I’m pretty sure that 1970 GMC Suburban triple-axle custom truck haunts Lohnes’ dreams at night. It’s been enough that he’s written about it twice (first in 2013, and then again in 2016) and just one look tells you why. Think about it like this: have you ever seen the “before” picture of some Hollywood starlet in her prime, when half of the noise in the background were wolf-whistles and that shape could’ve made men do awful things just for five minutes’ time with her? Then you see a picture years later and your first gut reaction is “what the hell happened over the years?” Yeah, this creation is something like that.
Let’s take it for what we see right now: in it’s day (which is supposed to be 1991, but looks to have been right about the time I was born in the early 1980s) this would’ve been a showstopper of a machine, the combination of a 1970 GMC Suburban, a radically altered stepside bed, triple axles out back, and paint colors that could’ve been seen for miles on the horizon. The history of this truck has always claimed that it’s been at Bonneville as a car hauler, and judging by the way the body looks today, we don’t doubt that for one second. This puppy is rough, and the miles haven’t been kind to the old ‘Burban. The running gear hasn’t changed a bit, but no Goodwrench 350 was going to make this thing lively.
I can see why Brian has a 50/50 take on the machine. Bodywork, fresh paint, new wheels and a diesel conversion and you’d have something that would really be interesting to run the Interstates with. The dream vision could be really cool, with this thing hauling a gooseneck trailer full of show cars. That’d be pretty badass. But between that vision and you is a lot of time with a DA sander. You up for the challenge?
Facebook Marketplace Link: 1970 GMC Suburban three-door, triple-axle custom
It’s kinda okay….proportionally – I imagine it rides good with all that flex in the chassis like a top fuel dragster has – All the young kids are into that patina look so that the body work needed is covered – It just needs Finnegan to chop it up some more with his diesel transplant and take it demo-drag racing at Cleetus McFarlands event @ Bradenton Dragway!!!!
It seems to have deteriorated a bit since 2016… or maybe the photos are just a bit more honest.
I’d buy it in a heartbeat and ship it to Lohnes house if I could see the look on his wife’s face when it comes off the truck and joins the collection…….
For some reason I want to paint the whole thing bumpers and all a solid bright sky blue with a pink heart beat line down the sides and throw all the Boyd Coddington blade wheels and grey tweed I can find at it.
Even when freshly built, this thing was ugly
Must be a bitch to parallel park! I’d chop the bed off and make it a suburban again.
I need this!!! And because I drank the Kool Aide, a 6.0 and 4L80 would be swapped in. I really need something to tow my Nova with.
Just the thing to test my Top Fuel nitro burning hemi powered car crusher on!
I owned that truck for a few years , I took it on trade just for the motor and ended up trading it off without touching it , drove it around my yard a bunch , I have 5 acres and it takes most of that just to turn it around. Ran like a top
I’m thinking, when it was built, someone had a need, you couldn’t just buy anything that would seat 6 or more adults & tow a goose neck or 5th wheel, they had all the pieces & had the time & this was the result. Not long after that, shops started doing custom jobs on the then new F-450/550s chassis & they opted for something bigger.
This thing probably approaches 9 or 10k empty. Since it’s a 2wd, it could’ve sported a BBC to begin with as the factory mounts were available.
Now days you can get bigger tow rigs, but in the 80s they didn’t exist. I saw a couple prototypes at Mountain States Ford (Ford’s high altitude testing location), but those were factory one-offs proving it could be done. We had a custom early SuperDuty limo that could seat 12 that was used only for picking up VIPs at the airport.