99 Suburban Overland Camper Build

[kolgeirr]

Welcome to Build Thread #2 - My 99 Suburban overland camping rig.

Truck is a 99 GMC Suburban K1500, SLT, 4x4 w/ tow package. Started life as my father's work truck and spend most of its life hauling around paint and construction supplies until he retired. Some repairs were needed when I got it on top of the usual old-truck stuff: mainly a new injection spider and intake gaskets, along with a full new ignition system.

I then gutted the entire back half and turned it into a camper.

Everything from the B pillar back was gutted down to steel. Rear HVAC unit as been entirely removed along with the rear headliner. New carpet from AAC went in and, on top, my custom built drawer base/bed unit. It fits a normal house-sized Full mattress and has two full length drawers and two "bedside table" shelves that run full length under the windows.

Under the drivers side shelf where the spare tire was originally is a 100Ah lithium house battery and a battery monitor. On the passenger side where the HVAC unit was sits a 50A DC-DC charger for the house battery, rear fuse block, the main house ground and a 60A 12V power supply unit.

House battery can charge from the alternator while running, from a solar panel (which I haven't bought or needed yet), or from 120V shore power. In the rear the house battery powers eight USB ports, a 12v socket, recessed lighting in the new custom ceiling, and two exterior SAE 12V plugs which can power any external 12v load. So far I've used them to power a diesel heater during winter camping and a propane camping shower unit.

Up front, the center console has been removed and replaced with a custom wood unit that holds a 12v fridge/freezer, two deep cup holders, my SiriusXM radio mount and a phone mount, and two USB outlets. All powered by a feed from the rear house battery. In the future I plan to rework that panel to hold one of my VHF/UHF ham radios along with the above.

In the future I plan to put the running boards back on it and make some exhaust modifications, but unfortunately for now it's basically stuck in my yard due to a failing torque converter. I have a new torque converter, flex plate and hardware sitting in the parts pile but haven't felt like fighting a transmission out with it being over 95 degrees here lately. Will probably get to that sometime in October and hopefully get it out camping again in November.

 

[kolgeirr]

More interior build pics. If anyone's looking to do something similar to their rig and has questions I can help with let me know. Also, if anyone needs any piece from the back 3/4 of a 99 Suburban, watch for a classifieds thread full of internal parts once I meet the requirements to post over there.

 

[Burbski]

Nice Build. What model of 12v fridge did you buy? How do you like it?

 

[kolgeirr]

Nice Build. What model of 12v fridge did you buy? How do you like it?

It's a 34qt BougeRV and is solidly OK. It cools well and doesn't use much power even with Eco mode off and holds a good amount of stuff. Run time on my 100AH lithium battery with the fridge set at 34, the recessed lights on and two fans going was an estimated 50 hours on my battery monitor last trip.

The drawbacks are: it's just a touch too wide and required that I remove the arm rests from the seats if I wanted the lid to open; it wasn't doing a very good job at keeping temperature even inside the fridge so I added an interior recirc fan; the touch panel is on top and can't be locked, so we occasionally end up changing the set point while driving by accidentally resting an elbow on the screen.

Thinking about building another fridge console for my Tahoe and will probably go with BougeRV again as the price is right, but likely one of their different models.

 

[Burbski]

Thanks!

 

[Moparmat2000]

Wow!! Just wow!! That is really cool!!! I watch a lot of van life youtube vids. People are really creative with this stuff. As far as your touch screen goes, just make a cover that hinges open to uncover the screen that way you cant bump it and mess w the temperature. A simple square of manilla folder material and a piece of tape would do it. Touch screens seem to respond to temp changes from your fingers more than just pressure. It's worth a try so see if it works.

 

[kolgeirr]

Wow!! Just wow!! That is really cool!!! I watch a lot of van life youtube vids. People are really creative with this stuff. As far as your touch screen goes, just make a cover that hinges open to uncover the screen that way you cant bump it and mess w the temperature. A simple square of manilla folder material and a piece of tape would do it. Touch screens seem to respond to temp changes from your fingers more than just pressure. It's worth a try so see if it works.

Thanks! I got the general idea for the build from the SubOverland builds I'd seen on YouTube, maybe you've seen a few of those around, but they always had to cut down a full mattress because they left the rear fender covers in. This was way more work and I don't get the over-fender storage cubbies they do because of lack of depth to the windows, but it's got a few advantages; (1) it fits a standard house-style Full mattress up to 8" tall instead of a 48" wide cut-down RV model, (2) the house battery, charging system, and wiring is contained in the bed unit instead of sitting in the 2nd row footwell, and (3) the under-bed drawers are each 1" wider since I was able to build right up to the steel fenders.

I'd considered the flap-of-cardboard method for the screen, but after the rest of the work I've put in that feels a bit janky. I think I'm going to pop the screen unit out and put a toggle switch in line with the screen board power and mount that to the back of the fridge. We only ever set it once per trip, usually to 34 degrees, and it stays that way for the duration, so don't need to quickly change the settings ever.

 

[kolgeirr]

Well this has been on hold for awhile now unfortunately.

Before figuring out it was a failing torque converter making my weird noises, I thought it might have been the oil pump given the location of the sound, so I switched that out and added a steel pump drive shaft. Fired it up, had 60+ PSI of oil pressure at idle, but the sound persisted, so I shut it off cold and ordered the flexplate and torque converter mentioned in the first post here.

A few months back I finally got up the care to swap those out - pulled the transfer case & transmission, R&R'd the flexplate and TC, and reinstalled. Shifted great and was no longer making the awful noise, so we took it for a test run to the local Harbor Freight. Ran, shifted and drove great.

Half way there, I've got Check Gauges light on and showing 2PSI on the oil pressure gauge. Shut it off, let it cool, and got it back home just in time for the Check Gauges light to kick on again.

As of now, I still have 60+ PSI at cold start. Once she warms up to operating temp oil pressure drops below 5 PSI. No idea what's causing it. Might be my new pump is bad from the factory - but if that's the case, I would expect to always have low pressure, not only when hot. Might be I jammed the oil pressure sensor against the firewall when tilting the engine during trans removal/reinstall - but I feel like that would result in odd readings or no readings or gauge jitters or something, but it's showing normal pressure at cold idle just fine. Might be I didn't prime the pump enough and roasted some crank bearings during the first cold start - but I'd not expect to have normal pressure at cold idle for that and maybe some awful engine noises, but it sounds just fine.

Gotta do some more diagnosis eventually but for now I don't care to fight it anymore, and it's sitting in the yard waiting for me to GAF again.

 

[Moparmat2000]

Add a Tee and plumb in a mechanical oil pressure gage, and see what it reads.

 

[Keeper]

Did you hear the valvetrain ticking?