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Budd Stanley photos
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Suburban
An SS decal on a Suburban first caught my eye.
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Suburban
Not something you expect to see on a Suburban.
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Suburban
A Trail Gear Bumper and KC HiLites aid off-road adventures.
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Suburban
285/70 Goodyear Wranglers are a must for the amount of mud and gravel roads this truck sees.
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Suburban
From afar, you would never know there is a Silverado HD hiding under there.
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Suburban
After two years of daily abuse, Favron is already scheming up a second generation.
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Suburban
Suburban at home in the mine site.
Story & photos by Budd Stanley
Making a Suburban Work in the Yukon
If you watch a lot of the reality programing on the Discovery Network, chances are you might know Guy Favron. He’s been known to make an appearance every now and then in the reality series Gold Rush, however he keeps his distance as he is more interested in working the family business than trying to become a D-list TV star. I had the pleasure of meeting Guy up at his home/workplace/playground in the hills outside Dawson City, Yukon, while testing the new GMC Yukon. He is the type of character you would come to expect from the Klondike, tough, disciplined, not scared to get his hands dirty and doesn’t talk a whole lot, but what he does say doesn’t come with a filter.
However, while chatting with him over a BBQ lunch, I caught sight something peculiar on his Suburban out of the corner of my eye. A badge that read, “SS” was stuck to the rear tailgate. The decal distracted me from the conversation I was having and upon further investigation, I found another peculiar badge on the drivers door that read, “Allison… Duramax,” just above the regular “Suburban” badging. The obvious question came out of my mouth, “you have a Duramax and SS badge on a Suburban. What’s the story?” Little did I realize just what the real story was.
The whole subject of Guys pride and joy seemed like a welcome release from the constant explanations of gold mining he had to give, likely for several days, to the hordes of disillusioned journalists. Guy is a truck guy, and his rig is a properly evil looking Suburban and he was quite happy to let me in on the details.
As the father of five children, a business owner who needs to cross freshly turned earth on a daily basis, and an outdoorsman that enjoys hunting and towing the family trailer, a simple Suburban with a couple off-road goodies would not suffice. He also needed the ruggedness and towing capabilities of a Silverado diesel HD, to match the civil interior appointments and seating for seven offered in the Suburban.
In a perfect world, he could walk into a GM dealership and pick up a 6.6L Duramax powered Suburban and call it a day. But that's just not possible is it. The easy fix would be a simple transplant, but that wouldn’t help his towing needs. The solution is something much more elaborate and sinister. You see, this Suburban actually started out as a Chevrolet Silverado HD.
I know what your thinking and that's exactly what’s been done here. The 2007 Suburban has been stripped of its frame and drivetrain. A 2009 Chevrolet Silverado HD had the body stripped off of its frame, then had the Suburban’s body fitted in place. So, what we have here is the frame, chassis, engine and transmission from a Silverado 3500 HD with the added bonus of a Suburban body fitted on top.
That's not the end of the story, because this Suburban needed to be able to get into some nasty worksite conditions, and as Guy is a hunter, it also needed to be able to get into the bush to pickup a felled moose or bear. To aid the Suburban’s all-terrain abilities, some pretty simple and common changes have been made. The plastic ground scraping bumper has been replaced with a Trail Gear high clearance unit finished off nicely with KC HiLites auxiliary lamps and a 10,000 lb. winch. The obligatory three-inch lift helps clearance angles and makes room for a set of 285/70 Goodyear Wranglers mounted on 17-in Ion aluminum wheels. To help those tires get spinning a little better in the mud, Guy tossed in an AFE cold air intake and PPE chip, good for a 60 hp bump above stock performance.
The result is that Guy has himself the ultimate all-purpose vehicle. It hauls the family long distances without breaking the bank on fuel costs, tows freight and the family camper, gets him anywhere he needs to go on the mine site, rips into the bush to pickup a freshly killed bear, and will tear up a service road like nobodies business. While the “SS” badge on the tailgate originally stood for Super Sport, in this case it stands for Super Suburban.