All about the ‘burban

For our Lake Byrd neighbors, you may have noticed an older black Chevy Suburban sitting in our driveway. It’s ours. And it’s going to become my daily driver. A few things have changed with my work which is creating different opportunities for us.

The Promaster

I set up my big white Promaster work van for doing on site work. It’s been great. However, since we’ve moved up to the lake, I’ve all but stopped doing installations and have focused my business on work that I can perform in the shop. In doing that shop work, I’m processing a lot of lumber. That means I’m hauling a lot of lumber. I’ve been maxing out the payload of the van with lumber and even when pulling a trailer, I’m limited in the amount of lumber that I can haul in a single trip because of the limited towing capacity of the van (5,000 lbs).

Enter the Suburban

That’s where the Suburban comes in. It’s a heavy duty Suburban (3/4 ton) with a huge 8.1 liter engine that’s rated to tow 12,000 lbs. With the third row of seats removed and the second row folded down, I can haul 4×8 sheets in the back. Most of the products I deliver are 8′ long so this provides a great dry storage space for them. The increased towing capacity will allow me to load up the trailer with more lumber than I could haul previously. That’s a win/win.

Follow the money

There’s also the financial side of the equation. One of our driving goals is financial freedom. This move works towards that goal in a few different ways. By selling the van, we’ll get rid of a $400 a month payment. Also, this is our last debt, and so once gone, we will be completely debt free. On top of that, with the chip shortage currently plaguing the auto industry, used cars are in high demand. Beyond that, this model van is in extremely high demand, and Kelley Blue Book says it should sell in a private sale for $15k more than I paid for it 2 years ago. Craziness. All together, this will help us move towards being financially free.

Repairs

It’s a nearly 20 year old vehicle though, and since it’s new to me, I’ve been going through it and fixing things to get it running properly. The first and most pressing issue(s) were the front end. All of the parts that hold the front tires in place and allow them to spin and to turn with the steering wheel were wore out. One of the wheel bearings was bad. One of the CV axles was bad. The ball joints were wore out. So I went ahead and replaced all of it. When it was said and done, Oceana took it down to Big T tire’s and got it aligned. Now it rides good as new.

Changing the fluids

Next up was new fluids. I changed the oil out and put on a new filter. I followed that with a transmission fluid change. Based on how dark it was and the smell, the transmission fluid was definitely needing to be changed. With the engine oil and transmission fluid, I took samples of the fluid as it was draining and then sent those samples off to a laboratory for analysis. By doing this, you can get a good feel for the state of the internals in the engine/transmission. If you get samples analyzed at each oil change, they can actually dial in exactly how many miles you can go between oil changes. Pretty cool stuff. I also changed out the brake fluid and with Oceana’s help, bled the brakes at each wheel (which changes the brake fluid in the lines). Lastly, I changed out the power steering fluid. I’d still like to change the oil in the rear end and front gearbox but that will have to wait for another day.

That smell

The interior was pretty rough. The outside looks great, but the inside, well, that was another story. I had a mobile detailing company come out and steam clean/detail the interior. It looked much better after he finished five hours later. However, it still stunk. Bad. We rented a small carpet cleaning machine and Oceana cleaned the carpets for a few hours and then I took over and cleaned them for a few hours. That helped tremendously. After a day or two when the carpets finally dried out, the smell is nearly gone. I’ve given it a few treatments with febreeze and now it’s near an acceptable level of stink.

The dashboard

The dashboard was cracked real bad. It was bad enough that chunks had broken off. I took out the dashboard and using some Corian adhesive and plastic strips, I glued it back together. Once it was together, I re-installed it. It still looked like crap, but at least it was solid. I then ordered an overlay dashboard – basically a thin plastic dashboard that installs over the existing dashboard. I glued and clamped it in place overnight. It looks so much better! While I had the trim off that went around the gauges, I took the opportunity to paint it black. The finish was peeling off and it was looking rough so a little prep and a little paint and it looks like brand new. There’s still a few odds and ends to do for the ‘burban, but as of right now, it’s ready for daily commuting.

The Teak update

Teak is doing good! It almost seems as if he’s mellowing out slightly since we’ve gotten back. Maybe he’s just happy to be on a routine again. He’s started to get more protective of the house. He’s barking at people walking in the street and at the UPS guy. His bark is getting deeper too – if you couldn’t see him, you might think that he’s a big scary dog. Then you realize he’s a big fluffball and can’t take him seriously. Below is a pic from one of my clients at their warehouse. They like it when Teak comes to visit. You can see me and the ‘burban in the background. Teak really likes riding in the ‘burban. There’s so much glass that he’s got lots to look at. He lays down like he wants to sleep but then gets up and starts looking out the windows again. It’s pretty funny.

The molding machine

I finally got the molding machine on wheels and into the shop. I found a local hardware store that had a piece of 4″ wide x 3/4″ thick steel. I cut it in half and mounted a pair of 1000lb each casters to each piece then bolted them to the base of the molder. Then was the fun part – rolling it into the shop. The blacktop in this area is full of potholes and is about 3″ lower than the shop floor. I used a variety of scrap pieces of plywood to smooth out the runway and then used various sized levers to pry it uphill and into the shop. That kicked my butt. However, once in the shop and on the concrete floor, it actually rolls pretty good! This week I’ll be hooking up the three phase electrical to it as well as getting it set up on dust collection.

That’s all, folks

That’s all for today. As always, thanks for following along!