Chevrolet Suburban 3500 Questions

[Geotrash]

It rides so much better now and a lot more planted. Crazy how much a difference they make.
I went with the RS 9000XL. I was pretty shocked that both fronts would not rebound/extend at all. Wonder if both were old stock or something to that effect?

Seems a plausible theory, but even old stock should last on the shelf almost indefinitely in a climate controlled warehouse.

 

[Bigburb3500]

Seems a plausible theory, but even old stock should last on the shelf almost indefinitely in a climate controlled warehouse.

One would think… but if I get a second set that do not rebound by themselves I will call Rancho to ensure this is how the product is supposed to be. The fronts are different than the backs in the sense the red boot is molded onto the fronts vs the buyer has to install the rear boot. So maybe there is something intrinsically different.

 

[gtrslngrchris]

Don't take this as absolute truth but I think my Rancho 9000XLs didn't expand either. Having been through 3 or 4 sets of them you'd think I would remember for sure but I don't. They all definitely didn't expand when I pulled them off for not working anymore.

If they ARE supposed to expand then I feel incredibly validated about my pre-purchase advice on them

 

[Bigburb3500]

Don't take this as absolute truth but I think my Rancho 9000XLs didn't expand either. Having been through 3 or 4 sets of them you'd think I would remember for sure but I don't. They all definitely didn't expand when I pulled them off for not working anymore.

If they ARE supposed to expand then I feel incredibly validated about my pre-purchase advice on them

Your advise MAY be valid and I will confirm next week when the replacement fronts arrive. The rears were great tho and I cannot believe how much difference they make. Haven’t messed with settings yet, but there is a HUGE difference on setting 1 vs 9 just manually compressing them prior to install.
I will be fully taking advantage of their warranty until I can afford Kings or something similar.

 

[Bigburb3500]

Doing a little wheel shopping and have landed on these as a good complement for the Tungsten Gray paint color of the truck. Probably won't order until the spring so I can start the 2025 towing season with a fresh set of tires. Amazingly, the tires that came on it have zero dry rot or blemishes of any kind, despite having mid-2017 date codes. I credit the climate controlled storage the truck was in. For tires, I will likely go with the Michelin Defender LTX M/S 2 in the LT265/70R18 size. It's about 1" bigger in diameter than the factory tires, but should still clear without issue. There are way more options than in the 265/65R18 size.

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Have you put the new tires on yet? How do you account for the Speedo being off? Is there a way to correct this with any sort of tuner?

 

[tooleyondeck]

Have you put the new tires on yet? How do you account for the Speedo being off? Is there a way to correct this with any sort of tuner?

HP Tuners VCM Editor has a gear/tire wizard: https://forum.hptuners.com/showthread.php?68715-Speedometer-calibration

 

[Geotrash]

Have you put the new tires on yet? How do you account for the Speedo being off? Is there a way to correct this with any sort of tuner?

Thanks for asking. She’s been parked in the garage for the last couple of weeks. Next camping trip is in mid October so I have some time. We’re in the process of selling a house, so I’d rather wait to have the cash from the sale to buy new wheels and tires at the same time. I could put them on a credit card, or dip into savings, but I’d rather do neither if at all possible. I’ll update the thread when I place the order for whatever I decide to go with.

And yes, that concur with the idea of using HP tuners to do it. If there’s a 4 x 4 shop near you, they likely have everything needed to do it for you as well.

 

[Bigburb3500]

Thanks for asking. She’s been parked in the garage for the last couple of weeks. Next camping trip is in mid October so I have some time. We’re in the process of selling a house, so I’d rather wait to have the cash from the sale to buy new wheels and tires at the same time. I could put them on a credit card, or dip into savings, but I’d rather do neither if at all possible. I’ll update the thread when I place the order for whatever I decide to go with.

And yes, that concur with the idea of using HP tuners to do it. If there’s a 4 x 4 shop near you, they likely have everything needed to do it for you as well.

I was not sure if there were options for tuners to do that but good to know!

Good luck with your sale and hope it is super fast AND you get well over list price. Can’t wait to hear about the update.

 

[Geotrash]

I was not sure if there were options for tuners to do that but good to know!

Good luck with your sale and hope it is super fast AND you get well over list price. Can’t wait to hear about the update.

Thank you, my friend! The offer was about $18K under asking price and has a contingency sale, so it's not ideal but we're going to roll with it while accepting back-up offers. Years ago, my father told me that when you're selling something, the first offer you receive will likely be the best offer you're going to get. He's been proven right many, many times in my life. And, with interest rates dropping, I'm confident someone else will come along if this one doesn't work out. It's a great house - a 1936 craftsman that was gutted and professionally remodeled in 2014. And it's in a desirable neighborhood. Also, thankfully it's not a distress sale situation so we can afford to wait if need be.

 

[Bigburb3500]

Thank you, my friend! The offer was about $18K under asking price and has a contingency sale, so it's not ideal but we're going to roll with it while accepting back-up offers. Years ago, my father told me that when you're selling something, the first offer you receive will likely be the best offer you're going to get. He's been proven right many, many times in my life. And, with interest rates dropping, I'm confident someone else will come along if this one doesn't work out. It's a great house - a 1936 craftsman that was gutted and professionally remodeled in 2014. And it's in a desirable neighborhood. Also, thankfully it's not a distress sale situation so we can afford to wait if need be.

I should rename this thread. We cover Suburban 3500 information and life advice here. I definitely don’t disagree with you ol’ man.

 

[intheburbs]

I suspect it does because there is lots of slip in the shifts. It's built to be armored and carry around dignitaries who would likely be quite cross if a harsh shift caused them to spill their Scotch while fleeing enraged proletariat.

Late to the party here, on vacation the last two weeks...

I have no proof other than the facts/circumstances of my situation....I bought my 2008 in 2013 with 106k miles. Almost immediately I got a Blackbear tune, and among other things, they tuned out a whole bunch of Torque Management (aka making shifts smoother at the expense of durability of clutches). I am absolutely convinced that is one of the main reasons why my 6L90 is still functioning perfectly after 260k miles and a metric shit-ton of abuse.

 

[Geotrash]

Late to the party here, on vacation the last two weeks...

I have no proof other than the facts/circumstances of my situation....I bought my 2008 in 2013 with 106k miles. Almost immediately I got a Blackbear tune, and among other things, they tuned out a whole bunch of Torque Management (aka making shifts smoother at the expense of durability of clutches). I am absolutely convinced that is one of the main reasons why my 6L90 is still functioning perfectly after 260k miles and a metric shit-ton of abuse.

Great testimony, thank you. Validates my plan.

 

[Bigburb3500]

Quick follow-up to the Rancho shocks: the replacements came in and did not expand like the previous set or the rear shocks. Called Rancho and there are in-fact different shock builds within the same line-up so the front shocks do not rebound by themselves like the rears so I returned perfectly good shocks…

I guess I really should keep my day job and not do this online forum gig full time lol.

 

[Geotrash]

Quick follow-up to the Rancho shocks: the replacements came in and did not expand like the previous set or the rear shocks. Called Rancho and there are in-fact different shock builds within the same line-up so the front shocks do not rebound by themselves like the rears so I returned perfectly good shocks…

I guess I really should keep my day job and not do this online forum gig full time lol.

Well, thanks for the update and the new, hard-won knowledge. Can't wait to hear how they ride for you.

I'm feeling torn. My factory shocks only have 19K on them now so it's hard to justify replacing them for a few years yet, based on condition. But if the ride really is that much better, I may just make it an upgrade.

 

[Bigburb3500]

Well, thanks for the update and the new, hard-won knowledge. Can't wait to hear how they ride for you.

I'm feeling torn. My factory shocks only have 19K on them now so it's hard to justify replacing them for a few years yet, based on condition. But if the ride really is that much better, I may just make it an upgrade.

Your shocks may not be shot. The rears on mine were just awful and the front left puked oil on me when I jacked the truck up, the only “good one” was front right and it was not smooth. These Ranchos really have made a HUGE difference. It doesn’t ride like a Cadillac but it definitely doesn’t ride like a truck anymore either. You close your eyes and think it’s a 1/2 ton truck (*I don’t endorse driving with your eyes closed)

 

[Geotrash]

I finally installed the crossbars for the roof rack yesterday. It’s a sturdy, well-made rack, but unfortunately I couldn’t get the rear bar to fit in the rearmost ferrules. It was just a millimeter or less too long.

For those who may not know, there are only four positions available for the crossbars on the roof rack on the K2xx Suburban LT. This is a departure from the roof rails in our GMT 900 Yukon XL’s, which have a sliding track that allows unlimited positioning of the bars.

And yes, it clears the garage door opening - by more than it looks in this photo.

 

[Bigburb3500]

I finally installed the crossbars for the roof rack yesterday. It’s a sturdy, well-made rack, but unfortunately I couldn’t get the rear bar to fit in the rearmost ferrules. It was just a millimeter or less too long.

For those who may not know, there are only four positions available for the crossbars on the roof rack on the K2xx Suburban LT. This is a departure from the roof rails in our GMT 900 Yukon XL’s, which have a sliding track that allows unlimited positioning of the bars.

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And yes, it clears the garage door opening - by more than it looks in this photo.

Are these GM rails or from somewhere else? Make sure your new place has a high lift garage door - I was lucky enough that the original builders of my house had a camper so the garage is about 1ft higher than a “normal” garage.

Also, does anyone have thoughts on Ironbull bumpers?

 

[Geotrash]

Are these GM rails or from somewhere else? Make sure your new place has a high lift garage door - I was lucky enough that the original builders of my house had a camper so the garage is about 1ft higher than a “normal” garage.

Also, does anyone have thoughts on Ironbull bumpers?

They are from Amazon. https://a.co/d/auVukiF

Eventually, we would like to have a place that has enough property to build an RV garage, but for now, we are going to stay in our current house in Richmond. We are just selling our second house in Colorado.

 

[Geotrash]

Got it all loaded up for camping this weekend.

While it looks like there's a little squat, there actually isn't. It's just because there's a street drain depression on the curb side that the pax end of the rear axle settled into. The tongue jack is down to keep the weight off the suspension while it's parked as well.

 

[Bigburb3500]

Should have documented better but can walk anyone thru the process and parts list if needed. Mounted a set of SAE certified Rigid pod lights behind the grill that I plugged into the truck’s factory fog light harness. Works perfect and looks completely OEM. It’s a “cheap” alternative to Morimoto headlight replacements and makes those dark road a lot less dark!