Urban 'burban

Sold for $18,500. Lots of truck for that price, total cream puff, but I'm happy with the deal I got. By the time I got the BAT home I'd probably have nearly double invested compared to what I spent.

 

Got bored reading and watching movies so wrote up an entirely too long article about starting this camper build.

https://www.boyink.com/articles/chevy-suburban-camper-build/

 

Ever fix something and not know how?

The Suburban had a dead speaker in the LR door. I know I have to replace the subwoofer, but figured I'd see if the door speaker was blown or it was just a wire issue or something. Pulled it apart, speaker cone looks good (it's an aftermarket brand "Memphis" that I've not heard of).

Pulled the driver out and did the simple battery test (if you ever just need to know if a bare speaker works just run leads from a AA or 9V battery and you'll at least get a scratchy sound. Old installers trick to trace wires). Speaker worked.

Started looking at the underseat amp - maybe a dead channel? Found a removable cover over all the connections and the make/model #. Nice JL Audio 5 channel amp with adjustable crossovers for each channel. Quick search shows it ran $800 - $900 new, figure at least that for the Kenwood/Garmin HD/Nav head unit, and someone spent some coin on this system 10-12 years ago. I switched the inputs and outputs around side to side and still no sound. Must be the wiring between amp and speaker.

Bummer - because the wiring runs from the amp, under all the seat brackets, back up behind the glovebox where it all patches back into the stock speaker wires. Ah well, not pulling the seats out today, might as well button it all back up to worry about when I pull part the interior bed & storage installation.


Danged if it didn't work once I had it all back together.

Only think I can think of is that it was broken right at the speaker connection - I broke it off trying to reconnect the speaker. The wiring was so frail I had to work back a few inches to get enough to make another connection.

Not sure, but I'll take the W!

I zeroed all the crossovers out on the amp and it sounds pretty good with four door speakers running full range and then two tweeters in the rear pillars. Once I replace the subwoofer it should rock fairly well.

 

Update photo - new headlights, debadged, first real wash since I bought it. Still lots of detail work to do including a proper wax job, but getting there! Just back from getting the aftermarket alarm removed.

 

That's one of the reasons I shopped for this era of Suburban - just feels it's still a truck vs. an SUV.

We just drove this truck 2.5 hours to and 2.5 hours from my daughter's place and I loved it. Solid ride, and I get out not feeling all stiff and sore like I would doing the same trip in the Toyota.

Only bummer was not being able to connect new iPhone to 12 year old stereo...will dig into that more and see.

 

Manufacturer went out of business. Couldn't tell if if was working - locked the truck, jumped on the bumper and nothing but then it would start going off with no one around it. Ended up pulling the horn fuse.

Overall I just didn't like the idea of some aging aftermarket electronic thing that could disable the vehicle when we were at some remote campsite.

 

Some progress. Got the 3rd row seat pulled loose, and the second row seats unbolted. In the process pulled out the underseat VHS player. Kinda hoping to find a use for the little flip down TV screen.

Installed one of these Course Motorsports phone mounts and am quite happy with it - solid mount and the motorized arms are nicer than the magnet-based mount I have in the Sienna:



The Sienna is rife with storage - three gloveboxes, armrests flip up plus door pockets, etc. The Suburban, not so much. My intent is to keep the OE console in the Suburban, so I found a purse organizer that fits nicely in hopes of keeping it from become the truck junk drawer:

 

The purse organizer? That's https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07SCN46GZ?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title There's a bunch of sizes - I bought the medium. Colors affect price so I just bought the beige as it was cheapest.

 

I was able to get bluetooth working between phone and stereo - nice for tunes going down the road.

Unfortunately while the Kenwood/Garmin head unit was a nice unit ~12 years ago, not being able to update the embedded Garmin maps is an issue. It can't even get me out of our apartment onto the highway correctly (all of two blocks).

And the world has shifted. I don't need DVD/CD/Nav/Pandora in the head unit if I can just use Apple Car play and run our iPhone through it. So at some point I'll swap out the head unit for one of these "media player" types which only run in the $200 range:

I'm a Kenwood fan but hate that they don't use a volume knob. Hate trying to hit little buttons while also driving. Might look to a different brand just for that reason.

 

Fuel mileage from a ~ 300 mile highway trip: 12 MPG. I was running 80 for a lot of that, and definitely not trying to be easy on the throttle.

 

Had a warmer day yesterday so I was able to paint the tow hooks, hitch receiver, roof rack, and visible frame rails.

Haven't been able to connect with the guy who wants the seats so they may live in there while we're out of town next week.