New from Midland, TX

by **TexTrail** » Sun Oct 21, 2012 11:34 pm

Hello ORTB I'm a long time offroader/rockcrawler and have only recently gotten into trailblazers. We bought ours almost 3 years ago and my wife drives it every but we have wheeled in the Ruidoso area on the forest service/fire roads and a little bit at one of our family's ranches.

Through the last 12 years I've wheeled several different vehicles across all sorts of terrain. Through my experiences I've learned on very important thing...people under estimate the capability of their 4x4 vehicle. Admittedly most of my first hand wheeling seat time is behind the wheel of a jeep, I've also wheeled an 05 f150, Suzuki sidekick, '98 tahoe and a few various rock buggies. I didn't own all of them but I did get to wheel them.

I do still have Jeep and try to get it out wheeling when I can but I've found it impractical for some occasions and that's why I'm interested in making some mods to my wife's TB. I've done most of my wrench turning and fab through the years and that will continue with the TB. I've been reading through the threads and the info here seems very complete. I think there is sort this glass ceiling with a trailblazer and building it for offroad use with in the boundaries of how it comes stock but I think that ceiling is much higher than most people who own a TB think it is.

I hope to add to the board more than I take away and further wheeling in general to keep trails open and access to land that we have a right to use.

We have a 2006 TB with almost 100,000 miles and the 4.2L I6. The only mod so far is 265/65r17 Nitto Terra Graplers. The only bombshell I have for you is my TB isn't 4 wheel drive. Bummer.....Is there any reasonable way to fix that?

by **The Roadie** » Mon Oct 22, 2012 12:11 am

Welcome! You sure do come with an impressive background and attitude.

Adding 4WD is a bear because of the electronics. If you had a wrecked donor vehicle it would be a LOT easier. But not cost-effective compared to just buying the right vehicle in the first place.

by **djthumper** » Mon Oct 22, 2012 2:00 am

Welcome!

by **Cody_S** » Mon Oct 22, 2012 4:16 am

Welcome from Georgia! Mine's 2WD as well, do you have the rear locking differential on yours? (Check for RPO code G80 on the glovebox label).

by **NC_IslandRunner** » Mon Oct 22, 2012 9:54 am

Welcome!

by **TexTrail** » Tue Oct 23, 2012 1:41 am

I know it has some sort of limited slip both wheels lock up and spin. It is almost as good as 4 wheel drive with open diffs at least there's two wheels spinning. I'm glad I've found this site and look forward to having a better looking and driving TB. Maybe I can look into some long travel options for the 2wd crowd. I noticed radflo and icon have some sort of product out in a coil over. I honestly never figured anybody would R and D offroad parts for the TB but here we are.

by **HARDTRAILZ** » Tue Oct 23, 2012 8:03 am

How about a SAS as a few guys have done. Might as well if you are going to do the work to add a TC.

Welcome

by **v7guy** » Tue Oct 23, 2012 9:48 am

HARDTRAILZ brings up a good point. The guys that have done a SAS end up only keeping the motor and trans, so a 2WD vehicle might actually be the way to go. It'd be cool to see a long travel setup too. If you end up fabbing up some new a arms let us know, I'm sure there's interest.
If I was going to lift right now with as much lift as I have I'd go the Radflo route.

Welcome aboard, look forward to seeing your build

by **TexTrail** » Tue Oct 23, 2012 9:50 am

I already have a jeep I'd rather maximize the tb the way it is. Keep in mind this is my wife's everyday load up the kids and go car. I can only let it be down over a weekend at the most.

After looking through some pictures yesterday and under her car I realized why a diff drop is basically impossible without dropping it way down. Whose bright idea was it to run it through the oil pan? I'm not crazy that is how it's setup right? I don't have a 4wd to look at in person.

So for a factory style swap I'd need a 4wd tranny or a different tailhousing, different oil pan, tcase, drive shaft, front diff, complete front axle shafts and a laundry list of little parts. I thought I read somewhere maybe in the 4crawlin build an s10 np231 tcase will bolt up to the factory tranny?

by **navigator** » Tue Oct 23, 2012 10:41 am

they run it through the oil pan so the engine could set lower in the frame.
It gives it a lower COG and makes it easier to see over the hood.

by **The Roadie** » Tue Oct 23, 2012 10:53 am

And even the 2WD vehicles were shipped with the tube for the intermediate shaft cast into the oil pan, so there's only one part number to stock.

Yes, it's nuts and I didn't realize it until after I bought mine as well. :wallbash:

by **TexTrail** » Tue Oct 23, 2012 11:43 am

As far as the the long travel discussion goes sometime in the next few weeks I'm going to put the new struts and lift on and I hope to really get in there and get a full concept of what's going on under there. I've already got some rough ideas for UCAs that would at the very least be way beefier. I really just need one off to measure and play with. I think the trick will be getting the upper ball joint mount angled just right so it's optimized through the whole range of motion. Right now they seem to be setup for mostly up travel. The other trick would be to have the upper ball joint clap on a threaded rod so you could have an actually camber adjustment.

Offroad Trailblazers and Envoys