RENAMED!! The adventures of Chase and his 2006 Yukon XL Denali!! Follow along on my travels!

[willinnashville]

Little view of the mountain highways for you guys. I love highway 38, it’s Ana dbislitet gorgeous drive scenery wise, there’s a couple little areas where it’s tight corners that are windy, but over all it’s got big long, properly banked corners that when unloaded, I cruise through pretty quick and the Denali takes the highway like a champ. He did pretty well with the grades. No overheating issues with the engine or the trans. Made sure all my fluids were topped off before the drive and I cleaned up my air filter Sunday night to give the engine good fresh clean air. The airlift bags I bought a few years back, off of @ivin74 have proved the be absolutely priceless and one of the best mods I’ve done to the truck now that I gotta tow the sea ray and and down the mountain. Oh and the nearly new Z55 shocks he sold me as well not too long after the airlift bags, have held up flawlessly. Between the good working Z55 rear air setup and the airframe bags the truck is just so dang comfy and stable.

Happen to have a write up of the install of those airbags and shocks? I've been thinking about making a change to my rear suspension setup

 

[adventurenali92]

Happen to have a write up of the install of those airbags and shocks? I've been thinking about making a change to my rear suspension setup

Rear shocks are arnott industries Z55 replacements for these rigs. I have the passive versions with resistors built into the harness where the factory wiring plugs in. But the factory air compressor mounted to the rear frame rail still fills up the air bladders like it should. A bolt on the top of the shock and a bolt on the bottom and shock will come right out with the truck up on jack stands and the axle extended. The top is a bit tricky to get out because space is tight but it’s doable. Once they’re unbolted they’ll come out and you can put the replacement shocks in and bolt em back up.

I have friends that own a custom Jeep shop install my airlift bags when I bought them as I was gonna be there at the shop all of that day doing detail work for the owners so it was easy to throw my truck up on the rack and put them in. From what I’ve seen in videos it’s a driveway job pretty easy. Put the truck up on the stands and when the axle and coil is all the way extended you just have to wiggle the deflated bags up into the coil springs. Once it’s in it just needs to be positioned and then they can be inflated. Once they’re in you can run airlines and put your fill valve anywhere you’d like. I didn’t opt for installing an on board compressor with a cab switch to control it and a gauge showing pressure. That makes things more complicated but I kinda wish I had gone that route as it would be pretty cool to have. Will probably do that on my next rig. I just keep a small harbor freight type 12V powered compressor in the truck and when I need to fill the bags it works perfectly. I use the 12V outlet at the tailgate, put the fill valve beside my gas cap where the factory gas cap has a hole already drilled for the little plastic line that hooks to the cap and it hangs on. So the fill valve is hidden but easy to access. The little compressor will fill up the bags quick as they only take 35PSI max. When the boat’s in tow I keep the bags full at 35 and then with detail gear in the back, I keep them around 15-20ish. And unloaded I run them about 10-12psi and it rides pretty well.

 

[willinnashville]

Thankya!

 

[adventurenali92]

Be self employed they said… it’ll be fun they said….

Be a DIY guy they said… it’ll be fun they said….

Be a “rely on yourself and fix things yourself” kinda guy… it’ll be fun they said….

Be a gearhead… it’ll be fun they said….
Ooi….. I’m exhausted lol. I have been going non stop and after having to have my tire patched from the inside last week and moving work around to get time to get it handled, I thought I was out of the woods for a bit. Not so much….

Knew I was getting close to needing to look at brakes. Picked up rear pads today as I’ve been hearing some unusual noises lately. Figured better to do it before I head up to Utah next week. But then….

Mid day pulled into the driveway for one of my long time clients that I get along great with to do a maintenance detail on her ceramic coated 2022 wagoneer, and 10 minutes into setup and starting the detail I notice a small puddle under the front of the truck. I assume it’s condensation from the AC compressor. Been running it a ton lately because it’s been pretty hot here plus all the pine tree pollen floating around been keeping the windows up. Thought it was too far forward though for water so I had gloves on already and dipped my finger in it. Coolant…. DOH… popped the hood and could see a small leak but couldn’t exactly see where it was coming from. Thankfully the surge tank still had a ton of coolant in it and the leak settled down as the truck cooled down. Pressure washed the coolant off the driveway which thankfully wasn’t a super nice driveway so they weren’t worried.

Clients only live a couple miles from where I do so thankfully I was able to drive home and park in the garage. Turned out it was the lower radiator hose on the passenger side going to the water pump that was leaking. Was able to get a ride over to our local autozone and they had a replacement hose. Picked up the hose and a couple gallons of coolant. Good god getting the hose clamp loosened up at the bottom of the radiator was an absolute BEEEEECH…… not fun. Got the hose replaced and buttoned up. Filled back up with coolant and got the air out of the system. Ran him for a solid 10 minutes or so while it got up to temp with the surge tank cap off the get the air out, then cap back on, and the whole time not a drop came out of the lower radiator hose. Gotta still test run him to make sure but it’s now 10:30om and only half my brake pads are replaced…. So much fun… not….
After a short break to have some cookies it’s back to work I go to get front brake pads replaced. Guess the metal piece on the brake pad that just fell off the second it came off the caliper bracket would definitely be making noise….. oops

 

[adventurenali92]

I guess it’s better that the radiator hose gave out here in town and not next week in the middle of nowhere during the road trip.

 

[adventurenali92]

Welp….. fired the parts cannon too soon and shot myself in the foot with it….

Apparently my water pump, which is only a handful of years old and probably no more than 60-ishk on it maybe? I don’t know I’m tired of replacing stuff lol. But got a new water pump in today…. Leaky Mtrucker….. lol

 

[adventurenali92]

New one is bone dry after a solid drive and getting all the air out of the system again after filling it with coolant again today…. Ooi….

 

[BacDoc]

Listening to your story about the marina guy launching your boat - I dunno after 1 failed attempt I would have stopped that fast. Your truck and that boat is a very easy rig to maneuver anyone with experience who works at the marina should be able to back up and launch first time.

My boat is bigger and longer trailer and my angled driveway is lined with coconut trees and street I live on is typical residential neighborhood street that is just wide enough for 2 cars. Backing into this driveway from the street is pretty tricky. This type of backing up is tricky because of the trees and neighbors yard, don’t want to touch either one. I have had trucks and vans and my Tahoe is the easiest to navigate this tricky angle.

Most trucks are pretty good for towing but the Tahoe/Denali platform is very easy for backing up from my experience.

Very nice truck!

 

[adventurenali92]

Listening to your story about the marina guy launching your boat - I dunno after 1 failed attempt I would have stopped that fast. Your truck and that boat is a very easy rig to maneuver anyone with experience who works at the marina should be able to back up and launch first time.

My boat is bigger and longer trailer and my angled driveway is lined with coconut trees and street I live on is typical residential neighborhood street that is just wide enough for 2 cars. Backing into this driveway from the street is pretty tricky. This type of backing up is tricky because of the trees and neighbors yard, don’t want to touch either one. I have had trucks and vans and my Tahoe is the easiest to navigate this tricky angle.

Most trucks are pretty good for towing but the Tahoe/Denali platform is very easy for backing up from my experience.

Very nice truck!

Thanks! Unfortunately with the Marina I didn’t have a choice since I couldn’t back it down based on their rules. And I didn’t have time to get her over to the ramp where I could, but it made it out fine so I didn’t worry about it.