Thinking of purchasing a Tahoe

[sgtpoliteness]

Hi there, everyone. New guy here.

I'm looking into buying a Tahoe to convert to a sort of expedition/overland
vehicle for my family and I. No serious rock crawling or uber difficult trails, but I want to be able to get in and out of the fun spots. I plan on converting the IFS to a live axle, extra fuel tank, roof rack, blah, blah, blah.

I'm VERY interested in opinions and experiences on which Tahoe would be best for us (it's me, wife, one toddler now, probably another kid in the next year). I don't plan on driving it everyday, only during some severe snow days and while camping/hunting.

EDIT: In addition to everyone's personal experiences with these trucks, I'm looking for advice on best year to buy, what to look for, problem areas...things like that.

 

[Ice98]

Suburban is a little longer, but may be the way to go, not only can you have more cargo but it already comes with a 42-gallon tank (depending on the trim/options) which gives a hefty 550-700mi range or so. (I recently clocked mine at 14.23 mpg over 200mi with mixed highway/city driving and a decent amount of romping on the gas here and there, about 600mi range). Fuel economy for a like-year Tahoe is listed as the same as the suburban, which isn't too far off considering they have the same engine, same drive train, etc

I am a pretty big fan of the IFS, it improves handling by a lot on the highway


I would say also that your best friend is going to be a come-along or a winch and enough cable to get to the nearest anchor point (me living in Washington there are a lot of trees any time I am off the road, but I still have about 35 feet of tow strap/cable)

Also, kitty litter never hurts for traction :-D

 

[sgtpoliteness]

Hi!

The Suburban is certainly on the list too. I'm not sure if I want/need the extra length though, that's one of the things I've been kicking around. I've seen a couple 6.5 turbo diesel 2500's for sale, which would be nice.

I agree about the IFS, but with some of the places we'll be going here in the Rockies, a live axle well help me out quite a bit.

A winch well be an early mod, for sure. And, hurray for kitty litter!

 

[Ice98]

Hi!

The Suburban is certainly on the list too. I'm not sure if I want/need the extra length though, that's one of the things I've been kicking around. I've seen a couple 6.5 turbo diesel 2500's for sale, which would be nice.

I agree about the IFS, but with some of the places we'll be going here in the Rockies, a live axle well help me out quite a bit.

A winch well be an early mod, for sure. And, hurray for kitty litter!

I haven't seen a lot of those around, I believe the fuel economy is just slightly lower than the 5.7l petrol engine, whatever you do don't go for the 7.4l petrol, lots of power there, huge towing capacity, but you will be lucky to average 11 mpg

 

[2door2wheel]

make sure its newer than 1996 you dont want a tbi motor