2002 Denali Camping Build

[Buggdave]

Thanks for the kind words, over the years we have had fun working on the Denali together. We have also been some cool places with the Yukon as well.

 

[Rocket Man]

Nice work. I love my 02 Denali, I’ve put a lot of work into it. If you get bored you can check out my build thread. There’s a link at the bottom of this post, if you don’t see it just rotate your device. Looking forward to more here. Maybe one day this will thread will run 380-something pages too…

 

[Buggdave]

After about 20k of dirt roads later, my tie rods were shot. So I got some Kryptonite rods, wow, these things were beefy!

Easy install too.

 

[Buggdave]

Thanks Mark, I have read your thread and have used it for reference on a few of my mods. I have been workin gon this Yukon for 5 years now and I am trying to finally document a few of them here in hope that they will help others.

 

[Rocket Man]

After about 20k of dirt roads later, my tie rods were shot. So I got some Kryptonite rods, wow, these things were beefy!
View attachment 353832
Easy install too.

If you don’t mind me asking, what did those Kryptonites run you?

 

[Buggdave]

Beside the tie rods taking a beating, the procomp shocks did not like me driving 70 mph down desert roads. They were shot. I had been eying the AFP coil over conversion for years and finally Black Friday rolled around and I pulled the trigger.
I went with the double adjustable Viking c205 shocks with 750lb springs for the front and d215 shocks for the rear. I also replaced the z71 springs in the rear and did a standard spring with an airbag for towing.
the install was not that complicated with the instructions provided.

 

[Buggdave]

@Rocket Man, I think I paid about $300 at the time for the tie rods.

 

[Buggdave]

The coilover shocks were a game changer for my handling and adjustability. I wanted to find some FOX or Kings (for off road cycling) but because I am trying to stay about stock height, I was never able to find a pair that would work. The smallest I could locate was 6" travel but this would put my CV axles at a larger angle than I wanted. With my CV axles parallel to the ground, my measurements from upper shock mount to lower control arm was about 16" with out the adapters from AFP. The top reinforcement and bottom adapters take up about 3.75", so I wanted to find a shock that had a ride height of about 12". This had to have and an extended body height of 14.5" and compressed body height of 9." with 5" of travel if I wanted to have equal down and up travel in the shock. I found a spreadsheet calculator created by Richard from AFP that helped me calculate my spring rates and compare a few different shock manufactures. I have been running the viking shocks now for two years and they have held up reasonably well. I have had to replace one shock because the rebound was no longer functioning and finding a rebuild kit for the warrior line of viking shocks was not an option. All in all, i would do the conversion again because of how much better the Yukon handles.

 

[Rocket Man]

The coilover shocks were a game changer for my handling and adjustability. I wanted to find some FOX or Kings (for off road cycling) but because I am trying to stay about stock height, I was never able to find a pair that would work. The smallest I could locate was 6" travel but this would put my CV axles at a larger angle than I wanted. With my CV axles parallel to the ground, my measurements from upper shock mount to lower control arm was about 16" with out the adapters from AFP. The top reinforcement and bottom adapters take up about 3.75", so I wanted to find a shock that had a ride height of about 12". This had to have and an extended body height of 14.5" and compressed body height of 9." with 5" of travel if I wanted to have equal down and up travel in the shock. I found a spreadsheet calculator created by Richard from AFP that helped me calculate my spring rates and compare a few different shock manufactures. I have been running the viking shocks now for two years and they have held up reasonably well. I have had to replace one shock because the rebound was no longer functioning and finding a rebuild kit for the warrior line of viking shocks was not an option. All in all, i would do the conversion again because of how much better the Yukon handles.

I have considered a coil over conversion for mine and probably will one day. I just about bought a used setup from a member here but they had 1-2” of drop from stock and I’m running drop spindles already so I need a stock height setup. And they’re not cheap brand new. It’s good to hear someone else with good results. The torsion bars on these trucks is one of their drawbacks.

 

[Buggdave]

I regularly adjust my settings on the shocks depending on if I am towing, offroading or daily driving. This feature is why i like the double adjustable Viking shocks. The the other area that has helped handling was the addition of the Hellwig swaybar for the front. I noticed that my OEM sway bar was not performing as well as I expected when traveling some road construction on my daily commute. I adjusted my shock settings (Rebound and Compression) but this did not produce satisfactory results. After installing the Hellwig product, I can say i noticed improved stability when traveling over the uneven portions of the road. The roll and pitch of the vehicle as I hit the uneven areas of the road surface, was drastically improved. I will update the rear sway bar in the future but right now the need is not as imediate as the front was.