Greetings From Minnesota

[Dariusz Salomon]

Yeah I've heard panels are really tough over there. Your Tahoe is extremely clean. Doesn't surprise me that there aren't many gmt400s over there since GM never sold them overseas originally (except for ambulances/fire trucks). Rockauto is super good with parts selection. They're based in Madison, WI so I usually get my parts in a day. Surprised to hear that squarebodies are more common than gmt400s. Did you buy yours in the UK or did you have it imported? Did it have to be converted to RHD? It's super cool to see how much love these trucks get outside of the US and Canada.

I bought my localy-I paid 5.4 k GBP for her 3.5 years ago-as far as I can tell she was born in Texas-then went to Canada and then to UK. Apart from chassis surface rust there wasn't any rust on the truck. Now it shows a bit on rear bumper but nothing crazy.
In UK-unlike Australia- we don't have to convert to RHD so she is LHD.

 

[Boots97]

Burb tank is 42 gallons...and guess when the fuel pump went out? Three days after we filled it up! So my neighbor and I had to fill 5 buckets with gasoline in my front yard! Then the tank still had around 12-15 gallons in it, so we used two floor jacks and four hands to get it down and then back up again. My crew cab tank is 34 gallons. I had 600 points so gas was $2.60 instead of $3.20...only thing nice about not working now is I'm not buying a tank a week!

Of course the tank had to be near full when the fuel pump went out lol. That must of been awkward filling up buckets of gasoline in your front yard. Glad to hear you got savings on gas too.

 

[Boots97]

Kroger has a bunch of stores under their umbrella, so you may have an affiliated chain and not know it. But I do know there's some areas they're not in.

I just looked at the Wikipedia page for Kroger. There aren't any stores in my area. The closest Kroger affiliated store would be Pick n Save in Marshfield WI which is 170+ miles away from where I live. MN is mostly Target or Cub Foods and Cub has an umbrella of stores across MN, WI, and the UP in MI. Target is nationwide but there's a lot of them here bc they're based in Minneapolis.

 

[Boots97]

We've got some absolutely beautiful scenery and two lane roads. I drive down this little gravel road that runs right next to the Missouri river once every couple months or so just to cruise and admire.

I'd like to visit MN again one of these days. Haven't been since I was a little kid, my mom's parents had a house in the Walker area on Leech Lake. Apparently my Grandpa has a snowmobile trail named after him somewhere up there, I'd love to find it someday.

I don't like talking about my service much, but I'm a soldier in the MN Army National Guard and I went to Basic Training and Advanced Individual Training (Job Training) at Fort Leonard Wood, MO. A lot of people hated it there and I did too but I loved the scenery ya'll have down there. It's like the north shore without Lake Superior. People call MO Misery online bc of the weather and the politics but honestly your state is underrated. I want to move there bc the winters are milder (went to Basic and AIT in the winter) and the cost of living is low. Lots of cool scenery and places to hunt and fish if I ever get into that someday.

Walker MN is wayyy up north from where I'm from. Is your Mom originally from MN? I'm sorry to hear that you haven't been to MN in years but I feel you man bc I haven't been to MO in years either. If you ever come up here, I hope that you'll be able to find the snowmobile trail with your Grandpa's name on it. Snowmobiling is super popular here and I have a friend (who we've fallen out, but want to reunite with someday) who is really into hunting, fishing, and snowmobiling. He loves going up north and I've tried talking him into moving down to MO bc they have hunting, fishing and farming down there with a lower cost of living but he won't do it bc there's not enough snow down there. Oh well... Anyways, If you ever swing by the Twin Cities on your way up to Walker, MN just let me know.

 

[Boots97]

For our standards, thats a clean truck! I've seen so much worse rust from a lot further south than MO, hope it doesn't rust anymore than that

Yeah I'd say it's not bad at all. My friend was a little jealous when I showed it to him. He just gotten done with doing all the (much worse) rust repair on his MN truck.

 

[Boots97]

I bought my localy-I paid 5.4 k GBP for her 3.5 years ago-as far as I can tell she was born in Texas-then went to Canada and then to UK. Apart from chassis surface rust there wasn't any rust on the truck. Now it shows a bit on rear bumper but nothing crazy.
In UK-unlike Australia- we don't have to convert to RHD so she is LHD.

That price would be a little steep here in the States (from GBP to USD), but for y'all across the pond, that's a steal! Was the last owner desperate for cash or just wanted it gone? Was it an estate sale? These trucks are ridiculously overpriced outside the US and Canada so I'm surprised you got it that low.

When you say she was born in Texas-then went to Canada do you mean the truck was built in TX for the Canadian market? or was it built in TX then spent part of its life here in the States, part of it in Canada, and then made its way to the UK? I know it's a bit nosy but I'm just fascinated by the import and export of these vehicles. I mentioned to @GrimsterGMC that my truck was built in Oshawa, ON but was built for the US market since its only been owned in the US and has a MPH speedometer instead of a KPH speedometer.

Glad that you didn't have to covert it to RHD. That'd cost a fortune. I can't imagine living in Australia and having to pay out all that money for the truck, the conversion, and who knows what in fuel and parts. @GrimsterGMC is from NZ and they don't have to convert their vehicles if they're a certain age. You'll see JDM imports every now and then here in the US and thankfully we don't have to do LHD conversions on them if we don't want to.

 

[Dariusz Salomon]

That price would be a little steep here in the States (from GBP to USD), but for y'all across the pond, that's a steal! Was the last owner desperate for cash or just wanted it gone? Was it an estate sale? These trucks are ridiculously overpriced outside the US and Canada so I'm surprised you got it that low.

When you say she was born in Texas-then went to Canada do you mean the truck was built in TX for the Canadian market? or was it built in TX then spent part of its life here in the States, part of it in Canada, and then made its way to the UK? I know it's a bit nosy but I'm just fascinated by the import and export of these vehicles. I mentioned to @GrimsterGMC that my truck was built in Oshawa, ON but was built for the US market since its only been owned in the US and has a MPH speedometer instead of a KPH speedometer.

Glad that you didn't have to covert it to RHD. That'd cost a fortune. I can't imagine living in Australia and having to pay out all that money for the truck, the conversion, and who knows what in fuel and parts. @GrimsterGMC is from NZ and they don't have to convert their vehicles if they're a certain age. You'll see JDM imports every now and then here in the US and thankfully we don't have to do LHD conversions on them if we don't want to.

Yeah-born in TX,then went somewhere in the US,then Canada and private import to UK.
The PO bought it for towing,but one before him put sill 20 inch wide wheels and she drove like a pig. I guess he didn't like driving it (I didn't untill I put different set of wheels and widened the track) plus few problems made him sell it. At this time similar tahoes in Germany were going for 10k EUR up-so 5k was a steal-especially that it's z71 and pretty original at that with under 100k miles on the clock. There was no better truck for less money at the time I was buying her.

 

[df2x4]

Is your Mom originally from MN?

Seymour, IN originally but they lived in Walker for quite a while after her dad got out of the Navy. They moved to that house on Leech Lake and he immediately bought a boat and went Walleye fishing as often as he could. He passed away before I knew him all that well but I still remember watching him carry a full stringer of fish up the hill and cleaning them for dinner when we visited.

 

[HotWheelsBurban]

Yeah-born in TX,then went somewhere in the US,then Canada and private import to UK.
The PO bought it for towing,but one before him put sill 20 inch wide wheels and she drove like a pig. I guess he didn't like driving it (I didn't untill I put different set of wheels and widened the track) plus few problems made him sell it. At this time similar tahoes in Germany were going for 10k EUR up-so 5k was a steal-especially that it's z71 and pretty original at that with under 100k miles on the clock. There was no better truck for less money at the time I was buying her.

GM has a plant in Arlington, Texas (between Dallas and Fort Worth) that originally built cars (I think the '55 Bel Air my dad had was built there, it was originally sold in Dallas). They built the G bodies (Monte Carlo etc.) there, my mom's '81 MC was built there. In the 90s there was a big controversy because GM was building the full size cars(B bodies) there and in Michigan (Willow Run?) and had to close one plant as production/sales wouldn't support both. They picked the Texas plant to keep, and after the B bodies were discontinued, it made trucks and SUVs. I think it's still producing them....

 

[Boots97]

Yeah-born in TX,then went somewhere in the US,then Canada and private import to UK.
The PO bought it for towing,but one before him put sill 20 inch wide wheels and she drove like a pig. I guess he didn't like driving it (I didn't untill I put different set of wheels and widened the track) plus few problems made him sell it. At this time similar tahoes in Germany were going for 10k EUR up-so 5k was a steal-especially that it's z71 and pretty original at that with under 100k miles on the clock. There was no better truck for less money at the time I was buying her.

I'd agree. That was a steal. Too bad people can't take care of their things. It ****** me off in some ways but in others I don't blame them. Cars hemmorage cash like no ones business and there's no incentive to take care of something that is near worthless. My parents have a 2013 Ford Explorer XLT AWD. We bought it used in 2016. I don't remember what we paid, but MSRP was 33K USD and now it's only worth about 8K in perfect condition. We take care of our vehicles and don't drive them like a pig and we don't live in squalor in our vehicles. We've done oil changes and any other maintenance needed and it honestly is a morale killer for people like my parents and I who work hard for our things. The stars aligned for that one and I'm glad you got such a good deal. At least that Tahoe gets to be loved by someone who loves these vehicles as much as I do.