Jrgunn5150
Enjoying tomorrow's success today
Yeah, that's right, a Trailblazer lol. I was asked for a build thread on it, so I'll try to comply. There are more hardcore ones than mine out there, offroadtb.com is a great resource if you have a GMT360.
So let me start off by saying, I'm not a brand loyal person. Not at all, not even a little bit. I have no promotional consideration, GM/Ford/Toyota don't provide me with free vehicles, parts, or checks. I am however, and engineer. So I can look at something critically, break it down into it's component parts, and weight the pros and cons of it.
So last year, I was looking for a replacement to my Yukon, it was a 96, basically stock. I had done maintenance and basic upgrades to it for reliability, but it was riding on 285's and largely stock. It had 297,000 on it, and it was just past the point of making sense to put further money into. I used it to go back and forth to work mainly. I did light offroading and trail running with it, I relied on it in bad weather (I live in West Michigan, it normally snows alot here), I used it to haul trailers and parts about sometimes, it was a true, general purpose vehicle for me.
So, in looking for a new vehicle, I knew I wanted something smaller, the Yukon was a challenge in the woods, alot of metal, alot of windows. So that put me on mid-sized vehicles. Dodge Durango, Jeep Grand Cherokee, Nissan Xterra, Toyota 4 Runner. I wanted something less than ten years old as well, and I needed to be able to pay cash for it. Somehow, I got onto the subject of Chevy Trailblazers as well.
The Durango, has an available V8, but a not so great torsion bar front (I was all too familiar after ten years of Yukon ownership lol). Jeep Grand Cherokee, had no frame, and most in my price range had the hit or miss 4.7 in them. Nissan Xterra, man this one was good. There's a surprising amount of aftermarket support for the platform, parts are fairly cheap, and it was in my price range. The downside was the power, they make like 210 hp.... Booo... There's a SC version, but then you're buying premium for your DD, also Booo.
So in comes the Trailblazer. Mine is a regular one, or a short one, with a 5.3. It has a frame, it has coilover front suspension, it has heated leather, XM, balh blah, all the things you want in a daily when you daily 75+ miles lol. So I settled on it after some reading at Offroadtb.com, in spite of a few shortcomings, mainly limited aftermarket, and a goofy, balljoint over top of the tire front end, not mention an oddball 6 on 5 bolt pattern, that it only shares with other GMT360's.
So here it is the day I bought it, silly running boards and all. It was so low, they were only good for tripping over.
I went and took a little offroad trip, it brought out some shortcomings,
Mainly, street tires, zero ground clearance, and a resonator and spare that act as land anchors,
The resonator and spare were easy to fix, I cut them off lol. The tires, not so much. The GMT360 has an upper balljoint located over top of the tire. So you can't get a larger than stock tire on, because it will hit the upper balljoint. Thankfully there's theliftmeister.com , who offers wheel spacer's, adapters to the more common 6 on 5.5 pattern, and mild lifts.
Some 1.5 inch spacers gave me the clearance I needed,
To go up to a set of Goodyear Duratracs,
In preparation to try to squeeze them on with no lift, I removed the front bumper cover and trimmed the impact bar,
Then i went and got stuck again, Street tires FTL,
So I put my new Duratracs on and ventured down to Bundy Hill, my local ORV park,
Somewhere in there I picked up my 75 F100 also, and yes, that is a 66-ish Chevelle on a boat trailer in the background,
I got tired of my tires rubbing nonstop, and put on a 3" lift from theliftmeister.com, along with a set of Bilstein HD struts,
Sometime in the summer, my front axle disconnect bit it, and the axle seal and bearing were toasted, so I put in a Trailblazer SS rear (14 bolt, SF), geared to 4.56 with Detroit Locker, and matching gears in the front 7.625 diff,
Since then, I haven't done much but maintenance on it. It runs great, my GF drives it to work daily, it's comfy, plenty of power, decent mileage, goes down every trail we want it to. I think this spring I'll build a winch bumper for it, maybe next year go up in tire size and grab a set of adapters for the wheels, but that's about it. I'm really happy with it.
I drove it down to Arkansas when i bought my C10, in case I needed to tow it home, but I didn't, here they are right down the road from the guy's house where I bought the C10,
So let me start off by saying, I'm not a brand loyal person. Not at all, not even a little bit. I have no promotional consideration, GM/Ford/Toyota don't provide me with free vehicles, parts, or checks. I am however, and engineer. So I can look at something critically, break it down into it's component parts, and weight the pros and cons of it.
So last year, I was looking for a replacement to my Yukon, it was a 96, basically stock. I had done maintenance and basic upgrades to it for reliability, but it was riding on 285's and largely stock. It had 297,000 on it, and it was just past the point of making sense to put further money into. I used it to go back and forth to work mainly. I did light offroading and trail running with it, I relied on it in bad weather (I live in West Michigan, it normally snows alot here), I used it to haul trailers and parts about sometimes, it was a true, general purpose vehicle for me.
So, in looking for a new vehicle, I knew I wanted something smaller, the Yukon was a challenge in the woods, alot of metal, alot of windows. So that put me on mid-sized vehicles. Dodge Durango, Jeep Grand Cherokee, Nissan Xterra, Toyota 4 Runner. I wanted something less than ten years old as well, and I needed to be able to pay cash for it. Somehow, I got onto the subject of Chevy Trailblazers as well.
The Durango, has an available V8, but a not so great torsion bar front (I was all too familiar after ten years of Yukon ownership lol). Jeep Grand Cherokee, had no frame, and most in my price range had the hit or miss 4.7 in them. Nissan Xterra, man this one was good. There's a surprising amount of aftermarket support for the platform, parts are fairly cheap, and it was in my price range. The downside was the power, they make like 210 hp.... Booo... There's a SC version, but then you're buying premium for your DD, also Booo.
So in comes the Trailblazer. Mine is a regular one, or a short one, with a 5.3. It has a frame, it has coilover front suspension, it has heated leather, XM, balh blah, all the things you want in a daily when you daily 75+ miles lol. So I settled on it after some reading at Offroadtb.com, in spite of a few shortcomings, mainly limited aftermarket, and a goofy, balljoint over top of the tire front end, not mention an oddball 6 on 5 bolt pattern, that it only shares with other GMT360's.
So here it is the day I bought it, silly running boards and all. It was so low, they were only good for tripping over.
You must be registered for see images attach
I went and took a little offroad trip, it brought out some shortcomings,
You must be registered for see images attach
Mainly, street tires, zero ground clearance, and a resonator and spare that act as land anchors,
You must be registered for see images attach
The resonator and spare were easy to fix, I cut them off lol. The tires, not so much. The GMT360 has an upper balljoint located over top of the tire. So you can't get a larger than stock tire on, because it will hit the upper balljoint. Thankfully there's theliftmeister.com , who offers wheel spacer's, adapters to the more common 6 on 5.5 pattern, and mild lifts.
Some 1.5 inch spacers gave me the clearance I needed,
You must be registered for see images attach
To go up to a set of Goodyear Duratracs,
You must be registered for see images attach
In preparation to try to squeeze them on with no lift, I removed the front bumper cover and trimmed the impact bar,
You must be registered for see images attach
You must be registered for see images attach
Then i went and got stuck again, Street tires FTL,
You must be registered for see images attach
So I put my new Duratracs on and ventured down to Bundy Hill, my local ORV park,
You must be registered for see images attach
You must be registered for see images attach
You must be registered for see images attach
Somewhere in there I picked up my 75 F100 also, and yes, that is a 66-ish Chevelle on a boat trailer in the background,
You must be registered for see images attach
I got tired of my tires rubbing nonstop, and put on a 3" lift from theliftmeister.com, along with a set of Bilstein HD struts,
You must be registered for see images attach
Sometime in the summer, my front axle disconnect bit it, and the axle seal and bearing were toasted, so I put in a Trailblazer SS rear (14 bolt, SF), geared to 4.56 with Detroit Locker, and matching gears in the front 7.625 diff,
You must be registered for see images attach
You must be registered for see images attach
Since then, I haven't done much but maintenance on it. It runs great, my GF drives it to work daily, it's comfy, plenty of power, decent mileage, goes down every trail we want it to. I think this spring I'll build a winch bumper for it, maybe next year go up in tire size and grab a set of adapters for the wheels, but that's about it. I'm really happy with it.
I drove it down to Arkansas when i bought my C10, in case I needed to tow it home, but I didn't, here they are right down the road from the guy's house where I bought the C10,
You must be registered for see images attach
