Offroad Trailblazers and Envoys

I Got Stuck!!!!

Dumping ground for offroad Trailblazer or Envoy general discussion.

by Nexus1155 » Fri Feb 13, 2015 7:10 pm

I am lifted 3 inches in the rear for now. Got some Bfg long trails and i thought i was invincible! Went to work and up on the snow mound and boom, murder she wrote. Threw this beast with the G80 in 4Lo and the wheels just kept spinning on the ice in slow motion.

What can I do now?! Hahaha i thought i would never get stuck. Whats my next upgrade.

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by Shdwdrgn » Fri Feb 13, 2015 7:20 pm

I have to ask... did you really only lift the rear and not the front also? And I'm guessing it was the front end that got stuck? If this is true, I would suggest that when you lift the rear it shifted some of the weight forward and lowered your front end. Get the front lifted up and you won't be as likely to high-center or bury the nose. And if you're going to be plowing through snow piles, you probably want to get a radiator skid before you damage something.
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by Nexus1155 » Fri Feb 13, 2015 8:00 pm

I have the front lift kit with some new bilstein hds. I just lifted the rear for now and threw the skyjackers in for the moment. I still need to find the time to flip ucas and buy the panhard bar kit and get the truck aligned by someone who knows what they are doing. I have been looking for a skidplate for it as the tranny cooler and the efans are right there get me a little nervous, I just hope it doesn't cause any heatsoak.
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by TBYODA » Fri Feb 13, 2015 9:18 pm

For skids see our vendor MDB a him makes both rad and oil skids.
Edit: you may need custom skids for your XUV.
Last edited by TBYODA on Fri Feb 13, 2015 11:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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by ErikSS » Fri Feb 13, 2015 9:56 pm

The XUV body lines are throwing my eyes off... But is that a long wheel base?
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by djthumper » Sat Feb 14, 2015 1:33 am

You really need to get the front lifted. Where have you gone to look for someone that can do the front end alignment?
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by v7guy » Sat Feb 14, 2015 5:09 am

So you half lifted the envoy, went out and expected not to get stuck and then did.


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All kidding aside, as others have mentioned, you've actually lowered clearance from stock in the front. As far as alignment goes pretty much anyplace should be able to align it. Generally speaking they will return to a stock alignment. If you're taking it offroad you should toss on a radiator and oil pan skid. BartonMD sells em. Or if you're able you can make em.
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by Grimor » Sat Feb 14, 2015 5:26 pm

I'm fairly well lifted and i got stuck on a snow mound as well.

here's why you get stuck in snow banks. your tires are fairly narrow and will sink into the snow. You will get enough traction to get you up the hill a decent amount until you build up enough snow under the body that your tires are no longer touching something solid with enough force to get traction. Unless you have someone or something to pull you out, you have to dig out under the body /frame until it drops enough to get traction
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by The Roadie » Sat Feb 14, 2015 7:26 pm

What kind of goofball noob PUTS on running boards, thinking they were REQUIRED offroading kit, instead of PHOHIBITED? This one, it turns out. Don't be that guy.

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by Jrgunn5150 » Sun Feb 15, 2015 11:32 pm

I took my running boards off the day after I bought it lmao...

I still get stuck everywhere. Tires are the biggest factor off road. Long Trails aren't very aggressive.

Also, there's a fair amount of evidence showing narrower tires provide more forward traction than wider ones. Assuming the contact patch remains the same size overall
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by bartonmd » Mon Feb 16, 2015 12:07 am

TBYODA wrote:For skids see our vendor MDB a him makes both rad and oil skids.
Edit: you may need custom skids for your XUV.


Both the oil pan and radiator skids work on the LWB and XUV models. It's all the same up in the front part of the frame.

Also, long trails? Get some real AT tires, at the very least, and lift the front, too! I went to work through 17" of unplowed snow, stock, including stock tires, several years ago.

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by Nexus1155 » Mon Feb 16, 2015 2:08 am

The running boards were before I decided to lift it up a long time ago. HighVoltages LWB trail was my inspiration. I was going to get some ATs but the deal I got on these were too good to be true and the treadwear will out last the remaining life of the vehicle. I will most likely pickup a radiator skid no doubt.

I want to do some light offroading, nothing insane. Trying to pickup a set of steelies and throw some toyos or something similar on there, but everything held up great today when i had to go to work in the blizzard in Boston today...

Also the brushguards connecting arms hang lower than the vehicle doesn't help much either. Already had to take it off and weld the brackets and repaint it again. Probably will end up tossing it and get one of the badass barton bumper kits.
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by v7guy » Mon Feb 16, 2015 3:56 am

You're quickly running into the problems most of us have, especially when picking parts before realizing their impact.

Eventually you'll ditch the brushguard. Hopefully before it smashes your grill, lights or hood. I'd look to the oil pan skid before the rad skid, especially if you are using the front bumper still. It'll largely protect the rad on road and offroad will give you a smidge of warning before you smash the radiator and strand yourself.


Tires will help a lot, there are a few that are quiet, capable, and snow rated.

If you can weld you can build your own oil pan skid and a rad skid is a good second project if you're just getting started.
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