I have a 24 Hours of Lemons team, and a few times a year I have to tow the racecar to a race, between 1 and 6 hours of towing each way, depending on which track. After my team mate's e250 van was stolen, I've been renting through uhaul. If it was just a cost issue I would have kept doing that, but it is a pain and honestly the uhaul trucks do not impress me. Last year I got stuck on a slight hill because my rear tires were on some wet leaves. The brand new silverado did not have a locking diff, or 4wd. How embarrasing. So I have been cruising the classifieds for over a year looking for a team support rig.
Last fall, after searching for many moons, I finally found the deal I was looking for. I had been looking at f150s or e150s, but my son talked me into considering the gmt800 generation of suburbans. I got mine for the difficult to believe price of $2800. It's a 2002 LS 4x4. The paint has the typical clear coat failure on the top surfaces. The seats and upholstery are in very nice shape, no tears or stains. The right rear bumper has been hit and squished up a bit. The drivers door inner pull handle has broken loose. The ABS was wonky until I pulled the fuse for it. It has less than 200k miles. Mechanically it is sound and it does what I need it to do without fuss.
It originally had the nivomats rear shocks, but a previous owner replaced them with the cheapest possible junk shocks that did absolute zero damping. I replaced those with Bilsteins and the Bilstein stiffer rear conversion springs. I didn't want to cheap out on suspension since the whole point is towing. Well now it rides and handles as well as I could have hoped for. I have a replacement bracket for the driver door handle, but haven't done that yet. I need to sort out the ABS stuff, because ABS would be nice if I ever have to really get on the brakes, but I'm not in a big hurry. With the car on a trailer and all our race gear in the back it is a fantastic race team rig. I'm very pleased.
Here's the Burb in a secret little off roading area near my home.
And here is me with my son driving, with all our race gear (tools, spares, fuel jugs, splitter, etc) in the back, and the race car on the trailer behind. Does life get better than this?
Last fall, after searching for many moons, I finally found the deal I was looking for. I had been looking at f150s or e150s, but my son talked me into considering the gmt800 generation of suburbans. I got mine for the difficult to believe price of $2800. It's a 2002 LS 4x4. The paint has the typical clear coat failure on the top surfaces. The seats and upholstery are in very nice shape, no tears or stains. The right rear bumper has been hit and squished up a bit. The drivers door inner pull handle has broken loose. The ABS was wonky until I pulled the fuse for it. It has less than 200k miles. Mechanically it is sound and it does what I need it to do without fuss.
It originally had the nivomats rear shocks, but a previous owner replaced them with the cheapest possible junk shocks that did absolute zero damping. I replaced those with Bilsteins and the Bilstein stiffer rear conversion springs. I didn't want to cheap out on suspension since the whole point is towing. Well now it rides and handles as well as I could have hoped for. I have a replacement bracket for the driver door handle, but haven't done that yet. I need to sort out the ABS stuff, because ABS would be nice if I ever have to really get on the brakes, but I'm not in a big hurry. With the car on a trailer and all our race gear in the back it is a fantastic race team rig. I'm very pleased.
Here's the Burb in a secret little off roading area near my home.
And here is me with my son driving, with all our race gear (tools, spares, fuel jugs, splitter, etc) in the back, and the race car on the trailer behind. Does life get better than this?
