6 higher than a car if you haven't gained bonuses during the years (can't transfer the bonuses from a car). I hope your running costs over there are lower

I've also now payed someone to do some maintenance tasks. The tasks I like to do I do myself, but if I know I have to pass a weekend looking at youtube and googling, when a pro does the work in 1,5 hours. It turns out to be "cheap", he has the right tools and the spares needed and as it doesn't take as long the labor costs are not high. And it actually gets done, instead of turning into project on one side of the workbench...

 

[xtremek]

And we complain about the high cost of stuff around here. Yikes! Finland seems very expensive.

 

[Strouty]

Pretty funny that it is Finland, years ago I sold an owners manual to a diesel suburban to a guy in Finland.

Over here the suburban is cheap to run, it is considered a personal vehicle, insurance (no collision) is really cheap, I pay $150 a year for two burbs. Then registration (Maine is kind of expensive) is $190 a year and fuel is $3.50 a gallon and rising (I expect it will hit $4.25 this winter, maybe more). This Burb should see about 17 MPG on average, so fuel costs will vary depending on what I am doing, but it looks like my non fuel costs would be about $1 a day and about 25 cents per mile.

 

[walrus]

There is a 5500 gmc on Marketplace, 4 by 4 with plow, make a nice flatbed, Its in Hallowell. Might be rusty from the looks

 

[Strouty]

I slowly passed that ad.....

in the end I decided I didn't need to be looking at it.

I am still thinking trailer, just waiting for the seller to get back to me about the width.

 

[xtremek]

If you can afford it, ditch the projects, thin the herd, and get things down to manageable levels. I would if I could, but with what we have on our plate, it just isn't fiscally possible.

 

[Strouty]

I definitely can't afford to upgrade too much more before I sell a lot more stuff. The main trailer is probably my limit right now, still waiting on the seller to get back to me about the width.

Been working on the company insurance renewal, still have things to tweak and the costs will go up a few grand more due to those tweaks, standing at $54k right now, insurance is crazy. Last year we had a "new" auditor come in and they essentially doubled our liability costs, I argued with them for months, but there was nothing that could be done, apparently the "old" auditor had been doing it "wrong" and they have now "fixed" the issue..... Our agent went to bat for us, but in the end it was no go and we are now stuck with a bigger bill. Once the office is back together and I have all my **** in order, I will be working on getting these numbers down, with better coverage on top of that.

 

[harley jim]

I worked with a guy that constantly played with his insurance, he would sometimes change companys 3 or 4 times per year, he had great coverage and paid about 1/3 of what mine cost. I know it's harder to flip a company around like that but I'd bet you could save a bunch.
I need to work on the lodge's policy it has doubled in the last 3 years.

 

[Strouty]

I think my insurance agent would hate me, biggest issue I have is that there are only a handful of companies that will even listen to the agent once he says anything about towers and unfortunately the business name has that in it.

 

[Strouty]

Looks like I am going swimming again tomorrow, I may try and round up a wetsuit or something today, even neoprene shorts would probably save the family jewels. I also need some sort of boot, the flip flops don’t cut it in the muck.

 

[Strouty]

Well that made me feel really fat.....

Anyways, I now own a wetsuit and some water boots. I tried on three sizes and the big one fit, funny part is that I could get the 3XL on no problem, until it came to my shoulders, then it was a no effing way, I was actually worried I was going to tear the seams. Had to go to a 5XL before I could get my arms, good news is I have room for more belly......

 

[Mr.zippy]

Pics or it didn’t happen!

 

[racer-john]

^x2

 

[Strouty]

This is more fitting:

 

[Strouty]

Got the dock out and fixed the spare tire holder on the trailer, the spare tire however is flat and has a cut in the sidewall.

 

[mybigwarwagon]

Isn't that in the way when you are lowering the jack?

 

[Strouty]

That picture makes it look that way, but I have not had any issues before.