Newbie with a 2002 Tahoe LT 2wd 5.3l

[02TahoeTX]

I used to deal with the heat and humidity when I lived a lot of my life, north of the river, in KC, Mo. My dad was an owner operator truckdriver and I went with him a lot all over this country and Alaska and Hawaii when in the service. The weather in the PNW was the best I found while in that truck. I moved here after my divorce in '96. Love it here but hate the politics surrounding me. It is a little crazy here with a large contingent of homeless but my neighborhood is sequestered off from that pretty well.

I’d love to see that part of the country. My best friend was a truck driver back in the 70’s and he has told me about how pretty it is up there.

Yeah, the homeless thing is getting to be quite an issue around here too.

 

[Hodgeee]

Welcome, had a 2001 for 22 years, 280,000 miles, started burning a little oil and a mysterious coolant leak with no trace. At 217, finally had to rebuild transmission and replace most accesories. Now i did tons of offroading, camping, fishing, hunting, towing a boat and travel trailer. For its whole life, at 200,000 miles had to do upper control arm and swaybar bushings. Never broke down, never stranded me, and i beat the hell out of it. If you drive it normal you should get 350,000 miles or more out of it no problrm. Oh lastly at 248,000 had to replace a seal on the AC system, thats it. $4000 total repairs for an abused truck for 22 years, is damn good in my opinion.

If you want to just level it, do like i did for 10 years, just crank the torsion bars, no need to buy anything. After 1.25" level for me, it still had full travel and never had an issue, plus leaves about 1.5" of space before the control arms hits the stoppers. So unlike many trucks or SUVs, it doesnt max out the suspension movement, and only cost an alignment.

Great trucks, super easy to find parts at salvage yards.

Lastly recommend the 07 to 13 tahoe caliper and rotor upgrade. Makes a huge difference in stopping, especially if you tow. When i would hit long downhill graded, it would warp the rotors, after the upgrade, never another brake issue. For under $300 online, the whole setup was included, uses stock caliper bolts, brake lines, and bolts right in same spot. Just completely bolts right up. Just have to have 17" rims. Takes an extra 2 minutes on a brake.job to swap the parts. Unfortunately i see from the picture that you have the 16" rims. I got 2007 silverado rims to swap at salvage, $120 for the set, but that was 10 years ago.

Enjoy that bad boy, and great color choice.

 

[02TahoeTX]

Welcome, had a 2001 for 22 years, 280,000 miles, started burning a little oil and a mysterious coolant leak with no trace. At 217, finally had to rebuild transmission and replace most accesories. Now i did tons of offroading, camping, fishing, hunting, towing a boat and travel trailer. For its whole life, at 200,000 miles had to do upper control arm and swaybar bushings. Never broke down, never stranded me, and i beat the hell out of it. If you drive it normal you should get 350,000 miles or more out of it no problrm. Oh lastly at 248,000 had to replace a seal on the AC system, thats it. $4000 total repairs for an abused truck for 22 years, is damn good in my opinion.

If you want to just level it, do like i did for 10 years, just crank the torsion bars, no need to buy anything. After 1.25" level for me, it still had full travel and never had an issue, plus leaves about 1.5" of space before the control arms hits the stoppers. So unlike many trucks or SUVs, it doesnt max out the suspension movement, and only cost an alignment.

Great trucks, super easy to find parts at salvage yards.

Lastly recommend the 07 to 13 tahoe caliper and rotor upgrade. Makes a huge difference in stopping, especially if you tow. When i would hit long downhill graded, it would warp the rotors, after the upgrade, never another brake issue. For under $300 online, the whole setup was included, uses stock caliper bolts, brake lines, and bolts right in same spot. Just completely bolts right up. Just have to have 17" rims. Takes an extra 2 minutes on a brake.job to swap the parts. Unfortunately i see from the picture that you have the 16" rims. I got 2007 silverado rims to swap at salvage, $120 for the set, but that was 10 years ago.

Enjoy that bad boy, and great color choice.

Thanks for chiming in Hodgeee. Yep! Couldn’t agree more! I’ve had my share of GM trucks and they’ve all served me very well. I had one go just over 400k… a ‘95 z71. I run only Mobile1 and keep all of the filters clean. Like you, that thing went everywhere - hunting, fishing, camping, pulling trailers (boats, travel trailers and utility trailers). The only thing it needed other than consumables, like brakes, belts and u-joints etc, was a radiator, a couple of water pumps and a few alternators. The valve covers never came off. It did finally need a repaint after the indigo blue paint faded off the hood and roof. I sanded, primed and painted it myself in a friend’s booth.

Yeah. I wanted to buy more recent rims, but that blowout forced my hand. I will definitely be on the lookout for a set of 17” rims when I start getting close to tire replacement time. I like the idea of upgrading the brakes.

I plan to take your advice and crank up the existing torsion keys to see what I can get. I’d be happy with gaining 1.5”.