Weight Reduction...

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bsn1989

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Hey All,

Just looking for ideas to trim the fat on my RCLB. It is currently around 3840 with 3/4 tank of gas.

I want to know everyone's ideas on how to make my truck lighter without sacrificing too much.(i.e. heater box and blower motor)

Or if anyone has any experience with trimming weight on these full size trucks, let me know!

Thanks!
 

94burbk1500

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It really depends on how crazy you want to go, I'd start with removing the spare tire and the spare housing assembly, sound deadening materials under the carpet and in the doors, wheel well liners, emissions components, bedliner. You can swap the wheels for lighter ones. If you want to go crazy, get fiberglass fenders and hood. Why are you looking to reduce weight, are you going to race this thing? 3800 is not very heavy for a full size.
 

bsn1989

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Hey 94burb, I do plan on racing it. I have taken down the strip with my old iron heads and ran a best 13.8 at 104ish.(This is a 5 speed truck, It'd be faster if it was an auto).

I have already removed the spare, spare mount, jacks, inner fenders and rear bumper(added a roll pan). The truck has aluminum heads and aluminum intake as well.
I'm looking at making my own trans crossmember and going with a lighter muffler too. I refuse to do a fuel cell and haven't found much more cheap/free things I can do to reduce weight.

The interior on this thing has rubber floor mat and no carpet, might be worth pulling up the rubber and removing any sound deadening from the cab and then seeing how much that saves. The lighter wheels are a good idea, these 2012 factory 18s with 255/55/18s on them weight 61 pounds a piece. Any good suggestions on lightweight 6 lug wheels that wont break the bank?

The goal is 3700 pounds with a stock tank and working heater.
 

94burbk1500

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What size tank does it have? you might be able to go with a smaller tank without going fuel cell. That could lead to mounting issues though.
 

df2x4

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Not trying to rain on any parades... But Roadkill actually just did an episode called "The Ugly Truckling" in which they took the entire body off of a GMT400 truck and welded some racing seats to the frame in a quest for a cheap lightweight rail-car type build. Even with the entire body removed it was still heavy as hell. I don't remember what their final weight was off the top of my head, but I remember everyone being disappointed and it being pretty slow.
 

94burbk1500

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Not trying to rain on any parades... But Roadkill actually just did an episode called "The Ugly Truckling" in which they took the entire body off of a GMT400 truck and welded some racing seats to the frame in a quest for a cheap lightweight rail-car type build. Even with the entire body removed it was still heavy as hell. I don't remember what their final weight was off the top of my head, but I remember everyone being disappointed and it being pretty slow.
I love roadkill, I want a vette cart so bad.
 

RDF1

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RDF1 did some pretty drastic weight reduction to his truck, you should check his thread.

Only reason i gutted mine was it had a ton of mold under the carpet and such. Then it went overboard.
HVAC was nothing but a huge rats nest. Dash was trashed.

If it had a drivetrain in it i was going to go weigh it before and after to see if there was a difference.

Removing all that and then adding a 50# turbo hanging off the passenger side kinda not good for weight reduction :D

The factory seats were from a a tahoe i think, all electric. They were crazy heavy.
I went with some cheap summit seats and made brackets. Both of these are not near as heavy as one factory one.

Ill post up weight in my thread when i go weigh it.

http://www.gmt400.com/threads/1991-c1500-turbo-5-3-4l80e.41425/
 

bsn1989

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What size tank does it have? you might be able to go with a smaller tank without going fuel cell. That could lead to mounting issues though.

It has a 25 gallon tank. It had the 32 gallon but I went with the smaller tank for lightness.

Only reason i gutted mine was it had a ton of mold under the carpet and such. Then it went overboard.
HVAC was nothing but a huge rats nest. Dash was trashed.

If it had a drivetrain in it i was going to go weigh it before and after to see if there was a difference.

Removing all that and then adding a 50# turbo hanging off the passenger side kinda not good for weight reduction :D

The factory seats were from a a tahoe i think, all electric. They were crazy heavy.
I went with some cheap summit seats and made brackets. Both of these are not near as heavy as one factory one.

Ill post up weight in my thread when i go weigh it.

http://www.gmt400.com/threads/1991-c1500-turbo-5-3-4l80e.41425/

Thanks RDF1, I've got a set of conversion truck buckets in it now that are dumb heavy(all manual but very heavy) but they are too comfy for me to get rid of lol. I have the bracket from the bench so mounting some eBay/Summit racing fake seats would lighten things up a bit.
 
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