Overlanding with a 2015 Suburban

[sheikhai]

Hello! I've been looking through a lot of forums trying to find the best advice for overlanding with a 2015 Chevy Suburban thats been with my family for over 10 years. I'm currently in VA and want to do a cross country round trip visiting as many parks and places as possible. Thankfully I work remotely and can travel throughout the week but I work remotely and will be working east coast hours during the trip. Anyone have experience with a starlink mini and remote work while overlanding?

I've gone camping a good number of times and wanted to make sure that my rig would be ready for a cross country trip. Not trying to do any major off roading (trying to get her back in one piece). I plan on using the stock roof rails on the car. Should support up to 220lbs

So far I have the following:

• Jackery 1000v2 Portable power station:
• BougeRV 5kw diesel heater
• a bunch of camping gear (sleeping bags, pads, pillows, cooking supplies, chairs, lights)

Things I'm contemplating getting;

• TopOak stellar/nebula Rooftop Tent (Good for my needs, exceptionally quick setup and tear down time, diesel port, skylight and visibility
• Starlink (to work remotely)
• Maybe some beefier tires?
• Skid plates for the underside of the suburban
• a lift/level kit probably 2-3 inches
• an Awning (one thats easy to setup and tear down)
• A dual battery setup
• Water/shower setup
• Any other accessories that you think would help with the trip!

Bonus for any cooking tips and recipes that you would make on the journey

Extra bonus for any trail or park recs!

Thank you so much

 

[ThundahBeagle]

Hi,

Big fan of the Chevy and GMC trucks and SUV's. Nice 'Burban. They bring so much to the table, very little is needed to have a good time.

My 2014 GMC Sierra has a second batter tray (without the batter and extra cables) because they used the same body for the 2500HD series. Open your hood and see if there is already a second, empty battery tray. That might help, if you already have a designated space.

If you will be mostly on-road, then good new road tires should be fine, even on dirt roads. If you prefer, some mild all terrain tires could be good and still keep your fuel economy, like Yokohama Geolandar All Terrains. I have BF Goodrich KO2 but they can seem a bit aggressive on-road.

You may want to build a platform in back cargo area, and store gear or clothes under it in little storage bins. I found that helpful for organizing gear and we even slept in the back on top of the platform. Good whether you sleep back there or not.

If you are going to see as many National Parks as possible, get a national parks pass. You can get them at REI and they are like $80. By the time you enter 3 different parks, it has paid for itself.

Highly recommend Yellowstone, Badlands, and the whole Black Hills area. I'm also partial to Acadia, myself, but that's just local

 

[ThundahBeagle]

Also, of course, totally up to you, but I take the lower front bumper spoiler off for the winter and if I plan to be on any sort of variable terrain. It's kind of a pain to take off, yet simple. It's just SO many bolts, some facing up some down.

Skid plates could probably be gotten at a junk yard off of a Z71 model, although the front beach plate is usually plastic. Not meant for bashing but just to protect from smaller debris, hot engine off of grass, etc. If you know a metal fabricator I bet they could mock up a good back plate based off the plastic one.

Not sure what lifting one of these entails. If it is coil over front, Billstein 5100 will work but you need a strong, wall mounted spring compressor because those springs are massive. Auto parts store spring compressors are Tinker toys by comparison. If I'm not wrong, the rear end on these is still solid axle, so list blocks should do the trick and the Billstein 5100 rears will allow for an additional 1 inch.

Fow what its worth.