The Challenge

After my life took an unexpected turn I decided to turn a bad time into an adventure. I had a Chevy 15 passenger one ton van I converted to 4x4. The transmission went out in it and I didn't have time or money to replace or rebuild it. So I decided to sell it and look for something else. Searching the classifieds and I came across a decent looking '99 suburban K2500 7.4l. Wasn't thrilled at the milage I was going to get but the price was more than fair. He drove it 3 hours just to meet up with me. The radiator had a small leak and the passenger front brake wasn't working. We negotiated the price and I couldn't pass it up. It's an LT with power leather everything. The front and rear AC works too. So paid him his $900 and drove it home. I set to work and replaced the front pads and calipers. Done and done. I poured a bottle of Bars stop leak in the radiator. Done. I'm going from Spokane WA to Phoenix AZ. I'm not in a rush and it's just me on the run. I can literally take months if I want to. Driving south I'm going to be through Utah and Vegas where I can see old friends. A friend of mine said they'd give me a couple bucks to do their oil change. And that's when I had the idea. I'm going to be hitting up classifieds to post and look for side jobs. The challenge. Pay for the whole trip doing side work and not have to touch the money I have budgeted. I'll be documenting all of this as I go. I'm going to post what jobs they are and post pics as I do the work.
Yesterday was the first part. It was the first day on the road. I can't believe how well that suburban ran. Out on the freeway it just settled into a cruise and the miles just ate up the miles. My body never hurt the seats are so comfortable. I made it into Utah pretty late and today I'm going to take the day and post and look for side work. The goal is to by tomorrow have a couple side jobs. I have told my friends this challenge I set for myself. They've been spreading the word and I've already got a few jobs lined up. So I'm off to an ok start. So follow along as I take on this challenge and and adventure.
Pics down below are of the start of it all. How I got the suburban and it loaded and ready to go. For those interested it cost me about $150 in fuel. I avereaged 10.5mpg for the first 3/4 of the trip. The mattress on top kept cathing the wind and acted like a parachute. In the last 1/4 I strapped my mattress differently and it made a difference. I don't know how my much yet I haven't filled my tank back up.

admins I didn't know the best place to post this. Please move if needed.

Looks like the tires are studded? If they are be careful, they are illegal in some states after a certain time of the year. They can throw sparks and start fires.

Other than that it looks like you got a helluva deal and the challenge sounds like fun to follow!

Following, looks like fun

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Congratulations on the purchase, sounds like you got a great deal! I paid a lot more for my k2500 Suburban!

Best of luck to you on the challenge as well. Seems like a fun way to do it and make some money.

Does this qualify for #burbanlife since it isn't a van [emoji6]

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Awesome challenge to yourself and I'm looking forward to updates!

Just an FYI though, be careful with that leaking radiator, at the very least carry a few (or more) gallons of water with you at all times so you can limp to a mechanic if it lets loose again. And save up for a replacement radiator ASAP, that stop-leak is like tire goop, just a temporary fix until you can fix it right.

Good luck and best wishes on your journey!

Nice rig man! I'll be moving to AZ soon myself. What are the plans for the truck?

Sorry I haven't updated sooner. A friend of mine said he had a friend with a Dodge ram and the ifs was squeaking and really bugging him. I go to look at it and grease the bushings of the top of the strut and upper A arms with proper grease and not the WD40 he was using. He invited me up for a beer. When got up there turns out he's married to a friend I haven't seen in 7 years. This happened on last Friday. One beer turned into several. Then several more. Long story short I didn't leave till Sunday afternoon. I found a post for a guy with a '73 CB750 that his uncle made a cafe racer and he didn't know how to wire in the new replacement harness. An hour with me and it ran compared to the shop in Carson city that had it a year and couldn't get it to turn over. Next day I went back over cause his land lord asked me to fix their lawn mower. Wouldn't start cause they left gas in it over the winter. He was very impressed when it started first pull and there was no parts to pay for. Just labor. A man from Park City saw my ad and reached out to me and wants me to go to his house this next week to replace outlets, door hinges, light switches, ceiling fans and what not around his house. Another guy reached out to me and offered me a 42" 4K LCD Philips smart TV plus cash to look over a quad he just got. It runs and everything. He just wants it looked over. That's all. So far if I average all my side jobs together I'm getting $60. Just the hour and a half I spend on the bike wiring and the lawn mower I recovered all the money it took to get down here. I still haven't finished visiting friends and I still need to do the ball joints on my friends truck, he offered me $300 for that.
Now on the the comments you guys have left. Thank you for the encouragement. I know stop leak is a temperary fix. I carry extra coolant. In the next valley I'm going to my friend own State Street Auto junk yard. I'm pulling a radiator there and going to have it flushed and cleaned. I'm also aware about the studs. I'm not happy about them and I'm hoping to get enough to replace them, I've also been looking in the classifieds for a new set. Trade or cash or what ever I can. I'm very worried about the cops pulling me over for it. I have inspected my tires very very closesly and not a single stud sticks out far enough. They are all a little more than an 1/8 inch into the tread. It looked like some one got them studded and they have marks on the top of each one like it's been cut. I've never seen or heard of that happening before but it sure looks like it. I'm still falling in love with this suburban. My god does it run fantastic. As you can tell from the pics even though it's the 8600 gvw that back end is squating with all my stuff in it. I'm looking at getting air shocks before the long stretch to Vegas. When it's dark and raining my head lights are basically use less. Sorry I didn't take any pics about the jobs I've been doing. My camera isn't where I thought I packed it. The box it's in I can't reach. And I haven't been using my phone. Besides wiring a bike looks boring, same with cleaning the carb on a lawn mower. But I've got nothing but me time today and tomorrow. I'm heading down to Utah County tomorrow to start that leg of the adventure. It's been a lot of fun and for the first couple days I started to wonder if it was going to work. It took the first two days to really start finding the jobs and setting up times. I'm working on a way to speed up the proccess. That's all for this update. I'll try to update more often and not just once a week. I've just had a lot of late nights and what not. Again thank you for the encouragement.

Sounds like a great adventure! Something I would have done about 25 years ago. I'll send you a PM on your tires.

This sounds awesome I will keep looking for updates!