A Suburban A Warhorse and a pair of Double Dees

[LDW3RD 0]

This build is truly inspiring. My word for this build is Wow.

Keep up the awesome work.

[sefugi 166]

Thanks, I just hope the battery rack doesn't end up in some parking lot after I go over a speed bump.

Eh, with all the 1/0 wire connected to it you won't loose it!

[Mac N Cheese 90]

Wow that is awesome work! Looks like great position on the fuse holders

[onebadmonte 235]

Wow that is awesome work! Looks like great position on the fuse holders

Thanks. After carefully studying my Luopan, a Feng Shui compass, it's guidance revealed that this would be the best location for optimum performance. Not to mention the Kicker manual recommended having fuses with in 18" of the battery bank. On a serious note I wanted the cables to flow and have good access to the fuses if necessary.

[onebadmonte 235]

Got a little work done today. I worked on the cabling from the battery bank to the amp. Lets start off from the battery bank to the fuse holders on the positive side. Here is a shot looking forward through the real license plate opening in the rear bumper.

Looking up from the ground.

Here is a shot from the amp side of the fuse holder going up and through the floor.

Now lets take a look at the negative side. Here we're looking through the rear license plate opening .

A shot from the ground looking up.

Here is a shot of how the cables work around the body and in between the frame cross-member to get to the opening in the body floor to get to the amp.

Lastly the cables through the floor and into the rear cargo area.

For those wondering, the white stuff is baby powder. I cant emphasize enough how dusting the cables and grommets with it will make fishing the cables through the grommets so much easier.

[outhopu 70]

Everything is looking A-1. Love all the custom tabs and brackets, makes everything so nice and clean. You have some serious time invest in this build. I know how long it takes just to make all the cables alone. Much respect for doing it all right the first time.

[sefugi 166]

And I thought baby powder was only to make a diaper smell good! Wiring Looks Great!!

[onebadmonte 235]

Thanks fellas. I've been putting some work in the ol' burb, but my camera's battery decided to take a permanent vacation. I finally got a chance to pic up one of those multi-memory card reader thingies. Now I'm back in action using the wife's fancy Nikon. This time around I made a fuse holder holder for the power cables off the alternators. Nothing fancy, just a steel plate to keep everything together under the hood. Here is my steel plate drilled and ready for tapping.

Three holes and twenty minutes later, FHACK!!!! Broken tap.

I borrowed one of these bad mahmajamas from work. We use these in our CNC machines. 8-32 thread, spiral 3 flute design, bottoming tap for blind holes.

It tapped like a dream. Using this tap really brought back the fun in doing this work. It was like a hot knife cutting through butter. It took less than five minutes to tap the rest of the holes. I love the chips this tap makes. Bummer it's $18 a tap. o_o

Here is a shot of the fuse holder holder assembly.

Here is where I'm thinking of placing it.

Before I do I'm going to have to do something about this whachamacallit.

To keep it simple I'm going to move it up and over a bit to clear the upper power cables. Here you can see the reference mark I put on the upper right mount.

I traced the mounting profile onto a sheet of paper then moved the whachamacallit over to the new location lining the reference mark up with the upper right mount.

With the mounting locations drawn, I marked the centers of the mounting holes. I followed up by doing my folding paper trick. This saves me time by not having to measure and remember numbers to make the part I need to make.

Essentially what I do is just lay my plate on the sheet and transfer all the reference marks onto the plate. Then I just use a ruler to connect the reference marks, locating the hole centers.

With the hole centers located I use a center punch to create location dimples for my hand punch.

Here it is, what ever it is, relocated up and over just a smidgen.

Here is a preview of what's to come. Yes it's in black and white.

[Mtopper 23]

is anything on this truck left untouched at this point? amazing craftsmanship and attention to detail yet again man. keep going, love me some GM builds

[onebadmonte 235]

is anything on this truck left untouched at this point? amazing craftsmanship and attention to detail yet again man. keep going, love me some GM builds

The visible exterior is still stock. Once it's all done most of this will not be visible so I've got to give the small details their moment in the spotlight. Thanks.

[onebadmonte 235]

Thread bump. I've got some more work done, no I'm not done yet, thanks for asking. I updated my quad alt bracket setup a bit. If you'd like to read about it I posted my updated in my quad alt bracket review thread. Here is a link in case you're interested.

Quad Alt Bracket Review

Now onto my build. Nothing spectacular here, just got the power cables cut and installed. I started off by taking some measurement and making notes. Got to love notes. You start off thinking proactively and taking notes. Then when it comes to going back to them, you read them and that make no sense what so ever. Well here is a shot of my chicken scratches.

With measurements in hand it's time to cut some cable. Just got to find me a little room. I think I found the spot. These are going to be some long cables.

Wouldn't you know it, I ran out of cable. I ended up buying some more cable at the local welding supply store. Paid a premium for cable I wasn't impressed with. Oh well, what do you do? I got a little more than what I needed, so I'm going to bundle it up on the side till I get the cable I like. That way I can use this cable for something else. Here are some shots of the cable runs.

More on the way. Stay tuned.

[Mtopper 23]

um........ i don't think you'll ever experience a voltage drop with that much power flow...

[onebadmonte 235]

Moar updates. I got a chance to work all weekend on this bish, and I'm still not done. Any ways, on today's installment of the never ending build I worked on an alternator wiring harness. The quad alt bracket kit came with these plain ol' pigtails.

Not bad, but I'm wanting something that will plug right into the factory harness without any cutting and splicing. After a bit of searching I found and outfit online that sold individual connectors terminals and little thing-a-ma-gigs. I ordered a few and this is what came in.

If we're going to do this we're going to do it with the right tools.

Check the crimp it leaves

Well I though I had the right connector, turns out I didn't. The orientation tang is on the wrong side. It's okay I can use these to plug into the factory harness. I'll salvage to connectors off the pigtails to connect to the alternators.

Here is a shot of the factory alternator plug.

Here is the new plug on the factory harness. Interchanging between this new plug and the original alternator plug is a breeze. All it takes is a toothpick to bend down the terminal retaining tang. Then just pull out the terminal, bend up the retaining tang, then install in the original plug. Easy peazy.

Here is the mating plug to the new plug.

With plug-gate sorted out I opted to make the harness on the bench. Here is how everything got routed.

The finished product ready for install.

[onebadmonte 235]

We're on a roll tonight.

This is it fellas, I'm buttoning things up. Staring at the front, working towards the rear. Up first, everything under the hood. Lets start off with some shots of the alts.

Hey everybody, it's the creampuff making a cameo appearance.

Here is a shot of the power cables to the firewall if you were 9ft tall.

Close up of the fuse holder, holder.

A straight shot following the cables into the firewall.

Side shot of the fuses.

I also got the inner wheel well in place. Here is how the grounds look. Stealthy, as intended.

Here is looking up from the ground at the grounds. :\

That's it for tonight.

[TRP 42]

Looking great as always!!! I love your creativity and ingenuity!!

[sefugi 166]

Everything is looking GREAT!!! Love that you built a harness for the alts instead of just butting them all together!

[Mtopper 23]

the only bad thing i see is that it looks like your tire is almost dead hahaha. Great look of everything man

[onebadmonte 235]

Looking great as always!!! I love your creativity and ingenuity!!

Thanks, finally getting there.

Everything is looking GREAT!!! Love that you built a harness for the alts instead of just butting them all together!

Thanks. I took a little bit of searching to find the connectors at a price I felt comfortable paying. Lots of places were willing to sell them to me but at a price that I thought was ridiculous. I'm happy with the way it turned out.

the only bad thing i see is that it looks like your tire is almost dead hahaha. Great look of everything man

Bwahaha! I know. I've been eyeing some wheels in the 4wheel parts catalog, just don't tell momma I'm looking. :|

[onebadmonte 235]

Moar progress! I got some coil spacers to level the Suburban out with the added weight in the rear. Big thanks to Sir Lancelot for turning me on the these. Now if only he was around to help me put these in. Boy, were these a bish to get in. Made me feel like an amateur installing these spacers. I lifted one side of the axle and used a coil compressor to get the coil out. I wasn't able to compress the coil enough to get the spacer in. I guess I should have eaten my Wheaties before tackling this job. I resorted to using my uber cheesy orange HF press to compress the coil just enough to the coil and the spacer in place.

Here is a shot of the spacers in place.

Before getting the spacers in place the rear of the Suburban measured 37" to the top center of the rear wheel opening. The front measured 36" With the spacers in place and the Suburban weighted down the rear now measures 38" and the front measured 37". Weird, but it is what it is I guess. Any ways, check these next pics.

Yep, that's three rows of seats. With the front bench, this bad boy seats 9. In Maryland this could be considered a bus.

Still need to make all the connections to the amp. Last step get the battery rack in place and fire it all up. Cant wait.

Edited June 1, 2011 by onebadmonte

[Mtopper 23]

DAMN!!!!!! that looks amazing! plus, keeping all of your seating is much better than dropping down to only a 6 seater

[outhopu 70]

I see a major issue.

There have been way too many posts without the use of any riv-nuts. Lol. Seriously though it's all coming together real nice. This is a major build for sure.

[onebadmonte 235]

DAMN!!!!!! that looks amazing! plus, keeping all of your seating is much better than dropping down to only a 6 seater

Thanks. Keeping all the seats was one of my goals. Applying for a bus permit in the state of Maryland was just spur of the moment. :OP

I see a major issue.

There have been way too many posts without the use of any riv-nuts. Lol. Seriously though it's all coming together real nice. This is a major build for sure.

Bwahahahah! Funny guy right here ^^^^ He'll be performing through out this thread. :OP Thanks bro. I appreciate you hanging in here till the end. I can't believe I'm almost done. With the install portion that is. I've still got to test, tune and fix anything that got effed up during installation.

[onebadmonte 235]

The last of the major components is finally going in, the battery rack. I've been kind of nervous about this one. Eight batteries at 60lbs a pop are going up all at once. This is how I pulled it off in my driveway. A big thanks to my buddy Rick, who gave up quality family time, to give me his opinion on how it all should have been done and reminded me how my dad could have done this whole install with a crescent wrench and a rubber hose. Thanks.

To get the battery rack up in place I came up with this contraption. It's a pair of scissor style transmission jacks from harbor freight with a board bolted a top of them. The board came from an old entertainment center I trashed. Recycling FTW!

Here is the fully assembled battery rack on my custom one-off lift.

I lucked out that the Suburban was tall enough to allow me to roll the rack in place.

Against all odds and reason the lift worked.

I used some extra scissor jacks to level out the rack as I got it closer in place since the driveway slanted down at a funny angle.

A couple of shots of the final connections.

Here are some shots of the rack in place. I took these the following morning since my camera batteries decided to take the night off the previous evening.

That's it. It's all wired up and ready for the smoke test. Stay tuned for the follow up.

Edited June 4, 2011 by onebadmonte

[Sir-Lancelot 216]

Sexy!

Like the amp guts showing.

I know you have been playing it, and????????????

[sefugi 166]

Looks Awesome and there is enough room for a SSA party in there!!!

If there was no smoke then I guess it's time to get tuning!