2025 8 Lug Suburban

[swathdiver]

These were just on an episode of Jay Lenno's Garage.

Arlington makes the bodies and ships them to a shop in North Carolina who marries it up with their custom frame and GM drivetrain. The armored ones are taken completely apart, armored up and then put back together.

 

[calsdad]

I'll have to go lookup that Jay Leno's garage episode. I did a quick Google search and there's a bunch of info online - apparantly the product is called the "Suburban Shield"

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There's a PDF on the above link with a bunch of info in it.

 

[calsdad]

Just finished watching that Jay Leno's Garage episode. Most of it was blah blah blah , but they did do a tour of the undercarriage - pretty cool that they stayed with the independent rear suspension and just beefed it WAY up with custom control arms and so forth.

Looks to me like GM has all the pieces now to build a 2500 or 3500 series Suburban for the civilian market - maybe with a 6.6L gas engine to orient the truck more towards towing. They said in the episode that GM Defense is closely tied into the rest of GM - and that the frame is custom built by some GM supplier - not sure why that relationship couldn't be used to build a civilian HD Suburban.

It would probably end up being way too much money for my wallet though.

 

[swathdiver]

Just finished watching that Jay Leno's Garage episode. Most of it was blah blah blah , but they did do a tour of the undercarriage - pretty cool that they stayed with the independent rear suspension and just beefed it WAY up with custom control arms and so forth.

Looks to me like GM has all the pieces now to build a 2500 or 3500 series Suburban for the civilian market - maybe with a 6.6L gas engine to orient the truck more towards towing. They said in the episode that GM Defense is closely tied into the rest of GM - and that the frame is custom built by some GM supplier - not sure why that relationship couldn't be used to build a civilian HD Suburban.

It would probably end up being way too much money for my wallet though.

They can be ordered with different engines too, like the 3.0 diesel. In a few years they'll start showing up on government auctions.

 

[calsdad]

They can be ordered with different engines too, like the 3.0 diesel. In a few years they'll start showing up on government auctions.

I don't know about that. I've been trolling government auctions for years and I don't ever recall seeing any of the GMT800 or GMT900 ex-.gov armored Suburbans ever show up there. My takeaway from watching that Jay Leno video is GM now has a heavy duty enough frame to build a civilian 2500/3500 Suburban (that frame looks WAY more beefy than the frame under my 2003/2010 2500 SUVs) - so the only piece that's missing to have an SUV that can have a 10k-14k tow rating..... is a better engine. Putting the L8T in there would create an awesome truck.

The thing that would likely kill it - is that I bet that frame wouldn't pass some sort of NHTSA crash tests or something. The State Dept. probably doesn't give a shit about stuff like that.

 

[swathdiver]

I don't know about that. I've been trolling government auctions for years and I don't ever recall seeing any of the GMT800 or GMT900 ex-.gov armored Suburbans ever show up there.

They show up somewhere. We have guys on here who have bought them. I've seen them for sale on AutoTrader.

 

[calsdad]

They show up somewhere. We have guys on here who have bought them. I've seen them for sale on AutoTrader.

Huh, guess I'll have to look harder. I don't think I'd want one of the armored-up ones anyway - like Leno said they weigh in at like 12,000 pounds. I'd want the thing for towing and that's just dead weight. Maybe some place like Duraburb could get hold of the frames and bodies in white and some Duramax 6.6 engines and be a custom manufacturer? That would definitely put it out of my price range though.

 

[Bigburb3500]

Hey guys, I am one on here with K2 gen 3500 Suburban. It was originally available as a fleet only purchase and that’s the biggest difference between the new Shield unit. It’s truly a “custom” vehicle and will only be in armor trim because as was stated on Leno’s Garage the body is taken off the line and shipped direct to get the armor and special frame.

The frame is not GM manufactured and likely will not be for consumer use on the roads. MAYBE one will slip thru but it will not be for a long while before that happens and will be armored. It will be a dang tank on the road and not designed for towing.

The K2-gen 3500 Suburbans were upfitted with armor AFTER it was manufactured and a complete truck. Hope that helps!