<p>berurah~so glad you made it home in Kansas (there’s no place like home!) You always have such a good sense of humor about your cars, and the unlucky situations you find yourself in!</p>
<p>berurah,
Welcome back! I was ignoring this thread for a while because I don’t know anything about cars, but then I noticed it was yours.</p>
<p>Welcome HOME!</p>
<p>Berurah: (((((((HUGS)))))) to you, and glad you’re home, safe and sound!</p>
<p>Berurah: your absence was noticed. Been too quite here in the cafe. Glad you all made it back in one piece</p>
<p>Ah, the joys of an old Suburban. Everybody goes on about these gas guzzlin tanks, but I’ve been driving these for 25 years, long before they became fashionable, and strictly as a utility vehicle. </p>
<p>Five years after we were married, my dad gave us his '77 C-10. I doubt it had 50k miles on it. Bench seat in the front, no A/C, no headliner. None of this hot and cold cupholder crap. </p>
<p>We drove it non-stop every year from Connecticut to the Canadian Maritimes on our yearly camping trips. Plenty of room for gear, and a big, slobbering Newfoundland. When the kids came along, we switched from tent camping to pulling a pop-up. Even with two more bodies, still plenty of room for the dog and all the stuff. The effect on acceleration and gas mileage was negligible. </p>
<p>You couldn’t kill that 350 L series 8 cylinder they had in it. I could accelerate
uphill from 85 mph with the trailer. Plenty of power, and never an issue trying to merge from a dead stop onto a busy interstate.</p>
<p>One year, I broke an axle on the pop-up on the Trans-Can in New Brunswick, and was doing 80 at the time. The trailer dropped, sparks flew from the broken stub, and the Suburban tracked straight as an arrow, just like the trailer had two good wheels. I doubt we would have lived in anything with less of a wheelbase or gross weight.</p>
<p>I put a new cam in at 150k and ran it till 200k. It was still strong, but the body was gone. I picked up a clean '88 with 100k in '94 for $4000, and let the '77 go.</p>
<p>The new one had front buckets, front and rear A/C and a headliner, what was then the “Silverado” package. I missed that front bench seat. Numerous camping trips and schlepping both now degreed progeny back and forth to school move-ins, the hi-end gears on the transmission finally went last week. It’s in the driveway, waiting to go to the transmission shop. For $1800 I can have a rebuilt. </p>
<p>Beats taking a Newf and a greyhound to the vets in the wifes Scion XB.</p>
<p>With the cost of gas now, that’s about all the use it will see these days. That and hopefully moving the kids stuff out of the house.</p>