I'm Craig's List cruising again. I swear I can stop whenever I want. No addiction here.
I'm seeing some really good deals on late 90's Tahoes, Suburbans, etc. I'm thinking family hauler, tow pig, general run around SUV. With one kid here and another in the oven space is at a premium. The problem? All these trucks have over 250k miles. That begs the question, how many miles are too many miles on these vehicles?
What says the GRM hive mind?
Depends on the price and exact drivetrain setup, but in general I would estimate that these things are near indestructible. My cousins have a 93ish Silverado with over 400k miles. Seats have springs sticking out of them, I think the muffler is there in spirit only, and it burns oil, but maintenence on it for them includes putting gas and oil in it. I actually think that they put used oil out of their "nice" car in it.
Although I just re-read your post. 2 kids and you need a Suburban?
i sold my 94 with 188k the other day.
my 90 pickup has in excess of 300k, the odometer broke at 218k about 10 years ago according to the PO.
with nice examples sub 4k with 100k-120k or so miles why are you looking at 250k+ trucks?
In reply to mtn:
Thanks for the info on your cousins truck.
Yeah..two kids. We're taking a week long trip into some offroading territory. I need 4x4 and hauling kid stuff, wife stuff, family stuff, my stuff, all adds up quick. Let's not even discuss how we may have to haul in groceries as the nearest store will be 20 mins of rough road out. I was surprised to be honest at the amount we have to haul. She has a Subaru Forester as a daily and when we take a trip the thing is bursting at the seams with one kids support gear. 
patgizz wrote: i sold my 94 with 188k the other day. my 90 pickup has in excess of 300k, the odometer broke at 218k about 10 years ago according to the PO. with nice examples sub 4k with 100k-120k or so miles why are you looking at 250k+ trucks?
Cost mostly. Forest Gump said "I'm not a smart man." I can replace the term "smart" with "rich". Also, this truck will most likely do a lot of sitting around. I'd rather not put a large amt of money into a truck that will sit for long durations between uses. I'm not above exercising it once a week or so to keep the mechanicals working right but after trips it will be used for hauling duties.
The sheer amount of stuff you need for a trip like that is very hard to exaggerate. I have three kids and to be able to sleep at night (comfortable knowing you're prepared) you need a full size SUV.
The fact that there are soooooo many out there and parts are infinitely available, high mileage doesn't worry me at all.
Unless they are rusty, 90's Suburbans can keep going pretty much forever. As long as you don't lose patience with repairing electrical stuff and rebuilding the transmission.
With that said, I guess you live in truck country, because around here, a 90's Suburban with over 120K is worth between 1k-2k.
I bought my 93 with a 100k for 1500$. And it's a mint one owner barely any rust truck.
These strike me as eternally rebuildable, as long as rust hasn't taken over.
I like the earlier solid axle box burbs. Those, as long as the cancer stays away, are literally infinitely rebuildable. Simple drivetrain, simple interior, simple everything.
$3950 161K
a few years ago i paid $225 for a 94 Suburban that had 340,000 miles on i. it was only a 2 wheel drive so it's utility was limited, but it was still a beast..
it looked, drove, and ran as good as new.. the only indications that it had a lot of miles was the way the exhaust had fallen off after the cat and the leather on the driver's seat was a little worn on the outside... and one light bulb in the instrument cluster didn't work.. and a little bit of paint was peeling off a front fender..
it started right up, didn't leak or burn any oil, didn't clunk when you put it in gear, and you could take your hands off the steering wheel and it would go perfectly straight down the interstate.. i put a NAPA muffler and exhaust mid pipe on it and sold it to my brother for $400.. he used it to move, then drove it on and off thru a MN winter- the damn thing always started on even the coldest days, and he was getting close to 20mpg with it, which i thought was pretty damn good for a 5000+ pound brick with 3.73 gears..
I paid $3500 last year for my '94 Suburban 2500 Turbodiesel 2WD with ~148k miles, I think.
What Woody said is right. If it isn't rusting, you can fix or replace anything, usually for very little money.
what kind of mpg do you get with the 2wd turbodiesel? I'm thinking one of those would be an awesome tow rig.
Thanks for the all the input guys. I'm checking on trucks and it sounds like fuel pumps and transmissions are the big items to watch for. Some people mention broken interior door handles but I don't see that across the board.
Then I read about how domestic trucks are over built and have all the bugs ironed out of their major systems.
This might be an experiment worth pursuing.
Any other data I should be aware of?
LMC truck and rockauto are your friends, and if your in a pinch any autozone/ or advanced auto farts kind of store will have x4 of whatever you need.
Crew Cab or Supercab '87-'97 F-Series could work too? Same rebuildable properties and parts-a-plenty.
as much as I hate to admit the chevy apeal has some good backing.
everyone knows how to fix them
they are typically overbuilt for their ignorant owners
parts are everywhere and cheap
the fords are nice but the parts are more expensive and servicing them is less friendly. (from my experience, working as a ford mechanic for a bit) I would rather have a ford excursion than my suburban but the parts and servicibility really cling to my cheapness.
2002maniac wrote: what kind of mpg do you get with the 2wd turbodiesel? I'm thinking one of those would be an awesome tow rig.
Depends on the rear end. You could see anythign from mid 20's to high teens unloaded.
Mileage depends on the previous owner. I know people who have over 500k on theirs. The ones we have at work are pretty beat at 50k. I would avoid any that came from a city auction.
The 5.3 is bad for leaking oil out the back. Usually just the cam sensor oring, but don't go spreading that around:-P Also the oil pan tends to start leaking. Idler and pitmans go out a bit. Ac belts. And wheel bearings. Chevy can't make wheel bearings. Good trucks tho.
Jaxmadine wrote: The 5.3 is bad for leaking oil out the back. Usually just the cam sensor oring, but don't go spreading that around:-P Also the oil pan tends to start leaking. Idler and pitmans go out a bit. Ac belts. And wheel bearings. Chevy can't make wheel bearings. Good trucks tho.
everyone else is talking about the old body style with the SBC based engines in either TBI or vortec flavors, with the pre-Duramax Diesels also being discussed..
The chebbies/gmcs are great, there is only one thing to consider.
IF THE TRANSMISSION HAS NOT BEEN REBUILT YET, IT WILL NEED TO BE. NO IFS ANDS OR BUTS.
They are fatally flawed from the factory, I have saw them live a long time, but MOST have the sunshell explode. Budget a minimum of $1500 for a proper rebuild including pulling it and reinstalling it.
In reply to novaderrik: Thank you captian obvious for the rude and useless post! I'm am not talking about the 5.7 engines in case he finds a newer one! Oh, and the window regulators sukc. And I've seen a few 350s where the distributor gear wears out, or th whol thing rusts out. And they still leak oil like a bitch.
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