Colorado ROAD TRIP (picture heavy)

[cal30_sniper]

So, I've been real busy the last two months, but I figured I'd finally get around to posting up some pictures from my Colorado road trip this summer. I left College Station, TX on August 9th and didn't get back into town until August 26th. I covered a little more than 6,500 miles along the way.

The old 'burban ran like a top. Averaged 13.5 mpg, cruising at 70mph most of the time (although a lot of Texas and New Mexico went by at 80-85mph, gas mileage still stayed above 13 on almost every fill). The one exception was Tincup Pass, where I only got 8mpg, but I spent the entire way up pretty much riding the torque converter in first gear trying to keep traction. I was real glad I did the cooling system and transmission upgrades (and especially the Powertrax) before I went up that thing. Here's some of the better pictures I took of the burb on the trip. Thought y'all might enjoy...

Getting ready to leave, all cleaned and waxed:


Leg 1: Texas Panhandle and Northeastern New Mexico:
I left College Station and headed to Austin, TX. From there, I cut cross country on some of the secondary roads until I hit the main highway south of Lubbock. I stopped off in Canyon, TX to tour Palo Duro Canyon, and went hiking there for several hours. I left Canyon and headed to Amarillo, skirting it on the southwest side and then making a beeline towards Raton, NM. I stayed the night in Raton, and then headed north on the interstate towards the Colorado border over Raton Pass.

Somewhere between Lubbock and Amarillo, TX:


Palo Duro Canyon, TX:


East of Raton, NM:


Heading North out of Raton, NM towards Southeastern Colorado:


Leg 2: Southeastern Colorado:
From Raton Pass, I continued north towards Trinidad. At Trinidad, I got off on Highway 12, the "Highway of Legends", and made the loop around towards Cuchara and La Veta. I jumped off of Highway 12 and ran dirt road up to Bear Lake, a little over 11,000 ft up the side of Steep Mtn in the Spanish Peaks. I set up camp at a National Forest Site there, then headed back down the Highway of Legends, catching U.S. 160 West to the Great Sand Dunes National Monument. I spent the afternoon climbing on the dunes, and then rolled back to camp. The next day I headed back down the Highway of Legends to Walsenburg, and then jumped on Colorado 69 northwest towards Texas Creek.

Cuchara Pass, CO, (Entering San Isabel Ntl. Forest) Elev. 9995 ft:



Camping, 11,200 ft up in the Spanish Peaks:


Colorado 69 near Gardner, CO:


Leg 3: Central Colorado:
From Texas Creek, I took US 50 east to Canon City, and saw the Royal Gorge Bridge (along with some real pretty pullovers on U.S. 50 next to the Arkansas River). From Canyon City, I headed east on US 50 to Florence, and then took the Phantom Canyon Rd Gold Belt tour up through Cripple Creek and Florissant. From Florissant, I took US 24 west to Buena Vista, and camped the night in a National Forest site on the East side of Cottonwood Pass, just below Mt. Princeton.

Starting up Phantom Canyon Rd, just north of Florence, CO:


The Gold Belt Tour, Phantom Canyon Rd:


One lane railroad tunnel on Phantom Canyon Rd:


Original railroad bridge in Phantom Canyon:


Going over the bridge:


At the top of the canyon pass, near Cripple Creek, CO:


Leg 4: Into the Continental Divide:
From Buena Vista, I headed west up Colorado 306 to Cottonwood pass on the Continental Divide. The road was paved to the top from the east, and was really a pretty drive. I spent about an hour and a half on top climbing one of the 13,000 ft peaks nearby. The view from the top really felt like the roof of the world. I then dropped off the west side of the pass where the road becomes dirt. I went west until I skirted Taylor Park Reservoir, and then turned back east towards Tincup. From Tincup, it was a fairly good rock/dirt road up to Mirror Lake. However, from Mirror Lake up to Tincup Pass, the road got progressively worse, until it was really only barely passable. I saw a lot of Jeeps turn around and head back down before reaching the top. I got to the top, only to find that the pass was closed headed down to the west. I guess they didn't figure anyone would come up from the west like I did, so they hadn't put a sign at the west end, but I wasn't about to turn around and do it all over again. The road going east from the Pass was much better, and I made it back to Buena Vista and north on US 24 through Leadville and into Vail before dark. I read later that the pass used to be pretty good, but the west side got washed out by heavy rains in '09 and hadn't been fixed since. I would bet I was the first 2wd vehicle to make it over in quite a while. From Vail, I ducked back on Interstate 70 east for a while, and then headed south on Colorado 9 to east US 285. I got off 285 at Grant, CO, and took Guanella Pass Rd over the top to Georgetown. It was a spectacular drive, and there was some really cool ghost mines on the north side of the pass that I spent a few hours prowling around. I then headed up towards Estes Park via Colorado 119, 72, and 7 , and spent two days hiking and sightseeing there. I climbed Twin Sister's peak, and then took US 34 West to Granby (the highest paved highway in the United States). From Granby, I went west on US 40 to Steamboat, and stayed the night.

US 24 between Florissant and Buena Vista, CO:


Cottonwood Pass, Continental Divide, Elev. 12165ft:


Coming down the west side of Cottonwood Pass:


Mirror lake, just west of (and way below) Tincup Pass:


The road around Mirror Lake:


Headed up towards Tincup Pass:



Up, up, and up:


Only several hundred yards to go...


At the top of Tincup Pass, 12154 ft:


Down the east side of Tincup Pass:


Leg 5: Utah, Southwestern Colorado, and West Texas:
From Steamboat Springs, I headed West on US 40 to Dinosaur National Monument in Jensen, Utah. I spent most of the afternoon there, and then drove south to Fruita on Colorado 139. The next day, I went to Colorado National Monument, and then drove Colorado 141 through Uncompahgre National Forest and down the San Miguel River. I took Colorado 62 East to US 550 North, and then stayed the night in Montrose. From Montrose, I went back down Colorado 145, and saw the Four Corners and Mesa Verde National Park. I took US 160 east over Wolf Creek Pass, making a full circle as I went through Alimosa again, and then headed south on Colorado 159 into New Mexico. I spent the rest of the day taking backroads through New Mexico, and visited Carlsbad Caverns and Guadalupe Mountain National Park on my way out. I finished up by taking a loop through Fort Davis, Alpine, and Terlingua/Lajitas, and then headed into Big Bend National Park where I drove up into the basin. The route back from there was an uneventful haul east on Interstate 10 and then US 290 through Austin and on into College Station again.

Crossing the Utah border:



Colorado 141, Uncompahgre National Forest


Sunset at Mesa Verde National PArk

Cabins we stayed at in Alpine, TX


It was one heck of a road trip. I hope y'all enjoy looking at the pictures as much as I did taking them. I kept it to just the shots with the Suburban in it, but there are some really spectacular photos of the scenery that I took too.

-cal30sniper

[cal30_sniper]

The heart of the beast:



454 - Factory 80k mile long block
-Edelbrock Performer Intake
-Air Inlet Systems Ram Air Induction
-Doug-Thorley tri-y headers, dual 2.5" exhaust, and Magnaflow mufflers
-Milidon High-Volume Waterpump, new radiator, 180 degree hi-flow thermostat, and all new belts and hoses
-Petronix Igntion System
-Sanden 508 A/C compressor conversion (and rebuilt A/C)
-SBC Serpentine belt conversion with all new pumps and accessories

TH700R4 Conversion
-B&M Traveler Torque Converter
-Hayden Plate Transmission Cooler
-B&M RV/Towing Shift Kit
-Summit Racing +3qt Finned Aluminum Trans Pan
-B&M Lockup Torque Converter Controler

14bolt full floater rear with Richmond No-Slip locker system

Rebuilt brakes all the way around, with Hummer H2 rims and Michelin A/T 265-70-17 load range E tires.

Also, full instrumentation (including Vacuum, WideBand O2, Tach, and Trans Temp), along with a Cobra CB/Weatherband (that came in awful handy a few times), and leather '96 Suburban captains chairs and second row seats (made the trip a LOT more comfortable).



-cal30sniper

[blakeduren]

rear end Gear Ratio?

Pictures of interior?

Thoughts on the powertrax no slip for the 14 bolt? Towing?

[sbc383rulz]

nice burb, nice trip!! isnt it nice going places in a 2wd that "jeepers" wont!?

[84chevyguyid]

Sounds and looks like you had a great trip! I liked the pics too. I did a trip last year with my 87 6.5 turbo suburban, went from southeast Idaho to San Fransisco for a week to watch my daughter play some college softball games. 2300 miles in 7 days. My wife thought I was being silly by taking lots of pics with the burb in it but its fun to look back at them now! Not too bad of gas mileage for a big block. I got 18.5 to 19.5 driving there and back and the 5 days spent in San Fran, I averaged around 14 with the diesel. Thanks for sharing your trip!

[cal30_sniper]

Originally Posted by blakeduren

rear end Gear Ratio?

Pictures of interior?

Thoughts on the powertrax no slip for the 14 bolt? Towing?

Gear ratio is a 3.73, it's a towing package burb.

I'll have to get some current pictures of the interior. The last ones I have are from when I put in the seats. Since then I've changed out the door panels, added all the instrumentation/CB radio, and installed the '90 Tilt column and wheel out of my parts burb. I tore out all the cargo area carpet last weekend, and I'm in the process of sound deadening and installing MIP cargo area flooring from LMC truck. I'll post a full set of pics when I'm done with that.

I love the No-Slip. My dad has a Lock-rite in his Ram 2500 V10, and the No-Slip in my 14 bolt seems to be a lot less intrusive. Installation took an afternoon, and it went right together the first time. The only time you notice its back there (other than doing crazy offroading things) is when you are accelerating away from a stop while making a 90 degree term. It will chirp one of the tires momentarily when you shift gears under power under those conditions. It did exactly what I wanted. I honestly only spun a tire once on Tincup Pass. I was crawling over small boulders the size of my sidewalls. I started up over a wet rock shelf, and it slid sideways about 6" before it caught and went over. Everything was really wet that day, it misted/drizzled all morning while I was up there, and the trail was pretty much solid rocks. The only towing I've done so far with it is my ~3000 lb boat and trailer, and I can tell you it sure makes it easier pulling that thing up a steep mossy boat ramp with wet tires. I can't speak for heavier loads, but towing the boat makes it seem like it isn't there at all. The headers, intake, and other mods have greatly increased the torque. I had to richen the jetting 40% for part throttle and nearly 60% under full throttle to get the AFR back where it should be.

Originally Posted by sbc383rulz

nice burb, nice trip!! isnt it nice going places in a 2wd that "jeepers" wont!?

It's awesome. When I finally got to the top, there was a group of 3 kobotas and 2 wranglers just getting to the top from the other side. They were talking about how awful the east side was, and how much trouble they had getting up. I was really worried, but once I started down, I realized that the east side was a LOT better than what I'd just done. Made me feel pretty good, especially after I saw a lot of people turning around and heading back down on the easy side. If you look closely in the pictures, you can see scuff marks all the way up my sidewalls. The entire west side trail was pretty much wet boulder patches that I had to steadily crawl up through.

Originally Posted by 84chevyguyid

Sounds and looks like you had a great trip! I liked the pics too. I did a trip last year with my 87 6.5 turbo suburban, went from southeast Idaho to San Fransisco for a week to watch my daughter play some college softball games. 2300 miles in 7 days. My wife thought I was being silly by taking lots of pics with the burb in it but its fun to look back at them now! Not too bad of gas mileage for a big block. I got 18.5 to 19.5 driving there and back and the 5 days spent in San Fran, I averaged around 14 with the diesel. Thanks for sharing your trip!

Sounds like an awesome trip. I came down the panhandle of Idaho and across to Yellowstone last year on my way out of B.C. and Washington state. Absolutely beautiful country up on the north side.

I've often considered the diesel swap, but after having the torque/powerband of a warmed over 454, I don't think I could bring myself to do it now. I can't wait to swap a Vortec longblock and torquey roller cam into my current setup on down the road. That's pretty good mileage out of a suburban though, I'm assuming yours is 4wd? I've heard of the 2wd diesels knocking down over 20. I've been averaging 14.5mpg out of mine on flatland highway driving. I'm hoping to break over 15 when I do the Vortec heads/roller cam.

-cal30sniper

[DirtyLarry]

Nice pictures cal30sniper! Very nice burb too!

You were right in my neck of the woods near Phantom Canyon Rd. Phantom Canyon Rd is just down Hwy 50 from me about 15 minutes. Man, I can’t believe that you made it over Tin Cup in a 2wd. Tin Cup is not a technical trail but there are some large rip rap boulders towards the summit when coming from the Mirror Lake side that can be a challenge to navigate over or around, especially in early spring after the winter freeze moves things around. I go fishing over in the Taylor Park area a couple times a year and always take Tin Cup to take in the scenery. Beautiful place!

Nice ride you got there. Keep up the good work.

[68Timber]

That's a pretty dang cool trip there. Your drivetrain upgrades are excellent, wouldn't change a thing.

[OutlawDrifter]

great pictures and nice sub! i used to cover CO as part of my territory, its amazing how the state changes from one side to the other. my wife and i drove over the pass on I70 in may and went out to moab, awesome place, i would be willing to build a 4x4 burb/blazer for another trip out there!

[Edahall]

Thanks for sharing the photos and what a neat trip! For dirt roads, I prefer my 2 wheel drive Suburban over my 4 wheel drive. The suspension is so much softer that I can drive at twice the speed and fly over everything.

Also, not bad fuel economy at all considering that you've got a big block under there. Have you ever checked what kind of fuel economy it would get at say 55-60 mph?

[cal30_sniper]

The only time I drove 55-60 for any distance was the day I bought it. I was real easy on her bringing her home because it had sat in a lot for a very long time and I wasn't too confident in its roadworthiness. I averaged 13.6mpg on that trip, with no-overdrive and a bone stock engine. I'm guessing that I'd be over 15mpg with my current mods.

My best so far is 14.7mpg from Johnson City to College Station at 70 mph. When I kick it up to 80 out west of Fredericksburg, it drops to about 14 flat. That's when you start pulling up the long grades out in West Texas too. Before the overdrive, I didn't even drive 80. Even 70 felt like I was revving the engine a bit too much with the 3.73s.

[Edahall]

Originally Posted by cal30_sniper

My best so far is 14.7mpg from Johnson City to College Station at 70 mph. When I kick it up to 80 out west of Fredericksburg, it drops to about 14 flat.

That's 10 mph difference and only a 5% drop in fuel economy. The rule of thumb is 1% decrease in fuel economy for each mph increase. It seems like your engine is not very sensitive to speed / load.

For comparison, my 82 Suburban with the 6.2L gets 29 mpg at 58 mpg but drops to 24 mpg at 70 mph. That's a 12 mph difference and 21% fuel economy difference. Basically, it loses nearly 2% for each mph increase.

[cal30_sniper]

If I was guessing, I'd say it's due to two factors.

The first is torque. The 454 makes a lot more torque than the 6.2L. With that kind of torque on tap, speed increase doesn't penalize the engine as much. An engine that's already working hard to get to 70 is going to lose a lot more mileage getting to 80 than an engine that isn't having to push as hard to get there. I noticed this with my 350 Suburban. 65mph would regularly net 17mpg. 70 was more like 16. Push it up to 80, and you were in the 13-14mpg range. I just don't notice the same sensitivity out of the 454, but it could be because gas mileage is relatively pretty bad to start with.

The second is altitude/terrain. I never get as good of mileage going west as I do coming back east, due to the simple fact that I have to climb so much on that stretch of road going east. You gain about 2000 ft of elevation between Austin and Ozona on I-10. From there further west, you gain quite a bit more. That starts dropping mileage fast in a vehicle this heavy, but it can be hard to track sometimes. At 14 mpg, a 10% decrease in gas mileage still puts you at 12.6mpg. Those differences can be hard to track if you don't take very careful notes at fill ups. I keep track of all mine on an iPad app. It lets me plot trends, etc. It also tells me that I only get 8-9mpg around town, haha.

The only other significant difference I can think of is direct drive vs overdrive. A 10 mph difference in direct drive results in a much higher RPM difference than a 10 mph difference in overdrive. The 454 almost never kicks out of overdrive, where I'm betting the 6.2L does quite frequently going up grades. That really adds up at higher speeds.

Going west, I get 13.0 mpg at 80. Coming back east, I get 14.2. That's over a 200 mile leg each way. Averaged out, you come out to 13.6mpg. The rest of the way east (when you hit flat country), I get 14.5-14.7 at 70-75mph. That's more like a 7.5% difference for a 9% speed decrease. I tend to push over the speed limit quite a bit more when it's 70 vs when it's 80. I don't go over 80 much at all.

I'd say the rest is in gearing and torque. Your diesel gets a lot better mileage to start with, but it's a lot more susceptible to speed and load changes because it's powerband is extremely narrow in comparison. The 454 gets bad mileage across the board, but it doesn't get much worse with moderate changes in speed and load because you are still operating well within its powerband, promoting better efficiency.

That's my stab at the topic, haha.

-cal30sniper

[Edahall]

Originally Posted by cal30_sniper

I'd say the rest is in gearing and torque. Your diesel gets a lot better mileage to start with, but it's a lot more susceptible to speed and load changes because it's powerband is extremely narrow in comparison. The 454 gets bad mileage across the board, but it doesn't get much worse with moderate changes in speed and load because you are still operating well within its powerband, promoting better efficiency.

That's my stab at the topic, haha.

-cal30sniper

That pretty much sums it all up. A smaller engine has the potential for better fuel economy but when worked hard such as towing or high speeds, the advantage goes away quickly.

The Cummins 5.9 diesel in my 1990 Suburban doesn't do as well as the 6.2 driving it easy but does better (than the 6.2) when towing heavy loads. Some of the mpg difference might be due to it being 4x4 and 3/4 ton. Performance on my 6.2 (which has been somewhat modified) is similar to a good running 350. But with 3.08 gears, it doesn't take much for it to have to shift out of overdrive.

[Edahall]

Is the dent in the fender one of the battle wounds from the trip?

[cal30_sniper]

Nah, that dent is from one of the previous owners. I'm not really certain what they ran into there. It bent the bottom rung of the grille guard, and pushed the bumper back into the passenger front fender, tweaked it a little bit, and left those scratch marks. One of these days I'll fix it, but it's just not worth it since it's being used as a DD in a college town right now.